HUMBOLDT — Rick Hall got his point across — sort of — at Monday night’s city council meeting here.
Hall has opposed an expansion of the city shop compound at the north edge of Camp Hunter Park since it was proposed in late 2015. At the very north edge of the park, named after where Union troops were stationed to protect Humboldt after Confederate raids, the compound is where equipment is kept, and was expanded to accommodate installation of two oil tanks. New equipment also needed a resting place.
Hall’s contention is the 100-foot-by-100-foot expansion, not to mention all of the compound, infringes on ground that should be set aside for recreational purposes and to commemorate Humboldt’s role in the Civil War.
Council members, by unanimous vote in January, didn’t agree. They ordered the expansion, after agreeing to buy the oil tanks.
In recent weeks Hall has criss-crossed Humboldt to accumulate about 400 signatures on petitions seeking to have the expansion moved.
When Hall carried the petitions to the council meeting, City Attorney Fred Works intervened. He told Hall to follow procedure by giving his petitions and whatever proposal, in written form, to the Parks and Recreation Committee — Otis Crawford and Sunny Shreeve — rather than try to have them put on the agenda at Monday’s meeting. Crawford and Shreeve will decide whether the information is worthy of council consideration as an agenda item.
Still, Hall begged to be heard, after using far more than the five minutes allotted for public comments.
“The expansion has been done,” said Mayor Nobby Davis. “There is no urgency,” and that the council was not going to make any spur of the moment action.
Hall was permitted to distribute copies of his petitions.
“I HAVE A good feeling after talking to county commissioners” about improvements to Ninth and Bridge streets, Herder told council members.
In a review of his meeting last week with commissioners, Herder said he thought Ninth would be milled and overlaid to better handle the increase in traffic that would occur when Monarch Cement Company began hauling dirt from north of town.
He also thinks crack-sealing Bridge Street, from Ninth west to the city limit, will be adequate repair for the time being.
“We’ll know a little more about cost for Ninth Street later,” he said, and thinks the $265,000 estimate he gave commissioners is reasonable.
The county is responsible for maintenance of Ninth and Bridge streets because they are connecting links to roads leading to and from Humboldt.
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