Hoppe cancels office hours

Sixth Ward Councilwoman Barbara Hoppe cancelled her office hours for Saturday, Feb. 5.

Hoppe cancels Oct. 16 ‘office hours’

Hey folks, if you were thinking about meeting Barbara Hoppe for a cup of coffee this weekend and discuss city issues, you’ll have to put your plans on hold.

The Sixth Ward councilwoman has canceled her “office hours.” You can still reach her at ward6@gocolumbiamo.com or at (573) 443-5107.

Hoppe is moving her office hours

Sixth Ward City Councilwoman Barbara Hoppe is holding her usual office hours the Saturday before every council meeting, but now the location has changed to Sven’s Kafe.

Hoppe will be at Sven’s from noon to 1:30.

Third Ward Councilman Karl  Skala will have his office hours at Sven’s Kafe on Saturday as well, but from 8:30 to 11 a.m.

New sustainability manager…coming soon?

After a day of phone tag with City Manager Bill Watkins, I wasn’t able to get a lot of specifics on the status of the new sustainability manager. What I did gather from talking to Sixth Ward Councilwoman Barbara Hoppe and Assistant City Manager Tony St. Romaine was that there should be announcement on the position — and soon.

New mayor speculation the talk of the town

Since the announcement that Mayor Darwin Hindman won’t join the mayoral race this spring, several people have come forward

Darwin Hindman and his wife, Axie

or been discussed on the Columbia Daily Tribune’s comment section as possible candidates to take the office.

In yesterday’s story, columbiamissourian.com reported that Fourth Ward Councilman Jerry Wade has been “mulling over” a run for mayor but has not made a decision and that retired bank executive Bob Roper, a columnist for the Columbia Daily Tribune, said in February that he will not run for mayor. Roper said yesterday that it is “highly unlikely” he would seek the office.

Those commenting on the Tribune’s story have mentioned Wade, Inside Columbia publisher Fred Parry, Fifth Ward Councilwoman Laura Nauser, Sixth Ward Councilwoman Barbara Hoppe and even former 23rd District State Rep. Jeff Harris as possible candidates to succeed Hindman.

Arnie Fagan, a Realtor and owner of Cool Stuff downtown, didn’t opt out of the race.

“I might consider it,” Fagan told the Missourian on Thursday afternoon. He said he would look to see who else might run and that he would be less likely to do so if he believes there’s a good candidate.

The Missourian is making the rounds right now with other possible candidates. If you have suggestions or ideas, let us know by commenting either below or at columbiamissourian.com.

Visualizing Columbia

Friday, June 6. 10 a.m. Lodge of Four Seasons, Lake Ozark, MO.

The City Council began the second day of its annual retreat with a presentation on using technology to visually survey the city. Timothy Haithcoat of MU explained how remote-sensing, high-resolution imagery could help Columbia.

“Our main purpose is to help support the decision making that you all have to do,” Haithcoat said.

Speed Limits: More Questions Than Answers

The effort to reduce residential speed limits to 25 mph spearheaded by Sixth Ward Councilwoman Barbara Hoppe raises quite a few questions.

Some of the more basic of these have been analyzed at length in my article which you can find here. Two that come to mind are how much will it cost and will it be effective?

Steet Sign Theft

I worked on a story last week about the continuing problem of street sign theft in Columbia. There was an interesting connection between Columbia and the similarly sized college town of Lawrence, Kan., which reportedly doesn’t have a problem with street sign theft (possibly because they don’t name streets after beer). My editor Scott Swafford and I got to thinking that it might be interesting to do a larger comparison on what types of problems other Big 12 towns have with street sign theft and what they do to combat it. There was a mention in the article to check out the blog for more information, so I just wanted to let everyone know that I’m in the process of getting in touch with some other college towns and that some comparison information will be up in the next day or so.

On another note, I received an email from Barbara Hoppe, Sixth Ward City Council Representative, regarding the article and some other potential solutions City Council might look into that I thought were interesting, so I’m attaching her email to the end of this post.