By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The response of Bowling Green Public Works Division and other city workers to this past weekend’s storm drew praise at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.
The expressions of gratitude started at the top of the meeting with resident Nathan Eberly saying he appreciated how well the roads were maintained.
The crews did “a great job… especially considering it was a holiday weekend.”
Mayor Dick Edwards said he appreciated that Brian Craft, the director of Public Works, and Joe Fawcett, assistant municipal administrator, were on duty throughout the weekend keeping him abreast of conditions.
Edwards said that the Fire Division was also busy assisting people who had fallen because of the slippery conditions.
Fawcett said that the decision to declare a snow emergency at 9 a.m. Saturday came before the requisite two inches had fallen. Officials knew from the forecast the more snow was on the way.
That would ordinarily mean residents had two hours, until 11 a.m., to move their vehicles off snow streets. But city crews started by clearing the roads along the perimeter of the city, so police didn’t start enforcing the parking ban until 3 p.m.
Fawcett praised residents’ response to the declaration.He said that six vehicles had to be towed, and 20 tickets were issued.
He made a distinction between the county’s snow emergency levels and the city’s that only address parking both for the safety and efficiency of city plowing crews.
The Police Department responded to 19 calls for immobile vehicles, he reported.
Fawcett said that he and Craft got together as soon as they saw the forecast to come up with a game plan, and that forethought paid off.
Craft said he hadn’t planned on giving a report at the meeting, but spoke to acknowledge the praise voiced by others.
He also thanked the citizens for providing the funding for the equipment his workers use to clear the snow.
Also at the meeting, Council president Mike Aspacher presented the council’s four goals for the coming year. The goals were developed following discussions at the council’s annual strategic planning session held earlier this month.
The first goal, Aspacher said, is to continue to pursue improvements called for in the Community Action Plan. These include sidewalk improvements, consideration of a housing exterior maintenance code, discussion of rental registration, and support of the new Historic Preservation Commission.
The second, he said, was to look at economic development opportunities especially in the East Wooster Corridor.
The third is to develop a city council statement of support for the city schools and discuss the importance of the schools in the community.
The fourth is to address what had been called the Bowling Green Citizen experience. Aspacher said council needs to work with the administration “on ways we can improve communication with residents.”
Bruce Jeffords said that Aspacher had done a good job encapsulating what had been discussed at the strategic planning session.
Aspacher said these goals will not be met within the year, just as work started in previous years continues. “A number of the things we’re focused on in our community are long range, multifaceted, complicated things that will take a lot of time, patience, and resources to implement.”
These, however ,are not all the council will focus on Greg Robinette said that members of council will continue to address issues that arise in the committees they sit on.
In line with that, John Zanfardino scheduled a meeting on bicycling issues for Feb. 4 at 6 p.m.
Mark Hollenbaugh set a meeting of the Community Improvement Committee for Feb 19 at 6 p.m. to discuss plastic grocery bags.
