This time I'd like to call the March 3rd, 2025 City of Vandata Council meeting to order.

We'll begin with a moment of reflection, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag.

Please stand for the pledge.

Which is nation undervisible with liberty and justice for all.

All right, Council, you've had an opportunity to review the study session minutes and the council meeting minutes of January 21st.

Are there any comments or corrections?

Being none, they stand approved.

We have no communications, petitions, or awards, nor do we have a public hearing.

I will note that if you are here to speak on the Addison properties, that will be later in the agenda, so I would ask that you would please wait till then for your comments.

That brings us to comments from interested citizens.

So if anyone would like to make a comment, uh we would like to hear what you have to say.

So we'd like to ask those to that want to speak to follow the etiquette of communication with respect to others.

As a courtesy, please try to stay on topic with your statements.

And as a reminder, this is not a forum for arguments.

In an effort to give all citizens an opportunity to express their thoughts and concerns, we ask that you keep your comments as brief as possible.

So please hold any comments on the Addison properties until the agenda item number 12, as we will be having a public hearing at that time, and we'll be taking action on that matter.

So if anyone would like to make comments on any other matters, please come to the podium, state your name and address clearly for the record and your comment.

Good evening, Council.

My name is Amos Knipp.

I live at 207, James Wihannon Drive, Apartment 2.

Um I've got a couple things I want to talk about tonight, and neither of them are the development.

It seems like all of Vandalia showed up to talk about that for me.

Um first of all, I'd like to talk about snow.

Over the past couple months, we've gotten a lot of snow in Vandelia, and the road crews have done a fantastic job handling it.

I've been very, very impressed.

But I think there are a couple of areas where we can still improve.

Um three, to be exact crosswalks, sidewalks, and bus stops.

Uh the ADA recommends hard plastic tactile pads be placed at the entrances of sidewalks to assist the visually impaired while they're walking with their sight sticks.

Um on a couple of occasions I've noticed that snow plow trucks uh cover these up entirely or stack snow in front of them, which make them inaccessible and not usable.

Um secondly, sidewalks are often also just not cleared at all.

I understand that this responsibility is for the most part placed upon the business owners who are closest to proximity to these sidewalks.

However, there's still city infrastructure and uh they need to be maintained just as any road would.

Um last item is bus stops.

Snow is plowed and placed in front of RTA bus stops, um, which when you combine that with the crosswalks and the sidewalks being poorly maintained, uh people who do not have a car are just at a complete disadvantage when it comes to commuting inside of the city, and I think that's a uh a spot we can really improve.

Um, I haven't witnessed this myself, but another citizen informed me that he saw snow being piled up in front of school bus stops, um, which obviously those aren't marked with giant placards like RTA bus stops are, so I understand that it might be a little bit harder to notice those.

So perhaps if we could get some sort of a map given to drivers so they could be more aware of where these are, that would be great.

Uh I have a second thing I'd like to talk about, which is council administration and scheduling.

I think that the times of study sessions and city council meetings need to be consistent and should never change unless it's the most strenuous of circumstances.

Uh if a study session is expected to go long, uh that discussion should be continued at a future session.

Um however, I think that we should just be structuring our agendas with enough content to fill the one-hour mark and nothing more.

Um citizens of Vandalia have a right to attend their government public meetings.

The current set schedule of six o'clock study session and the seven o'clock meeting perfectly allows for most people living by a conventional work life schedule of nine to five to attend and participate.

Uh I think that time changes and reschedules.

Um I think that they can help foster distrust from the public towards the government.

Um I also would like to state that when these changes happen.

If somebody is to go to the city council website, it's not shown there.

Uh it'll still say study session at 6, city council at 7.

In order to find the time change, you have to go to the news section of the website, which I would not have known if Amber uh didn't tell me.

But yeah, if anybody wanted to come to a city council meeting or a study session on a night where it's been rescheduled, and they go to the city council webpage, they will not find that the time has been changed.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Is there anyone else who'd like to make a comment?

Good evening.

Uh I'm Dan Hicks.

I live at 534 Raider Drive.

Um I've only lived in Bailey Vandalia for the past nine years, so I wasn't quite familiar with some of the regulations and the zoning process that we have.

But I finally convinced my wife to get solar panels after we had three over $600 electric bills this past summer.

So uh looking at the forecast from the energy, excuse me, after just doing some quick searches, uh, it looks like there's potentially another 29% hike in generation charges from the summer of 25 to the summer of 26.

This isn't in also consideration of other energy industrial demands, such as AI plants, the the big plant going over uh in Columbus, Ohio.

So um I don't see energy prices not doubling within the next five to seven years uh for households.