Council sets priorities for coming year

    The Washington City Council set its priorities for the upcoming year at a work session Wednesday night. Jeff Schott of the University of Iowa guided the council through the process of naming and prioritizing its goals. Schott is the program director at the Institute of Public Affairs at the university.

    The councilors made a list of the ?new initiatives? it wants to accomplish in the next few years. New initiatives are projects that have not yet begun but that the council would like to begin. The council made a list of seven things it would like to do. Then, the six councilors plus the mayor were given three votes to spread among the seven options.

    The new initiative that received support from all representatives ? seven votes ? was the idea to move the city offices from city hall to the former library. The idea of conducting a water and sewer rate analysis received six votes. A ?rate analysis? consists of deciding how to raise money on a utility bill, such as whether to increase the base rate or the usage rate.

    Three votes went to the idea of developing a wellness park. A proposal to develop a new industrial park in the city received three votes as well. Two people liked the idea of planning the second phase of the downtown streetscape. A couple of the options on the list did not receive any votes, and they were the annexation of recently purchased land into the city limits, and the televising of council meetings on the public access channel.

    Mayor Sandra Johnson spoke about the future of the former library. She said that the decision to move city offices depends in part on whether the communications center is relocated to the library?s second floor. Johnson asked if the city had formally given approval to the communications commission to use the library as a communications site. Councilor Merlin Hagie said it is a ?safe assumption? that if the commission chose the former library as the new site, it could iron out an agreement with the council.

    Karen Wilson-Johnson said the city should look at moving the police department to the former library instead of the city offices.

    ?Maybe it would be a better fit if the police moved here?? said Wilson-Johnson.

    Mayor Johnson remarked that an upcoming challenge the city will face is parking at the new high school. She said the city will have to work with the school district to create adequate parking for the students and faculty. She said there are already snow removal issues on E Avenue.

For the full story, see the Jan. 27 edition of The Washington Evening Journal