The third floor City Council Chamber was heated last night during a public hearing.

Brent Pick, resident of Wayne, applied for a Zoning Use by Exception Permit. The permit would allow Pick to conduct “auto sales and services” on 855th Road just outside Wayne.

City Clerk Betty McGuire noted that she received a call from a citizen concerned with Pick’s pending auto sales business. Another resident of Wayne came to the hearing with a typed letter telling why she and her sisters, who live not 300 feet away from the desired auto sales location, disapproved of the business and had concerns. She explained that her concerns mainly dealt with fear of oil spills and accidents of the like, but Pick argued that he would “have a better chance of ruining the soil with my farm operation than with the auto sales.”

“I struggle to see [the argument] as environmental concerns. There is farm equipment in the city zoning area that is cause for greater concern,” Chamberlain said.

Chamberlain noted that the Council had to approve the application, but was required to give a public hearing. Despite the heat, the Council voted 7-0.

The City Council reviewed its budget report from the past year. The budget was underspent by $1.1 million.

Terry Galloway presented the budget review to the council, and said it was “good financial reporting for all of [the] taxpayers and citizens.

“It’s great to hold down the cost, to not spend as much as we thought we would at the beginning of the year when we made the budget,” he said.

The City of Wayne received $714,000 in grants, most of it used for disaster relief following the Oct. 2013 tornado.

At “best practice” for a city the size of Wayne, property taxes are $210 per capita. Wayne property taxpayers pay $131.

“Very good cash management on your part,” Galloway praised the Council, saying it still has “very good cash reserves.”