During the regularly scheduled Osceola City Council meeting Aug. 6, council members voted to change a stop sign to a yield sign and set public hearings for the community development block grant on Fillmore Street and lease-purchase agreement for road equipment.
Yield sign
Council members voted to remove a stop sign from the intersection of Southern Hills Drive and Harken Hills Drive. Members also voted to install a yield sign in its place.
“There are three homes that actually come out Southern Hills Drive and Harken Hills Drive,” said Council Member Dennis Page. “One direction is coming right at you. The other direction is to your right.”
According to Osceola Police Chief Marty Duffus, he has no objection to removing the stop sign at the intersection of Southern Hills and Harken Hills drives.
“There is no mechanism for through traffic. If they go down that path, that road, they’ll get no farther than Councilman Page’s house,” said Duffus. “So, there’s no through traffic. There’s very little traffic at all on that road. So, I don’t have an objection.”
The motion to remove the stop sign and install a yield sign at the intersection passed.
CDBG
The council members set a public hearing for Aug. 19 for an update on the community development block grant.
“It’s a requirement for the community development block grant program to notify the public of the progress of the project,” said CityAdministrator Ty Wheeler.
The grant was approved during an August 2013 city council meeting. The council approved the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Downtown Revitalization Award with an amount of $468,500. It will go toward revitalizing Fillmore Street.
This grant program will allow building owners to fix thefront of their buildings. Areas that are covered include awnings, windows, storefront windows, doors and cornices.
Lease-purchase
Council members also set a public hearing for Aug. 19 to decide on lease-purchase agreements for Osceola Street Department.
“We’ve been doing some discussion on our equipment purchasesfor the current fiscal year at the street department. And, after a couple kind of fell through, we went down the list of priorities to the snow plow, which needs to be replaced,” Wheeler said.
According to Wheeler, it is easier on the road department’s budget to set up a lease-purchase agreement that will run a course of 60 months, instead of paying for the equipment in one lump sum.
“In this particular case, the truck will cost $116,625. Which, in a single year, would eat up nearly 25 percent of the road budget,” Wheeler said. “So, by spreading that cost over four or five years, in this case 60 months, it’s much easier to service that payment.”
Wheeler said this has been done before, with a road grater. The city is in the last year of paying for the grater.
“In the years that we’ve made a large equipment purchase, especially in the street budget which is about a $600,000 budget, you know, $100,000 out of that budget eats up a lot in just one purchase and doesn’t provide for a lot of flexibility.”
All council members voted yes to set the hearing for Aug.19.
In other city council news:
Dennis Page was sworn in as Osceola City Council’s new council member. Page was a candidate during the council’s special election, which was held Aug. 5.
Osceola City Council members approved a reorganization of Clarke County Reservoir Commission.