THE AUGUST 25th COUNCIL MEETING

Proclamation – commending Stephanie Zambrowicz for her state track title
You may wonder why we are doing this in August, when she won the title in June. Scheduling conflicts...but when she wins it again as a senior, we will be more timely LOL.
Request for bike racks in the downtown area – Stephanie Cutler
On July 8th, Stephanie Cutler, a Ripon College student, made a presentation asking that the City buy and install more bike racks in the downtown area. Council requested input from Ripon Main Street, but as of now, no response has been received. As we are approaching budget meetings, staff would like Council’s preliminary thoughts on this issue. The Council agreed to a supporting motion on locating more bike racks downtown, but the location and exact funding still needs to be determined. The additional bikes on the Ripon College campus is one reason for the request, but we have received a letter of support from the theater pointing out they would like to see racks downtown as well for the kids and teens who bike.
Request for added street lights on Newbury Street (Dave Gray)
After further review, staff is proposing an ordinance to adopt 400 feet between street lights as a standard for mid-block lighting. The 400-foot spacing is comparable to the distance from intersection to intersection on normal city blocks. This was acceptable to the Council, so staff will draft an ordinance for review and approval on September 11th, then work with Alliant Energy to restore this level of lighting along Newbury Street.
Discussion of budgeting for publication of 2009 City calendar
Two years ago, I removed the calendars from the budget in a cost-savings move, but there was considerable criticism. Last year, the City printed 2000 calendars, but we only sold about 750 at $2.00 each. One possible reason is that, with the availability of more information on our website, there may be alower demand for calendars. As the 2009 budget is being prepared, I asked the Council for their direction on this matter. They voted to print 750 calendars for 2009, with the cost to be set at what we need to break even.

All in all, it was a light night for the Council. Our next meeting will be September 9th (Election Day) at 630 PM. The September 22nd meeting has been moved to September 29th in order to hold a public hearing on the proposed downtown Tax Increment District.