Glasgow City Council Meets In Regular Session

The Glasgow City Council met in regular session on Aug. 7 with the agenda including approval of consent agenda items, a public hearing on solid waste collection rate increase, Tess Fahlgren providing an update to the council on the skate park location as well as approvals requested for certain city business.

During the public comment period of the meeting, business owner Candy Lagerquist circled back to the desire to have diagonal parking on one side of 2nd Ave S., while the other side stayed parallel parking. During the last City Council meeting on July 17, Director of Public Works Paul Skubinna provided research and thoughts on the feasibility while also recommending drivers back into the parking spot, as research as shown that is the safest option. At the time of that meeting, Skubinna advised that everybody who has tried this change or implemented the change advised not to try it on the main drag and instead start with a busier side street and then implement the change on the main street. The suggestion was to start the project from 3rd Street S down towards where the swimming pool is located.

“At Klein Avenue, both sides of the are already diagonal parking and they pull in and back out. So the discussion is why waste the extra money with signage and changing the backing in for safety concerns when we’re only asking for one side to be diagonal parking downtown,” stated Lagerquist. She continued stating, “This is a two-year project for the swimming pool, at least, why couldn’t we do it and get it going? One that’s going to help the businesses where down here isn’t helping the businesses and you got a two-year construction date.”

Councilman Stan Ozark understood Lagerquist’s comments, stating “as someone who works on 2nd Ave, I understand what a frustration it is. And if I were her, I would be really frustrated if it’s a couple years down the road that this might happen on 2nd Ave. I would like to put this on the agenda for the next meeting to have this discussion. If you would maybe get some 2nd Ave. S. businesses to come at that meeting.”

After the approval of consent agenda items, which included payment of claims for Aug. 7, 2023, in the amount of $499,133.38, payment of Valley Court Apartment claims for Aug. 7 in the amount of $2,038.30 and the minutes of the July 17, 2023 regular council meeting, the public hearing for the proposed rate increase of solid waste collection in the city of Glasgow began. The city is proposing a ten percent increase in the collection rate, which is levied on property taxes paid by city residents. The current garbage collection rate is $175 for a residential home in Glasgow while the proposed increase would increase it to $192.50 per year. During the public hearing portion, there was no testimony for or against the collection rate increase.

Over the past few weeks, Glasgow City Council members toured Bundy Park to get first-hand knowledge and experience on how a skatepark would be built there as well as the functionality of the park as a whole for the community.

“I wanted to offer, our skate park group would happily volunteer to help fundraise for a new play area, playground equipment to go, I would assume next to the bathrooms since the skatepark would go where they are now. We would volunteer our labor an whatever we can to remove that stuff, remove the swing set, the slide and even the concrete block that is there. If the skate park was built at Bundy, we would do what we can to make a whole park very lovely,” explained Fahlgren. She also updated the Council on the feedback received from going door-to-door in the neighborhood near the park stating, “We’ve gotten a lot of support for the skatepark at Bundy. We knocked on doors in the immediate vicinity, right behind where the skate park would be and then right across an opposite street. Everybody we talked to was really excited.”

Valley County Sheriff Tom Boyer echoed stating, “I would like to stand in advocacy for this as a property owner to Bundy Park....and also as a Sheriff, I would strongly express my support for this and think it’s just a fantastic location for our community but also for those maybe traveling from out-of-town to visit parks and whatnot like that. I just wanted to express that to you all...I really liked the idea when I was approached this weekend and it inspired me enough to come by and say such to you all as well.” Though Jan Swanson did not provide a public comment since the City Council was not voting on the matter, she did express frustration that she was not approached. “I live across the street and I awsn’t approached by anybody....I have lived on that part for 30 years. I know what happens, I know what usages of it are, and I think cement is not for parks period. Parks should be grass and tress.”

After hearing the public comments, Mayor Rod Karst stated the next steps would be to determine the legality of the project, specifically what it would look like in terms of insurance and property rights which at that time then a public hearing will be held.

The City Council then approved Resolution No. 3137, a Resolution revising the 2022-2023 Fiscal Year Budget for the Vlaley Court Apartments Fund, approved the GSI consulting services contract between the City of Glasgow and Midwest Assistance Program, Inc., approved City Attorney Pekovitch’s contract for a two-year period, appointed Kathy Smith to the City-County Library Board for a five year term, effective Aug. 8, appointed Lucas Locke to fill the remaining term of Jack Medlicott Housing Authority Board until Sept. 4, 2024, as well as approval of amended plat of lots 5, 6, 7, 8, Block 8, Hoffman’s addition tot eh City of Glasgow and approval of the Amendment No. 1 to the standard agreement between the city of Glasgow and Morrison-Maierle, Inc. in the amount of $17,700 for the sewer separation project. The Council also approved to pay $4,200 to Bureau Veritas to update the Valley Court Capital Needs Assessment for the transfer of the Valley Court Apartments out of the City’s general fund.

The next Glasgow City Council meeting will be held on Monday, Aug. 21, 5 p.m. in the Council Chambers located inside of the Glasgow Civic Center. Agenda will be posted on our social media page when it becomes available, http://www.facebook.com/glasgowcourier/.