Rezoning, restaurant education program move forward

Springfield City Council members made short work of an April 5 meeting, approving the rezoning of land in west Springfield and the acceptance of a grant that will help the Springfield-Greene County Health Department promote food safety to restaurants.

A unanimous vote granted Lakes Country Rehabilitation Association’s request to rezone .37 acres on the south side of the 2600 block of West Olive Street to a low-density multi-family residential district from a highway commercial district. The rezoning allows Lakes Country to build two duplexes on a piece of land that city Planning and Zoning officials believe would be difficult to develop as commercial property.

Lakes Country intends to use the duplexes as transitional housing for individuals with mental or physical disabilities taking part in the organization’s vocational rehabilitation program. The housing will be consistent with adjacent residential properties.

Restaurant training
Council approved an ordinance allowing the health department to accept a $120,000 grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The money will help to fund a food safety program to educate restaurant management.

Kevin Gipson, the department’s director of health, outlined the program at the March 22 council meeting. He said the department will hire a full-time food safety educator to develop training to reduce the number of repeat critical violations found during food safety inspections.

On-site training specific to certain types of food and food preparation methods would be available to restaurants that choose to participate, Gipson said, and training materials would be available in Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean.

“I think this is exactly the right thing to do. We find the money, we go out and we help to educate restaurants … on how to do the right thing, and if that should fail, there’s always the inspection. This is a classic case of the carrot and the stick,” Councilman Dan Chiles said.

A new look
A makeover may be in the works for some of Springfield’s city branding. At the April 5 meeting, council requested the finance and administration committee look at redesigning the city flag, logo and seal.

The committee is tasked with discovering cost estimates to revamp the city’s visual branding. Chiles, chairman of the committee, said the group will approach local groups to determine whether there was an interest in taking on the project pro-bono.

The committee will report back to City Council with a recommendation, but there is no set timeline.[[In-content Ad]]