The Aberdeen City Council met on September 2, 2025, at 5:30 PM. The meeting included a proclamation, public comments on the proposed Main Street two-way conversion, approval of a consent calendar, final reading of a rezoning ordinance, and several new business items including a public hearing on the 2026 appropriations ordinance, a council handbook amendment, a police vehicle purchase, and a bridge construction pay request.
With sound this time, it's five thirty, so we'll call to order this meeting. Jordan, would you start us off with a roll call, please? Please respond by stating present Council Member Ronane. Present. Present. Please stand for me for the Pledge of Allegiance. So move. Second Libelt. All in favor, please say I. Don, would you like to go first? Lynn would like to go first. Here we have Leanne Frederickson. Is the little green light on, Leanne? On the speaker there. That's on. It's perfect. We can hear you. All right, go ahead. The floor is yours. I'm Leanne Frederson, and I have been shopping in Aberdeen for over 50 years. Upon reading the first on the front page of the insider last week, I became aware of the planned change in the direction of the Aberdeen Main Street from one way to two-way. This change was made several years ago from a two-way to a one way. Many nice effects have been added, including the very pretty planters and some really nice trees. The appearance of our main street is very satisfying to the eye. The billion dollars or more that it will cost the taxpayer money, that they could well could well be spent on more useful projects. Of the people that I have talked to, both the younger and the older generations, the majority is not in favor of the change. In fact, not one person that I talked to was for it. The only people that I talked to, or the one that I talked to on the phone from the Aberdeen City Council. Those who I talked to, here's what they say. Let's keep the one the way let's keep it the way it was. Let's keep it the way it is, one way. Thank you, Leanne. Appreciate that. Very decisive commentary from Leanne. We've got Dawn as well. Don, would you like to say a few words of Don Shepherd? Welcome to the main street. Yes, my name is Don Shepherd from Aberdeen. Um I I agree with Leanne. I think the main street is beautiful. I think the years of work and money that the city has put into it and the merchants, I think we have a beautiful main street. It's peaceful, it's friendly. Um I feel I feel it's safe, and I believe that it should also stay one way. Um I don't I know that there are a lot of talk about studies that were talking about one ways are now turning to two ways on downtown streets, uh, main streets, cross country. And I did a lot of research this weekend, and there are a lot of them that are doing it. But they're all larger cities, anywhere from five to ten to twenty times the size of Aberdeen. And most of those I looked at them, I saw videos, I saw pictures of these places, and these streets are four, five, six lanes wide. They kind of are more comparable to our Sixth Avenue. And I think that our sixth Avenue is more what these studies were geared to. And unfortunately, I think with that um people in Aberdeen just need to accept that our main street is never going to be Sixth Avenue.