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Westover City Council adopts recommendations to equalize wards

Westover City Council voted unanimously on Monday to adopt therecommendations of the city’s Ward and Boundaries Commission.

The purpose of the commission is to equalize the population of the city’s wards as much as possible.

Mayor Dave Johnson previously said every 10 years the city has to do a boundary adjustment for the wards of the city. Wards shall not differ in population by more than 10% of the voters in the smallest ward created, as it reads in the city’s charter. He anticipates a population increase in the Third Ward within the next six months, he said.

“If we have that, it would be null and void — it wouldn’t be null and void, it would be a waste of time to do it now when we’d get 400 or 500 people,” he said.

In other Westover news, Police Chief Rick Panico said work on the new Westover Police annex will make significant progress in the coming weeks.

Panico said plumbing, electric, infrastructure needed for the computer system and phone lines, internal and external monitoring and access control should be in place by the middle of January. At that point, work will transition to the installation of drywall and drop-ceiling panels.

According to Panico, the Westover Police Department had 549 calls for service in December, resulting in nine arrests. He said there were 74 traffic stops resulting in 26 citations.

Also on Monday:

Ferrari & Associates CPAs was selected to provide the city’s fiscal year 2019 audit.

Johnson said he planned to meet with the ownership and management of the Morgantown Mall regarding the mall’s future plans.

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