First meeting of Common Council brings forth new leadership

first-meeting-of-common-council-brings-forth-new-leadership

A pair of Shelbyville Middle School educators now hold the top two leadership positions on the Shelbyville Common Council.

At the first council meeting of 2024, featuring four new seat holders and a new mayor, Mike Johnson (R-3rd Ward) was elected President of the council while Betsy Means-Davis (R-2nd Ward) was elected Vice President. Both are teachers at SMS.

Kassy Wilson (R-1st Ward) was selected as the Reader, replacing Johnson. The Reader presents the ordinances and resolutions before the common council.

One point of business before the council Monday at City Hall was an amendment to the Legislative Branch ordinance to set both monthly meetings of the council to 6 p.m. The council meets the first and third Monday of each month, unless there is a schedule conflict, which will occur with the next meeting in January.

The Common Council will not meet on Jan. 22 due to a Plan Commission meeting already set. The council will meet two days later on Jan. 24 at 6 p.m.

Following presentations last week from three bidders on the N. Riley Highway project, the council Monday awarded the bid to Runnebohm Construction, HIS Constructors, Inc., and HWC Engineering. The three companies will serve as manager, builder, and engineer, respectively, of the project that will include building roundabouts at two sections along N. Riley Highway headed north out of downtown Shelbyville and adding sidewalks and trails along both sides of the highway to Rampart Road near Interstate 74.

“It will still be awhile because there are not actually any plans yet,” said Shelbyville Mayor Scott Furgeson (photo). “The plans will have to get done. Runnebohm, at the meeting, said they would pay HWC to get the (engineering) plans done. That is on them to put it together now and bring it to us. We will go forward from that point and decide what the construction costs are and how much we want to fund or not fund.”

The roundabouts will go at Michigan Road and N. Riley Highway at the entrance to Knauf and at the entrance to the under construction subdivision known as Isabella Farms.

The project will be operated as a Build-Operate-Transfer plan with the three companies. Once a contract is ready for negotiation, they will appear before the Board of Works and Public Safety for a public hearing.

“I would like to add I really appreciate the groups that came in and made bids,” said Johnson (photo). “We had three very strong candidates with local ties … A lot of great background experience. I feel really comfortable and happy with the group we are going with and their local expectations and local contributions and the care of the quality (of work) they are putting forward.”

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