Downtown Blue Ridge City Park Update and Other Notes from City Council Meeting

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The May Blue Ridge City Council meeting was on May 10th.  A large part of the meeting dealt with the downtown city park.  Other topics were the downtown sign ordinance, City and County Joint Comprehensive Plan, lights at the tennis courts at the city park, gates on Robert’s Way and Waste Away.

City Council Members Bruce Pack and Rodney Kendell presented the demands of Blue Ridge children to the City Council.  The children want their downtown playground park back.  Parents do too.  Mr. Pack said that he became a Council Member because he wanted to help with the parks.  He states,  “We are talking about every event except the main event – the children.”  He told the Council that we [the City Council] need some kind of answer we can give people.

Several organizations have donated playground equipment for children and are looking into some playground equipment for adults.  The donations can’t be finalized or installed until the City decides on the complete landscape plan, which the city hasn’t.  The equipment can’t be set up, until the City lays down the protective mulch/turf to soften children’s playground spills.  The City hasn’t bought the surface material yet and hadn’t planned for it in their grants.  The City can’t accept the playground equipment or prepare for the playground equipment until the final location of the grill is decided upon, it still has not been decided upon.  Mayor Whitener asked Carlie Hammond to come up with a final list of first, second, third and fourth choices about where to put the grill and have the list ready by the next Council meeting.  The Council will make a final decision about where to place the grill at that meeting. Ms. Hammond still wants assurances that the grill will be charcoal not gas and large enough to cook food for the Labor Day Barbecue.  Mayor Whitener would like parts of the grill to be open for everybody and easy to use so that families can have grill outs downtown.

The Mayor is looking at temporarily placing some pieces of equipment back into the park area until the playground is built. Most of the equipment would need underground stabilization which the city does not want to do now, just to tear out in six weeks.  No word yet from Blu Bear as to how he feels about his extended hibernation/repair time away from his fun spot at the center of screaming children.

Prospects of Pickle-Ball Playing at Blue Ridge’s sports park brought up a discussion about lighting.  The Council is looking for a way players to pay for lighting the ball fields when they want to play after dark.  Previously, the city sold tokens that players could put into a machine for so many minutes of light on the ball fields.  The machines are outdated and the city is looking for new methods of lighting the fields.

On the subject of playing ball at the park, the City Council is developing a payment system for for-profit organizations and individuals that want to give tennis lessons at the park.  The Council is looking at charging 20% of the cost of the tennis lessons for use of the tennis court.  No decision has been made.

Blue Ridge City Council is rewriting its sign ordinance.  At this May 10th meeting, the Council was to approve a new ordinance.  However, Council Member Angie Arp asked to table adopting a new ordinance until the June meeting.  She found that the version of the sign ordinance which Blue Ridge was set to adopt was too confusing.

The Blue Ridge City Council added another step to its zoning appeals process last night.  After a zoning appeal is lost at the Planning and Zoning Appeals board, the appeal then goes to the Council.  If parties wish to appeal the ruling beyond the council’s decision, the next step will be the Superior Court.  The Whaleys, owners of Sycamore Crossing, lost their zoning appeal for 7 feet within a 15 foot setback.  They will present their zoning appeal to the Blue Ridge City Council later in  June.

Mayor Whitener is looking for ideas for the City and County’s Joint Comprehensive Plan.  During the summer, the two local governments will meet and talk about the infrastructure developments that Blue Ridge and Fannin County want to see within the next 10 years.  Mayor Whitener suggested infrastructure upgrades like sewer and storm water pipes and street paving.  She asked the Council members to start making their lists.

Mayor Whitener would like to place locked gates at the end of Robert’s Way where it narrows just before the area where passengers board the train.  She figures having passengers milling around and cars trying to turn around is an accident waiting to happen.  Businesses that use the area for employee parking or deliveries will receive gate codes.  The City Council tabled the idea until the next meeting.

Finally, Waste Away has paid for its business license and  past collection dues to the city.  Now Waste Away is the third garbage company in Blue Ridge.  It serves residential and commercial customers.  Waste Away started operating in Blue Ridge in 2015, but had not paid for a business license or  given the City a percentage of its fees as is required for all garbage companies operating in Blue Ridge.  The Council had denied Waste Away’s earlier petition to be the third garbage company in Blue Ridge.

At 6:50 the City Council went into Executive Session to discuss Land Acquisition.  30 minutes later the Council came back and said that nothing had been decided.

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