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Sheldon Aldermen vote 3-1 to keep bandstand in proximate location
Nevada Daily Mail
The Sheldon Board of Aldermen held a special meeting Friday night to discuss much-needed steps to move forward in replacing the bandstand in the city park.
Alderman Robert Moran, who said it was his idea to hold a special meeting, led the bandstand meeting.
The bandstand structure, a 20-by-30 foot shelter style bandstand with a flat, rising pigeon-roof, was originally decided at the Sept. 12 board meeting, and during Friday's special meeting the board voted unanimously to continue with the project.
During the meeting, Moran showed the board members and about 10 members of the community a slide show of photos he had taken on a recent trip to surrounding towns with bandstands. He also had bandstand photos and sketches he found on the Internet.
"We talked about a bandstand or interchangeable amphitheater and other things. We have been talking about this thing for about three years, and it never really went anywhere," Moran said.
Moran told the aldermen the time to act is now because at the end of the calendar year, they would lose a $15,000 donation from Alice Donaldson, a former Sheldon resident who pledged the money if it went for a new bandstand. Donaldson has died, and this would be her final gift to Sheldon.
Moran told the aldermen, the Donaldson trust would like to have their books closed by the end of the month. Although he said, "it would be difficult" to get everything sorted out in time, he felt the board should try.
"Most of you realize the bandstand is used three and a half hours a year for a coronation and music at the beginning of the Old Settler's Picnic. And then for the other 11 months 30 days and 18 hours, it isn't used," Moran said. "So it brings a question of do we really want a new bandstand? Are we willing to spend money on a new bandstand? How much? What will it look like, and a whole list of other questions."
A survey asking Sheldon families which location they would prefer for a new bandstand: In the street or in its proximate current location was included with the November water bill. The survey was meant to provide guidance for the aldermen about where city residents wanted a new bandstand.
Thirty-six of the surveys were answered and returned: 25 to keep the bandstand's current location, 11 to move it to the street. Sheldon Alderman, Josh Lamb, said he was disappointed just 36 surveys were returned.
"I'm surprised that's all who voted," Lamb said.
Moran agreed, and said everyone over the age of 18 had the opportunity to vote.
After Moran's slide show of potential bandstands and talking about where the new bandstand would sit had finished two members of the audience grew impatient. They said they wanted to vote on its location. Moran told the audience they would not get to vote, because it was up to the aldermen to vote.
One member of the audience said she saw the word "vote" on the survey and thought that meant it was more than just a survey for the aldermen.
More audience members then became frustrated because they thought they had voted on the location when they filled out a survey asking about the potential locations for the bandstand. Nearly half of the people at the meeting got up and left in frustration when they learned they would not get a say in the bandstand's new placement. Those who stayed were members of the bandstand committee.
As citizens stood up to leave, Alderman Perry Fowler told the audience, he, as a representative of the city, would vote in favor of the results of the survey.
The Sheldon Aldermen voted 3-1 to build a new bandstand in the proximate location, but no further east than it already is located. Lamb was the one who voted 'Nay' on the motion because he was afraid of the proximity to "dead or close to dying trees."
Phyllis Sprenkle, of the bandstand committee, told the board she thought it would be a smart move to hire a civil engineer, and she said she had spoken to a civil engineer named Bill Hendricks who said he would work for a discounted price of $35 an hour over 10 hours ($350 total). The board voted to use his services after a discussion of the importance of having a civil engineer working with them for insurance purposes.
The aldermen voted unanimously to hire Hendricks as a civil engineer.
Sprenkle made a joke to the aldermen when they brought up how much money they would be willing to spend. "We want champagne taste on a water budget." Moran said it would be hard to vote on price until the civil engineer could tell them how much he thought they would have to spend on the design and electrical.
Moran then asked the board if they could end the meeting and asked the aldermen to think about what kind of material they would want the structure to be made of, and consider what type of trimmings they could put around its beams.