HUMBOLDT — City Administrator Cole Herder translated the fact that no one showed up Monday evening to discuss the city’s new $9.2 million budget or the Council’s decision to raise more from its property tax mill levy than last year’s rate, as a sign that citizens approve of how the city is being managed.
“This lack of response demonstrates people like what we’re doing and regard us as being fiscally responsible,” Herder said.
A PROSPECTIVE dog park recently received a big boost, reported Council member Cindy Holinsworth. Thanks to a donation from “a gracious donor” who wishes to remain anonymous, the park will also include a structure to house a small number of abandoned cats and dogs.
“We don’t want to call it a shelter or a pound,” Holinsworth said, out of fear expectations will exceed the reality that it will be able to accommodate only up to 10 dogs at a time as well as cats, which will be housed in a separate room.
“At first we thought we’d just get the dog park built and then think about a facility,” Holinsworth said. A group of volunteers is halfway to meeting its goal of $24,000 to create the dog park. It is to be at the corner of First and Ohio streets, the site of abandoned tennis courts.
A meeting with the Zoning Board of Appeals is next to ask for a special use permit to use the site. Once erected, the building also will be used for pet vaccination clinics.
SEAN McREYNOLDS, chief of the Humboldt Volunteer Fire Department, will be stepping down from the position in January, Herder reported. The position of chief is determined by a vote of the department’s volunteers. McReynolds has said he will train his successor after the department’s November election.
BIBLESTA Committee Chairman Jerry Neeley said he was thankful recent attention given to the Committee’s diminished numbers had resulted in new blood.
“Thanks to the publicity, we have a pretty full team,” he said.
The group plans to bring back the Saturday morning walk/run “Run for the Son” that winds through the town. Biblesta is Oct. 4.
HERDER reported city employees stayed with the city’s right of way boundary when trimming trees along a ravine abutting the home of Gerald Lucas.
Lucas had complained at Council’s Aug. 11 meeting that he felt they went beyond what was necessary, especially because the foliage had provided privacy for his back yard.
COUNCIL members approved donating $2,500 to the Lions Club Mike Rickner Memorial Fireworks Display.
Herder, a Lions member, said the club has typically been spending about $5,000 in recent years for the 20-minute display that draws spectators near and far. Donations fund the display, which has grown bigger and better over the years.
“If we were hiring someone, this would be a $10,000 show,” Herder said.
Herder elaborated about the various kinds of fireworks displayed and the excitement of the night.
