City employees recognized for their hard work

ATASCADERO—At the start of the Tuesday, Aug. 13, City Council meeting, city employees were recognized for their hard work in making Atascadero the place we know and love.

“It is a joy to recognize our best asset, and that is our people. These incredible people we are recognizing tonight with service awards,” said City Manager Jim Lewis before he called up each employee and introduced them.

Accounting specialist Krys Clark and Police Officer Robert Hammer were both honored for five years of service to Atascadero. Police Sgt. Samuel Rodriguez was recognized for his 10 years working with the city. To finish off the honors, Operations Manager Timm Cleaver was awarded for his 20 years working for the City of Atascadero.

Police Chief Dan Suttles then addressed the council with a Community Cleanliness Update. In the update, he went over a newly proposed Shopping Cart Ordinance.

“With the shopping carts, what we’re asking tonight is the consideration of adopting an ordinance,” Suttles said. “Essentially, the purpose behind an ordinance for shopping carts is to regulate and prohibit the unauthorized removal of shopping carts from retail establishments as well as to regulate the retrieval and disposition of abandoned shopping carts.” 

The new ordinance will include a mandate that establishments with 10 or more shopping carts create a containment and retrieval plan in collaboration with APD and put an identification placard on each cart pertaining to the business.

The identification placards will help with impounding the carts and giving establishments a three-day notice when one of their carts is found off-premises. The placards also give APD and businesses who own the carts the authority to handle carts used to hold personal property and abandoned items. As before, people in the area will be notified of the belongings within the cart 24 hours before being deemed officially abandoned. The ordinance would also allow for a $50 administrative fine per occurrence if the establishment has more than three occurrences over a six-month period. 

Suttles also brought forth Graffiti Abatement as part of the item.

“Our plan is, we reached out to all of the groups that provide services, such as Kiwanis and Rotary. We reached out to retailers that sell materials for painting, and we asked if they’re interested and if there’s an interest in bringing back a volunteer program. And there was an enthusiastic response that we got, and everybody was very much into that idea,” stated Suttles on getting help from the community with the abatement.

The motion passed with the removal of vehicles used to remove said carts needing to show they are attached to the business that owns the shopping cart.

Community Development Director Phil Dunsmore then addressed the council with the item Centennial Plaza Proposals and Selection. 

“I know this project or this process has been taking some time, but good things do take time to develop, and we are making great strides with this effort,” stated Dunsmore.

The Centennial Plaza will be located across from City Hall, which leads to the Centennial Plaza Bridge, which will be located on lots the city has already purchased.

The selected proposal brought forth to the council is a collaboration between architect Herrera and potential owner Weyrick. There was also a second design proposal to choose from, but it did not meet all the design standards that had been requested in the same way as the Herrera/Weyrick proposal.

“This wouldn’t be the final step tonight; your action tonight would be, that is, the proposal we would like to select,” said Dunsmore. “If you do select them (Herrera/Weyrick), our next step would be to work with them on the final design, a purchase agreement, and a development agreement that would come back to you.”

The council unanimously chose the Herrera/Weyrick team as the project’s preferred candidate going forward. 

The next Atascadero City Council meeting will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 10, at 6 p.m.