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CITY COUNCIL
Columbus city manager Donald Warschak reported to city council members that the city of Columbus received an award of up to $300,000 for a planning capacity study to be done regarding the wastewater and drought permits at their recent council meeting this past Monday, Nov. 25.
The planning capacity study is updated every 15 to 20 years according to Warschak, with the last update occurring in 2007, putting the city within the 15-to-20-year time frame.
“We will be working with that grant to upgrade that under the wastewater permits,” said Warschak. “The two drought permits are out there and available for anybody in the public that wants to take a look at it.”
Council members also approved the amendment of an ordinance article that would disallow food trucks to be parked within city rights of ways.
The amendment comes after a complaint was made by local residents at a council meeting back in October over safety issues and road blockages by said food trucks.
Council member Keith Cummings questioned if the amendment would take away any leniency for fees and fines applied to the food trucks regarding circumstances out of their control.
“What if they have a flat and have to stay parked on the right of way,” said Cummings. “Is there a period of time where the vehicle can actually stay put and is there a fine or penalty for them if they leave it there for a day or two?”
The main issue at hand defining the scopes of the ordinance amendment was the distinction between commercial or personal trailers/ vehicles based on the number of axles on a vehicle used as a food truck.
Columbus PD Chief Skip Edman noted that the differentiation between the two was all dependent on how the vehicle as registered in the first place.
“Depends on how they register it,” said Edman. “It just depends. Some of them are too heavy, some of them fit just fine.”
In addition to approving the ordinance amendment, council members also approved a resolution declaring certain personal property as surplus, authorizing the sale of said surplus property.
Mayor Lori An Gobert said with the approval of the resolution, the city could get a “slew of money” off of the vehicles deemed to be surplus to the city.
“Even with the age of these vehicles,” said Gobert. “I am sure we are going to get a slew of money. We are having enterprise sell these and then the proceeds will be applied to the lease that these replace.”
