Chelsea City Council sets two work sessions, OKs all business items

Following a lengthy discussion on Monday, Aug. 17, the Chelsea City Council voted to hold a work session on economic development on an off-meeting Monday,  Aug. 31 and invite the Downtown Development Authority board to the table.

In addition, the elected officials scheduled another work session for Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 7 at 6 p.m. before their regular meeting to discuss a possible non-discrimination ordinance.

In other business, the City Council approved the low bid of about $534,000 for the Safe Routes to Schools contract, by a 5-1 vote, with Council Member Rod Anderson voting no.

Anderson has repeatedly said that he wants to see a city-wide rating of all streets and a plan to improve them. He said although safe routes to schools is important, having a plan for city-wide road improvements is critical.

He asked about the impact of funding the project, which came in at about 19-percent above the engineer’s estimate. The additional costs were attributed to skyrocketing trucking and material costs and will be divided between the stormwater ($5,810), electric ($17,634), major ($70,796) and local ($38,121) street funds.

Also approved was:

• Mayor Jason Lindauer‘s recommendation to appoint George Olsen to the city’s Planning Commission.
• Reappointment of members of the city’s Parks Plan Steering Committee for an additional year. (The parks committee is comprised of Andrew Thomson, Coy Vaughn, Jeff Hardcastle, Monica Monsma, Terry Turner, Melissa Johnson and Larry Ledebur.)
• A public hearing for the proposed parks and recreation master plan on Monday, Sept. 21.
• A request for a wholesale power purchase and a request to hire two contract line workers for the electrical department.
• The installation of two wells on vacant properties that are further than 200 feet from the city water supply.
• A request from the Chelsea Area Historical Society for a special use permit to hold a trunk sale fundraiser on Oct. 15.