The new Jacksonville City Council was seated last night and Mayor Andy Ezard says aldermen have a lot of work ahead of them.
After swearing in of the new council and a pinning ceremony for a promotion of Corey Foster to sergeant in the Jacksonville Police Department, the better part of the workshop session was spent on a presentation by Dr. Charles Sheaff about the Jacksonville Promise scholarship program and discuss matching a contribution of Rabbi Rob & Lauren Thomas for operation funding for the Jacksonville Area Museum. There was also lengthy discussion about a proposed ordinance to make camping on public property illegal.
The council adjourned the workshop session at 7:15 and completed the rest of the discussion during the regular business meeting.
Mayor Andy Ezard says that the unhoused camping ordinance and the 1% grocery sales tax are being moved as items to the scheduled meeting on May 27: “At the next meeting in two weeks, the Tuesday after Memorial Day, we will be spending most of our time on [the 1% tax], I would imagine. We had a full agenda tonight with some important topics so that grocery tax will be pushed back to that next meeting in May. We are still in good shape as far as our timeliness goes to pass that and discuss if that’s the case, but we will do that at the next meeting.”
In business that was passed during the meeting, the city approved a $25,000 fund from the revolving loan fund for Marcy Patterson and Kathleen Mann to purchase Kim’s Other Place and rebrand it to the X’s & O’s Donuts and Bakery on West Morton as well as several zoning requests and two demolitions. The council also approved a liquor license reclassification for Guse’s Pub & Eatery from a tavern license to a restaurant license, the hiring of a probationary hoseman to the fire department, and accepting a proposal to begin potholing by Rouland Construction for lead service line inventory.