The Vandalia City Council on Monday night approved an agreement with Small Town Solutions for consulting services that will address housing and revitalization as well as blight in the city. Small Town Solutions owner and Principal Consultant Alexander Benishek was on hand for the meeting to address the council and he explained how his work would help the city establish and implement a management plan and in his proposal says the goal is to reduce blight in the city and establish mapping and revitalization in the city focused on housing including working with the “Fast Track” demolition process. Benishek says surveys currently show that Vandalia has about 310 vacant homes and there is a lot of potential in the city.
There are many steps to the revitalization plan including getting the community involved and then taking steps such as mapping that would assess the quality of all homes in the community. When it comes to getting rid of blighted homes in need of demolition, Mayor Doug Knebel asked Beshinek to explain how his process differs from the process the city uses now.
With the city being trained on the fast track demolition process and going that route, alderman Bob Bowen wrapped up discussion on the topic saying he feels this will have the city ahead money in the end after they go through the training and are able to use the streamlined process.
The council members in attendance approved the resolution approving the agreement by a vote of 4-1 with aldermen Russ Stunkel voting no and alderman Mike Hobler, Ken Hubler, Bret Brosman and Bob Bowen all voting in favor of the agreement.
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