Talk about aesthetics

From the sound of things, some Monroe city councilpeople are following up on the idea that ex-mayor Iaco expressed some time ago -- that there might be too many Habitat for Humanity homes being concentrated in one part of the city. Question were raised at the last meeting about the aesthetics of the homes and whether some of the residents minded having the homes in the neighborhood. Hats off (no pun intended) to Councilwoman Conner and Councilman McGhee for raising the issue.
However, on the list of what might be important to Precinct 3 residents, how come nobody has said boo about Monroe Bank and Trust shutting down its branch on Winchester?
Maybe I missed it, but doesn't it seem like that would matter more to residents there than what the Habitat homes might look like? I would think closing the bank would have more of an impact on the neighborhood than building three more Habitat homes.
Hey, what bank does the city use for its deposits?

Catching up

Been under the weather lately but all through my illness a nagging question has been weighing on me.
I didn't see the last city council meeting, but then I saw the story in the Monroe Snooze about how the city decided not to take away all the tax breaks that were granted to the Monroe Ford plant that's shutting down. I don't have a strong opinion on whether they should or shouldn't pull the string on those tax breaks. Here's what I can't figure out. How is it that a mostly brand new city council decides an issue involving $5 million in tax breaks to a company that's eliminating a bunch of jobs and no one says boo about it? Even if you fully understood why that might be done, don't you figure you owed your constituents an explanation? According to the Snooze, it wasn't even discussed, but was passed as part of the consent agenda and apparently no one even asked that it be pulled.
Maybe it was fully discussed in some other meeting, or maybe it was part of a deal made by a previous council. Maybe I'll have an ordinary citizen pose that question at the next meeting, unless someone can explain it to me before then.

Get well soon, mayor. Real soon.

Mark Worrell, the mayor of Monroe, had heart bypass surgery. If this guy didn't have bad luck when it comes to his health, he'd have no luck at all.
Hope he makes a speedy recovery, but sure hope he doesn't push himself to come back faster than he needs to.
Come to think of it, he might. I guess I would claw my way back if I had left things in the hands of the mayor pro tem.

Just a question

Does anyone know if businesses can contract with the city to clear their walks of snow?
I ask because I saw a city snow sweeper machine clear a sidewalk in front of a business and not clear the adjacent businesses. I would like to think that this is because of a contract between the business and the city and not because the business owner might have some special connections to the city.
This was in the downtown area but I'm not about to name names.