Fall Creek Village Board moves forward on library project
FALL CREEK - The Fall Creek Village Board proceeded with the new library/community center project by actions taken at its April meeting held back on the 14th in the current Village Hall.
The meeting was the first for the new term of the Board. Fall Creek Village Clerk/Treasurer Renee Roemhild administered the oath of office to Village President Timothy Raap and Village Trustees Josiah Kleven, Matt Mattoon, and Staci Moldenhauer at the start of the meeting.
The Board voted in favor of the plans for new library/community center with bids going out in May. These bids were opened and reviewed last week Thursday, May 22 and will be discussed at the Une meeting of the Board on the 9th beginning at 6 p.m. in the Village Hall. Changes to the plans to make the community room space larger may still take place and has to be worked out with the architect which receives approval for their bid. The Board also approved financing for the project for $3 million of the $8 million dollar project for 20 years with half the cost already being taken care through a four million dollar grant plus a capital fundraising campaign is currently taking place to raise enough funds to offset any borrowing costs and has raised over $1.5 million.
A rezoning plan for several parcels in the village to change from Two-Family Residential to Single-Family Residential was unanimously approved. There was considerable discussion on this rezoning proposal and citizen Vern Ming, who owns the lots stated during the public comment portion of the meeting that he felt rezoning his property would be unfair to him. Board members came to a consensus that it was important to not have “spot” zoning, i.e. zoning is planned in a way to have similar properties next to each other as a means of protecting marketability and property values if there were two identical single-family homes for sale with one neighboring other single-family homes and the other neighboring duplexes, and supported the Plan Commission’s recommendation to rezone.
In other agenda items, the Board approved the second reading and adopted amendments to Village Code Title 16 as it concerns Definitions, Commercial Districts, Schedule of Uses, and Signs and to Village Code Chapter 206 on Public Improvements including engineering standards and publicizing contracts; they also reviewed and approved the village audit report issued by the accounting firm Clifton, Larson, Allen which issued an unqualified opinion, which is the highest level of audit a municipality can receive; approved the sign for new Cricket Pizza store; unanimously approved Planning Commissions recommedations concerning the application of Michael Brunson for 112 N State Street (the old fire hall building); approved a bid by K&S Driveway Guys in the amount of $44,712.39 for the resurface and painting of the playing surface, out of bounds, and playing lines for the basketball, pickleball, and tennis courts and approved a tear down of the old Crow’s Nest storage building in Keller Park and authorize the construction of a new storage building.
