(Atlantic, Iowa) – When the Atlantic City Council met Wednesday evening (Aug. 17), they acted on passing the first reading of an amended ordinance, by means of adding a section regulating “Panhandling.” Councilman Pat McCurdy asked Police Chief Devin Hogue if the Ordinance (#1021) was really “necessary,” to which he replied,”yes,” because of the volume of Interstate traffic that tends to bring persons low on funds, to the City begging for money.

Councilman H. Lee Sisco recounted an incident of alleged aggressive panhandling that occurred a few days ago at around 7-a.m., in the Wal-Mart parking lot.

If, upon three readings the Ordinance is approved as written, panhandlers could be cited and fined $50. In other business, Atlantic Mayor Grace Garrett reminded property owners of the need to control the weed population. The Mayor and others spent time last weekend removing or trimming weeds that were along the curbs of 7th Street.

The Mayor said property owners will be notified if their properties are not in compliance with the Code of Ordinances, with regard to weed/grass overgrowth along the curbs and properties.

On another note, the Mayor and Council were pleased by attendance last weekend, during AtlanticFest. Councilperson Elaine Otte said the were more than 200 vehicles registered for the car show. All those hungry people in the downtown area for AtlanticFest, kept the food truck vendors very busy.

Otte said one of the new food vendors say “they’ve never been as busy at another event,” as they were during AtlanticFest. Councilman Halder suggested making space for another food truck in the car show area, since most of the participants really don’t want to leave their vehicles while they get something to eat. Any such issues that cropped-up this year, will likely be resolved in-time for AtlanticFest 2023.