By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
THREE RIVERS — For the first time in years, the Three Rivers City Commission will now be meeting at an earlier time.
The city announced on social media Tuesday night that starting with their next meeting on April 15, City Commission meetings would begin at 5 p.m. on the first and third Tuesdays, moving up an hour from its 6 p.m. timeslot that had been in place for many years.
The change has been discussed briefly by the city commission in the last few months, but no formal vote had been taken on the subject by commissioners to officially make the change prior to Tuesday’s announcement.
Three Rivers City Manager Joe Bippus said in an interview Tuesday that the idea for the time change came primarily from city staff, whose work day usually ends at 4:30 p.m.
“They said, ‘our workday ends at 4:30, why are we hanging around for an extra hour, hour and a half to be at the meeting,’” Bippus said.
At the last City Commission meeting on April 1, Bippus said he would “still want [the commission] to think about whether we start this meeting at 5,” adding that it could potentially be something the city tries during the summer months. Mayor Tom Lowry said at the time that he “wasn’t opposed to the experiment,” adding that he knew of people who didn’t get home from work until 5 p.m., which could make 6 p.m. “easier,” but conceded that “we don’t have a lot of attendance.”
Bippus said Tuesday that he had talked with commissioners about the subject, including those who were not at the last meeting last week, who he said told him were okay with the time change.
“Everybody said they were okay with it. The mayor, at the last meeting, said he was okay with it, and the few that were there were okay with it,” Bippus said. “I thought, you know what, I could’ve went for a vote, but they can always just change it or tell me they don’t want to do it anymore, and it’s going to go back, so I thought, what’s the harm in just starting it?”
With the change in time, the meetings on the third Tuesday of the month would overlap with the St. Joseph County Board of Commissioners’ monthly meetings, which also begin at 5 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month. Those who wish to attend both meetings would thus have to pick which one they want to go to.
However, Bippus said he didn’t feel the city had to “accommodate” the county commission with the time change.
“We knew that they did that, but we didn’t feel like we had to accommodate them or make it different,” Bippus said.
In all, Bippus said, the move would give residents “earlier access to their commissioners,” but said the time could be changed back if things don’t work out.
“We’ll try it, we’ll see if we get complaints from citizens, if people can’t make the meetings, or if there’s issues with it, we’ll just kind of keep track of it,” Bippus said. “If it becomes a concern or if there’s issues, we can always change it back or adjust it to 5:30 or whatever.”
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@wilcoxnewspapers.com.
