Chelsea council establishes Chelsea Municipal Court
The City of Chelsea has taken “steps two and three out of 100” toward establishing a municipal court, Mayor Tony Picklesimer said during the April 4 Chelsea City Council meeting. During the meeting, the council passed two ordinances regarding a municipal court — one to adopt state offenses and traffic violations as municipal violations and another to establish a Chelsea Municipal Court.
Both ordinances were previously presented during the March 21 council meeting and were passed unanimously by all present city council members on April 4. While Councilman David Ingram was not present during the meeting, he expressed his support of the court during pre-council.
“I’d like to make it known that I am completely in favor of this,” Ingram said. “I was one of them that asked we tap the brakes before the last meeting, just to slow down and understand what we were doing just because of the impact and moving forward.”
Picklesimer said he was “very comfortable” with establishing the court.
The court will have one municipal judge, who will be appointed through a council vote, according to the ordinance.
During the mayor’s report portion of the council meeting, Chelsea Park Elementary Principal Jeanette Campisi-Snider gave an update on her school. The school is approaching its 10th anniversary, she said, and is in the process of purchasing Chromebooks for students to utilize. Chelsea Park’s PTO has been successful in supplying almost every third, fourth and fifth grader with a Chromebook, she said, and hopes to have every student have a Chromebook within the next year.
Campisi-Snider also gave an update on rezoning that will affect Chelsea Park Elementary. The school has nearly 900 students and two trailers for classrooms, Campisi-Snider said, while Forest Oaks Elementary has empty classrooms. To accommodate students, homes along Highway 11 and some of Highway 47 have been rezoned to Forest Oaks Elementary.
“Although I will personally miss a lot of the families that we will lose, in order to keep the quality of education that we’re all used to, the county had to do something,” she said. “This was the best move, I think, that they could have done.”
Also during the meeting:
- The council passed a resolution to purchase a commercial recumbent bike for the Chelsea Community Center.
- The council passed a resolution to purchase a 6-foot black chain fence which will go around the air conditioner units at the Chelsea Sports Complex.
- Chelsea Fire Chief Wayne Shirley alerted the council to a training event on April 24. During the event, they will purposely set fire to a home and use it as a training exercise. Shirley also encouraged everyone to remain safe on Wednesday, when there is a threat of severe weather.
- COP Director Jim Thornton said the COPs are prepared to help during severe weather, if needed, on Wednesday.
- Picklesimer said the next council meeting will be moved to April 20, with pre-council at 5:30 p.m. and council at 6 p.m. On Tuesday, April 18, there will be a town hall meeting with Congressman Gary Palmer. The meeting will start at 6 p.m. The council meeting
- Picklesimer discussed plans for this year’s Chelsea City Fest and Big Kaboom. What has been a fireworks show in year’s past will grow into a city-wide event with live music, food vendors and other activities, Picklesimer said, and he hopes to draw a crowd into the city for the event. It will be held in the downtown field behind Dairy Queen and take place on July 1.