Above: A Jennifer Bailey (News-Gazette) picture of Homrich equipment awaiting to start Annex Building-Bresee Tower tear down.
Following Tuesday (Apr 8th) evening’s Danville City Council Public Works Committee meeting, Director of Public Works Dave Ruwe said, yes indeed; the Vermilion Street side of the County Annex Building is set to be shut down starting Wednesday for the start of the tear down.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: Everything seems to be looking pretty good. So, we haven’t heard any news of anything that is going to delay.
Ruwe says after the Annex tear down, when it’s time to work on Breese Tower, do not expect Bresee to be dramatically scraped away one floor at a time. Instead, it will look as if it’s being nibbled away very slowly.
(1st Picture, by Jennifer Bailey) Homrich equipment ready to go to work. (2nd Picture) Alderwoman Carolyn Wands (right) expresses her views on voting rules changes to James Poshard (center) and Mike O’Kane (left). Corporation Counsel Leon Parker is in the back.
Meanwhile, the full council next week will look at a proposal to allow ordinances to pass with, for example, seven positive votes, if it equals to a majority when less than 14 alderman are present. It was recently agreed to that it must be eight of the 14 elected aldermen, regardless of the attendance situation.
Disagreements about what the mayor should be able to do and not do were expressed as well. But in covering the basics, Alderwoman Carolyn Wands stated that “life happens,” “people miss meetings,” and “business must be done.”
Newly elected Alderman Doug Ahrens was there, and expressed disagreement with any change.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: It’s worked fine requiring eight votes. That does require people to be participative, and it also requires the administration to do their work.
Public Works Committee member Mike O’Kane felt the proposal was basically a chain reaction.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: I really don’t know what the cause was; but it sure seemed like it came in a hurry. And it’s coming right before the end of this council, with a new council coming up in May.
For the record, in a non-binding vote, the four Public Works Committee members present Tuesday night voted to a 2-2 tie on the change. Wands and James Poshard voted YES, O’Kane and Chairman Michael Puhr voted NO.
