A public meeting will be held on the streetscape project by JEO Wednesday, Aug. 7.
Assistant city administrator Lori Boren said that the city wants to hold one more public meeting on the project so they can collect feedback from citizens.
“Our previous public input sessions have been tailored to stakeholders and businesses in the community,” Boren said. “This session will be open to all in the community to hear and provide feedback on the project.”
The session will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Mount Vernon City Hall.
“It is definitely important that we get feedback from multiple citizens on this project,” said council member Stephanie West.
Council approves public hearing for Cottonwood project
Bid opening tabled for Glenn Street
The City of Mount Vernon has approved a public hearing on the agreement with CHI Cottonwood about the 30 unit condominiums for the senior and moderate to low income apartments. The hearing is scheduled for July 15 at 6:30 p.m.
City administrator Chris Nosbisch said it has taken more than four years to get the grants for the project, and the hearing is one of the final portions of the project.
Since notification of the public hearing was not published ahead of the July 1 meeting, the winning bid for the Glenn Street project was tabled until the next meeting.
The city had 11 bidders on the project overall and will announce the low bidder following the public hearing at the July 15 meeting.
Citizen asks why no contact on legal issue
Mike Barnes spoke when citizens had the opportunity to address the council, even though it meant the council was not able to answer or address comments made during this portion of the meeting.
Barnes said that he was served with papers about the trees in his property back in April and asked why there was no follow through.
When he was served, he tried to get in contact with city staff and representatives at Dallas and Lynch law firm before the remediation required ahead of the court case.
Even though he made multiple phone calls to city planner Leigh Bradbury and different attorneys at Dallas and Lynch, he never heard back.
“Now I’m facing a $1,000 fine, but I’ve done the work to clean up these 18 trees on my property,” Barnes said. “Who am I supposed to have been in contact with? Why is no one responding to this pending case? I tried to enter mediation ahead of the fine, as was requested, but no one ever reached out.”