City Beat: Council approves six telecommunications towers

In its Dec. 18 meeting, City Council approved six permits for telecommunications towers. The towers will be located near the intersections of Independence Street and Glenstone Avenue; West Bypass and Waddill Street; Interstate 44 and U.S. Highway 65; North West Bypass and Commercial Street; the 3000 block of East Cherry Street; and at 2833 S. Ingram Mill Road. The towers will range in height from 130 feet to 200 feet.

Councilman Russell Rhodes was the lone dissenter on five of the tower bills. Councilman Bob Chancellor joined Rhodes in voting against the South Ingram Mill Road tower. Chancellor said he thinks the Ingram Mill site is inappropriate for a telecommunications tower because it is located in an office district near Glendale High School and an apartment complex, and it will be highly visible from the street.

Council also approved 8-1 a second-reading bill to change the membership of the board of trustees for the police officers' and firefighters' pension plan. Rhodes voted against this bill, as well.

Two public-hearing bills addressed rezoning. One would rezone about 2 1/3 acres in the vicinity of West Bypass between College and Mount Vernon streets from a medium density multifamily residential district to an office district. The other would rezone 2 1/3 acres at the northeast corner of Madison Street and Market Avenue from a single-family residential district to a low-density multifamily residential district. The Planning and Zoning Commission and city staff recommend approval of both bills.

First-reading bills included a bill to submit a charter amendment to city voters at the April 3, 2001, election to provide that citizens no longer have the right to protest the construction of sanitary sewers and the issuance of tax bills to pay for the sewers when the director of health files a statement with council that sewers are necessary for sanitary, health or environmental reasons.

Other first-reading bills included two bills to allow the city and City Utilities to conduct an aerial photographic survey of Greene County and the north central portion of Christian County.

Council also heard the first reading of a bill to authorize the city to enter into a contract of obligation with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources whereby the city would agree to provide closure and post-closure care for the Springfield Sanitary Landfill.

Another first-reading bill would authorize designated city officers to enter into certain contracts on behalf of the city, and the last first-reading bill before council would establish a $100 minimum fine for running stoplights. John Boddie addressed council regarding the bill and said he believes such a fine could save lives.

Council unanimously approved a resolution to recommend the city pay for 50 percent of the cost of an engineering study to determine the cost of improvements slated for the Battlefield Road and Blackman Avenue intersection. Greene County will pay for the other half of the study.

Second-reading consent agenda bills included a bill authorizing the city manager to accept a $200,039 grant from DNR to fund construction of a stormwater improvement project in Galloway. Another DNR grant for $412,027 will fund construction of a flood mitigation and sinkhole restoration project in East Springfield. Two additional consent-agenda bills declared the city's intent to annex about 25 acres of U.S. Highway 65 right-of-way and nearly three acres in the 1600-2200 blocks of North Westgate.

In other business, Steven Reed of Nixa told council he had collected 2,400 signatures asking that a quarter-cent sales tax to fund a technology park be put on the April 3, 2001 ballot.