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A meeting of postponements

Posted

GALENA–There were no members of the public in the audience, council members and staff practiced social distancing and three council members called in from their homes for the Monday, March 23 Galena City Council meeting.

The 15-minute open portion of the meeting was focused primarily on suspending as many meetings and public hearings as possible and suspending applications and hearings on new special use requests for adult-use cannabis businesses due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Council members Robert Hahn, Jerry Westemeier and Chris Allendorf, along with Mayor Terry Renner, were in attendance at city hall, while Marc McCoy, Pam Bernstein and Jerry Kieffer attended by phone.

The council made quick work of approving suspension of all advisory board and committee meetings, including the zoning board and Historic Preservation Commission, and public hearings until further notice. The council also agreed that city council meetings will continue on the regular meeting schedule, the second and fourth Mondays of each month at 6:30 p.m., possibly with remote attendance.

The next meeting is set for Monday, April 13 at 6:30 p.m.

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On the cannabis issue, the council agreed to suspend all applications and hearings for special use requests for adult-use recreational cannabis until the month following the issuance of the state licenses set to be issued prior to May 1.

 

Other business

In other business, the council:

•met in closed session for personnel, bargaining, litigation and review of executive session minutes. No action resulted.

•approved a true-up cost payment with Veolia for water and sewer operations and maintenance contract for the year ending July 31, 2019.