Galveston board cuts public comments

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December 9, 2009

Citing holiday, council abruptly adjourns

By Ken de la Bastide Pharos-Tribune Wed Dec 09, 2009, 07:39 AM EST

GALVESTON — The ongoing dispute between the Galveston Town Council and local residents took a twist Monday.

Monthly town council meetings have included vocal sparring between council members and residents for most of the past year. Some in the audience have complained the board has failed to enforce town ordinances dealing with unsafe buildings and unsightly properties.

Monday’s meeting opened with town attorney Mark Fryman outlining the rules that would be used to govern monthly meetings.

Those rules include an opportunity for residents to ask questions and make comments following each agenda item for one minute, with no rebuttal. Each resident can comment once on any agenda item. Questions are to be directed to the entire five-member board and not to a particular council member. The board will take public comments at the end of the meeting, according to Fryman.

Following a brief business meeting, Council President Jim Buettner said there would be no public comments because of the holiday. The meeting was then adjourned.

Several residents asked after the meeting, “What holiday?” They wondered if this meant that public comments would no longer be accepted by the board.

Buettner said after the meeting there were no public comments because of outbursts from community members at the November meeting.

He said the council didn’t want a repeat of what happened at the last meeting.

Energy grant sought

Galveston has applied for a $119,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to make improvements to the town hall and Galveston library.

Clerk Connie Russell explained an energy survey of the two buildings was conducted. It included a check of the windows, insulation and heating units.

Russell said the funds, if approved, could be used to replace the windows, heating and air conditioning units and insulate both facilities.

No local matching funds are required to secure the grant, she said.

• Ken de la Bastide is enterprise editor of the Kokomo Tribune. He can be reached at ken.delabastide@kokomotribune.com or 765-454-8580.

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Galveston board cuts public comments

Citing holiday, council abruptly adjourns

The Indiana Senate last week approved a bill that would allow public schools to teach creationism in science classes as long as they included origin of life theories from other religions. Would you support such a measure?

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