The Anderson City Council approved picking up the cost of a Visioning Project the Anderson Betterment Club is planning for the city.
The project will be done by students from Drury University in Springfield. The cost is $5,400.
A community visioning study looks for ways to build upon a community's natural strengths and improve upon some of the inherent weaknesses. The students work with the residents and business owners to plan how the central business district and overall community will develop over the next 20-25 years -- physically, aesthetically, socially, culturally and economically.
The visioning study would be conducted in three parts. The Community Identification and Preparation phase begins once a letter of agreement is completed. A committee would prepare a presentation profiling their community to be given to architecture students at Drury University in August.
Students would then make a site visit shortly after and meet with the committee to tour the community.
In the collaboration phase, students would make three additional visits. At the first public meeting in September, they would assess the community, discuss precedents and clarify with residents the issues they would like to see addressed. For the second meeting in October, students would return to discuss their initial conceptual ideas, allowing for clarification from citizens. At the third meeting in November, they would receive feedback and farther develop conceptual ideas.
Fire Department
The council approved Shelby Turner, fire chief, continuing to purse information regarding a fee rate for calls inside the city. Turner said the fire department does not collect dues, does not have a dedicated sales tax as do most other cities in the county or is not a fire district supported by property taxes as are Goodman and Wheaton.
Turner proposed a cost of $1,000 for any structure fire, which he said is normally covered by homeowner's insurance. He said grass and brush fires would be $50 for less than an hour; $250 for one to five hours; and $500 for over five hours. Cost for an vehicle crash requiring extrication would be $600 and $150 without extrication.
Mayor John Sellers said Turner has done a very good job staying within his budget and understands that all costs for the entire volunteer department are escalating.
Turner said the department does watch its budget very close and buys only what it needs.
Turner is to bring a proposed ordinance to the council's April 21 meeting for the council to review.
Water Department
The council approved an additional water line replacement project for the area of Jefferson, Mill and Beaver streets. Rental of equipment from Chris Tinsley for March 14 to April 11 was approved at a cost of $5,000. Alderman Gene Cantrell questioned the current lease with Tinsley for the Moss Church project and whether the city had days left due to a piece of equipment being down for repair. Brandon Forcum, public utilities director, will check with Tinsley about the current lease.
The council also approved having Tri-State Engineering complete a "Study to Supervised Line Replacement." Sellers said this will allow the city to continue water line replacement without having to have engineer approval for each project. He said DNR will pre-approve the specs for the projects.
Other Business
The council agreed by a 3-1 vote, with Cantrell voting nay, to rebid a 2010 Dodge Charger used as a patrol car. The highest bid for the car was $1,600 and the bid had a reserve of $2,000.
Bids for two old fire department trucks will also be sought with a reserve of $900 each.
Bills in the amount of $74,043.96 were approved for payment.
General News on 03/26/2015