The Albion City Council met Monday evening for their monthly session at City Hall.
The council approved minutes from June’s meeting and approved the payment of bills for the month. The monthly report of the collector and superintendent as well as the volunteer firefighter report were also approved.
At the meeting, Averi Goodman went before the council as a visitor from the Albion Chamber of Commerce to talk about the Artisan Fall Festival. The fall fest will take place September 21st around the square in Albion. Goodman requested dumpster service, 3 portable toilets, and wash stations. The board took the request under advisement.
Under old business, Mary Beth Foster went before the board and discussed an issue with her housing on North 4th Street. Foster is looking to request permission to replace a structure destroyed by the storms around May 26th with a modular home. There was discussion from city officials involving spacing of the property between the property boundaries. According to city ordinance, the lot has to be 8,000 square feet for a mobile home, but the proposed mobile home is around 700 square feet. After attorney Brian Shinkle looked over city code involving mobile homes on property, but is concerned about the state law involving immobilized mobile homes. After about 15 minutes of discussion, rhetorical council told Foster that as long as she is in compliance, she would be fine and that the city would assist where they can. The vote went 4-1 with Gary Mason voting against the measure.
Jeff Vaughan with the Greater Wabash Regional Planning Commission. The FEMA Hazard Mitigation Committee is continuing to work . According to Vaughan, there are a group of people who want to re-establish a jail in Edwards County. Vaughan is helping the county to try to get the jail as well as a visitor’s center. Vaughan wanted to see about community about getting support for the project. Involving the Community Development Block Grant for water line repair, the project was not selected for funding. Vaughan told the board the only reason the project wasn’t funded was because of a lack of an IEPA Permit. The city now has the permit, but doesn’t know how much the grant will be for during the next grant cycle.
The city annexed in the old motel property. The property will be used to build a new bus barn for the Edwards County Schools. The reason for the request for annexation is for the opportunity to tap into the city sewer system. The school district would be willing to absorb the cost according to district officials. The board sees the opportunity once they move the busses to the new bus barn to work on updating and possibly expanding vocational education at Edwards County High School. The board authorized the work to have annexation take place.
The city after discussion decided to not donate money to the park for the purchase of the park equipment.
In the public safety, police officials are looking into a 4-door Pickup Truck instead of an SUV due to potential availability. The board initially approved the purchase for $50,000. The board mentioned to the department to look and see what can be done to get a quote and time for delivery.
Quinton Speir reported that there is an infestation of Groundhogs in Ward 3.
In the city attorney’s report, the property where the old water tower used to be remains the property of the city. Attorney Shinkle did recommend the purchase of title insurance in the event the property gets sold. There will be surveying done on the golf course property as well as the old water tower property.
Under new business, the city overspent by over $224,000. The city with the new budget looks to be under budget by around $296,000. City council members voted to approve the budget on a 5-0 vote. The total budget for the city is $3,205,100.
Appropriations were approved for the total of $3,283,477.
Leave a Reply