Providence Village is gearing up to form a charter review commission.
The last revision and election for the town’s governing document were almost five years ago, which is the time frame required to make such updates.
“Per the charter, we’re required to conduct a review of the charter every five years,” Town Manager Brian Roberson said. “The charter specifies that a charter commission should have a minimum of nine citizens.”
The council discussed keeping it to a nine-person board with Mayor Linda Inman saying having too many members can be cumbersome.
The selected members will comb through the current charter, discuss possible changes and get feedback from the town’s legal counsel about how to amend the charter.
“We don’t expect any significant changes other than some things we’ve talked about regarding petitions to amend the charter and things of that nature,” Roberson said. “But, you never know. They may want to go down into other rabbit holes and … recommend changes.”
Roberson laid out the timeline from creation of the commission through to when the charter amendments would come before the voters in town.
The board will be formed by the Nov. 4 Town Council meeting, with the final recommended changes will be due to council by Jan. 20.
The council in turn most decide whether to call a vote by Feb. 13, with the spring Election Day set for May 2.
Composition of the board can include council members, existing board members or residents who are not currently serving on any boards, commissions or the council.
“It helps if people understand kind of how things work,” Roberson said.
The town began probing for interest among possible board candidates following the Tuesday meeting.
“Bring your recommendations,” Inman said in reference to the Nov. 4 meeting. “Make sure that they understand the commitment.”
She added that “if there’s interest, I think we’d like to know.”
Also during the meeting, Roberson spoke about updates regarding the U.S. 380 widening project that is nearing completion.
“They’re kind of saying this is the last communication,” he said. “Things are happening quickly, and they’re not going to stop to communicate.”
That approach includes opening overpasses as they are completed without fanfare, including the one at FM 720/Oak Grove Road.
“They’ll still have some median work to complete, and, of course, they’ve got some intersections they’re still working on, like 2931 and 424 in Cross Roads,” Roberson said. “Those are still ongoing.”
All are expected to be open by mid-December, because “that’s kind of the date where [the contractors] start paying damages.”
“As they complete different sections, they’re taking workforce and moving onto other areas to expedite completion,” Roberson said.
Also at the meeting, Roberson mentioned changes to the Inframark billing system.
