City Council meeting 5-23-2016

The City Council meeting last night had a fairly light agenda but still had some interesting moments. In the citizen comments section Brad Cozza, the airport manager, announced that this year's fly-in will be on July 9 from 10 to 2. Construction of the new fuel farm is about half finished and if it is finished on schedule, there may be a ribbon cutting along with the fly-in. Then he announced that he would no longer be the airport manager when the fly-in occurs. He has taken a position with the Indianapolis Executive Airport that is owned by Hamilton County but is located in Boone County. The airport is considerably bigger than the Jasper County Airport, and although he has enjoyed his time in Rensselaer, he felt that he could not pass up the opportunity that this new position offered. The Airport Authority Board is conducting a search for a new manager. Mr Cozza thanked the Council and community for all the opportunities he had been given.

The Council established a LOIT Special Distribution Fund, mandated by the state so spending of the recently returned LOIT funds can be monitored. There were two resolutions passed that were needed for funding the Sparling water main project. The building inspector received permission to purchase a large format printer to replace a machine that no longer works. The Council agreed to pay an invoice for JCEDO; they are one of several government groups that fund it. The Council approved the appointment of Julie Koczan to the School Board; she currently holds the seat and no one else applied. With Mr Cozza's departure, there will be another appointment needed. If you are interested in serving the remainder of this term, apply to the City by June 6.

Mt Hood Pizza is doing some construction work that may have public impact and there were a few comments about that. They are apparently constructing new restrooms and they may be available to people using Potawatomie Park. We may learn more at the next Council meeting. There will be another public hearing involving the grant proposal for the Sparling water main project. There was a glitch in the paper work that has since been resolved but this meeting may be needed because of the glitch. The meeting will be on Monday, June 6 at 4:00. The City and Century Link need to have a meeting and figure out which utility poles belong to the City and which to Century Link. The Council approved a request from the electrical department to get a quote for an arc flash study update.

The Memorial Day ceremony will be in Weston Cemetery at 11:00 on Memorial Day. The Fire Department Fish Fry served 737 people last weekend. The gross from the City Auction was $14,840.

It appears that the state is beginning the resurfacing of US 231 from the Iroquois Bridge to SR 16. There is no repaving yet, but sidewalks along the highway are being improved, or at least the ends of them are.



Also meeting on Monday night were the Jasper County Planning and Development Committee and the Board of Zoning Appeals. More on those later.