WHITEHALL — Whitehall City Council member Tanya Cabala voiced concerns over the lack of housing available in Whitehall at Tuesday’s council meeting. Cabala has voiced concerns regarding this topic at past city council meetings, but she wants to take action soon on providing more housing.
Council member Scott Brown said he dislikes the lack of communication between Tax Increment Finance Authority (TIFA) and city council. This was brought into question by the city’s decision to buy out Big John’s Pizza.
“There are a lot of big-ticket items TIFA decides to spend on that I don’t agree with,” Brown said. “Everything that gets added into the TIFA district is another taxpayer that isn’t putting any money into the general fund. The only thing we vote on for TIFA is approving their budget. For other boards we approve any bids and other things. TIFA doesn’t have to bring it to us for approval, and I don’t think that’s right. Two or three people on the TIFA board don’t even reside in the city. I don’t think we should be adding people to the board who aren’t residents of the City of Whitehall.”
Council member Tom Ziemer agreed with Brown’s concerns. He said he sees too much money not going to the general fund, especially with the growing complaints from Whitehall residents regarding getting the sidewalks and streets fixed.
City Manager Scott Huebler explained the Local Development Finance Authority is set to expire at the end of the year and recommended the city council discuss what the future will look like for that board and those associated with it at future meetings.
At the last meeting June 27, Cabala talked about her concerns over the city’s emergency weather notification system. She said she did not hear sirens sound during the storm a couple of weeks ago. Huebler said the city abandoned the sirens as the city’s main form of severe weather alert due to the high cost of maintaining them and their “lack of effectiveness.” Council member Jeff Holmstrom said there have been multiple ideas drafted regarding severe weather alerts over the years that never came to fruition. At the previous meeting, Cabala suggested starting something similar to the City of Montague’s “TextMyGov” program that was introduced a month ago, allowing city officials to send out reminders to all enrolled residents. This could include severe weather notifications.
