Tuesday night Huntingburg City Attorney Phil Schneider told the Huntingburg Common Council he recently reviewed a potential amendment he says is needed for the city’s current firearms and weapons ordinance.
Before the council motioned for the city attorney to draft repeals to gun ordinances which prohibits the use of a firearm on Huntingburg lake property, Schneider explained that with or without Huntingburg’s ordinance the state still has regulations in place to prohibit recklessness behavior when firearms are in use.
This means that the current ordinance that indicates firearms are not allowed to be used within city limits, is not parallel and considered to be in conflict with state law.
During a discussion between council members and Schneider it was learned that according to the state, firearm regulation should not be carried out individually by each city.
Huntingburg Mayor Denny Spinner further explains recommendations from Schneider in regards to the potential amendment or repeal of firearm regulations discussed with the council.
Spinner adds that the council wants to take the best approach as far as where state law does supersede local law.
He says the tasks for the council was to review the ordinances and for Schneider to draft repeals towards the local ordinances, the issue was tabled and will be looked at further at the next council meeting.
OTHER BUSINESS
In other business Tuesday night the Huntingburg City Council agreed to give Mayor Denny Spinner the ability to submit an application to the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs for funding for the Market Street Park Stellar project.
The resolution approves the local match of just over 1 and a half million dollars for the park. The local match is made up of a quarter million dollars in Economic Development Income Tax funds, a million dollars from Tax Increment Finance funds, over 286-thousand dollars from the Stellar Endowment on hold at the Dubois County Community Foundation. 25-thousand dollars worth of services will be provided by the city’s Electric Department.
The council also rescheduled a public hearing that was supposed to be held regarding a tax abatement for the Indiana Municipal Power Agency’s solar park project along Phoenix Drive on the north side of Huntingburg.
The hearing was rescheduled because it was not properly advertised in the city’s paper of records due to a clerical error.
The hearing is rescheduled for 7 pm on May 10th at Huntingburg City Hall.
The council approved the hiring of Kyle Smith and Jonathan Villanueva, both of Huntingburg, to the Huntingburg volunteer fire department by Fire Chief Scott Patberg. Smith and Villanueva’s appointments will raise the department’s number of members to 27.
UTILITIES BUSINESS
Also on Tuesday the council listened to Water Superintendent Gregg Miller as he explained trouble he was having in regards to finding a qualified water plant operator to come to Huntingburg as a full-time employee.
Miller explained he would like to keep the plant operating on an extended schedule to provide water for the city rather than purchasing water from the Patoka Lake Regional Water and Sewer District.
