Committee asks council to fund landscaping
By SUSAN MARSHALL
News editor
A group of volunteers who serve as a city landscaping sub-committee was present at the Monday meeting of Peabody City Council to encourage continued funding of the city's long-term landscaping plan at the parks. The budget for landscaping will be under review along with other city projects as council members plan city spending.
Susie Schmidt encouraged the council to continue the plan and thanked council for the improvements to the east fence-line of city park.
"Our parks help us present ourselves well to visitors," she said. "Beautification projects like the one at city park and later at Santa Fe Park benefit everyone. It shows we care.
"Careful landscaping compliments our community."
Judy Claassen and Alice Stucky both agreed and asked for continued support.
"I hope you won't abandon the plan for tree replacement at the city park," said Claassen. "I think the ice storm showed us how quickly we can lose trees that have been around for years and years.
"By keeping this plan in place and adding trees as memorials or whenever they are needed, we won't have so much 'old growth' if nature hits us again," she added.
Stucky said that volunteers are needed to keep the young plants and seedlings watered until they are established.
Schmidt also asked the council to consider a push by a volunteer group to repaint the playground equipment at city park. She expressed interest in adding a permanent plaque in the Gladys Hart playground area in memory of Hart, who left money to the city to purchase the equipment that is there.
Council encouraged the group to continue volunteer efforts and agreed to look carefully at finances for the parks at budget time.
In other business the council:
— heard from John Bloomer that re-seeding of an area of his property by the sewer project contractor was not done according to specifications. Council asked Jeff Benbrook to add it to the list of deficiencies. Bloomer also told the council the surface of Second Street and Spruce Street was damaged by heavy equipment and never repaired.
— discussed at length the lack of change orders from engineers Reiss and Goodness for changes to the access road to the new sewer, the fencing around the cells, and some other items not completed. Council agreed it was not ready to sign off on the project.
— reviewed the property at 803 N. Olive and agreed the nuisance had been abated by owner Archie Riggs. Council declared the case closed.
— reviewed the property at 411 N. Maple and discussed with owner Dave Blythe, a timeline for additional work on the house. Blythe said he had been working in Florida and had fallen behind on repairs to the property. Council asked him to "make as much headway as possible" and report again at the Aug. 28 council meeting.
— discussed a long-standing, but unofficial policy of allowing swimming pool personnel to give private lessons at city pool. Benbrook will review the procedure and a policy will be established before next summer.
— opened bids for the demolition of the house at 203 Sycamore. Council then determined that the job description was not detailed enough and approved a different set of specifications for demolition and removal.
— acceptance of a bid for ditch and street work on Eighth Street between Maple and Elm that was tabled for more information.
— reviewed nuisance properties and residences with mowing violations with health and safety officer Deb Buser.
— approved a contractor agreement with Chris Young to abate weed and grass violations.
— agreed to have Benbrook contact Dr. Randy Whitely about his office serving as the designated health service for drug testing, accidents, information inquiries, and workman's compensation issues.
— reviewed burn permit policy and implementation with Peabody Fire Chief Bret O'Dell and Dave Rempel. Benbrook will review burn permit information from area communities and Marion County and report back at a future meeting.
— heard from Benbrook about upcoming budget issues, a re-cap of finances for the year, and confirmation of budgetary percentages for the coming year.
— tabled until a future meeting discussion of prohibiting dogs from public events such as the fireworks show, a determination regarding the AT&T franchise, ordinance revisions for mobile home, manufactured home, and recreational vehicle regulations, and a review of any ordinance regulating bicycle riding on sidewalks.
