Senate Redistricting

Capitol Fax

Good compilation of news feeds from many sources citing the changes to their districts. You would think redistricting would really change in one or two places to tweak things. A whole new map of the state with obvious cutouts and land grabs to make political territory more solid for some and a sandy foundation for others.

Our district has shifted a bit. We'll see what happens when the House releases their proposal.

Monroe County Independent May 10, 2011 E-Newsletter

I occasionally read their site to sort through the vehicle accident stories to see if anything interesting pops up. Two items caught my eye in the May 10th edition.

Life Returning to Normal in Columbia

(Ed-itor’s Note: So we suppose now the Columbia police will be back to their normal rounds, and the from-home folks will be once again complaining about high taxes, the CPD pulling over too many cars, cops checking for speeders on I-255 and Route 3, the CPD keeping a very close eye on the bar regulars, kids speeding along the side streets, bicyclists taking up the middle of the road and teens loitering in the parks.)

I'm not sure they can pull over enough cars in town, especially on Rt. 3. I grew up primarily in Edwardsville where three state highways converge (159, 157, & 143). In Edwardsville these roads all slow down to sub 40 mph speed limits. Is it too much to hope for people to actually drop down from interstate speeds before they pass the first stoplight entering town, let alone actually do the speed limit all the way through town. Haven't we all seen enough people die on Rt. 3?

Columbia Council, ICS In Accord On Plan For New Church

Mayor Kevin Hutchinson and the Committee of the Whole (all eight aldermen) apparently are willing to waive utility tap-in fees and legal and engineering fees, which will save the parish more than $100,000.

I wasn't at the meeting and I assume the City has done this for other churches in the past but that's a large chunk of money. I wonder what the actual costs to the city are given that these fees normally cover at least some actual costs. I'm glad construction will be starting on the church though, I don't go to ICS but I know they need the space.

New Aldermen Take Their Seats

Monday night’s council meeting was lacking a few participants. Only two of the aldermen whose terms were up came to the meeting. The mayor presented plaques to aldermen Oberkfell and Row. Aldermen Stumpf and Hejna I suppose decided coming to their final council meeting was not worth their time. I’m not sure I understand that reasoning and it’s not worth theorizing as to why they didn’t come.

Once the new aldermen were sworn in Row left and Oberkfell came and sat in the back row near me. It seems that Oberkfell will now be a member of the audience and keep tabs on what the new council does; maybe the city will have a new source of information.

The new council settled in quickly and voted all yeas to the remaining items on the agenda with little to no conversation on any item. I suspect we’ll be seeing a great deal of agreeing with the new council.

A plan was shown for a large addition to the Columbia Lakes subdivision. It appears to be for all apartments which have some positive s and negatives associated with them. I’ll do my best to obtain a copy of the proposal.

Newly Elected Aldermen

Columbia’s newly elected aldermen will be sworn in tonight at the city council meeting. They made a number of claims throughout the election process, mostly regarding how important new non-residential development is to the future of Columbia.

The mayor has always said that new development is necessary for the future of Columbia. It is needed to give some relief to the strained municipal budget and to offset the need for higher rates on residential property taxes.

The mayor and newly elected aldermen appear to share a great number of beliefs regarding non-residential development in Columbia. I would think anything short of a number of new places to shop and eat in Columbia would mark their terms as elected officials as failures. I am not sure how they intend to attract new businesses to Columbia in a way that makes fiscal sense to Columbia and its future; I hope they have a good plan. I suppose filling our current TIF district would be a good start but I would suspect something larger could be in the works.

After the last election cycle when Mark Roessler took over the reins from Jay Unnerstall the Programmatic Agreement from Columbia Crossing was reintroduced, it quickly settled back into the shadows. We’ll all be waiting to see if a large scale development is proposed or talked about in the coming months.

The way in which I have seen the newly elected aldermen act and some comments I have received from them lead me to believe they have spent a great deal of time discussing the issues facing Columbia with one another. They will now have all of those discussions in a public forum and be judged by those who elected them.

The aldermen leaving should be thanked for their time to the city. If you disagreed with them, their still entitled to your thanks, they have spent their time doing what they felt was right for the city, and I feel they never hid what they stood for. I can honestly say I have not always thought the four of them made the best choices but they would explain their position if I asked them about it, which is not always easy for people in elected positions to do. My thanks go out to Aldermen Stumpf, Row, Hejna, & Oberkfell for the time they served the city.