Approximately three dozen people attended the first meeting called last night to gain ideas for improving downtown Knox.
The meeting was chaired by Mayor Rick Chambers and Gene Blastic from the Starke County Economic Development Foundation.
Many of the comments had to do with buildings that have fallen into disrepair. Knox City Councilman, Greg Matt, said it’s obvious the City Council is going to have to create ordinances with more stringent codes to force the building owners into action.
Knox City and Starke County officials put their heads together this week to see if they could come up with making the Knox City Court solvent. The court, which handles judicial matters from throughout the city and county, is running close to $100,000 in the red. Officials and others gathered for a work session Tuesday night before the regular Knox City Council meeting.
The Knox City Council, on a unanimous vote Tuesday night, gave Mayor Rick Chambers the go-ahead to do the sidewalk work on the Courthouse square to make it ADA accessible.
“We’ve discussed doing something with that sidewalk to make it handicapped accessible on the west side of the Courthouse and I’ve talked with several contractors,” said Mayor Chambers. “We’ve went over ADA regulations and I’ve talked with the Commissioners and I don’t feel comfortable just diving into that project without having it engineered.”
The Knox City Council recently discussed abolishing Knox City Court. Even though the court takes away almost $100,000 from the City’s General Fund, Mayor Rick Chambers says there’s no opportunity to abolish it until 2014.
“State statute states during 2006 and every fourth year after that, a second or third class town, or city may, by ordinance, establish or abolish a city or town court,” said Chambers. “So, we can’t just snap our fingers and say no more City Court next year. By state statute, every fourth year you have to do an ordinance.”
What’s happening with gasoline prices? Yesterday at 4:00 p.m., prices were everywhere from $3.18 to $3.79 in northern Indiana.
Want to find out how prices are structured at individual stations or why some stations are pricing below cost? What about who’s making money off you at the pump?
Tomorrow night, Scott Imus will join State Senator Ed Charbonneau, State Representative Nancy Dembowski, and Mayor Rick Chambers in trying to explain what’s happening at Indiana service stations.
Imus is the Executive Director of the Indiana Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association.
If you want to hear it straight “from the horse’s mouth,” be at the Knox Community Center tomorrow night at 6:30 p.m. CT.
Is the City of Knox considering getting out of organizing the 4th of July fireworks celebration? The officials haven’t said they will stop producing the show, but it’s apparent that something has to be done to help with funding.
At the most recent meeting of the City Council, Mayor Rick Chambers announced that $4200.00 was lost on the 2011 presentation.
“We maybe need to form a committee and try to get Judson and Hamlet and the County on board with us so we can continue this. The city can’t afford to continue paying that kind of money, and time’s only going to get worse from the looks of it,” said Chambers.
The $4200.00 shortfall was taken from the city’s Edit Tax distribution, and the mayor said that absolutely couldn’t happen again.
The Knox City Council members are currently in the process of gathering information on a Pawn Shop Ordinance and at their last meeting, they reviewed an ordinance prepared by City Attorney David Matsey. Because it was just an information item, there was not a vote to move it to first reading. Mr. Matsey said his ordinance was modeled after similar ordinances in Bloomington and Indianapolis.
A lot of times secretaries and government office workers wish they could get away from phone calls so they can get some work done. The phone calls have quieted down at Knox City Hall under an unusual circumstance.
“Our phone numbers were left out of the new phone book,” Mayor Rick Chambers told the Knox City Council. “That was because of the switch over to the computer system. I’ve gotten with the newspaper this week and they’re going to put an article in the paper listing all of the phone numbers. I’m going to have cards printed up with phone numbers and we will leave those at the Clerk’s office. We’ll pass them out to anybody who needs them.”
The Knox City Council learned that the budget order came back from the State and the Council will need to cut $71,932 from the 2011 budget. During the Council meeting Tuesday night, Clerk-Treasurer, Jeff Houston, recommended that the Council cut the purchase of a new backhoe that was put in the budget for 2011. That budgeted item was approximately $72,000 and the Council unanimously approved Houston’s recommendation. Houston added that the budget is at the “bare bones” and spending will be tight in 2011. Election costs had to be added to the 2011 budget as well.
