A hotel developer eyeing Washington has asked the city for roughly $1.5 million over the course of 10 years, paid for with “tax increment financing,” or TIF. The incentive-making tool is effective for economic development, but complicated and sometimes controversial.
The Washington City Council recently approved the site plans for two facility projects from a non-profit organization and the Washington Community School District.
The council approved the major site plan for Hospice of Washington County pending the city engineer’s verification, and the minor site plan for the district’s redesign of Stewart Elementary’s south parking area, as per the city’s planning and zoning commission’s recommendation. Hospice plans to remove the old southern portion of their existing building which contains their basement, adding a stormwater retention basin as well as expanding the north side of their facility and adding a larger parking area to accommodate the growing need for services.
The City of Washington is continuing to negotiate on expanded hours of service at its yard waste center.
The center’s current hours are 7 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 7-10 a.m. on six Saturdays each in the spring and fall. After City Council Member Steven Gault requested at a previous council meeting that the city staff expand hours, City Administrator Brent Hinson and Waste Water Treatment Plant Superintendent Jason Whisler proposed during this week’s meeting that during the same weeks in the fall they are open on Saturdays, they would stay open until 7 p.m. on Wednesdays. Hinson explained that this would keep them with a fully supervised site, and would not present any additional expense for physical improvements on the site. The Saturdays they plan to be open this fall are October 16th, 23rd, and 30th and November 6th, 13th, and 20th.
The Washington City Council approved wellness park operational agreements with the YMCA of Washington County on a 4-2 vote during Tuesday’s meeting.
Steven Gault and Fran Stigers were the two opposing votes on the item which followed a workshop discussion held on March 16th on three agreements for scheduling, recreation services and field management, and shared use. These agreements also include the Washington Community School District, Washington Area Baseball Council, Washington Area Softball Association, and Washington Area Soccer Program. The YMCA will be in charge of concession stand operations, scheduling and general oversight of the sports complex, and the city will be compensating the YMCA $40,000 for these services for this one year agreement. Council Member Fran Stigers remarked that the dollar amount was too high, and that the city’s current recreational services agreement with the organization is $32,000. Council Member Danielle Pettit-Majewski commented on the YMCA�