Belleville City Council approves art street banners, bass sculptures

The Belleville Area Council for the Arts presented two new ways to display art in the community and the Belleville City Council unanimously approved both proposals at its zoom meeting on Monday.
The Art Street Banners are custom art banners funded by the arts council. The work of local artists will be placed on Main Street light poles during the months of August, September, and October.
Steve Jones, president of the chamber of commerce and member of BACA, explained that the banners will contain artwork of community artists in a formatted banner and will be used to promote the annual art show.
The council also approved placing five to ten bass sculptures throughout the city. The arts council also is funding the sculptures which will be about 4’ tall and sit on a solid base. They will be painted by local artists off the site and then moved into place.
Jones said this was an idea in progress from different community members who had seen bears, frogs, pigs and other sculptures across the country. He said they looked at what would be the right sculpture for Belleville and decided it would be Belleville Bass.
He said they will put QR codes on them to be incorporated in scavenger hunts and Pokemon stops and other games. He said it would bring people from out of town by geocashing and geofencing. He said a clear overcoating will keep them nice and they can be redone after several years.
Jones said they will have fun designs and people can take photos with them.
“A nice addition to the community,” Jones said.
Acting City Manager/Police Chief Dave Robinson and Department of Public Service Director Rick Rutherford will work with the project to make sure the sculpture placement doesn’t block anything and that the sculptures’ art works are not offensive.
Also, the placement of the fish sculptures will be coordinated with the Downtown Development Authority which will be placing its leased sculptures around the DDA district in May.
Mayor Conley said maybe they should flesh out some guidelines about what happens if the sculptures are damaged or vandalized. She suggested Jones work out a process with the administration.
Councilman Tom Fielder said the DDA sculptures change locations and the committee, on which he serves, will be putting one by the library this year.
“Seems inappropriate they have stepped up after the DDA has done this for 8 to 10 years,” Councilman Fielder said. “I’m not sure we should dictate where the fish would go. We’re being very arbitrary saying this is where the bass should go… A shame to say to these folks you guys are inconsequential.”
“We didn’t say that,” said Councilwoman Kelly Bates.
Voigt said the bass sculptures can be approved with a caveat that the city manager will coordinate placement.
“With everything we do we try to be cooperative with other groups,” Councilwoman Bates said.
The city council also approved the placement of veterans’ banners on the Main Street light poles in November, December, and January. The banners are self-funded and Councilwoman Bates is chairperson of the project, which will be in its second year.
Councilwoman Bates said they had great feedback on the veterans’ banners last year and most took the banners and picked them up. The money raised in the project goes to fund the city’s care of the Veterans’ Memorial.
When Mayor Conley asked if the banners will interfere with the holiday decorations put up by the DDA, Councilman Ken Voigt said they wouldn’t interfere because they are on different poles.
In other business at Monday’s one-hour-and-nine-minute meeting, the council:
• Approved adding the position of Deputy City Administrator and posting the position until someone is hired for the post. Robinson said he spoke with Alicia McGovern, chairperson of the DDA, and she will assist him in the interview process to develop questions on economic development, which is a portion of the job description;
• Approved renewing a contract under the same terms until August 2023 with Hydro Corp for cross-connection/backflow inspection for water operations;
• Approved paying not to exceed $3,750 to Hennessey Engineers to prepare a Risk & Resilience Assessment, a new requirement by the Environmental Protection Agency. The America’s Water Infrastructure Act was signed into law in 2018 and requires community drinking water systems serving more than 3,300 people to develop or update risk assessments and emergency response plans;
• Approved accounts payable of $98,627.13 and the following purchases in excess of $500: to Mueller Co., LLC, $2,766.50 for annual maintenance, Water Dept.; to Hennessey Engineers, $8,742 from VB Schools escrow fund for review/inspection of the Early Childhood Center, Dept. Public Services; to Everbridge, Inc., $2,600 for Nixle engagement, Police Dept./Water Dept.; and to Blue Ribbon Contracting, $3,800 to replace curb stop leak which caused sink hole at 85 S. Liberty St., Water Dept.;
• Heard Councilman Voigt say the county has been out scoping out the Belleville Bridge for repairs and Harbour Pointe streets are in rough shape and the city has to take some kind of action. The repairs from three years ago have broken down. Mayor Conley said people were against the proposed special assessment for the project and she has been talking with federal and state officials about infrastructure help for small communities. “The alternative is to do nothing and that is not acceptable,” Councilman Voigt said; and
• Heard Councilman Tom Fielder complain about not having enough background information on the art banners, the bass sculptures and the veterans’ banners. Acting City Manager/Police Chief Robinson said he would write a document to cover every banner that goes up.