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Buena Vista City Council is beginning the new year down a member and without a vice mayor. Newly elected Mayor Tyson Cooper vacated his regular Council seat with two years remaining on the term.
At Council’s first meeting of the year this past Thursday, the consensus was to ask citizens interested in filling the Council vacancy to submit a letter of interest to Council clerk Sarah Burch by next Monday, Jan. 15, and to appear at Council’s next meeting on Thursday, Jan. 18. Council will interview the prospective candidates during that meeting and then appoint the new member.
Council will vote for a vice mayor after the new member is seated. At last week’s reorganizational meeting, Jason Tyree was reappointed city manager, Brian Kearney was reappointed city attorney and Burch was reappointed clerk of Council.
A vice mayor is selected from among Council’s membership every two years. The most recent vice mayor, Cheryl Hickman, was defeated in the most recent elections, along with one other incumbent, Stanley Coffey. Winning candidates Ronald Cash and Michelle Puluikis took their Council seats for the first time Thursday while re-elected incumbent Steve Webb retained his Council seat.
Cooper asked that Council members be thinking about what Council committees they’d like to see and any changes to the process that might be appropriate. He asked that guidelines be drafted for addressing Council and making requests for items to be placed on Council agendas.
One of Cooper’s goals for the new year, he said, is to develop a strategic draft plan for the city. Toward that end, Council scheduled four Saturday retreats – Feb. 17, April 20, July 20 and Oct. 26. Times for those retreats will be from 9 a.m. to noon.
In his city manager’s report, Tyree said Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Judge Paul Tucker had requested that the general district courtroom, which also serves as the chambers for City Council, be reconfigured to enhance court security.
Kristina Ramsey, the city’s director of economic development, reported that a contingent of more than 100 members of the national Timber Framers Guild will be in Buena Vista for four days in early April to erect a pavilion at the city’s town square property at the corner of 21st Street and Magnolia Avenue. Accommodations and meals will need to be provided for the workers and donations are being sought for construction materials.
A second reading was held for a proposed abandonment of a 200-foot section of the 200 block of Poplar Avenue. Raymon Holguin requested the abandonment of the undeveloped section of roadway so he could construct a private road to serve two new houses of three he is proposing to build. Under the proposal, half of the abandoned land would be sold to Ramsey Real Estate for $3,750 and the other half would be sold to neighboring property owners Franklin E. and Karen H. Roberts, also for $3,750.
Council’s vote on the ordinance text for the abandonment was held over until Council’s next meeting so the city attorney could prepare a draft of conditions to go along with the ordinance.
