4-year-old boy asks Othello City Council to fix bike infrastructure

By RACHAL PINKERTON

Staff Writer

Othello — History was made during a regular Othello city council meeting on Monday. A 4-year-old spoke to the council about the lack of bike ramps on the bike/walking trail at the 14th and Seventh Avenue crossings.

“I love riding my bike everywhere because it’s so much fun!” said the child. “The bike trail going across 14th Street is bad infrastructure because there are no curb ramps in the sidewalk. This makes it hard for me.”

The child told the council that he rode his bike to the meeting.

“I love to ride really fast,” the child said.

At the conclusion of his speech, the child asked the council to fix some of the bike infrastructure in Othello.

“Please don’t wait for me to grow up and do it myself!” concluded the child.

“I think this is the first time in the history of the city council that we’ve had someone this young,” said Mayor Shawn Logan.

In other business, the city council voted to adopt a new chapter concerning irrigation water to city code. Two council members suggested a few grammatical changes to the code. A public hearing was held, but no one spoke on the new code. The new code was adopted with the changes. Councilman Angel Garza recused himself due to a conflict of interest.

The council also voted to purchase a new vehicle for the engineering department. City engineer Shawn O’Brien told the council that the department was originally going to use a vehicle from the police department. However, the vehicle had issues that rendered it unusable. No other vehicles in the city proved to be usable. The new vehicle will cost a little under $31,000.

Logan reported on the RECon Conference that he attended in Las Vegas. During the conference, Logan and other representatives from Adams County met with various businesses in an attempt to attract them to Othello.

“What kind of Othello do you want?” Logan asked. “I would like more restaurants.”

Logan presented several ideas that the city may want to do, such as statues, clocks, teen activities, outdoor meeting spaces and upgrades to the city pool.

“If you would like more amenities in the community, you have to fight for them,” said Logan. “Anything worth having is a fight.”

Rachal Pinkerton may be reached via email at rpinkerton@suntribunenews.com.