GREENFIELD — After sleeping on it, City Councilor Otis Wheeler wants to reconsider whether the proposal for a public safety complex is the best idea after all.
Less than 12 hours before Wheeler filed a motion for reconsideration, the City Council voted at a marathon meeting Wednesday night to allow the mayor to continue to negotiate over a lease or construction of the public safety complex. The vote did not come from a council that was necessarily in favor of the complex, but more so from a left-leaning group that was worried if they rejected the complex that meant the bid for a new public library could also evaporate.
“I don’t think the council wanted to give a vote of confidence in that proposal,” Wheeler said.
Now the council will have a chance to do more research and come to the table more comfortable with a vote, as opposed to voting in the fourth hour of dialogue as they did Wednesday night. At the City Council Sept. 19 meeting the proposal will likely be brought back up with the possibility it could be knocked down after all.
“I really had a change of heart myself,” Wheeler said. “I don’t see the support on the council or in the community for the public safety complex in the same way I see it for the library.”
Wheeler said he wants the library project to still happen and is exploring the possibility of working it out without the public safety complex. He also said he’s in favor of building a new fire station.
Instead of Mayor William Martin continuing to negotiate with the Tennessee-based developer Dyer Investment, under the impression that the council would be open to an improved plan for a public safety complex, conversations could be held up.
Martin said he was planning on having developer Billy Walker come back up to Greenfield, after spending all night at Wednesday’s council meeting. He wanted to negotiate with him, bringing all the comments that have been made. This could lead to them “walking away in the same direction or a different direction,” he said, and then Martin could have more information to bring to September’s council meeting.
Instead, upon learning of Wheeler’s motion for reconsideration, Martin said, “There’s no sense in having Mr. Walker come up from Tennessee next week to do nothing.”
The mayor said he plans to speak with Wheeler to get a better sense of what he is thinking and then decide whether its worth meeting with the developer of the public safety complex proposal or just hold off until September.