A noticeably light public turnout was surprising, considering past meetings with with signage on the agenda. With very little commentary, all agenda items related to second readings and signage were passed unanimously, with the exception of one as council member Morris voted nay for the record.
First up, though, was Bike Week. Public comment brought up the issue of unfulfilled requirements to receive a permit. The counter to that by an event coordinator and the Town Manger was that the sequence of events necessitated early approval by the Town Council, with contingencies to complete the requirements ( insurance, traffic control, etc. ) for the permit prior to the event. That allows for vendors and other pre-event dynamics to be handled well in advance during the year. The questions of traffic and street closures were addressed, pointing out that the event is 10 days, not 2 weeks – and street closures were only neccesary for a portion of those dates. The Town Marshal described the traffic/pedestrian control efforts and was relatively pleased with the improvements over the last several years.
As a historical side note, it was also brought up that Bike Week is an official proclamation from the Governor’s office, and as such, is not going away. “Nothing is going to stop this” and “this is the best way to have some control” were generally the prevailing facts to act upon.
In other business, “we are going to blow through some money tonight” seemed like an accurate description from the dais:
– $525,000.00 over 3 years was approved as a purchase agreement with Felix Construction Company to complete improvements to the Supervisory, Control, and Data Acquistion System (SCADA).
– $350,400.00 was approved for services submitted by Quantum Engineering, Phase III.
