Board of Aldermen meeting recap

by Cole Arndorfer

​The Board of Aldermen met briefly for their regularly scheduled meeting on July 10th, approving three resolutions and one ordinance.
 
Under resolutions, the board unanimously approved a resolution to appoint Latisha Robinson to the Grain Valley Parks and Recreation board for a three-year term.
 
The Board also approved a resolution to authorize the City Administrator to reach an agreement with Quality Custom Construction to build a new sidewalk on Ryan Road that would connect SW Cross Creek Drive to the entrance of South Middle School.
 
While discussing the resolution, Alderman Dale Arnold raised a question concerning the high traffic on Ryan Road and children crossing the road to get to the entrance of the school. Addressing this concern, it was noted the board had previously allocated funds to put in a pedestrian light at the crossing in order to cut down on the danger of crossing that road, as well as the crossing guard the school has at the crosswalk.
 
The Board also approved a resolution to reach an agreement with Valbridge Property Advisors to give the city an appraisal for acquiring easements needs for the Buckner-Tarsney Trail project.
 
Under ordinances, the Board approved the second reading of a bill to approve the final development plan and final plat for Creekside Village fourth plat.
 
In staff reports, Parks & Recreation Director Shannon Davies, said that the department will be holding a public open house event on Thursday, July 13 from 4-7 pm at the Grain Valley Community Center. The event will allow citizens to view plans developed as a part of the City’s comprehensive plan as well as the drafting of the new parks master plan.
 
Mayor Mike Todd brought up the issue of solicitors, noting the city requires solicitors to have a license and they receive the no soliciting list.  However, Todd stated many appear to ignore the list as well as no soliciting signs on doors. Chief Ed Turner answered Todd’s concerns stating that the best thing residents can do if they are dealing with issues from solicitors would be to make a report to the police department.
 
Todd also expressed his desire to put together information for residents that may have concerns over the license plate readers being installed on police vehicles. Todd asked Turner to address some of the privacy concerns about the plate readers. Turner said that the readers will only alert officers if the license plate was tied to specific incidents, such as AMBER Alerts, Silver Alerts, violent crimes, and other incidents of that nature. By law, the information collected would be stored for 30 days and anything retained past that period would relate to special circumstances.
 
The next Board of Aldermen meeting will be held at 7:00pm on July 24 at City Hall.