September City Stuff

On August 27th 48 Nixa residents, along with the City Council and staff met to discuss city-wide priorities. These residents, representing areas throughout Nixa, joined Council to assess the City’s priorities, as it related to: City budget, Police services, Parks programs, Street projects and pedestrian and bicycle paths. To read a summary of the entire presentation go here.

The old adage that all politics is local seems very fitting this month. One of the complaints I heard while campaigning throughout southwest Nixa was the lack of traffic enforcement - especially as school got out - on the cross streets of Pembrook, Butterfield, Dustin and Verna Lane. These streets are used by high school students and others to avoid traffic on Highway 14 as they make their way across town. To help with this public safety issue, I asked city staff to do two things - to standardize signage and speed limits on these streets, and to increase traffic enforcement at these times. The signs are up, and hopefully the issues will come down.

My other priority this month was the completion of step one of the utility deposit overhaul that I discussed in last month's post (Back to Work). At the City Council's September meeting two ordinances and a resolution were enacted to make the first of these changes a reality. Now an established commercial business moving into Nixa, or a new business who owns their own location, can have the utility deposit waived, as long as they are in good standing with their current utility provider and they agree to direct withdrawal for their utility bills. The next step will be to credit back existing utility deposits to those businesses and residents who have consistently paid their utilities on time.

The next couple of months will be monopolized by the annual budgeting process. Since my election I have worked hard to limit any additional expenses from being incurred outside of the existing budget, often denying very worthwhile expenditures - Internet access at the Community Center and a needed raise for the City Electric Dept works being two examples. In these lean times, I think it is even more my duty to be a good steward of the taxpayers money. This year again the City will face some hard and painful choices, but I pledge to do my best to make the most of the funds entrusted by the taxpayers of Nixa to their City Council.