Tuesday night, the Greeley City Council decided to have no further discussion on the Regional Transit Authority.

While it was not an ‘official vote’, so there doesn’t appear to be a record of which members supported it. Mayor Tom Selders did say he was for it, and Pam Shaddock was against the RTA.

“My belief is that we’re out of time and the RTA is not ready,” said Councilwoman Pam Shaddock.

The Council was stuck on two major issues. The lack of an ‘opt-out’ option and the fear that Greeley dollars would be used to improve the roads around Centerra near I-25.

This first issue seems legitimate, but the second is not. Highway 34 from I-25 is THE main artery into Greeley. Travel between Greeley, Loveland and Fort Collins has already become problematic. Without a significant investment at Centerra, the problem will continue to grow. If the US 34 Corridor is not kept open Greeley will become even more isolated from it’s Northern Colorado neighbors.

The bottom line is that now Loveland is the sole remaining large city involved with the RTA project. Will Loveland be enough to keep the dream alive? Will the Loveland voters approve a project where they stand alone? If the RTA does come into existence, will Loveland reap the rewards and become the Northern Colorado transportation hub?

It will be interesting to see.

Greeley Mayor, Tom Selders, has caused controversy in Greeley with his comments about Illegal Immigration

Selders’ recent trip to Washington D.C. to urge lawmakers to reform immigration policies sparked controversy last week when he told officials how December’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids on the Swift & Co. meatpacking plant negatively affected Greeley’s families.

What do you think?

Greeley City Council’s second town meeting of the year will be tomorrow, May 22nd, 5:30pm at New Frontier Bank, 2425 35th Ave.

This is the Ward 3 town meeting, but all residents of Greeley are welcome to come and speak.

Anyone attending this meeting, feel free to post your comments.

The City of Greeley has made available, via it’s website, a Candidate Guide for the upcoming 2007 elections.

This guide lists all of the hoops one would potentially have to jump through to be elected to city council, but one of the more interesting items is this:

Qualifications for Elective Office

• Citizen of the United States
• No other elective office held
• No felony convictions
• Resident of Greeley one year immediately prior to the election (and resident of Ward for 90 days for Ward candidates)
• Completed Nomination Petition signed by at least 25 registered electors residing in the city of Greeley and within Ward for Ward candidates

So, basically, anyone who has been in Greeley for a year, hasn’t been in jail, is old enough to buy beer and can get 25 neighbors to sign a petition can run for City Council. How cool is that?

If any of you out there see this and want to throw your hat in the ring, remember, Greeley Elections is more than glad to print any news, statements or comments that you want to send us. Let’s make November 2007 the best election year EVER!

In case you missed this week’s down meetings, here is the schedule for the rest of the year:

Ward 3 will be May 22, Ward 4 on Aug. 28 and Ward 2 is scheduled for Oct. 23. All meetings are at 5:30 p.m., and locations for the meetings will be announced at a later date.

During yesterday’s Town Meeting, local resident, Nancy Menard complained about lack of ‘code enforcement’ in her neighborhood.

Nancy’s comments prompted this response from Councilman Don Feldhaus

Feldhaus said in April, the council will discuss new ways the city can deal with absentee landlords who don’t care about the property they rent out. One option includes requiring all landlords to register with the city.

So the best solution is to have landlords ‘register’ like sex offenders? There is no mention of which code is being enforced, or why the city would want landlords to register. Private property ownership is a matter of public record, why is additional beauracy needed, can’t the city just lookup the County records?

Greeley City Council changed qualifications for new and expanding businesses to recieve tax and fee waivers

new businesses and existing ones creating jobs will have to pay full-time employees the Weld average wage to qualify for the fee waiver. For the second quarter of 2006 — the most recent data filed with the Colorado Department of Labor — the average wage in Weld was $649 per week. That is approximately $34,268 per year.

The Greeley City Council are working on their goals for 2007.

For comparison, here is a list of the Council’s 2006 goals.

What do you think the city council should have for goals this year?

In response to concerns by local home builders, the Greeley City Council has decided to postpone raising impact fees on new construction.

John DeWitt of the Greeley Area Realtor Association questioned why the council proposed the fees at the time it did.

“Higher impact fees can have a devastating impact on new home sales,” DeWitt said.

Greeley City Council is looking to allocate almost a million dollars to repair roads damaged during recent winter storms.

The Council is also looking at raising fees on new housing developments in Greeley - a questionable move in a soft housing market…