On Jan. 25, Bluffton's council okayed a request from its board of zoning appeals to allow the Bluffton Hospital to construction a garage across from the hospital on Garau Street.
On the surface it may not appear to be major action, but it is another step in the hospital's renovation and expansion that should take place this year.
The action was required because the land in question needed to move from residential to commercial zoning. The complete minutes from the hearing on the zoning change request are found in the Bluffton council tab in The Icon.
BOARD OF ZONING AND APPEALS MINUTES
Date: December 14, 2009
(These minutes were published in the Jan. 22, 2010 Bluffton council packet)
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Location: 218 S. Main Street
BZA: Bill Gable, Gordon Diller, and John Harbison
Administration: Nancy Benroth
Petitioner: Sean & JoLynn Burrell, and Meg Burrell
The legal notice was published in the Bluffton News on December 3, 2009.
Letters were sent to all the property owners within 200 feet of all property lines.
As bad as 2009 was, the Village of Bluffton's budget dodged the financial bullet in the year just past.
According to Nancy Kindle, village fiscal officer, Bluffton's cash balances decreased by $295,008 in 2009. The streetscape program was completed at a cost of $230,244 and $600,000 of the town hall debt was retired. Those figures were revealed at the Jan. 11 council meeting - the first meeting of 2010.
It appears 2010 is a "breather" year for the Village of Blfufton budget. Bluffton council okayed its 2010 budget on Dec. 28. The general fund total is $2,138,316. That's lower than the 2009 general fund budget of $2,331,215.
