Mayor Rob Marlowe
The New Port Richey City Council will meet this coming Tuesday (January 6th) for its first meeting of the year. There are a few things on the agenda that you might find of interest:
There will be a second reading of changes to the city’s property maintenance code. Most notably, property owners won’t be able to leave tarps up forever in lieu of fixing a building’s roof and unpainted plywood will no longer be an acceptable alternative to replacing a door or a window.
There will be a second reading of changes to our alcohol ordinance for special events. A positive change is that it will make it easier for events to be hosted on Railroad Square by the businesses on the Square. A negative change is that it will allow an unlimited number of events in Sims Park to serve beer. I believe the Sims Park change is a mistake.
There will be a second reading of changes to our prostitution ordinance. The changes will make it easier for our police officers to arrest repeat offenders.
We will continue to tackle some difficult issues in subsequent meetings, for instance:
Coming up in two weeks will be a work session to try to hash out how to limit parking on residential lawns. This has become an issue primarily with rental properties where multiple drivers are all living in the same single family residence and destroying both the lawn and the appearance of the neighborhood by parking all over what used to be grass.
The trick is going to be to craft an ordinance that helps improve the appearance of our neighborhoods without limiting the right of our residents to enjoy their property. Can we figure out how to allow the fellow around the corner to park his six figure race boat next to his driveway or another neighbor to park his race car trailer in his back yard and at the same time get rid of large commercial trailers and converted school buses that sit in some yards for months at a time?
All of our council meetings and work sessions are open to the public. The regular meetings start at 7:00 pm and the work sessions typically start at 5:00 or 5:30. All meetings are noticed on the city website (http://www.cityofnewportrichey.org)
I hope that each of you has a very safe and productive 2015.
Rob Marlowe, Mayor
Hello Mr. Mayor,
I completely support you in your concerns about unlimited events taking place in Sims Park serving beer. So, if that is going to become a reality, I hope that the city has a plan in place that charges those with the permit to carefully moderate who is drinking and how much is served to any one person.
Also, I appreciate your blogs keeping citizens informed about city business in a clear and forthright manner…it is much appreciated. Still, if it weren’t for your blogs informing us about upcoming meetings and the notice on the city’s website (I wonder how many people actually go to that for council info), I think city staff could do a better job to get the word out about city council meetings and esp works sessions. Too often we learn about such meetings after the fact.
Thanks for all you do for the betterment of New Port Richey, Mayor Marlow…and Happy New Year to you and yours!
Marilynn deChant
Can you tell us what’s going on with Main Street possibly getting a 30 MPH speed limit? It’s already incredibly dangerous for pedestrians.
We need more crosswalks there and other areas in the city.
While on that topic, why do we still not have a sidewalk on Congress Ave at Main St?
The city council approved bumping the speed up from 25 to 30mph between Congress and Rowan. Given that the vast majority of folks are already going 35-40 on that stretch, the change simply recognizes that people are ignoring what they deem to be a silly speed limit.
Getting new sidewalks is complicated by the lack of right of way on some streets, but there are some new ones in the works.