Four members appointed to Ronan study commission

Ronan Mayor Chris Adler appointed volunteers Chuck Holman, Rebecca Galiazzi, Niko Jackson and Noah McDonald as members of the voter-approved study commission tasked with looking at Ronan’s city government.

As per statute, Adler also called the first meeting for immediately following the council meeting.

In other business, Dan Miller, Ronan’s director of public works, said he’s working with an engineer on three projects.

The first is a design for the Third Avenue walking path, which was already designed for the original Highway 93 project and needs tweaking so that it’s shovel ready.

The second project, using the same grant, is to fund a document to acquire money to create a non-motorized travel plan by patching in missing blocks. Miller said there are 11 paths already in place, but some blocks are missing, such as a path to Foothills Road that needs four blocks to complete it.

Miller’s third objective is to use a grant that will be available in March “to get a 90% design completed for Main Street sidewalks, streets, storm drains and lights.”

The council also received an update on the $1.25-million Pilot Community Tourism Grant that Ronan was awarded last June by the Department of Commerce. Janet Sucha, a member of the steering committee, updated the council on recent activities.

The Ronan Chamber of Commerce’s website will now have a page for community members to keep up with what’s happening downtown.

She also mentioned the Dark Skies project which touts low-impact lighting for towns and cities to draw in tourists to see the sky at night. On Feb. 26, Sucha will participate in a call regarding this project, and she encouraged members of the public to join her for the noon session. For more information, email Jsucha2@gmail.com.

The next city council meeting is at 6 p.m. Feb. 26.