The Belleville Downtown Development Authority and the Belleville city council have taken steps to heal what many residents feel is a growing schism between the two boards.
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City councilman George Chedraue penned the resolution to support the DDA and read it at Monday night's city council meeting.
"The Belleville city council is the governing body for all of the residents of the City of Belleville and requests that residents and business people serve on the DDA," he read.
"The DDA is comprised of (people) who have an interest in the well being of the city and whereas the DDA wishes to follow its mandate and support the businesses within the DDA district, invest it's finances, promote economic growth and recruit and retain businesses within its downtown district."
The DDA has taken formal steps so as to improve the infrastructure within the downtown district and has set goals and priorities to improve and enhance the DDA district as needed.
"Whereas, the DDA, in the recent past, made good faith efforts to enact plans for the improvement of the downtown district," Chedraue said.
"After numerous consultations, with all of the parties, that being the city council, the DDA, and the businesses within the downtown district and professional personnel i.e. engineers, bond counsel, contractors etc., a decision was made to have several alternative plans prepared for the enhancement of the downtown district."
The improvements include the replacement of the water main and paving of Main Street, the streetscape of Main and South Streets and the improvement of Fourth Street Square as well as side street paving improvements.
"The above mentioned improvements are intended to be an asset to our downtown businesses and to the City at large," Chedraue said.
"The businesses, in both the downtown district and the rest of our community are important for the survival of
of the City and he surrounding communities."
Chedraue stressed the enhancement of the downtown district is of the utmost priority for the survival of Belleville.
"The aforementioned project is an important issue facing the businesses and their survival during this difficult time," he said.
"It is also important these businesses and issues be discussed.
"It is an understood reality that hardship for all business within the downtown district and economic hard times could be faced by all the businesses therein."
Chedraue concluded, "The citizens of this community have been asking for a long period of time to have Main Street repaired and city council has to heed the voice of its citizens."
Chedraue feels that the DDA has decided to repair Main Street in an efficient, expedited and cost conscious manner, and that the city council will support and adopt the recommendations that the DDA has made.
The city council voted 3-1 to approve the resolution officially supporting the DDA.
The DDA recently agreed in a similar statement to work closely with the city council.
"The DDA passed a resolution mirroring this one," fellow councilman James Shrove said.
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