Barnes leaves seat, bids farewell

Wednesday night’s City of Sidney City Council meeting served as the last meeting attended by council member Aaron Barnes, who announced his resignation Jan. 25.

“I would like to thank the citizens for the opportunity to serve. I’m going to miss you guys and I’m going to miss this town,” said Barnes.

“It has been a pleasure having you here, and I appreciate someone who comes being totally prepared. We will miss you,” said Major Wendall Gaston following the council’s regretful motion to pass the council member’s resignation.

The Mayor then announced the vacancy of Barnes’ spot on the city council and said that the board would be accepting all resumes and that they should be brought to the city offices if anyone wishes to apply to fill the seat. They would serve the remaining 21 months of his term.

The deadline for applications is March 5 and council members will consider applicants at the following meeting.

But Barnes was not the only city member to resign Wednesday night however.

Ed Kinnersley, a city parks department employee, announced his retirement after just marking his 40th year working with the city, said Gary Person City of Sidney City Manager.

During the meeting conversation continued on a proposed ordinance defining accessory buildings in the city.

Council members decided to table the issue until the next meeting so that they can go over all of the new text carefully before passing the ordinance. They said that they felt the new text fixed most of the initial problems.

“I suggest we table it and take time to digest it. Every word in here is important,” said Mark Nienhueser a council member.

He also said that the draft had come a long way and answered many of the questions the council members had asked.

“You will see that the 50 percent for a common wall was knocked out. I guess the biggest change was the distinction between garage and accessory building was completely removed. So now we have accessory buildings, and garages are accessory buildings,” said J. Leef, a City of Sidney Attorney.

“What we tried to do was make it clear that you can have an attached accessory building if it meets all the qualifications of the primary house. You can have a detached accessory building if it meets with the criteria that is in here,” she said.“You can have a small shed as well, but all of those together cannot cover more than 40 percent of your lot and that includes the impervious services in that 40 percent to address the flood issues that were raised.”

“They can still have an attached garage and an accessory building. So they can still maximize their square footage by doing that,” said Person.

It was also made clear in the meeting that wordage had been changed stating that homeowners could have an attached accessory building on the side of their house as well, not just behind it. The new building just can’t be in front of the front wall of the house.

The ordinance came about after multiple landowners appeared to be building small residences on their property just so they could build a big accessory building, according to Person.

“Putting square footage in there makes me extremely nervous that we are trying to restrain the use to one size fits all,” said Nienhueser.

“First, it’s a residence versus an accessory building that is not meant to be on the lawn. Two, it addresses that the residence has to be there first and it has to be built with compatible material so it feels like a residence and not an industrial building, and three, you have the 40 percent rule and the control factor that it can’t be any bigger than the primary building, which is good,” he said.

“But we are trying to be too specific with the footage is my issue,” said Nienhueser.

“I don’t have any trouble with the 1,200. I guess I just don’t see a problem,” said Gaston.

“We could strike the language about any square feet and we could say shall not exceed the square footage equal to the ground floor footprint of the principle building,” said Leef.“Which just makes sure that your garage is not going to be larger than your house, provided that it still meets all the requirements of the 40 percent lot coverage. And each accessory building can be that size if you meet that 40 percent.”

The matter was tabled until the next meeting, after the last of the critiques.

Sidney’s stray cats were also in discussion at the meeting as well.

Sidney Police Chief Mike Brown brought a packet of different ordinances on dogs and cats from other Nebraska cities such as Auburn, Bridgeport, Columbus, McCook and North Platte for council members to look at and choose from.

“These communities license cats and specifically address cats in the same way that they do dogs. Basically we just have to go through here, find one that the council likes and compare it with our existing animal ordinances and incorporate it or modify it,” said Brown.

“As we heard loud and clear from last week’s audience there’s some people truly in violation and they have been disrespectful of the neighborhoods,” said Nienhueser.

Leef brought one particular ordinance to the council’s attention that addressed different ways to identify if an animal was feral or someone’s pet.

“You will see in the Auburn one that there is a place for the cats where instead of just saying that the cat has to wear a license or a tag, you also have the option of tattooing or micro chipping that is at the cost of the owner,” said Leef.

“I also like how it points out to vaccinate against rabies for the cats as well and from a price perspective it is $10 for each neutered or spayed dog or cat, and then $50 for every unneutered and those not spayed,” said Barnes.

The council decided to let city officials match up a cat ordinance to the present dog ordinance and present it at the next meeting.

The council also passed the 2013 City of Sidney one and six-year proposed street improvement program and tabled the Police Building Feasibility Study until after a new police chief is appointed.

Person said that legal municipality meetings will be conducted this Sunday through Tuesday and that the golf course will be opening up as soon as next week -- weather permitting.