By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
As children play at the splash pad and on the playground, the Wyoming City Council hosted its second outdoor meeting for the summer at Southlawn Park.
About a dozen residents attended the meeting with many echoing what Pastor Wayne Ondersma, from The Pier Church, said just before giving the invocation.
“Thanks for coming to my neighborhood,” Ondersma said.
“I have loved seeing all the different folks,” said Council Member Dan Burrill. “I enjoyed the meeting at Lamar Park and I have enjoyed being at Southlawn. Having these meetings has allowed us to see a lot of folks we normally wouldn’t see.”
Residents attending the meeting brought up several items of concern for their community including promoting the annual leaf pick up in December more to adding more playground equipment to Southlawn Park. Godwin Heights Board Member Rick Hamilton asked the city to consider transferring the north parking lot area of the Site 36 area to Godwin Heights Public Schools, which would use the area for school parking. If the school had ownership over the lot, it could push for no parking on the neighborhood streets, Hamilton said.
“As any of the fire personal knows, driving a fire truck down through the neighborhood for a fire during a football game is virtual impossible,” Hamilton said, adding that the city has allowed the district to use the parking area and the district has been very grateful for that but he does believe the school could maintain the area better.
The council’s regular meeting agenda also included an item that had direct impact on the neighbor, the restoration of the pedestrian bridge just south of Bellevue Street on Division Avenue. Two other pedestrian bridges just south of 36th Street already have undergone the same process. Cost for the restoration is $24,700.
Other agenda items included the purchase of seventeen replacement vehicles for the police, parks and public works departments and two law mowers for about $580,955 and the replacement of an electric switchgear at the Water Treatment Plant Low Service Station and Gezon Booster Station at cost of about $2.4 million. The current switchgears have been in service for more than thirty years said Public Works Director Bill Dooley. The switchgears are essential in the operation of the plant with the one at the Water Treatment Plant pumping more than a 100 million gallons a day. Work on the switchgears would be done during the plant’s non-peak season which is the winter months, Dooley said.
The council also placed a tentative approval for a preliminary plat approval for Reservoir Ridge located on 56th street near the city’s water tower. Mayor Jack Poll noted that the lots for the plat are some of the largest the city has seen in awhile with plans calling for seven homes to be placed on almost 15 acres with some of the homes having more than an acre of land.
“The development of Metro Health has created interest in having larger lots in the area,” Poll said. The council will review the preliminary plat at its next meeting set for Aug. 7.
The council meets every first and third Monday of the month at 7 p.m. at its chambers in Wyoming City Hall, 1155 28th St. SW. The meetings are broadcast live on WKTV Channel 26 and rebroadcast at 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday.
The last Wyoming Council outdoor summer meeting is scheduled for Aug. 21 at 7 p.m. at the Metro Village, located in front of Metro Health on Byron Center Avenue. For more information about city activities, meetings, and events, visit www.wyomingmi.gov.
