Second AmeriCorps team set to arrive here after the New Year

Not long after the AmeriCorps team that’s currently staying in Holton has left for its next work area, another team will be arriving to take its place, the Holton City Commission learned on Monday.

Tom Bishop, president and CEO of Holton’s Homestead Affordable Housing, told commissioners that another team from AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps) will be arriving in Holton in early January for a three-month stay. A team of 11 AmeriCorps volunteers currently in Holton are scheduled to leave on Friday, Dec. 18, Bishop said.

“They’ll be doing a lot of the same things that the young people here have been doing,” Bishop told commissioners. “There’s all kinds of things they do in the community. We’ve been blessed to have them, and we hope the next group will be just as good.”

AmeriCorps NCCC members are young men and women, 18 to 24 years old, representing a wide variety of socio-economic, cultural, geographic and educational backgrounds, it was reported. Team members earn their place on an NCCC team through demonstrating a commitment to serve their community, develop practical skills and put forward a year of hard work “to make the nation stronger,” according to AmeriCorps.

The AmeriCorps team came to Holton via a grant sought by Homestead to have participants in the program perform community service tasks, such as helping senior citizens get moved into the Prairie View Senior Residences complex at the south edge of the city or building boat ramps at Banner Creek Reservoir, Bishop noted.

“Each of these young people have committed a year, but they serve in four different locations,” he said. “This group that’s here now is either going to Arizona or Texas for its next assignment.”

Commissioners told Bishop they would like to meet with AmeriCorps team members presently in Holton to express appreciation for their service here before they leave for their next assignment. Bishop said he would also arrange to have members of the next team attend a commission meeting after they arrive.

In other business on Monday, commissioners approved an ordinance rezoning property located along the south side of First Street near Pennsylvania Avenue from single-family residential (R-1 zoning) to two-family residential (R-2 zoning) for possible construction of new duplexes for senior citizens near the Prairie View Senior Residences housing complex.

Bishop said the development of Prairie View, a project of Homestead Affordable Housing, has received a “tremendous response” from area senior citizens who have expressed a desire to move into one of the 32 housing units there. However, he noted, “some folks who really want to be there make too much money,” since funding requirements limit tenants’ income to 60 percent or less of the area’s median income.

Seven lots located along First that are part of the Oak Brook Subdivision, part of which includes Prairie View, had been set aside for a Homestead housing program for single families that had not taken off. Bishop said some of those lots could still be used for that program if there is any interest.

“I can’t tell you today whether that’s going to be one duplex and the rest, single family homes, or seven duplexes for 14 people,” he added. “But it will be filled up with people who want to own them.”

Regardless of what is built on those seven lots, Bishop told commissioners, those properties would be “open market units” that are placed on the city property tax roll, unlike housing units in the Prairie View complex. 

Commissioners also:

* Approved minutes from their Nov. 16 meeting and budget appropriations made since that meeting.

* Approved a bid of $138,544 from Havens Construction of Liberty, Mo. for sewer line improvement work (see related story).

* Approved ordinances adopting updated versions of the Standard Traffic Ordinance and the Uniform Public Offense Code for the city.

* Heard a request from Bauer for names of Holton residents as possible recipients of Sitzler Fund disbursements for this holiday season. Such disbursements go toward paying the utility bills of people in need during the season, it was reported.

* Heard a reminder from Bauer about the city’s Christmas residential lighting contest, nominations for which are being received through Wednesday, Dec. 23.

* Heard a comment from Brenner about the need for placement of speed limit signs through the Holton Industrial Park.

* Heard a comment from Brenner about parking violations on the south side of Holton’s Town Square, mainly involving vehicles that take up two parking spaces. He asked police to continue to monitor the situation.

* Adjourned the meeting at approximately 7:40 p.m. All commissioners were present.