Despite concern from the public, the Complete Streets Program passed with a vote of 7-0 at last night’s Vincennes City Council meeting.
This program received a favorable recommendation from the Health and Safety Committee back in October. It doesn’t just look at the condition of streets but also the sidewalks and areas the roadway.
Council member Shirley Rose said she had several calls from merchants downtown who were concerned that the project would allow bike lanes to be added to downtown’s Main Street.
However, the city attorney says the project takes into consideration “Best Practices”. That means decisions will be made keeping in mind the size of the roads and how the city can better them.
He says the project isn’t meant to paint bike lanes free range all over the city, because some roads are simply to narrow to add them.
Ultimately the council will still have the final say in the funding of all future road construction projects.
A state law changing the rental housing code went into affect earlier this year.
However Vincennes is still continuing to play catch up.
As you may recall at the last city council meeting, several area landlords thought that the change was made to put more money in the city’s pocket.. however City Councilman at Large Duane Chattin says the city inspector’s office will actually be receiving less funding with the changes.
The new rental housing code changes the registration fee from $20 to $5 for each building a year, and $50 for each unit every 2-3 years.
Landlords feel the $50 fee is to much. However, after re running the numbers council actually low balled the costs.
There will be a committee meeting after the next council meeting to discuss the situation further.
Chattin says if the city wants to continue a rental program, then the council will have to adopt the fees.