The city of Wheaton has had a busy summer and continues to get things like city ordinances and properties in line, but they will also take some residents back in time.
“We will start blowing the noon whistle again,” said JoGina Park, Wheaton city clerk. “They used to blow it at noon to let everyone know it was lunch time. I am not sure when they stopped doing it, but some community members asked about it and brought it to the city council.
“The whistle works, so we decided to start doing it again. We will start it on Aug. 8 at noon. We want to give enough time for the word to get out so that people know what is going on — it is not a tornado siren.”
The whistle is located at City Hall.
“It will be blown Monday through Friday at noon,” Park said. “We are working on getting a timer, but we will do it manually until that is set up.”
Park said there are a few new city ordinances that the city attorney has brought to their attention including, emergency management, smoking in public areas and school zones.
“The attorney said we didn’t have an emergency management director on file,” she said. “In the case of a disaster, the emergency management director can help us qualify for FEMA funds.”
The city designated Chief Danforth as the emergency management director.
“We also didn’t have anything in place regarding smoking in public,” Park said. “There will only be smoking allowed in designated smoking areas. For example, the school specifically posts that it is a ‘No Smoking Area.’ There have been some issues with people smoking during summer ball games.”
While there aren’t specific areas designated for smoking, this ordinance is aimed to prevent people from smoking in those non-smoking areas.
“We have a school zone on Hurlbut Street,” Park said. “We have a light that is activated in the morning and afternoon. However, we have a lot of kids that walk on Holmes Avenue to and from school. So we designated that as a school zone too, we will post signs but won’t have a light there.”
School zones now include Holmes Ave. from Hurlbut Street to East Davidson Street, at 15 mph from 7:30 a.m. until 4:00 p.m., or when students are present.
“We are also annexing in the property for the Farm Chin Baptist Church,” she said. “They are building the church and want city water and sewer. They are still in the beginning process of that build, and the property doesn’t have an address yet.”
In addition, the city will be annexing in some school property.
“On the back side of the ball fields, there is a street to the track,” Park said. “It is not currently annexed in, so we will be doing that. There will be a public hearing on Aug. 3 at 5:30 p.m. We have to hold a public hearing anytime anyone wants to change something in zoning. The public is welcome to come to voice any concerns and a representative from the school will be here to field any questions, but barring any concerns the city is not opposed to the annexation at this time.”
