The Sidney City Council will take up a full slate of activities this Tuesday evening as it considers items from financial statements to zoning requests. A replacement nomination for the Library Board comes before the council as Doris Jensen offers Sidney Public Schools teacher Michelle Onstott to fill the unexpired term of Gina Rosdail who resigned last fall.
Perhaps the biggest item on the agenda will be the consideration of a new ordinance to regulate and mitigate the operation commonly referred to has panhandling that has drawn public and media attention in the last few weeks. The ordinance seeks to discourage professional panhandlers who camp out at street corners, particularly at the intersection of 385 and East Old Post Rd near Wal Mart, Runza and other businesses, by requiring that special permits to panhandle be obtained prior to fund raising activities commence.
The proposed ordinance bans solicitation in a number of areas, including:1. At any bus stop;
2. In any public transportation vehicle or facility;
3. In any vehicle on a street or highway;
4. On private property, except when the solicitor has permission from the owner or
tenant to solicit others;
5. Within twenty feet of any entrance way into or exit from any building open to the
public other than those referenced below in subsection 6 of this Ordinance;
6. In a public or private parking lot;
7. Within six feet of the face of any building not otherwise specifically referenced in this
section or within six feet of any fence or other structure separating private property
from the public right-of-way;
8. While seated on or leaning against privately owned property except when with the
property owner's consent.
The proposed ordinance also makes it a misdemeanor for those soliciting to do so under false pretenses, soliciting without a permit, soliciting for organizations that do not exist, or who have not authorized said solicitor to do so on their behalf, and falsely claiming a homeless status.
Several people have expressed concerns for those who are legitimately in need and the ordinance does provide a once per year access to an emergency permit under which those in need can receive access to assistance, or to a one day permit to solicit funds to facilitate emergency needs such as car repair, etc.
The full text of the proposed ordinance may be found in the supporting materials link at the end of this post. Specifically, look for agenda item Agenda Item 14 in the bookmarked section.
Other items of interest:
Sidney Gold Rush Days committee member Jeff Makris makes a request to permit a bonfire, firearms discharge, including a cannon discharge as part of the annual celebration of Sidney's heritage. The group also is asking for a concessions permit in support of their cook off event at the end of this month.
Olsson Associates and Industrial Process Technology present statements of work completed for the ongoing waste water treatment plant project in the amounts of $153,882.90 due to the contractor, and $19,191.94 due the engineer. The project is wrapping up and expected to fully operational within the near future.
The Cheyenne County Community Center will make a presentation on their plans to extend the facility to include a women's only fitness facility and will add 4,000 ft/sq additional space.
A report will be presented on a previously requested subdivision of property owned by Keith & Kathy Nienhueser and Jeff & Louella Pippitt. A separate resolution formalize the plat changes requested by the landowners.
Jeff Campbell, owner of Campbell's Pub and Mandi Raffelson of the Sidney Jaycees will come before the city council to request a special liquor license for the night of June 4th as part of a street dance sponsored by the community group.
The City Manager is requesting that the downtown improvement project be scaled back due to costs associated with the beautification project to add Bub Outs and custom sidewalk enhancements to downtown city street corners. According to a memo to council members, Gary Person, the bids received were over the engineer's estimates and as a result, the number of bulb outs has been requested to be reduced from 14 to 8 and the decorative crosswalks reduced from nine to six. Person added that the engineer for the project visited with the low bidder who agreed to honor his prices, despite the reduced amount of overall work.
Several members of governing boards and at least one downtown business owner speaking on the condition of anonymity have expressed concern on the design and implementation of the bulb outs and the potential impact on cross street traffic and snow removal processes.
The city ordinance controlling ATV vehicles will see a proposal to modify the local law to conform with new state law changes which go into effect on July 1, 2010 that extend and define additional types of vehicles permissible on state and local roads. Additional definitions include utility type ATVs and minitrucks with engine displacements under 1000cc's.
Dog license fees will be increased by a new state mandated fee of one dollar. The new fee will be six dollars for intact male dogs and 11 dollars if registered prior to the annual deadline of January 28th each year. Intact dogs registered after the deadline will cost eleven and sixteen dollars for male or female dogs, respectively.
Spayed or neutered dogs will have no fee imposed if registered before March 1st each year, or six dollars if done after the deadline.
Claims for Hillside Ventures, of which Marvin Filsinger is affiliated and White Bluffs, owned by Mayor Dave Wiederspon are 2250.51 and 614.00, respectively. No claims were presented by Bob Van Vleet.
The city's account summary for the seven months ending April 30th show year to date expenditures exceeding revenues by nearly 200,000 dollars. Recent news from the State of Nebraska should improve that condition next month as sales tax refunds are to be minimal, hopefully allowing the loss to be absorbed with additional sales taxes collected.
Supporting Materials
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