Doug Lindner

SOLON– A plan to renovate the former St. Mary Catholic Church auditorium into a mix of commercial and residential uses has been approved by the Solon City Council.
Council members voted 4-0 in favor of a revised concept plan for Solon Lofts and Commons at a special meeting Dec. 14, but included a requirement that developers work with the city’s engineer and building inspector to follow the appropriate building codes for varied commercial uses.

SOLON– The cost of the city’s contract with the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office (JCSO) is going up by about $3,500.
The sheriff’s office currently provides 34 hours of weekly law enforcement to the City of Solon at a cost of $41 per hour. That hourly cost will increase $2 an hour, to $43, beginning in July 2017.
It was not unexpected news.
The sheriff’s office instituted a policy of increasing its hourly rates every other year and, with that understanding, the city upped the number of contract hours from 32 to 34 last year.

SOLON– It will take Solon to a whole new level.
Bids for the construction of a 400,000-gallon water tank at the Solon Recreation and Nature Area will be awarded next month.
The project, originally expected to start in the spring of 2016, will now get underway a year later, with completion sometime in the fall of 2017.
The ground storage reservoir (GSR) will triple the capacity of the city’s municipal water storage, currently limited to a single 200,000-gallon water tower.

SOLON– Growth means more people and more people means more vehicles.
And in the Fox Ridge subdivision on the city’s south side, vehicle parking has become an issue.
Council member Steve Duncan, a resident of the subdivision, has consistently expressed concern about the parking habits of contractors and of some businesses in the neighborhood.
At an Oct. 19 council meeting, small changes in the subdivision’s street layout were approved in hopes of providing a solution.

SOLON– Dale Snipes didn’t realize how much he missed being on the Solon City Council.
Snipes, 59, was appointed to the council in February 2015 and stood for election in November of that year. But when the hours of his employment changed, he made the decision to step down, and his letter of resignation was accepted July 7.
Afterward, he received comments from citizens expressing regret about his move, something he called “humbling.”