MOUNT VERNON — City Council hit the brakes on the trash hauling issue and restarted the consideration of the vacant buildings registry.
With several local trash haulers in the audience, presumably to address council on the trash hauling issue, Councilman Chris Menapace, as chair of the Utilities Committee, stopped the budding debate. He asked the mayor to cancel Wednesday’s scheduled meeting with the seven local firms with permits to haul trash in the city, and said he and Mike Hillier will gather information to present to council at a 45-minute May 13 committee meeting.
“We need to slow down,” Menapace said. “We don’t know what we’re doing yet. We’ll also get input from the public and when we know more and if we go forward, we’ll talk with the trash haulers.”
He said that possibly by June, they will be ready to discuss possible legislation with Law Director Rob Broeren.
The mayor agreed to cancel Wednesday’s meeting.
The aim, he said, is to save city customers money and reduce the number of heavy trucks on the streets.
One hauler, Mark Phillips, owner of Mid-State Waste, stayed for the regular meeting and addressed council, saying that he wanted to be a part of the discussions as he has questions and concerns about the Hudson plan.
On the vacant building registry, council gave first reading to a new version of the proposed ordinance, put together at a meeting involving Nancy Vail, chair of the Planning and Zoning Committee; Menapace, who is vice chair of the committee; Fire Chief Chad Christopher; Property Maintenance Officer Greg Bemiller; the mayor and the law director to create a streamlined version of the ordinance.
“This is a more palatable version of the measure and will help eliminate some eyesores. We don’t want another PPG or Friendly’s,” Vail said.
Menapace ran through a number of changes they had made to improve the ordinance, but the real discussion will not begin until the next meeting, when the old version is tabled indefinitely.
Council also gave first reading to a resolution “adopting the Mount Vernon Downtown Plan as a guide for future development and public improvements within downtown Mount Vernon.”
Council spent three committee hearings listening to Jeff Gottke from the area Development Foundation explain the plan, but has not yet spent any time discussing and whether they agree with it or no.
That process will also apparently start at the May 13 meeting.
