HURON — The Huron City Commission heard from multiple citizens of the city, representing different interests, during the public forum time of Monday evening’s regular meeting.
Mayor Gary Harrington opened the public forum time by reading a proclamation into record proclaiming Jan. 30 as Paul Aylward Day in Huron. Benjamin Chase, representing the Plainsman, explained that a typographical error had been made in Monday’s print edition of the paper on the date of the proclamation, but that had been corrected online and on social media.
Mayor Harrington also reminded citizens to shovel sidewalks, even after light snows, as the walks need to be kept clear for passage, especially by school children.
Laura Jones spoke on behalf of the Alley Cat group in Huron.
She informed the commission that the group has received 501c3 non-profit status and is working in Huron to help control the cat population.
To the present time, Jones reported that the group has rehomed seven cats and spayed/neutered 41 cats. She was accompanied by a collection of the members who work with her group.
Two community members also spoke to the commission regarding the beautification and ordinance/code enforcement within the city.
Stating a desire to have the city “the way it used to be,” the community members emphasized that trash and multiple cars in yards not only presents an eyesore in appearance, but it also presents a safety issue.
The members were encouraged to speak with the city engineer’s office as many of the suggestions and ideas presented were already part of city plans in the Dakota Ave. project.
Assistant city engineer Dennis Bennett brought two bid requests to the commission.
The first was to go to bid on crack sealing for 2023. The city will be crack sealing the paving that was done in 2020, and the projected budget is $67,379. This was approved for bid opening on Feb. 21.
The second bid request was for the 2023 street milling and overlay project. Bennett reported that much of the work will be South of 20th Street and also West of the Fairgrounds. The projected budget is $926,979. This was approved.
Commissioners approved second readings on four ordinances with no public comment.
The first ordinance was Ordinance No. 2245-3-93 regarding personnel, eliminating the need for city workers to reside within the city of Huron along with other language cleanup in the personnel ordinance.
The second ordinance was the supplemental appropriation for 2022. The third and fourth ordinances were to get building and fire codes up to international 2021 standards.
Commissioners approved a correction to the 2022 year-end fund transfers.
Finally, Human Resources Director Nathan Hofer presented a leave date correction to the commission for Mark Luckhurst and Carey Dennis. The two employees were to be granted accrued service time based on military service, but it was never added to the leave record, and it had not been caught until recently.
Hofer presented the commission with the plan, negotiated with the two employees to make the situation right for both employees, granting 503.58 additional hours to Luckhurst and 224.84 additional hours to Dennis. This was approved.
Commissioners also:
• Approved a raffle for Holy Trinity Catholic School.
The commission ended its regular meeting and went into a work session on the ordinance task force.
Commissioner Bryan Smith spoke as chair of the task force to summarize the two meetings that the group has had so far.
The focus thus far has been “cleaning up our own” - as in, making sure city properties and city spaces are holding to ordinances and codes in the way that the city is expecting citizens to abide by them.
Smith related that the group will continue to update the commission as actionable plans from the group are solidified moving forward.
