High school students and other advocates for gun control made their voices heard during City Council’s Monday evening meeting.

Though updates about different Council committees’ plans took up a majority of the meeting’s time, attendees also saw a presentation against gun violence in America.

Aidan Hubbell-Staeble, a graduate of the University and a current canvassing manager for Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity, used part of his lobby time to introduce a set of local high school students in favor of greater gun control laws. Each student recounted a series of mass shootings, homicides and severe injuries at learning centers that involved the use of guns.

The list began with the mass shooting at Columbine High School in 1999 and ended with the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012. Alyson Baker, the Bowling Green High School student who had organized walkout at her school in March in memory of mass shooting victims from Parkland, Florida, listed the victims of the 2012 shooting with their ages. She said a similar presentation would occur at the next City Council meeting that would go up to the most current cases of gun violence in education centers.

Though most of the group’s focus for the night was trained on more countrywide gun issues, the group said they wanted to ensure such actions would not occur in local communities.

Many Council members congratulated the students for their commitments to activism, with 1st Ward member Daniel Gordon commending their resilience in the face of social opposition. However, he added that, though “I would like to think our input matters,” he said the Council’s ability to directly act on such concerns was limited.

Council member at-large Bruce Jeffers said, “It’s something we all have our own feelings about.” He later added, “We try to bring resolutions to things we have direct control over.”

Hubbell-Staeble also campaigned for housing improvements in Bowling Green with his lobby time, saying it was extremely difficult for citizens looking for low-cost, low-size living to find spaces without structural or cleanliness defects. He also said some of the town’s major lessors were to blame for the conditions in this type of housing situation in Bowling Green and that Council members should do more to help renters.

4th Ward member William Herald gave the Council updates about his Public Lands & Buildings Committee’s plans for allowing food trucks and similar merchants to operate within the city, sharing a presentation addressing positive and negative aspects of the plans. He said the information in the report, which is currently 168 pages with copies of potential approval forms for mobile vendors, will be tentatively consolidated into a shorter proposal at the committee’s meeting this Wednesday.

His committee’s aim is to attempt to prepare the proposal for an appearance on the next Council meeting’s first reading legislation list.

The Planning, Zoning & Economic Development Committee, led by council member at-large Greg Robinette, also had changes for its Community Action Plan for city improvement. Robinette said that, due to Council members’ input, more emphasis would be given to 12 listed projects, and that proposals were already starting to be made for 10 of those projects. One of the projects given precedence was the creation of a registration processes for rental services.

However, he said, “I have no idea where the timeline will fall,” in relation to the projects’ completion and that said work on the projects would ultimately rely on available resources.

The Council passed legislation that transferred funds which had been appropriated previously and allowed the cleaning of Department of Safety uniforms through contracted work. Members also adopted amendments to a block grant use plan that incorporates citizen input.

Former Wood County Park District Commissioner Bob Callecod also advocated for a yes vote on a proposed levy renewal for county parks funding, which will occur May 8.

City Attorney Michael Marsh, in lieu of Mayor Richard Edwards, promoted a member of the Fire Division to lieutenant at the meeting. Additionally, Municipal Administrator Lori Tretter gave the Honor Roll award to the leaders of the charity-oriented Dear Santa Society, Jim and Dee Szalejko.