News notes and tidbits of news you can use from the Tuesday, Nov. 29, Fremont City Council meeting.
Duet gets park use fee waived
After some grilling by outgoing Ward 1 City Council Member Mark Legband about fairness and equal treatment, a request from Duet – formerly ENCOR – to waive more than $1,300 in park use fees was approved unanimously by the Fremont City Council on Tuesday.
Duet is a local agency that serves residents and others who have disabilities of varying types. The agency hosts an annual Christmas party, and due to needs for more space this year, requested to use Christensen Field and have waived $1,355 in fees for set-up and event fee along with cleaning fees.
The request was originally on the consent agenda, which means items that are not discussed nor debated and approved in a group with many other items. Legband demanded the item be removed from the consent agenda so he could discuss the issue.
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Legband said waiving the fee for one organization and not others may create a sense of unfairness or bitterness among other organizations seeking to use city facilities, but which may still be charged full fees.
After discussion, Legband said he supports Duet and its mission, he just was concerned about fairness with other groups and voted in favor of the waiver.
Yerger complains about agenda item
Outgoing Ward 4 Council Member Brad Yerger used his last meeting to lambaste city staff for what he called an allegedly possible violation of the state’s open meeting laws in regard to an agenda item.
Yerger had a consent agenda item removed from the consent agenda and placed on the regular agenda. The item seemed routine – the possible appointment of a replacement on the Ridge Cemetery Board.
When he was asked to speak about the pulled item, Yerger told council members that the scant wording in the main agenda description of the item was insufficient and was not transparent for the public who may want to monitor city council actions.
Yerger said missing information in the agenda item, such as who was being considered for appointment, the term of the appointment, who was being replaced and why should have been included in the agenda wording.
After lodging his complaint about the item, the council voted 7-0 to appoint Al Swatelle to the cemetery board, for a term ending in December 2024.
Yerger abstained from the vote.
Library asbestos removal OK’d
Keene Memorial Library Director Laura England-Biggs updated the council on the progress of asbestos removal at the remodeling and expansion of the library building.
The council in a unanimous vote awarded a $174,500 asbestos removal and abatement contract to McGill Asbestos Abatement, LLC, to clean out all old asbestos.
England-Biggs assured council members there was no more asbestos discovered, and the contract would do the job fine as far as she was aware.
“Until we got (into the end) of the (demolition) process, there was no way to know if asbestos was present,” she said of the later discovery of the carcinogen substance.
