Board Of Aldermen Meeting Packed With Agendas
This month’s Board of Aldermen meeting was as packed with agenda items as it was with visitors. New municipal judge Mark Brinkmann and his family came to celebrate his swearing in with the elected board members and the mayor. George Panhorst was installed for another term and Jason Addison and Mark Wehner were also sworn in for another term.
Cameron Schweiss from architectural firm, Archer-Elgin, presented tentative plans for the new city municipal building. The new building will house City Hall on the upper level and the Police Department on a lower level. The building will be located just south of the bridge crossing on Hwy 100 and will be positioned close to the same height as the bridge deck and present an impressive look to the new Municipal Center. The bridge path will connect to a courtyard on the north end of City Hall and wind around to the eastern side of the building to connect with a path leading to the pool and the school. Two parking lots will frame the eastern and western sides of the Municipal center with a connecting road on the south side. The Police station entrance will be on the western side on the lower level. The plans are still tentative and several variations of building shapes and road and path configurations were also presented.
A representative from Lime Scooters, Robert Greenleaf made a presentation to install 75 scooters in New Haven similar to the plans made to install 60 scooters in Washington. The scooters would be installed on a trial basis and no legal liability would be incurred by the city if someone were injured while using the scooters. Greenleaf thinks about half the scooters would be used uptown and the other half downtown with the hills separating the fleet of the scooters. The price would be $1 to start the ride and 35 cents for each minute of use. Only 1 person in the audience claimed to have ridden a Lime scooter in St. Louis after Greenleaf asked. City Administrator Kathy Trentmann and City Attorney Charles Hurth will be working up an agreement to allow the installation of the scooters. Lime will also be hiring “Juicers” or local people to recharge the scooters daily.
The aldermen approved to incorporate the moving of the restored AME Church, the Anna Bell Chapel, to the approved location on Main Street and providing sidewalk access with the current downtown road improvement projects slated for 2022.
Tim Otten also reported on the Natural Gas price gouging and how state representatives have been dodging responses to Otten’s queries. Otten speculates they have a hard time understanding that unless the industry problem is studied and regulated, it could happen again.
Alderman Mark Wehner revealed plans for the new “Yard of the Month” Program, which will be conducted by the Garden Club and run from May through September.