The Sedalia City Council met last night (Sept. 23) in the first floor council chamber of City Hall for a work session in order to make room for the large crowd of Sedalia citizens who attended the meeting that covered three contentious subjects.

Sedalia Public Works Director Bill Beck gave a presentation on the subject of 4-way stop signs at 10th and Winchester, a location that does not meet the criteria for that type of traffic control according to the manual the city follows. Several council members and citizens rose to voice their opinions on the subject, but with no clear direction from the council, the matter was continued until the city council meeting on the Oct. 21 to give council members more time to study the matter.

The second topic was the ordinance related to Certificates of Inspections for downtown commercial buildings. Sedalia Community Development Director John Simmons gave a presentation on the proposed ordinance, which was hotly debated by residents and business owners from downtown Sedalia. While Simmons stressed the reason for the inspections were for safety purposes, and would not address cosmetic items, some building owners felt the inspections would be an intrusion. That debate led the council to table the ordinance for further study by council and city staff. The ordinance was crafted with the help of

The final topic came during the “Good and Welfare" segment of the meeting. A long line of citizens and bar owners approached the microphone to give the council an earful on the smoking ban ordinance, which they said has caused them to lose business. A few of those who voiced their disapproval and pleas for the council to rescind the ordinance were people who said their jobs have either been lost or are in danger of being lost due to the decrease of revenue.

The meeting which started at 5:45 in the evening lasted over two and a half hours as the mayor and council allowed everyone to have their say. After the meeting KSIS had the opportunity to talk to Mayor Horn and Sedalia Public Works Director Bill Beck. You can hear those interviews below.

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