Council Meeting

The goals, which council members brainstormed during their retreat last weekend, are geared toward prioritizing which issues the council will address in the coming year.

Council members narrowed down a list of about 100 goals to 11 main categories, which were created to encompass similar interests.

The main categories created included increasing the presence of police officials in the Northside neighborhood, determining how to handle the potential Weaver Dairy Road expansion and managing the town's transit system.

Within the categories, council members voted on which specific issues they considered to be the most important.

The issues chosen included a wide variety of topics from how the town plans to manage parking to how next year's Halloween festivities should run.

Moderator Andy Sachs of the Dispute Settlement Center told the council members that -- in the interest of time -- the issues should be voted on but not discussed in great detail.

Members voted by a show of hands.

The list of goals the council generated determines its priorities for the upcoming year and how it will spend meeting time that remains unscheduled.

But council member Edith Wiggins said she is skeptical about the amount of time town officials could spend working on the new goals.

"I always have that in the back of my mind," Wiggins said. "I need to keep in mind staff time."

Mayor Kevin Foy agreed that time is a concern but said he didn't think it would be a problem.

"We can't load up the staff with too much to do, but I don't think we're going to do that," Foy said.

Foy said he would take on the responsibility of adding more topics to the list should they arise.

Foy also said he will consider the previous council's goals as a way to judge which ones this year's council should pursue.

Once the council's list of goals is finalized, Town Manager Cal Horton will incorporate them into the council's agenda as time permits.

But Foy said the votes taken at the work session are not final.

Foy also said discussion on the matters will be held once Horton creates an agenda.

The time frame on the goals has not been set.

"What we're trying to do is give the manager direction, and he'll turn it into an action plan."

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