At the first meeting of the year on Tuesday, January 4, the Clarion City Council looked like a small group. New mayor Rod Heiden was ill and joining by phone, as was councilmember Shayne Hennigar. Dan Hennigar was also not present. Mayor pro-tem Andy Young ran the meeting. New members Nick McOllough and Dave Flurer were behind the council table for the first time.
At the meeting, the council handled various yearly organizational tasks. Andy Young was again appointed mayor pro tem. Steve TerHark was re-appointed as police chief while Zach Chizek will keep the role of city attorney. The Wright County Monitor will remain the city’s official publication for the year. The new councilmembers were assigned to committees and a new Kosovo committee was formed to handle sister-city matters.
In council business, they again discussed various ordinance amendments. Ordinance 612 that would amend parking regulations in two locations was discussed at length. With the amendment, North Main Street on both sides from 1st Ave N to 6th Ave N, with the exception of religious functions at religious establishments, would be designated a no parking zone. Fourteenth Street NE on both sides from Central Ave to White Fox Drive would also be a no parking zone.
Several concerns were raised about the ordinance, including whether or not to extend the no parking zone through White Fox Drive or allow parking on just one side of that street. Chief of Police Steve Terhark brought up that traffic relating to the ball diamonds under construction will cause congestion. Sam Moore was in attendance and raised concerns about the no parking on North Main as he is looking to start a business at the former Rustic Raven location. In the end, the second reading of the parking ordinance was tabled until the next meeting with the hope that councilmembers will bring specific ideas about changes to be made to it then.
The second reading of Ordinance 611 pertaining to solid waste collection was completed. The decision was made to add to the ordinance that the trash collector’s name and phone number must be labeled on the container or garbage bag.
The council held a public hearing for adoption of the Clarion Code of Ordinances. This entails the recodification of city code where all the supplements and changes to code will be incorporated into one complete book. This process should happen regularly but hasn’t been done in 13 years. There were no comments during the public hearing and the first reading of the ordinance was completed. The council also approved two resolutions pertaining to grant administration agreements and contracts.
