April Mayor’s Monthly
By Mitchell Woody
Special to The Messenger
GRAPELAND – Hello Grapeland, we had our monthly council meeting on April 12th and the following are the major points from that meeting.
Last year we didn’t score high enough to secure the grant that will allow us to spruce up downtown. We call it “the downtown revitalization project”. The council approved the go ahead to take all the necessary measures to try and secure this grant this year.
According to the Open Meetings Act, anyone can video record or audio record a council meeting while in progress. The council approved an ordinance that sets some rules in place to prevent meeting disruption while recording. A copy of the new ordinance and all other city ordinances can be found on our city website at www.cityofgrapeland.org.
Our trash pick-up provider, Waste Connections, has increased the price of trash services by 5%. At our next meeting, the council will discuss how the city can absorb this cost as to not pass it on to the customer. Hopefully, the budgeting will allow us to do that for our citizens.
The council was presented with options on streets to improve this coming summer. The council approved all of Sycamore, Chestnut, and Augusta streets be paved in their entirety. This will make all of the neighborhood known as ‘The Eden’s Addition” completely paved. Paving these streets will save the city money and man hours as we must repair them now after every storm.
A new Chief of Police has been selected. Officer Richard Lewis has been selected as our new Chief. Also, Officer Aaron Hatton has been promoted to Lieutenant. Congratulations to both!
The new playground equipment has been installed in the city park and many citizens are already enjoying it. We are looking at installing swings next. Many have asked about a splash pad; we are looking into it for sure. Placement and engineering challenges are what we have to figure out for the splash pad.
The election for two council seats is on May 7th at City Hall. There are three candidates running for the two seats and they are: Jack Coleman, Justin Lumbreraz (I), and Bobbie Jo Woody. When you vote, you will be voting for two on your ballot. The two with the most votes will win the seats. Get out and vote on May 7th and let your voice be heard!
That is all the news for now. The next meeting will be on May 10th at 6pm.
“The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not a bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor; but without folly.” – Jim Rohn.
