City Council Meeting 10-24-16

I attended the City Council meeting last night and thought I’d share the highlights:

The Poquoson Yacht Club held a reception and dinner for the Polynesian Voyaging Society. Councilman Vernall presented a gift to the city from the society, which was a picture of 3 of their 6 sailing canoes signed by the crew. The Mayor asked that the picture be hung in the lobby of City Hall for a period of time.
Councilman Green, in response to a request by the Director of the Poquoson Food Pantry for the Poquoson City Council to adopt a resolution in support of something more effective than the Medicare expansion (a federal unfunded mandate), presented three House bills for consideration as part of the resolution: House Bill 193, House Bill 1083, and House Bill 350. Councilman Green’s opinion, based on input from Delegate Helsel, was that HB 350 was the best of the three. These bills would provide some assistance to those who fall between the gap, i.e. their income isn’t low enough to receive Medicaid, but isn’t high enough to afford insurance. The Council decided to study what Councilman Green put forward and come up with a resolution that would be in support of something similar to HB 350. A resolution will be drafted and presented to Council for adoption at the next council meeting.
An ordinance amending Chapter 70 – Section 5 of the City Code pertaining to sign regulations, giving the City enforcement powers regarding sign regulations was passed 7-0. It would be a Class 3 misdemeanor with a fine up to $500 to unlawfully place a sign. The City manager made it clear the City does not plan to take action to prosecute, but would use the new ordinance to remove unlawful signs. The Council voted to dispense with the 2nd reading, so the ordinance will go into effect in 30 days.
The new storm water pipes being installed on Little Florida between Kathy Drive & Cedar Road that were scheduled to being on October 17th have been delayed until sometime this week. The road will be closed from 9am to 3:30pm Monday – Friday for approximately 4 – 5 weeks. Traffic will be re-routed down Poquoson Avenue and Odd Road. The re-routing map can be seen on the government information channels Cox 46 & Verizon 25 or on the City Council Meeting 10-11-16 agenda.
The city is working with the insurance company who will pay an engineering firm to do a structural analysis of the breakwater at Messick Point to determine if the failure was structural failure based on design, materials failure, or installation failure. The city is covered by insurance, but the breakwater is also under warranty by the contractor for material & installation for 1 year.
Halloween will be observed in the city on on Monday, October 31st from Dusk to 8pm for children 12 and under. Please drive extra carefully and be aware of children in the streets that evening.
There will be no City Council meetings on the 4th Monday of the month in November & December.
Thanks went out to the entire community of Poquoson for all the work that went into the Poquoson Seafood Festival and the patience of the citizens for allowing such a large event in our city.
The Workboat Race was a huge success with widespread attendance from people as far as the Eastern Shore and North Carolina. Thank you to the City for hosting this event.