A new business has approached the city of California to potentially extend out into the area, the City of California Board of Aldermen discussed at their monthly meeting Monday evening.
Mayor Rich Green and the board spent part of the meeting discussing how best to operate with negotiations moving forward, as well as speaking about several other issues on their agenda.
Green informed the board a manufacturing business from the state of California has approached the city to set up shop in the area. While no official proposal has been made by this business or the city, the board authorized the mayor to negotiate with the latest group to approach them.
Green's move to reach out to this entity would be to see what they are currently thinking about proposing. There was some discussion among board members about land being given or sold. However, nothing was agreed upon by the board as of Monday's meeting, and future discussion is pending further examination.
In other business, the board also returned to its discussion regarding electric rate simplification. Alderwoman Resa Dudley again expressed concern about a change from the city's current rate structure leading to an increase in rates for residents. The board motioned to proceed with the change, but it failed to pass again.
The board also heard community feedback regarding its ongoing discussion about annexing properties. Attorney Ann Perry is working on a petition for the individuals who wanted to be annexed.
Additionally, California Police Department Captain Ralph Parris honored three of his officers at the meeting, presenting them with letters of recognition. Officers Melvin Knox, Erin Fitzwater and Kevin Morse were acknowledged for their service in an investigation involving a high risk threat to a child.
Each officer played an individual role in establishing the child's safety at different stages of the investigation, Parris said, and he said he was very impressed and honored to be working with these three officers and proud to see how much skill they had developed in the short time they had been working in law enforcement.