Urbana Council Coverage

Distracted drivers (and pedestrians) watch out. There's a distracted driver crackdown coming later this month. The News-Gazette had a summary today:

Urbana council signs off on zoning variances for church
The city council gave its initial approval Monday to variance tweaks that allow the cramped St. Nicholas Orthodox Church to expand.

On Sundays at the corner of Church and W. Elm Streets, the church has been hitting its capacity of about 90 people. In addition to expansion, the tweaks would also allow the church to redesign and become handicapped accessible.

If approved a final time by the council, the variances will be changed to increase the church’s maximum height from 35 feet to 38 feet, 6.5 inches. Its maximum square footage would also expand from 5,950 to 7,806...

In other business, the city council accepted a $6,300 grant for extra police enforcement of distracted driving. It comes from the Illinois Department of Transportation and will pay for Urbana Police Department overtime shifts between April 16 and 30.

Police chief Sylvia Morgan said the enforcement will mainly focus on cell phone use, while watching out for other types of distraction as well. It will occur in five locations, picked by UPD, that have high volumes of traffic and accidents.

Full article here. They also voted to eliminate the distributor tax on locally brewed beer. Following up on a previous vote.