At the June 16th and July 7th City Council meetings, the council took up the review and approval of our six year Capital Improvement Plan. During the discussions, District 3 Councilman Solon asked the rest of the council to consider removing funding from several projects. Two of the projects were Parks Department projects. The third is development related.
The first was for a parking lot expansion at Vesper Hall to provide more parking for events at Vesper Hall and Rotary Park.
The second was for a long needed expansion of the park maintenance building at Pink Hill Park. Councilman Solon was opposed to this expansion because she said that adding showers, a lunch room, a locker room, and some new offices, were luxury's that were not needed at this time.
The third project Councilman Solon asked to have removed was the 2008 Comprehensive Plan Review. This review is required in 2008 by the City's Charter. Councilman Solon said that the 2008 Comprehensive Plan Review "should be totally removed from funded projects and from all projects for 2008." During the following discussion Councilman Solon said, "I don't think the Comprehensive Plan is out of date, the only problem is that we change it constantly..."
At the end of the meeting I spoke during the visitors session to remind the council that failure to do the review this year would be a violation of our Charter. I also noted that Councilman Solon's logic regarding whether or not the Comprehensive Plan was out of date did not make sense. As the plan gets more and more out of date, more and more changes are requested as projects come forward. This is a clear indication that a review is in order.
To Mayor Ross' credit, once the Charter Issue was brought to his attention he publicly committed to making sure the review would be completed in 2008, including allocating funding as needed to properly complete the process. I applaud the Mayor for committing to allow the City Administrator to go forward with this vitally needed review of the Comprehensive Development Plan for our city!
The June 16, 2008 council meeting can be viewed at mms://streaming.premierstudios.com/cityofbluesprings_vod/videos/cc/cc20080616.wmv.
The July 7, 2008 council meeting can be viewed at mms://streaming.premierstudios.com/cityofbluesprings_vod/videos/cc/cc20080707.wmv.
I would encourage you to contact your elected officials about this or any issue regarding your city and to let them know your opinion on issues they are considering. Following is a link to complete contact information for our Mayor and Council Members: http://www.aboutbluesprings.com/page/City-Council-Contact-Info.aspx.