Check Out What’s Happenin’ in Homer with Mayor Pat Clune

Matt Brooks: [00:00:00] Good morning. I’m Matt Brooks on X101 Always Classic in for another edition of Happenin’ in Homer and with me in the studio this morning. Well, it’s Mayor Pat Clune. How’s it going, Pat? 
Mayor Pat Clune: Great, Matt. Thanks for having me. 
Matt Brooks: Well, I gotta ask ’cause it’s Happenin’ in Homer. Mayor, what’s happening in Homer? 
Mayor Pat Clune: Too many things for this segment, but if we condense it to two, I think we can get through ’em. 
Matt Brooks: So one that did that I really wanted to hit because we had the big announcement a year or two ago now about the downtown revitalization initiative, but we haven’t seen as much progressed on it in recent months. Can you give me an update on that? 
Mayor Pat Clune: Absolutely. Well, anything you get from the, uh, a government, uh, there’s going to be bureaucracy involved. Uh, this is no different. So, uh, couple weeks ago I received contracts for the, uh, four projects that the village will be working on. Uh, those are the Community Fairgrounds, signage, the Wall Street Bridge, and then we have some other funding for projects, small [00:01:00] business projects.
So our next steps is, uh, I met with one of our state representatives last week. And now this week we will be reviewing these contracts, which after we review them, we sign them and then we send those back to the state. Which will be reviewed by the State Attorney General and then the State Comptroller. And I am sure that’s gonna take a little bit of time.
Meanwhile, though, we will go ahead and send out our request for proposals, so we’ll be doing that concurrently. Uh, we’ll give our request for proposals a couple weeks to get that out, and then we’ll give them 30 days, to, for contractors to respond. Uh, if everything works, ideally we will have our request for proposals back at the same time that the state says, you’re good to go and we can start breaking ground.
Matt Brooks: Oh, and that’s fantastic news. It’s good to hear that the wheels are moving, albeit a bit slowly. 
Mayor Pat Clune: Ah yes. 
Matt Brooks: So, I mean. [00:02:00] But there is the possibility of maybe like this summer even possibly, depending on the project. 
Mayor Pat Clune: Yeah. You’re trying to nail me to a time and I’m not gonna fall for it. 
Matt Brooks: Alright, well we’ll leave that to another segment then, but, uh, another, uh, topic that, uh, people wanna know about LED signs and, I mean, we have the, we talked about in our last segment you were featured on. The outdoor television display test that’s happening right on Main Street. Any updates regarding that? 
Mayor Pat Clune: Absolutely. So, the moratorium is over, but we are still gathering information on the test sign that we have on the Recreation Building. So we will probably be putting a questionnaire out on the next water bill. Now, for some, and then we will leave it as is for now. We do have, uh, there’s construction at the, uh, research and development park where FHN is putting in a building and, and they’re gonna wanna put a sign in. Initially, that was a planned development district residential in 2-, in the year 2000, it was changed over to [00:03:00] research and development. Now in our code book, we have guidelines and codes for a planned development district residential.
It’s section dealing with research and development was left blank. Uh, so that reverts back to a R-1 Code, which is not feasible or suitable for a research and development park. So we, as the board will be focusing on the zoning, uh, code regulation for that as our priority to ensure that that project can get finished.
Matt Brooks: All right? And then, then we get back to.
Mayor Pat Clune: Then we get back to the other stuff. 
Matt Brooks: So, Mayor, we are running outta time, but I mean, you’re talking about how you’re gonna get requests for proposals sooner than later for the DRI, you’re still looking for opinions regarding the, uh, outdoor, uh, TV displays as opposed to LED signs. You want input, if people ha-, wanna get in touch or have questions or wanna express their opinion, how do they get ahold of you? 
Mayor Pat Clune: Well, they can either call the office or probably the best [00:04:00] thing which few of our residents have already figured out is if you send me an email at mayor@homerny.org or look up, uh, our number, uh, on the village website and you can get ahold of me that way.
Matt Brooks: Perfect. And I remember from last time we spoke if you have an opinion or uh, of, of the sort, make sure to do the email ’cause it’s easier to document those. 
Mayor Pat Clune: Absolutely. 
Matt Brooks: Alright, well thank you for joining me on this edition of Happenin’ in Homer, Mayor.
Mayor Pat Clune: Matt, thanks for having me. 
Matt Brooks: This is X101 Always Classic.