By Kimberly Pistone
For the Sidney Daily News
SIDNEY — Sidney City Council discussed ordinances and adopted resolutions at a meeting on Sept. 23.
The meeting began with a short discussion regarding the public transportation budget and tax collections. The transportation budget is currently trending under budget due to increased drivership and low reimbursements from grants. They will be looking at ridership. Tax collections have slowed down a bit below projections, but not drastically. City Manager Andrew Bowsher said Sidney is in line with peer cities and everyone is seeing some stagnation.
The city council approved the adoption of a rezoning ordinance which will reclassify an area near Agape to a corridor commerce zone. This will better help Agape’s mission.
The city council introduced a noise ordinance based on a citizen compliant. They have rewritten the ordinances to remove the decibel rating to make the ordinance more enforceable. The second reading of this ordinance will be at the October meeting.
The city council adopted resolutions for the transfer of a liquor license in the Burr Oak development, replating of lots near Sidney Baptist Church, splitting of lots at Wapakoneta and Hoewisher, and for the City Manager to contract with the Shelby County Public Defender commission.
Bowsher said he was working with energy suppliers to negotiate rates and hopes to have new rates by the end of the year for the city’s gas aggregation program. Residents will not have to do anything to migrate over. Prices are expected to go up.
There were three comments from the public.
David Johnson asked if the city council considered the legal and financial liability that the Sidney Police Department is under due to Sheriff James Frye’s recent remarks about Haitian immigrants, as reported by the Sidney Daily News on Sept. 19.
Johnson reminded the council of Frye’s remarks and the facts about the rumors. Then Johnson stated, “We have a responsibility to the truth and a right to it as well.” Johnson further asked if taxpayers are to expect mass arrests and if the plan is for the Sidney Police to go house to house.
Johnson said, “Excusing Sheriff Frye is to allow very real tyranny into our backyards… Sheriff Frye’s words were more than despicable, they were evil.” He ended with the US State Department’s definition of terrorism: “a violent act, or an act dangerous to human life, property, and infrastructure, and appears to be intended to intimidate of coerce a civilian population.”
Next Adam Kelly spoke. He began by thanking the council for taking care of his problem with squatters and theft. He said there was still a need for code enforcement, but his cameras were not going off as much. He then asked the council if they had a contingency plan if Sidney gets an influx of immigrants like Springfield.
The final public comment came from John Adams, about the two tax levies on November’s ballot. He said it would be helpful for the city to have a single PDF document posted on the city’s website with projected 10 year costs to help make decisions about the proposed levies. He further said the levies are basically the same as the one that failed in the primary. Finally he asked about pay increases for employees.
Council member Joe Moniaci was absent.
