Monday, April 06, 2009

Filing Deadline, Council Meeting Today

Plaintalker will post the names of candidates for mayor and Fourth Ward as soon as possible after the 4 p.m. filing deadline today. Early indications are that the mayoral field will be large.

I was surprised to find out that a web crawler is picking up local blogs and putting them on AOL. Not sure how long this has been going on. I normally don't scroll all the way down the AOL Welcome Screen but did so over the weekend and discovered Plaintalker, Maria's Blog and Plainfield Today posted there. My blog posts used to show up on Topix.net but now only Gannett articles seem to be posted for Plainfield.

Anyway, click here to see the agenda for tonight's City Council meeting. Dr. Harold Yood has already highlighted some of the topics on his blog, "Doc's Potpourri."

The mayor has asked for time to discuss the Plainfield Rescue Squad. City Council President Rashid Burney has already posted on his blog, "As I See It," his stance on expanding the citizen advisory committees to four. Burney also invites people to hear a talk tonight on deer management. Although his emphasis is on the health risks deer can bring to your back yard, last fall deer ran through the Park & Seventh corridor during rutting season, creating a traffic hazard. One was struck by a car on Park Avenue.

Recreation Director Dave Wynn is asking permission for several banners, including one for the July 4 celebration, although the Citizens Budget Advisory Committee suggested eliminating the parade during these harsh economic times. The mayor is also asking permission to hang the banner that was put up on the front of City Hall last week. She wants it up until September.

With all the local online resources , residents can get a pretty good feel for what is going on. If these new committees get approved, 56 citizens will be needed to serve on them. Let your councilperson know if you want to take part. Click here to get their e-mail addresses.

For those who have voiced dissatisfaction with the new schedule, please note the time allotted for public comment will be doubled to one hour if the council approves a resolution at the April 13 regular meeting. Some may still feel slighted, as their individual three minutes to speak will not increase.

Personally, I will be watching to see how long the meetings run with only one agenda session and one regular meeting per month, when council committee reports and citizen committee presentations are added in. Attending the meetings and then writing blog posts can make for a long night.

--Bernice Paglia

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