LAHARPE — Volunteers will hand out 900 boxes of fresh produce Monday to anyone and everyone who wants some.
The food is being made available from Liberty Fruit Company and funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, organizers from Thrive Allen County and LaHarpe PRIDE told LaHarpe City Council members Wednesday.
The giveaway is akin to a similar food distribution project held over the spring and summer in Humboldt.
The difference this time is LaHarpe’s produce giveaway is a one-time-only event.
Distribution will begin at 9 a.m. in front of LaHarpe City Hall.
To minimize potential exposure to the coronavirus, recipients will remain in their cars as they pull up in front of City Hall from the north along Washington Street. Parking will be prohibited along the east side of the building to accommodate the traffic.
Organizers are seeking volunteers to help unload and hand out the boxes of food, or to deliver boxes to those unable to make it to the giveaway site.
There are no income-based guidelines. Recipients also are welcome to take extra boxes to give out to friends and family unable to attend.
IN OTHER news, LaHarpe council members were told their vote to implement 20 mph speed limits in all residential areas was improper because the city did not first undergo traffic and engineer studies.
In a note to the Council, City Attorney Fred Works spelled out the protocol necessary for such radical changes in speed limits throughout town.
While Mayor Mae Crowell said LaHarpe likely could justify the lower speed limits because several residential streets are narrower than preferred, such an engineering study would be costly. And completing a traffic study would be problematic “because we just don’t have the traffic,” she said.
On top of those costs, the city also would have to purchase scores of new speed limit signs to clearly mark for motorists the lower limit.
“We can put that money to better use elsewhere,” Councilwoman Sherlyn Thompson agreed.
Council members will huddle with Police Chief Mike Jewel to look at other options, including adding stop signs to certain streets where speeding has become a potential safety hazard, or look at instituting speed bumps.
COUNCIL members will send letters to 34 water customers who live outside LaHarpe City limits, but still purchase water directly from the city.
The problem is the potential cost to the city to pay for such things as repairs or maintenance, on top of the costs to read meters on a monthly basis.
