By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
THREE RIVERS — Three Rivers City Manager Joe Bippus said previously that changing the start time for Three Rivers City Commission meetings from 6 p.m. to 5 p.m. was a “trial” for the summer.
That trial never even made it to the summer months.
On Tuesday, the Three Rivers City Commission unanimously voted to revert their start times back to 6 p.m. on the first and third Tuesdays of the month effective immediately, following a second meeting in a row where commissioners brought up the inconveniences for them and for residents with the new start time.
In making the motion during the commissioner’s comment period to change the start time back to 6 p.m., Third District Commissioner Chris Abel, who arrived to the meeting a couple minutes past the 5 p.m. start time, explained his tardiness was due to his work schedule, and recognized that others may have the same issues.
“It is very difficult to get here by 5 p.m., but I do have to work. I know we’ve talked about this in the past about maybe re-assessing the 5 p.m. meetings and going back to 6 p.m., I’d kind of like to maybe put that up for vote,” Abel said. “I just know it’s a difficulty on several people; today I was late because I was in Battle Creek until 4 p.m. and had to do 85 miles per hour just to get here a couple minutes late. If we don’t vote on it now, it’s going to have to be sometime soon.”
The time change to 5 p.m., which never came up for a formal vote of the City Commission at any point, had been implemented seemingly unilaterally by city staff the week prior to the commission’s April 15 meeting, with Bippus at the time citing city staff’s preferences as the motive behind the move, adding it would give residents “earlier access to their commissioners.”
However, in both meetings since the change – Tuesday’s meeting and the April 15 meeting – city commissioners have had mixed to negative reactions to the change, citing schedules both personally and professionally, as well as the overlap with the St. Joseph County Board of Commissioners’ third-Tuesday-of-the-month regular meetings, which also start at 5 p.m.
Mayor Tom Lowry, who said during the April 15 meeting that while he wanted a change to 6 p.m., “if the majority wants to try it, we’ll do [5 p.m.],” was a little more set in stone in his position Tuesday, saying “I want to go back to 6 p.m., I’ll be honest.”
At-Large Commissioner Torrey Brown, who also arrived at the meeting a couple minutes late just before Abel’s arrival, said he had fatherly duties to attend to that made him miss the start time.
“I have to go to Constantine to pick my kids up, and when there’s an athletic event, I run late,” Brown said. “I have to pick my daughter up from soccer practice, get her home, get back over here, and walk in two minutes after the meeting start. It really cuts it.”
Bippus, in his brief comments before the vote, looked to have resigned himself to the change back to 6 p.m.
“I know that we’d like to continue trying it, but this is the input we get,” Bippus said. “Ultimately, it’s your meeting.”
The vote was unanimous, 7-0. The first regular meeting to implement the change will be the Tuesday, May 20 meeting, which will also have the public hearing on the city’s annual budget, which was originally noticed for 5 p.m., but will be re-noticed to 6 p.m.
Commissioners mixed on new trash pickup procedure
A couple commissioners, during the commissioner comments period, gave their thoughts on the new trash pickup method the city is utilizing for its annual spring pickup, which goes away from curbside pickup in favor of a combination of an extra dump pass for the rest of the year and several dumpsters in areas of each neighborhood available for one day at a time.
The new procedure has gotten mixed to negative reactions from some community members online, mainly due to inconveniencing those who do not have the means to get their trash to the dumpsters or the Waste Management dump area, and constantly-full dumpsters.
First District Commissioner Pat Dane said while she personally has not had a problem working with the new method, it was ultimately “not working” and need to “think that through,” citing the difficulties those in The Meadows senior community have had, noting, “Part of those people don’t drive anymore, and the part that do drive have no way of getting anything to the dumpster because they don’t have a truck, they can’t lift everything, and they definitely couldn’t lift it into the dumpster if they got there.”
Bippus responded saying he was curious to see how much yardage would be taken by Waste Management this time around, adding they’ve had to switch some dumpsters out due to being full, but ultimately said, “I get it, it’s more convenient to have it at your house.”
Brown took the opposite viewpoint, saying he doesn’t have any problems with the new methods, acknowledging that he was able to get a trailer to haul trash, and that some people he talked to say they were in favor of the new method, since the streets “didn’t look bad for a month” with trash on the terraces.
Lowry said city officials will discuss the trash pickup method at its budget meeting on May 13, and whether they will keep it going forward.
In other business…
- Commissioners approved a purchase order of $162,247 to John Boettcher Sewer and Excavating for storm sewer improvements on Hoffman Street and sanitary sewer improvements on South Main Street, plus another $36,000 to Fleis & Vandenbrink for construction engineering.
- Commissioners approved a $59,700 bid from LD DOCSA for ATAD stabilization improvements at the Wastewater Treatment Plant, which will include removing a pump pad from the foundation of the building.
- Commissioners approved the official transfer of 303 Middle St. from the city to AHI Group, LLC, who plan to build a 900- to 1,100-square-foot house on the property. According to a memo from AHI to the city, they expect to have the house completed within six months of groundbreaking, which a date for it has not been confirmed.
- Commissioners approved a special exception use permit for a new massage establishment at 145 W. Michigan Ave. on the second floor of LA’s Coffee Café.
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@wilcoxnewspapers.com.
