Washington’s City Council had a short meeting Monday evening with only two items on the agenda.
The Council unanimously approved a resolution transferring $10,000 in the Fire Department Budget. The money was moved from the Machinery and Equipment line to Maintenance.
At the end of the meeting, Councilman Blake Chambers said a constituent had recently told him that because of his support for the Business 50 improvement resolution passed at a previous meeting, Chambers was not being a good steward of the taxpayers’ money. Chambers spoke about the encounter and said he wanted to take the opportunity to publicly express his support for the project. He said the state was not going to do it and that if was going to get done, it would have to be done by the city. He concluded saying if his support for the project meant he was not a good steward of the taxpayers’ money, then he was guilty as charged. Following Chambers’ remarks, councilman Doug Campton who opposed the resolution at the prior meeting countered saying that the state did in fact plan to redo the road but acknowledged that INDOT’s plan would not be up to the standard favored by the mayor and other council members. Campton remarked during the debate that some drivers don’t really care what the road looks like.
After the meeting Mayor Wellman noted that the main part of the City’s expense in the project would be to replace and upgrade the 80 year old sewer and water lines under the old highway….something that would have to be done, with or without, the Business 50 upgrade.
The Board of Works and Safety met following the Council meeting and approved a request by Dr. Gerald Stroud to have two designated handicapped parking places in front of his new office in the old German-American Bank Building in Main Street.
In other business, Mayor Joe Wellman announced that INDOT will pay the cost of the City’s project to preempt stop lights for first responder vehicles in the city.
The Mayor had this to say:
The City project is in addition to the current State project replacing stop lights on SR 57. The project will allow first responders to trigger stop lights to give emergency vehicles the right of way through the lights.
