The public meeting will take place at 7 p.m. and will be held at the City Commission Forum at City Hall. The work session concerning the Community Navigator Program will start at 6:40 p.m. Both will be streamed live on the city’s Facebook and YouTube pages.
The update before the meeting will look at what work will be done by the SBDC’s new pilot program, which is seeing the center partnering with nine grass roots organizations that already work with various historically underserved communities in the city and county.
The launch of the pilot program, which has a timeline of two years, followed news in the fall that the Springfield SBDC had been awarded $1 million to better support business owners and entrepreneurs from underserved communities.
That funding is in the form of a grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration and as a result nine Community Navigator positions have been created. Their goal is to help build trust and connect more businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs to services such as financial and business coaching as well as access to capital.
Three navigators have been tasked with serving the Black community and business on the southside of Springfield. Other communities that are being targeted by the program, include immigrant businesses, rural businesses as well as those stared by those returning from incarceration.
Following that work session, Springfield city commissioners will be asked to conduct a first reading of an ordinance that will authorize the city manager to enter into an agreement with App Architecture LLC for the design of a new fire station to be located on South Limestone Street for an amount not to exceed $350,000.
This is part of a larger plan to build three new fire stations in the city, while replacing more dated ones. The new stations would be located at South Limestone Street, Burt Street and at an undetermined location that will most likely be in the eastside of the city.
One of the fire stations that would be replace as a result is the one at Selma Road, which has been in service since 1959.
Springfield elected leaders are expected to vote on that ordinance related to the authorization of an agreement with App Architecture LLC at their next public meeting on March 15.
A number of other first readings that will take place in the evening will relate to contracts for weed cutting and lot clearing services, the purchasing of sand and gravel as well as the purchasing of street materials.
The city will also vote on several measures such as the approving of an amendment to the CC-2A District Development Plan for 4.93 acres at the corner of Saint Paris Pike and Saint Paris Connector that is related to a slated 98-room hotel.
Springfield commissioners will also be asked to authorize the issuance of a purchase order for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Training from Clark State College for an amount not to exceed $60,000.
Elected officials will also be asked to authorize the City Manager to enter into a contract with Kinnison Excavating, Inc. for the 2022 Miscellaneous Waterline Replacements Project for an amount not to exceed $959,741.
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