Volunteers sought for Washington boards
Washington’s mayor issued a plea for volunteers for a number of the city’s boards at Monday’s council meeting.
The planning commission, civil service and zoning hearing boards are among the boards in need of members, said Mayor Scott Putnam. The Washington-East Washington Joint Authority will have upcoming vacancies, and there is also need for some business owners to sit on the Washington Business District Authority board.
“We’re just looking to maybe get some new blood into these boards, fill some vacancies and help out our volunteers,” Putnam said following the meeting.
Applications are available at the city clerk’s office and on the city’s website.
Shana Brown, Main Street manager for the Washington Business District Authority, told council a number of events are planned for the rest of the year and more new businesses are locating in the city.
One of those businesses is Masala House Indian Bistro, which held a ribbon cutting at its 57 W. Chestnut St. location Tuesday.
“Other than that, we do have a couple of new businesses that are slated to come in,” Brown said. “Out of respect for them, I’m going to wait for them to do their announcement because they’re super excited. We love the fact they’re happy to be here and excited to make these announcements. It’s always good to see new businesses and we have no shortage of those.”
Brown did say one of the new businesses is expected to be open by Dec. 1, the day of the city’s Christmas parade, with others to follow in early 2024.
Along with the parade, upcoming events include the Creativity Crawl on North Main Street on Oct. 14; Pup-Tober on Oct. 27 at the Lemoyne House Gardens, and Small Business Saturday on Nov. 25.
Brown said applications for the parade went out to past participants Monday and be sent to the public Friday.
“Within a half an hour, we had 20 applicants,” Brown said.
City Council is also expected to take action at Thursday’s agenda meeting on the Stone Pavilion rehabilitation project. One of the action items will be to consider committing money to be determined in match funding and another to approve a resolution in support of application to the Washington County Local Share County program for a grant for the project.
Councilman Andrew Callan explained that the project involves the floor of the pavilion at Washington Park, which is “chipping apart.”
“It’s not safe to walk and it’s not ADA-compliant, so we want to try to get that rectified,” Callan said.