Topics for this Post
- Light Pollution Presentation – April 10
- City Council Meeting
Light Pollution Presentation
On April 10th at 6:00-7:30 pm at the Lester Library, the city’s Environmental Advisory Board is sponsoring a presentation: “Light Pollution: The Harm to Wildlife & Ecosystems.”
Still Bend steward Michael Ditmer discusses the negative impacts of nighttime lighting on birds, insects, mammals and humans, and shares local solutions to reduce its environmental damage. A recognized expert, Ditmer has presented at national conferences on the effects of LED lighting on both human and ecological health.
Why am I telling you this? Because we have a light pollution issue in Two Rivers where the city ignores its own lighting building codes about full-cutoff lighting. We’ve brought these issues up to both the Plan Commission and City Council, but mostly been ignored.
Well, now they’re bringing in someone else to talk about how it’s a big deal… But will they take their own advice?
Yes, that’s the river at 2:30 am in the background. And there’s no one home – the lights are on a timer.
City Council Meeting – Apr 7, 2025
I talked about prioritizing what the city works on in a previous post (about halfway down the page). I’m going to keep with that theme and see if the things on tomorrow’s meeting agenda are in our Comprehensive Plan or Strategic Goals & Objectives.
Resolution designating “Line Worker Appreciation Day”
Line workers are city employees in Two Rivers, so I’d say this is a good thing to do from a morale and appreciation standpoint.
- Comprehensive Plan? No.
- Strategic Goals? No.
Sex Offender Residency Request Appeal
Back on March 17, the council voted on a sex offender’s request to buy a house in Two Rivers. The council voted to deny it, but the city didn’t get the letter mailed soon enough to inform the requester about their chance to speak at the meeting. They will be allowed to speak and appeal at tomorrow’s meeting.
- Comprehensive Plan? N/A.
- Strategic Goals? N/A.
- Standard business? Yes.
Resolution Supporting Reauthorization of State Funding
The city will approve this resolution to tell the state government that we want the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program renewed with 10-year funding.
Given our need to maintain and improve parks, trails, and waterfronts, getting access to grant money from a program like this would be a huge help to the city.
- Comprehensive Plan? Yes.
- Strategic Goals? Yes.
Award of Bid for Paving Project – Pierce St. in Neshotah Park
Two bids came in for asphalt work on Pierce Street, from 21st to Zlatnik. The low bidder was Northeast Asphalt (Green Bay) at $150,300. The high bidder was Vinton Construction (Two Rivers) at $152,200. The recommendation is to go with the low bidder, but from the letter in the packet, that may be due to them being more responsive during the bid process.
The purpose of the project is to expand the parking areas on Pierce Street within Neshotah Park.
- Comprehensive Plan? Yes.
- Strategic Goals? Yes.
Amendment to the Revenue Recognition Policy
My guess from looking at the changes is that grant money takes longer to be paid to the city. This is just accounting changes to policy – basic housekeeping work.
- Comprehensive Plan? N/A.
- Strategic Goals? N/A.
- Standard Business? Yes.
City Strategic Goals and Objectives
This will be the most interesting part of the meeting. You’ll hear how the city did on its goals from 2024, and whether goals should be carried over into 2025. I might do a future post about what a mess these goals are – they’re not SMART, there are way too many of them, and there’s no scoring rubric. But that’s for another day.
- Comprehensive Plan? No.
- Strategic Goals? Yes.
City Manager’s 2025 Pay Increase
Council is almost certainly going to approve a 3% raise for Mr. Buckley.
- Comprehensive Plan? N/A.
- Strategic Goals? N/A.
- Standard Business? Yes.
Appointment to Plan Commission
I wrote earlier about the appointment of an unqualified person to Plan Commission. The vote for that is tomorrow, and you can bet the council won’t ask any questions and will vote to approve.
- Comprehensive Plan? N/A.
- Strategic Goals? N/A.
- Standard Business? Yes.
Meeting Agenda Packet
You can read the full packet that council members get here:
https://mccmeetings.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/tworivrswi-pubu/MEET-Packet-07581b86719e479794b5a74621e516dc.pdf
