Knox Mayor Rick Chambers has announced the employment of a new Water Superintendent for the city. Todd Gardner has been chosen and he has been the maintenance man for the LaVille School for the past five years and before that he was employed in the Maintenance Department at Ancilla College. He replaces Gordon Burger who has retired from the position. He has all of the proper licenses.
If the sidewalk in front of your Knox residence or business needs repaired, you could have half of it paid for by the City of Knox.
Knox Mayor Rick Chambers is now taking applications for the 50/50 residential/business sidewalk replacement program. Your request will be evaluated by the Street Superintendent and he will approve or disapprove the application. A bid will be requested for the work to be done and after the bid is awarded, you will be notified of the cost and you must pay for your half of the cost before construction begins.
Knox Mayor Rick Chambers wants to remind you of the rules and regulations within the City of Knox concerning golf carts.
Mayor Chambers says golf carts are allowed on city streets only and they are not allowed on U.S. 35 or State Road 8. You may cross the highways, but you can not drive a distance on them. Golf carts are not allowed on city sidewalks or the walking trails in Wythogan Park. They may only be operated on city streets during daylight hours and a triangular, slow moving vehicle sign or a red or amber flashing light must be displayed at all times.
To date, Mayor Rick Chambers has been unable to fill the Water Superintendent position with the city, so this week he told the Knox City Council members that he has come to an agreement with a part-time person.
“His name is Bob Johnson, and he lives just over the Marshall County line near Koontz Lake,” reported Mayor Chambers. “He will come in five days a week and take the water samples. Since I’ve been unable to find a Superintendent, Gordon Burger has filled in, but he wants to be done by the end of March.”
Mayor Rick Chambers announced at the most recent Knox City Council meeting that there was money left over from the Storm Sewer Infrastructure project.
Chambers said Territorial Engineers has looked over the project, and the Knox Street Department was given the extra money.
“The street department had the first shot at it and they wanted some streets repaved and overlaid,” stated Mayor Chambers. “The streets to be repaved are Sycamore between John and Bender, and John Street east of U.S. 35 from Prettyman to McGill will also be completely repaved.”
It might just be a sign of the times but more and more municipalities are installing surveillance cameras. Knox Mayor Rick Chambers brought the idea of installing cameras in City Hall to the City Council meeting recently. In his presentation, Chambers said there are irate customers from time to time at the Clerk-Treasurer’s office and the Knox City Court. The court has the potential for incidents to happen in the heat of testimony and decisions being made from the bench.
The Knox Farmer’s Market is scheduled to open in May.
“On May 5th, the Knox Farmer’s Market will open,” said Knox Mayor Rick Chambers. “The market will be open three days a week – Wednesdays from 2:00-7:00 p.m., Saturdays from 8:00 a.m. to Noon and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Wayne Hughart will manage the Farmer’s Market again this year. For more information, you can call him at (574) 200-9154.”
Knox Mayor Rick Chambers told the City Council members recently that a meeting was held to organize for this summer’s Harvest Days celebration. The Mayor said the event will be held the last weekend in August as in past years.
The name of the organization that is assisting the Mayor is the Knox-Winamac Health Care System.
The moving truck was in downtown Knox yesterday removing the furniture from the Starke County Economic Development Foundation office. Director Charles Weaver and his staff will be moving to 1915 Heaton Street in the strip mall by Christos Restaurant. The move is being made to give the Foundation more room, but what will happen to the building on Main Street that is over 100 years old?
Last month the City of Knox sold an old fire truck on eBay to a man in Michigan. Mayor Rick Chambers is back with another deal you just can’t pass up.
“All of the street signs have been replaced with new, high prismatic signs,” said Mayor Chambers. “All 256 signs are done. Jeff has sorted through and taken the ones that are just junk and has them in a pile and they’re going to haul them off for scrap. There are about 150-180 stop signs that are in pretty good shape and 30-40 yield signs. They’re too good to scrap and I think maybe we could just sell them for $10 apiece. Maybe I could check with the county or Hamlet or North Judson and see if they can use any of them.”
Mayor Rick Chambers passed out praise at the Knox City Council meeting this week. Chambers thanked Knox City Police Officer, Chad Dulin, and Knox-Center Township fireman, Wayne Noah, for quick action in saving the life of a child in an accident that occurred Saturday at 200 East and State Road 8. The car went into the ditch and began filling with water. The pair arrived on scene and helped get the child out of the car. The fire department then arrived on the scene and extricated the driver out of the car.
The Mayor also praised the Knox High School Girls basketball team who brought home the first Sectional crown since 1995.
This winter has been a mild one and even though there hasn’t been much snow on the ground, Starke County Highway Superintendent Steve Siddall says he and the employees are keeping busy
“We’ve still got plenty of work to do out here,” said Siddall. “We’re cutting brush and patching potholes. With no snow, the holes are forming with the raining and the warming and thawing. We also have gravel roads that are taking a beating because of so much rain and moisture in the ground. It’s tearing them up and we’re having to fix them. I really wish we had the snow instead of this because it makes mud and causes more trouble for a lot of things.”
The Knox City Council discussed the 2012 Mayoral Appointments at their recent meeting. There is currently no water superintendent for the city because the previous superintendent was released from duty earlier this week. A seat on the Starke County Alcoholic Beverage Board is also open, and Mayor Rick Chambers told the council that he will possibly be seeking an Ordinance Officer in the summer. That position was previously handled by the police, but according to Chambers, that hasn’t worked out as well as he’d hoped.
City Attorney David Matsey mentioned during the recent meeting of the Knox City Council that he had received a claim from an attorney in Connecticut in regards to a drowning victim in the Yellow River. The claim will be handled and covered by the city’s insurance carrier, but Knox Mayor Rick Chambers told the council that he plans to set a date for a risk management inspector to inspect the train bridge over the Yellow River.
The Knox City Council this week agreed to decline a grant offered by the federal government for replacing street signs, and instead will proceed with replacing the signs on their own.
Mayor Rick Chambers told WKVI that the council agreed to decline the grant because the $50,000 grant required a $5,000 match from the city. That cost, combined with the fact that the grant only covered the engineering aspect of the project, convinced the council to proceed with the project at their own expense. New regulations from the federal government requires all signs to be replaced with newer, more reflective signs by 2018.
The topic of fireworks came up again at the most recent meeting of the Knox City Council. Even though it’s billed as the Starke County Fireworks celebration, Mayor Rick Chambers explained to the Council that the City has been on the losing end monetarily while trying to support the effort.
“A fireworks contract was sent to me…what do we want to do with the fireworks?” Mayor Chambers asked the City Council. “We took quite a beating on that this year really because of the weather. We didn’t collect what we had collected in the past. Starke County didn’t donate like they’ve donated in the past. We got stuck with $4,700 which was the City’s cost this year. Last year, it cost us $640. We hustled, we worked, we got donations, and this year it sort of fell through with the economy and the bad weather that night.”
Knox Mayor Rick Chambers alerted the Knox City Council recently that he is working on a Housing Rehabilitation Grant.
“I met with Ed Buswell from K-IRPC to proceed on a housing rehabilitation grant,” said Mayor Chambers. “That grant will target the elderly and low income families. Last time we had about 18 applications and we are shooting for 15-20 applications and we would like to end up doing six to eight projects. That’s right in the area of what we did last time. We’re working on that. They have a fine time line. They will do the publishing and they will put together an application for me that will be available in my office or Jeff Houston’s office shortly. Within the next couple of weeks, that will be publicized for the citizens of Knox.”
Knox Mayor Rick Chambers and the Knox Redevelopment Committee will be holding a public hearing on Wednesday, November 2nd, to discuss the future of the the building at the corner of Lake and Main Streets which was home to Everett’s Drug Store and the downtown theatre.
Country music fans, especially of the Bluegrass persuasion, turned out Friday night for Mayor Rick Chamber’s Bluegrass Jam at the Knox Community Center.
Mayor Chambers said the event gives musicians, and fans alike a chance to get out and enjoy their music of choice.
“We had a great turnout as usual,” said Mayor Rick Chambers. “We had about 270 people here. We had donations for the Food Pantry and my pickup truck is full of food. We probably have 700 or 800 pounds of food. It’s a really great turnout. We hold these events about twice a year and we’d like to do more, but the Community Center is usually rented out, so we do one in early spring and late fall.”
Mayor Rick Chambers asked the Knox City Council members this week for permission to apply for a housing grant.
“I’ve been in contact with K-IRPC to seek a housing grant. We had one three years ago and we ended up getting about $65,000. The Council matched that with 10%. We applied originally for $150,000 and it was cut several times. So, I’m again seeking a housing grant and I’m asking for a 10% match up to $150,000. K-IRPC needs to know that we are willing to do a 10% match before they can go any farther with this grant process.”
