Mayor looks for replacement on planning commission

Fremont Mayor “Skip” Edwards is forced to search for a new member to the city's planning commission.

At the regular Fremont City Council meeting Tuesday night, council members accepted the resignation of Jeff Christensen, who did not give an explanation for his decision in a two-sentence letter dated June 20 to Edwards and city administrator Bob Hartwig.

“I have enjoyed my time on that commission and wish the city well as we move into the future,” Christensen said in the letter.

Information released by the city indicated Christensen had served on the planning commission since March 1995 after joining the city's board of adjustment in December 1993.

In a telephone interview with the Fremont Tribune, Christensen said he felt that it was just time for him to step aside.

“It's time to change the guard,” he said. “The city's got a lot of great plans, but other people can serve on that. It was a bittersweet decision to step down. It's hard for me to say that I'm not going to do something. It's hard for me not to see things through.

“But I have a life of my own,” he continued. “I get pulled into a million directions in a day. I felt it was just time for someone else to take over. It's been rewarding. I have no hard feelings. There is no bitterness. This decision is solely mine.”

At the meeting, Edwards said he hopes to have a replacement named within the next few weeks.

“I have a couple of names of people I know who are willing to serve on the commission,” the mayor said, adding that they need to officially thank Christensen for the time he has served the residents of the city.

In another matter, council members approved two requests from John C. Fremont Days Inc. to close a route for the 2007 Pathfinder Duathlon, which is set to start at 8 a.m. July 15. The two-mile run, 12-mile bicycle ride, two-mile run event will start and end in front of the Fremont Family YMCA.

The running route will go through the YMCA parking lot to Clarmar Avenue to East 16th Street to Garden City Road, where runners will turn around to run back to the starting point.

The bike route will go from the YMCA to East First Street to Bell Street to a point just north of Nebraska Highway 36, where participants will turn around and return to the starting point before running the two-mile route again.

The other request from John C. Fremont Days Inc. closes most downtown streets for the annual John C. Fremont Days festival, July 13-15.

Also, council members approved a request from MainStreet of Fremont to close Main Street from Sixth Street to Fourth Street and to close Sixth Street from Park Avenue to Main Street from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. July 28 for the annual Crazy Days Sidewalk Sale.

During a study session before the meeting, Hartwig announced a tentative schedule for special study sessions for council members to go over the city's 2007-08 budget. Special budget study sessions would be held July 17, July 24 and Aug. 7, starting at 6 each night.

Hartwig said those dates are flexible after some council members said they might have schedule conflicts.

The council was split in voicing preferences to have the meetings on those days or covering all of the budget in a single Saturday.

Hartwig said a final budget study session would be announced later.

The city's fiscal year starts Oct. 1.