Park member, council at odds over proposal

Creston is moving forward with a revamp of the parks and recreation board, scheduling a public hearing for the ordinance changes at 6 p.m. May 7.

The proposed changes add two more members to the board and make members appointed by the council rather than voted in by the community. Other changes to the ordinance include clarifying duties of the board.

Board member John Kawa expressed his disapproval of the proposed changes, saying the previous ordinance was written well and didn’t need to be redone.

“No one ever came to the park board meeting and asked to discuss Chapter 24 with the park board,” Kawa said. “Chapter 24 was written many years ago and written well. I urge the council to leave the original the chapter alone and not to redo it.”

Kawa specifically cited the change in members and what he believed was the changing in duties of the park board.

“We need the authority over the park properties. We must line up events so that there’s no overlap on reservations on shelters, bandshells, ball parks,” Kawa said. “We need that authority and that’s being taken out.”

However, councilmembers Jocelyn Blazek and Kiki Scarberry said no duties were being taken from the board.

“The park and rec is still going to be doing all the scheduling. None of that changes,” Scarberry said. Blazek agreed.

“We’re not taking away the authority, we’re just clarifying the process, which is that the board serves in an advisory manner to this council,” Blazek said. “It still has all the responsibilities from day to day, they’re still responsible for hiring and doing the interviews and recommending who’d they like to hire for director, and then just sending that to us for approval. I don’t feel like we removed that, I feel like we clarified that.”

Once the public forum is complete, the proposed changes to the park board will require three reading approvals before becoming part of city code.

In other council news…

Council approved the adoption of amendments to ordinances 24-06, 24-07, 24-09 and 24-10. These ordinances focus on mowing, vacant building registration and inspection, zoning code and solid waste control, respectively.

After years of delay due to funding, Amtrak is moving forward with a number of improvements to the waiting area by the depot. Changes will take place in 2025 and includes new platform outside the Restored Depot and new fencing.

Council approved the first reading of changes to the parking and snow removal ordinance. The changes would result in requiring alternate parking only during snow emergencies, except for those uptown.

Creston Director of Housing Ethan Standard presented a plan for a new Urban Renewal Area (URA) in Creston. URAs are areas that a city may establish to use for urban renewal projects and development, specifically using tax increment financing. The proposed area covers 100 acres and contains 40 active nuisance properties and the ECC site, which will be later vacated for redevelopment.

The Neighborhood revitalization grant application has changed slightly since the Update Uptown Committee met with the council April 2. Possible sewer updates have been scratched from the plan due to inadequate explanation in the original RDG report. Upper level apartment renovations have also been nixed due to other funding opportunities.