Village Council makes a few changes

A few Village Council members met last week at a closed meeting to choose a new board, among those presently on the board, and also to critique themselves. They would like to go in a new direction and get more neighbors involved at Village Council meetings. Until now, many felt that the council was all about local businesses, but in reality it's about everyone and it's mostly about neighbors and the neighborhoods.

Present at the March 13 meeting were Michelle Niemeyer, David Collins, Kate Callahan, David Himmel and Michelle Barton King. Michelle Niemeyer stepped down as council chairman and new directors were voted in by the five present. Michelle is still on the Village Council.

David Collins (left) was voted in as the new Village Council Chairman, Kate Callahan was voted Vice Chairman; Michelle Barton King is secretary; David Himmel is Treasurer and Patrick Sessions is Sergeant at Arms. Collins is also the BID director.

"In the past, the Village Council had been viewed as a stepping stone to the City Commission dais, which made it distracting," said Collins. Now the Council wants to make changes and to shift paradigms to now focus more on residents and their concerns. Small things like pot holes and foliage pick ups are to be the concern, while major issues will still be part of the agendas.

"We are preparing for a smaller plate of tasks to solve," said Collins. The Council now wants to know what the concern is of residents. Questionnaires will go out around town soon to see what people are really interested in.

Collins has been on the council for eight years, he was voted in twice with the second highest amount of votes both times.

The next meeting is supposed to be Thursday, April 5, but that may change and one new option that the Council is now looking at is meetings six times a year (every other month) rather than the current monthly meetings.

Stay tuned, we'll post the agenda and the next meeting date when we have it.