New restaurant and City Council notes

The Mexican restaurant located where Martins used to be opened on Monday. The building was remodeled over a year ago.

 I stopped by mid morning on Tuesday and there were no guests as it was too early for lunch. The staff said that they had been busy for lunch and dinner on Monday. The restaurant is open from nine to nine.

 The owner works full time as Sealy Springs. His wife will manage the restaurant most of the time.

 It is good to see another business starting up.

The Fair came to town today with the annual Tractor Parade to the Tuesday Farmers Market.

 On Monday evening the City Council met. It approved the decision of the Advisory Planning Commission to deny a zoning change in the Madison Subdivision that would have allowed more apartment buildings to be built. There were only three of the five Councilmen present but they all voted to deny the zoning change. (See here for a report on the Planning Commission meeting.) The unusually large crowd at the meeting had come to see what the Council did on this matter but they stayed for the rest of the meeting.

Steven Miller, Electric Manager of Operations and Engineering, received permission to seek quotes for upgrading the existing relays and some other changes at the Eger substation. He also announced that this would be his last Council meeting as he is retiring. He joined the City workforce in early 2017.

The City had sought three bids for replacing two one-ton dump trucks and received two. The Council awarded the bid to the low bidder, Gutwein Motors for $88,305 plus a trade-in. The City will have to add plows and lights to the trucks. The Police Chief received permission to seek quotes for two squad cars. One is an older car that will be traded in and the other was in an accident. The Police Chief also reported that a new officer will probably be sworn in at the next Council meeting. The department will still have one vacancy.

The City is replacing some sidewalks that were damaged in tree removal or by the trees that were removed. As the meeting ended, there was mention that Rein Bontrager was interested in decorating a tank at the water treatment plant. The Council thought this was a good idea. I am not sure what structure was being discussed, but it may be this one in Iroquois Park.

 The rail crossing at Franklin Street opened Tuesday morning. The Melville and Scott Street crossing remain closed.  In the next few days or weeks the rail crossing at Pleasant Ridge will be closed for several days.

Some of the corn is now as high as it should be on the fourth of July. The picture below was taken along Melville Street.

There is other corn that is now only reaching knee high. The picture below was taken along Mattheson Street.

There has been no change in the mural on Janet's Kitchen for several days but that should change on Wednesday.