MTZ Village Board approves ordinance for commercial zoning

By Blake Faith
The Mt. Zion Village Board approved an ordinance and special use permit for a new diesel vehicle repair shop that heard some citizen concerns.
Prior to the vote of the ordinance, three citizens came up and discussed why they didn’t want the new business shouldn’t be at that location. The location is around a residential area so concerns came such as noise, dangerous fumes and more traffic coming into the area.
The location will be at 640 North State Highway 121. The vote came at 4-0 as both Mayor Luke Williams and Kevin Fritzche abstained from the vote and discussion.
The plan is for the owner to construct a 60’ x 104’ building on the west side of the property. The owner will have to construct an engineering plan and will be required to follow all Village ordinances.
The fiscal year 2022 budget was also voted on and approved. The document was first discussed at the November meeting.
The 2022 budget was presented by Mt. Zion Village Administrator Julie Miller. The general fund beginning balance is $2.4 million. The funds are being dispersed between different departments on different expenditures.
The administrative department project is a crack seal and restripe the parking lot in front of the Mt. Zion Convention Center.
For the police department the focus will be on equipment such as body cameras and all new radios and associated equipment. The amount for that is estimated at $97,000. The police department is going to skip out on purchasing a new squad car this year. The staffing for the police department Cher let has one opening.
For the street department, there will be grant funds after the balance of the comacaat project will be used on the east side sanitary relief project. For parks and recreation, the plan is to get a utility vehicle for Fletcher Park and two commercial grade push mowers that is estimated at $22,000.
For the Convention Center, it will be to transfer out a bond payment of $95,000 (mortgage). The payment is two of 15.
Other actions approved at the Mt. Zion Village Board Meeting included:
-The approval of the Five-Year Capital Improvement Plan.
The Mt. Zion Village Board will meet next in January.