HURON — With multiple items of interest on the agenda Monday evening, it was a comment during public forum by assistant city engineer Dennis Bennett that will likely draw heavy community interest from Monday’s Huron City Commission meeting.
Bennett noted that the water tower in Bob Bushman Park at Sixth and Wyoming Avenue Southwest will be demolished Wednesday morning, and crews intend to have the work finished by the end of the day Wednesday.
The meeting opened with a variance request from Brad Chapman to construct an addition to his residence at 523 12th Street Southeast. The proposed addition did not meet the code that requires square footage of all structures to be less than 45% of the lot area and was also less than 7-feet from the east property line, which did not meet setback code.
City planner Barry Cranston came with a suggestion to deny the variance, as did the hearing examiner, but Chapman came forward with another plan to the commissioners, one that adjusted his setback closer to the 7-feet needed. Cranston set forth that if he could get to the 7-foot setback and meet a few other requirements that would satisfy concerns of the hearing examiner, he could recommend approval.
Commissioner Drew Weinreis made the motion to approve the variance with the conditions set forth by Cranston, and it passed unanimously.
The commission held the second reading of the temporary ordinance regarding medical cannabis. This was unanimously passed.
Commissioners also:
• Approved a raffle for Huron Elks No. 444 beginning on July 7 at the Sportsman’s Bar.
• Approved an alcoholic beverage consumption in public area permit for Kibble Equipment for a company gathering on July 15 at Glide-n-Slide/Prospect Park.
• Approved the termination of Bryant O’Neal as Splash Central lifeguard.
• Approved the hire of Eugene Dragt for Broadland Creek pro shop.
• Approved a wage correction for Macey Kline.
The evening closed with the commission discussing the Juneteenth holiday.
Due to the immediacy of the declaration of the holiday, city employees were not granted the holiday in 2021. With holidays for city employees negotiated through contracts with multiple unions, Human Resource director Nathan Hofer will work to develop a Memorandum of Understanding for 2022 regarding the June 19 holiday before negotiating union contracts for 2022 and beyond.
