By Pat Maurer
Correspondent
Those attending Clare City Commission meetings won’t be seeing any major changes in the board. Commissioner re-elected Pat Humphrey as Mayor for another year at Monday’s meeting, and Bob Bonham was the board’s choice for Mayor Pro-Tem once more.
Each will serve another two-year term so the Commission will remain essentially the same as returning Commissioners Bonham, Gus Murphy and Maegan Jenkins, who were re-elected to serve four more years.
In City Manager Jeremy Howard’s report to the Commission, he relayed information about discussion items at the last meeting of the Downtown Development Authority.
He said the DDA discussed replacing the downtown trees on McEwan Street and notifying informing business owners; better ways to reach new DDA District business owners; the upcoming 2nd annual PA57 meeting coming up in December; and the Doherty Hotel’s 100th Anniversary Celebration.
He noted that the Planning Commission had approved zoning changes for 506 West Fifth Street property from C-2 to R-2.
The City Commission held a Public Hearing on the rezoning request. The zoning change was applied for by James Frank who has been unable to sell the property. Howard reported that Frank did receive inquiries from Individuals who have an interest in purchasing the building to transform it into a residence, which would require the zoning change.
There were no comments during the Public Hearing and now the matter will go forward to a second reading and potential approval by the city.
Howard also reported on the progress of the Lake Shamrock Dredging and Dam Projects, saying, “Mechanical and hydraulic dredging both continue and are making good Progress. Mechanical dredging by the city is still operating 10 hours a day Monday through Thursday each week…. Hydraulic dredging by Savin Lake Services is switching back to operating Month through Friday 24 hours a day…”
About the dam project, he reported, “Our engineering firm GEI, is continuing design work for the dam.” He added, “The project will be quite extensive and should finish up late summer or early fall next year. We are still waiting on a grant agreement for the second grant (High Hazard Potential Dams – HHPD) to cover the next phase of the project.” He added that the city, through GEI is working on 2nd round grant applications…in hops of receiving additional grant dollars for the project.”
The board approved a sole source contract with CORE Technologies for software and services for the Police Department. CORE is the company that exclusively provides the software hosting the CPD’s reports and LEIN (Law Enforcement Information Network), critical to the daily operations at the PD.
Howard said the fees have now exceeded the limit for City Manager approval, and noted that with the overall rising costs, the Commission needs to consider raising those limits. Cost for the contract will be $7,662 annually.
In other business at the City meeting:
*The Commission approved a motion to extend the Solid Waste Contract with GFL Environmental for an additional five years
*Bills totaling $167,971.29 were approved.
Finally, Howard reported city offices would be closed Thursday and Friday for the Thanksgiving holiday.
