Keeping It Snappy This Week!

It was a short and sweet meeting for the Moscow City Council, with only one item on the agenda! Nevertheless, we’re here to walk you through the details. Won’t you join us?

Read the full transcript of the video below:

This Moscow Report video is brought to you by Gina as the Mayor.

How’s it going y’all? Aiden Anderson here with the Moscow Minutes. The timing of various external events meant that Mayor Bettge, along with councilors Sandra Kelly and Julia Parker were absent at this week’s meeting of the Moscow City Council. Councilor Gina Taruscio acted as mayor in order to conduct the proceedings, which we should get into now.

First, Gina read the proclamation for Fire Prevention week, which was followed by Public Comment. During that time we heard from three members of the public. Thomas Carpenter spoke, introducing the council to his civics class who were there visiting the meeting as a part of their unit on local government. Kent Salisbury requested that the council take a look at possibly removing some graffiti on a shed near Paradise Creek Trail, a request which was followed by his admitting at the podium that he had been the one who vandalized the old mural on the corner of A and Jackson Street. Lastly, Paul Kimmel reminded the council about upcoming speaking events regarding water conservation.

The next two items on the agenda, a presentation of the Mayor’s Golf Tournament awards and the annual report from the Farmer’s Market Commission, were sadly canceled, as the people associated with those items had reported being sick.

So we really only had the one action item on the agenda. That item was the written decision regarding the appeal of the BOA decision on 414 South Main Street. We’ve gone through that whole issue in two previous videos, so I won’t rehash the details here.

The item today was the final piece of paperwork to be ratified by the council in terms of solidifying their decision which they had previously voted on. As it stood with them, nothing more really needed to be said, and the council approved the written decision unanimously.

Just a couple highlights from the council reports. Most of the council mentioned being engaged in discussions with PBAC about moving forward with their efforts to better maintain a regional water supply, and Bryce Blankenship reminded everyone about the upcoming Moscowberfest celebration. 

And that’s what I got for ya this week. A little bit shorter, to be sure, but it’s interesting to see how the council functions when a few of its members are absent. Short meetings like this are also a good way to get your feet wet if you happen to be interested in local politics, but haven’t got that much time in the evenings for the meetings.

As always, we’ll have the relevant links posted with this video, and if you have any questions, let us know. I’m Aiden Anderson with the Moscow Minutes. See you next time!