Published: November 03, 2009 11:46 am      

Sweeney named to Ada City Council

Ada — Shane Sweeney was named the new Ada councilman to fill the vacant Ward II seat left vacant by Charlie Vest during the summer.

Ada City Council voted unanimously to appoint Sweeney to the seat during Monday evening’s city council meeting. Judge Jim Kemp was present to administer the oath of office.

Mayor Roger Cupps, Vice Mayor Dick Scalf and Councilmembers Barbara Young and Darrell Nemecek needed little discussion as Sweeney is well known in the community — “homegrown,” as one councilmember said.

After Sweeney settled into his seat to Young’s right, council got down to business.

An item on the agenda was a new building at Ada Municipal Airport to be used by Ada Aircraft Painting, LLC, for the expansion of its business. The proposed building is to be paid for by a USDA Rural Development matching grant in the amount of $480,000.

However, the only action council was to take on the item Monday evening was to approve the application for the grant.

“This is just approval to file the application,” City Manager David Hathcoat said.” He said that who will make the matching funds, which will be 25 percent, has not been determined and this will again appear before council before anything is built.

Ada Jobs Foundation CEO Mike Southard said the application had to be submitted by the end of the year.

Before a vote was taken, Young and Scalf wanted to ensure that the city would not be obligated to anything, but to only apply for the grant. Southard reassured council the vote would only be for the application process.

“Are we far enough along to know that this would be a free standing structure set apart from everything else?” Young said.

Southard said it would be away from other buildings.

In city manager’s reports, Parks Director Randy McFarlin said the Splash Parks that are under construction are near completion and will be ready to open in the spring.

“That’ll be really nice next spring,” he said. Security fences will be built around the parks once the rest of the construction is complete.

City Engineer Cody Holcomb said he is resubmitting the Crazy Corner redesign this week and a polycarts special called meeting is planned for around the first of December.

Holcomb said the alley project between Main Street and 10th Street between Rennie and Townsend is nearing completion and looks much better than what was there before the work began in August. He said the next project he expects to begin is Main Street between Center Street and Mississippi Ave.