The Beloit City Council meeting began last night with several council members relaying that they were excited for the upcoming Memorial weekend activities around Beloit. Comments were made about how nice the cemetery looks and that the crews who work on keeping that up deserve a thank you. Comments were also made about the VFW's involvement in the weekend starting with putting out flags at the cemeteries at 4:00 on Friday, the parade Saturday morning, and memorial services on Monday. Flags will be picked up from the cemeteries starting at 4:00 on Monday.
City Administrator Rodden reported that he had a meeting with KYLE Railroad and KDOT to discuss the condition of the railroad crossings at River Street and Highway 14. KYLE said there is federal money available for materials to fix these crossings. KYLE also stated that they would supply the labor for repairs. They also reported that not all the crossings in Beloit qualify for grant money to have repairs made, but the worst crossing would be able to be fixed. Cross arms will also be added to the crossings at River Street and Highway 14.
A public hearing was requested by the owner of junk cars in the 400 block of North Poplar so he could appeal a letter he received from the City about a code violation. The owner did not appear, but sent a letter explaining his position to the Council. The council did decide to proceed with code enforcement to have the junk cars removed from the property.
The ordinance for housing rehabilitation and a citizen advisory board was approved. The citizen advisory board members will be chosen at a later date. The Council also approved a refinance of the revenue bond for the city pool and had two closed sessions in regard to non-elected personnel. No action was taken in either session.
After adjournment of the regular City Council meeting, the public building commission met and passed a resolution to refinance revenue bonds. A work session then ended the evening with only one discussion item. A proposal was made to add two ball fields to the North Campus. Measurements have been taken and there is room for two fields. Several comments were made both for and against putting ball fields there, including inconvenience for high school athletes to get to the field and track for practice and that the javelin event during track meets would need to be moved. Other comments included the possible improvement of the parking situation in that area for sporting events and that there would be another place available for baseball practice to be located. Since there has been a donation of dirt to the City for this project, the Council decided to go ahead and allow the dirt to be placed at the North Campus and for research to begin into how much adding the two fields would cost.