The Ava City Council met in regular session on Tuesday, Sept. 14.
During the public comments portion of the meeting, Craig Carter of the Douglas County Community Foundation spoke about a proposed walking/jogging trail from the new Missouri Ozarks Community Health (MOCH) wellness center to the Ava City Park trail.
Carter was inquiring if the city is in support of moving the plan forward.
The trail would pass through city property, which Mayor Leon Harris said is already kept up with brush-hogging.
The DCCF and the city discussed applying for a recreational trails grant through the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.
The city had previously, in 2004, applied for a grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health for a similar project, but the grant wasn’t received.
Carter said most people that the DCCF has spoke to would like the trail to be more of a nature trail, and therefore a peat gravel or Bentonite surface would be first considered.
The trail would have to include one footbridge over the creek, and Carter mentioned the possibility of having one of the local agriculture classes build one, or having some other type of community involvement.
The council voted to look into the DNR grant for the purpose of building a walking trail.
Peggy Porter, administrative director, said in her report that the city is currently in the middle of an audit and that it is going well.
Janice Lorrain, director of planning & development, gave the council three rezoning ordinances, all of which were approved.
All three ordinances were for properties located on South Jefferson, and changed the properties from B-2 (central business district) to B-3 (general business district).
The properties were: 611 S. Jefferson, owned by Phyllis Bloomer, 517 S. Jefferson, owned by the Federation of Egalitarian Communities, Inc., and 603 S. Jefferson, owned by Thomas and Betty Zurkowski.
Council members present were: Billy Long, Judy Lovan, Burrely Loftin and Ric Engelhardt.
The next council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 28 at 5 p.m. in City Hall.
