It wasn’t planned that way, but the city’s top elected official, looking for parity in representing both sides of a proposed ban on smoking in the workplace, reflected a day after on the evenness presented from speakers during Monday’s City Council meeting.
The Rolla Daily News will host a municipal, school and hospital board of trustees candidate forum at the Multipurpose Room of the Phelps County Courthouse at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 1.
The City Council meeting Monday was unlike any in months for duration and controversy as a parade of speakers addressed the board on the pros and cons of a workplace smoking ban and a plan to fund parking in the Arts District drew criticism and one panelist walked out of the meeting.
For 1 hour, 35 minutes, 20 persons took to the podium and addressed City Council members on the wisdom of passing, or not, of the proposed workplace smoking ordinance. There were no limits placed on speakers — but equity prevailed — as an equal number of proponents and opponents addressed the council.
Rolla Street Department workers Tim Feeler, left, and Kyle Pinkston stand with two new trucks the city recently purchased for the department. The white Chevrolet 3500 1-ton is a utility truck that Feeler, a foreman, will drive. The larger truck, an International, is a 54,000-pound tandem-axle dump truck capable of hauling 15-tons of materials. It is rigged with a snow plow and a spreader in the rear. Feeler, a 20-year employee of the Street Department, joked this is the first new truck he’s had in his tenure. Pinkston is a traffic technician. The trucks cost $29,498 and $132,498 respectively.
Construction is set to begin this month on the first building of a planned research park on the Missouri University of Science and Technology campus.
Called Innovation Park, the facility will be located on the campus’ southwest corner. Missouri S&T recently awarded the design-build construction contract for the first building to Brinkmann Constructors. A Brinkmann construction trailer has been on-site for more than a week.
It wasn’t planned that way, but the city’s top elected official, looking for parity in representing both sides of a proposed ban on smoking in the workplace, reflected a day after on the evenness presented from speakers during Monday’s City Council meeting.
