You might have read a recent TDN story about the council recommending against a liquor license for the El Tucan restaurant. While that particular issue ended with a successful resolution for the applicant, we made a similar recommendation again last night for the West Main Pub & Grill. Here’s why.
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Here’s the link to the agenda packet for July 15, but be warned: it’s more than 400 pages long! The biggest part of the packet is the Capital Improvement Plan, which runs through page 400.
You’re welcome to peruse the entire plan, but the upshot is that we have over $17M of projects that are classified as “urgent” that need to be funded in the next three years. About half of that will be paid by federal and state grants, but we will soon be considering issuing bonds for about $6.5M of those investments.
We also recognized Officer Ernie Moore, who is retiring this year after 34 years on the Kelso Police Department. There will be a retirement recognition open house for Officer Moore on July 25 from 1-4 PM in the council chambers. All are welcome to attend.
We also approved a contract for a website update with omOriginals at a cost of $14,500, authorized the disposition of an old police car, and reconsidered our recent recommendation of denial of the liquor license request from El Tucan.
You may recall that we were concerned with the fact that the business intended to operate a teen nightclub above a bar, and that the arrangement had caused trouble with minors accessing liquor in the past. The owners of El Tucan now have changed their plan for the second floor to operate as a family-type restaurant that only allows minors until 10 PM. This seemed to me typical of most of the restaurant/bar combinations in the city, like the Red Lion, Azteca, etc., and based on these changes, the council recommended approval of the license to the state.
At the council meeting last night, council members learned the results of their recent goal setting and prioritization efforts. These priorities were the product of a special meeting on June 12 during which the council members proposed any policies or legislation ideas they had, then discussed the pros and cons of each.
As each item was discussed, we noted whether or not there was majority support for proceeding further with that concept. The council members individually prioritized ideas that had majority support, then their responses were combined to produce this prioritized list of goals.
In addition to the goals identified by the council, I added action steps that would be necessary to achieve each goal. I expect that we will use this document as a road map for the next year or so, and as a tool to communicate our priorities to city staff. Actually, many of the items on the list are already underway or will be shortly.
The whole point of this exercise was to encourage the council to be proactive in setting the path for the city. When we have no plan for our city’s progress, we’re likely to get what we planned.
Kelso News