By DAVID A. MANN
The Jeffersonville City Council approved a resolution further investigating the creation of a canal district during its Monday night meeting.
Jeffersonville Mayor Tom Galligan told council members the resolution can be used to garner grant money to help fund the proposed new downtown waterway.
Galligan has pitched the canal idea as a way to address long-term flooding issues downtown — a means of moving stormwater from a detention pond being built off Seventh Street to the Ohio River. The exact route hasn’t been determined, but Galligan has said in previous interviews that it would generally follow Mulberry Street. Galligan has said it could be used as an economic-development tool that would attract restaurants and retail to its banks, making comparisons to San Antonio’s River Walk.
“I think this is a good first step to get the process going,” said Council Ed Zastawny, who made the motion to accept it.
Councilman Ron Grooms, who’s been critical of the project in the past, argued that a map should be attached to the resolution so everyone knows the boundaries of the proposed new district. He ultimately voted in favor of it, saying in an interview after the meeting he didn’t want to extinguish the proposal before it got studied.
The councilman jokingly invoked Democratic Presidential Candidate John Kerry, who famously said during the 2004 presidential race that he’d voted for a funding issue, “before I voted against it.”
“It’s worth the study,” Grooms said.
The resolution contains very little in the way of specifics about the canal. It does, however, pledge the council’s support to work with Galligan and supports the further exchange of information between the administration and the council.
In other business
• The council approved a motion rezoning a piece of property at 1734 E. 10th St. The rezoning allows for medium- to large-scale commercial, ultimately paving the way for a new business — Precision Transmission — to open its doors there. That business is currently located at on North Clark Boulevard in Clarksville. Chrisy Kempf, the property owner, said the business would move to Jeffersonville and close its Clarksville location.
The rezoning was passed by the Jeffersonville Planning and Zoning Commission with a favorable recommendation in December.
• The council passed a resolution opposing the awarding of low-income housing tax credits for an apartment complex proposed at 125 Thompson Lane. Assistant Planning Director Brian Fogle said Louisville-based Oakbrook Apartments applied for the credits.
However, he noted, the company has had no contact with the city, it has presented no development plan and doesn’t have the zoning designation for the proposal. The resolution authorizes Fogle to write a letter to the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority opposing the project for the above reasons.
• The body approved a new five-district council map, which should be applicable only through the end of 2011. It’s proposed because the city recently completed an annexation bringing thousands of new residents into the city limits.
A second, six-district map, that would take effect in 2012 also is being considered because the city council recently passed an ordinance that reclassifies it from a third-class to a second-class city — thus allowing for two new council members.
The six-district map was not discussed Monday.
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Police jobs attract big interest
• Up to 10 positions expected to be opening up on the Jeffersonville Police Department have attracted a lot of interest, according to Dennis Henry, vice president of the city’s Police Merit Commission. About 210 viable applicants are being considered. The city could pay up to $9,100 for the applicants to take skills, ability and observational tests, based on a rate cited of about $1,300 per 30 applicants.
Look for a story on the new positions, the testing and that price tag later this week in The Evening News.
