By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org
The picnic tables at Wyoming’s Pinery Park in front of the city stage were full, not for a concert but for the Wyoming City Council’s first 2020 summer outdoor council meeting.
For the past four years, the Wyoming City Council has taken its meeting on the road, visiting different neighborhoods within the city during the summer.
“I have been wanting to come to a meeting for awhile,” said Wyoming resident Mary Vickers, who added that attending was often difficult as she had to get her son ready for bed at about the same time as the meetings. “When I heard that this one was going to be at Pinery Park, I said good. We’ll go for a walk and find out what it is all about.”
That according to Wyoming Mayor Jack Poll is the reason why the Wyoming City Council has been hosting the outdoor meetings: to connect with the citizens and to encourage more people to get involved.
“We had some new faces and more citizens here for the meeting who had some individual concerns and it was good we were to be able to listen,” Poll said after the meeting.
Several residents talked to council members and staff before the meeting on topics of concern including helping to slow traffic on some city streets to more universal access for the city parks. During the meeting, a couple of residents came up to talk about the cost of the replacement of the police cars that were lost during the May 31 riots in Grand Rapids and the need for crossing guards at Lee Street and Cleveland Avenue.
“We don’t see this kind of crowd at the city council chambers,” said Mayor Pro Tem Sam Bolt during the meeting. “It is nice to be able to hear their community concerns and to know what is going on in their neighborhood.”
During the meeting Police Chief Kim Koster presented the 2019 Public Safety report, which is available to citizens at the City of Wyoming website under the Public Safety tab. Koster noted the department had almost 7,000 calls for service in 2019, the highest number the department has had in a year. This included 4,677 EMS responses, which was also the highest number in a year.
Other numbers for year were:
158 Fire Events
404 Fire Alarms
330 Service Events
815 Good Intent Responses
409 Hazardous Condition Responses
Koster also noted that the Community Services Unit continues to maintain and build positive relationships having had 11,472 citizen/student contacts. The unit has attended community events, community meetings and provided lectures and presentations, along with follow-investigations, truancy complaints, and arrests.
Along with Koster’s report, the council received a report on an analytical study on how the residents felt the city was doing. The council also approved several budget items that included the approval to have Prein & Newhof design and oversee construction of the Plaster Creek Boulevard and non-motorized trail project from Buchanan Avenue to Division Avenue.
Poll announced that the next on-the-road meeting will be Aug. 17 at the SpartanNash YMCA, located off of Gezon Parkway at 5722 Metro Way. All city council meetings start at 7 p.m.
The Wyoming City Council meets every first and third Monday of the month at 7 p.m. throughout the year. Regular meetings are at the Wyoming City Hall, 1155 28th St. SW. For more information about the Wyoming City Council or the various city committees, visit wyomingmi.gov.
All the city council meetings are broadcast lived by WKTV on the WKTV Community Media Facebook page and on the WKTV Government Channel 26. Meetings rebroadcast at 7 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays.
