council. Photo by Nathan Boddy.
by Nathan Boddy
The Hamilton City Council began the new year by welcoming Darwin Ernst, new representative of Ward 3, to their ranks. Ernst, along with Councilors Kristi Bielski and Rod Pogachar each won a term for their respective wards in November. Although new to the City Council, Ernst expressed his enthusiasm about the new role.
“I hope to be beneficial and not a hindrance in any way,” said Ernst. “I serve on a lot of different boards and my ideas are probably going to be a little bit different from what you hear normally from new council people. I’ve never served in an elected capacity before, but somehow I’ve been elected to a lot of boards.”
Ernst also added that he is hoping to add some expertise in those areas that he knows about, but that, “There’s a lot of things that I’m completely ignorant of, so please excuse me if I ask a lot of questions at the start of this because I might not know, but I’m always willing to listen and hoping to share.”
Mayor Dominic Farrenkopf, who also won another term as Mayor for the City of Hamilton, said that he was, “looking forward to another great year with this council,” and that he is looking forward to working with the council this year. “We’ll have a nice year,” he added.
The agenda for the first meeting of the year was largely comprised of appointments to various bodies including the Zoning Commission, Planning Board and the North Hamilton Urban Renewal District Advisory Board. Citizen representatives were reappointed in all cases, and uncontested. Councilor Robin Pruitt was chosen as Council President for the year.
Mayor Farrenkopf also announced that the City’s new Police Chief, Steve Snavely, had been sworn in at a ceremony on Thursday, December 30th. He expressed his appreciation at the turnout for the ceremony, and welcomed Chief Snavely.
Amy Fox, Director of Parks and Urban Forestry, was present at the meeting to give the council an update of an upcoming invitation to bid on a tree removal and pruning within the City, which will ultimately see the removal of 11 trees and the pruning of approximately 24 others. The project will also include the grinding of stumps, removal and traffic control during the work. Fox explained that the bid will be set to open on January 27 at 2 p.m., and that any interested parties can contact her at 363-6717.
During the new business portion of the meeting, Fox again presented to the council, this time sharing with them the news of her success in securing a grant from the Montana DNRC Forestry Division for $10,000. In order to finalize receipt of the funds, she needed approval from the council.
Fox explained that the grant, “is an urban forestry program and development grant, and will help us update our current urban forestry management program.” She added that the fund will also allow the city to have a ‘tree canopy assessment’ done, which could be valuable. “This (tree canopy survey) will allow us to see where there are opportunities to plant more trees and to improve the tree canopy cover. I think it will be a useful tool to have when communicating with people about why it’s important to maintain their trees.”
In addition to the assessment, Fox pointed out that the funds will be available for public outreach programs and education about tree management such as workshops or an educational ‘tree walk’ to point out different species, their needs and pros/cons in the urban environment. Said Fox about the grant, “This is really great.”