Chrisman’s Centennial Park closed now at dusk
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With Christmas in just under fifty days, the Chrisman City Council kicked off their meeting on November 1st discussing decorations.
The city currently has around $2,200 to play around with to find the perfect decorations for the park. The highlight was the inflatable Frosty, but due to damage, he will not be set up this year. Now, the councilmen are on the look out for what could take his place.
Anita Marvin was in attendance to give ideas to the council about what could possibly be done. Marvin and her husband, Eric, are on a decorating committee, not involved with the CACC.
“I want to make it clear that I’m not in the Community Club,” Marvin said.
Marvin suggested the council ask those who donated money for the Christmas decorations if it would be alright with them if the funds were used as a possible kick starter for next year to help purchase a larger item.
“I know there’s a lot of people willing to give money for something to be put back on the bandstand,” Marvin said.
“We haven’t had any donations for years,” Mayor Danny Owen said.
Anita stated that she believed if people knew they could donate, the city would get many donations for the decorations. Owen stated they would put the information on their Facebook page where residents could donate if they chose.
Commissioner Cory Chaney told the council that he had contacted the company that does the Christmas lights on the poles in Georgetown about a price to do lights in Chrisman. The quote was for $165 per light. This price includes installation, any maintenance that would need done and the removal.
“I believe there’s thirty-four of them, so that would be $5,600,” Chaney said.
Right now, the budget that Chaney has is only $2,900, but with the donations and money that was found in the Christmas fund, the total is $5,100.
“That’s more than what I had budgeted for the year,” Chaney said. “So I can scale it back and do less street lights and use all of that money or I can do even less and let the money grow.”
The company also gave suggestions for the bandstand. The purchase options that were made available was way over budget. The company gave Chaney two options. One of them being a Frosty the Snowman and four snowflakes for the bandstand. To lease that for one year is $3,500 just for Frosty. The snowflakes are $695 per light. This would put the total at $6,280.
Another option is a 25 foot Christmas tree with packages stacked next to it. The total to lease was $14,000 for the year.
“The tree alone was seventy-five hundred dollars,” Chaney said. “I just don’t have that kind of money this year to do anything like that.”
Chaney stated that he would go back to the drawing board to see what he could find that would fit the budget. Commissioner Thad Crispin suggested just to scale back the lights this year. “Maybe we’ll raise money this year and donate for next year,” Crispin said.
Marvin suggested just doing the poles around the square, then see how many can be bought from there to go down the streets. “There’s so many options,” Chaney said.
Marvin then went on to suggest possibly renting a bucket truck to do the installation and changing of the lights to LED themselves in order to save money.
Commissioner Thad Crispin said that the rental wouldn’t be a good idea for the city due to OSHA guidelines.
“If we get caught with that, that’s the reason we had to buy a new one,” Crispin said. Crispin stated that it would still have to be inspected. Marvin mentioned that the city had a wooden Santa that used to be put up and asked if it could be used to put on the bandstand this year.
“You guys spend two hundred dollars on a sign from ONP that says Merry Christmas, Seasons Greetings, Happy Holidays – put a flood light on it. That’s going to save you three thousand dollars that you don’t have until we can get something built,” Marvin said. “Just so something that can be put up there, so it’s not bare.”
Marvin also mentioned a miscommunication this past weekend.
“When Eric and I got up there (to the park) to put up decorations, there was a miscommunication between somebody. We had to clean the park up,” Marvin said. Commissioner Rodney Wolfe took the trash that was picked up to the dump.
“All of the trashcans are supposed to be checked every Friday,” said Crispin.
Marvin suggested to continue having trunk or treat and trick or treat the Saturday before Halloween. “If Halloween falls on a Saturday, then it will be that Saturday,” Marvin said. “The haunted house, they’ve never had so many people as they did that night. That helped them. That helped the library.”
With no reports from the ambulance or police, the meeting shifted to the audit that the city recently had done. The city had a pretty good year the previous year and came away with a clean audit. Revenue, sales tax and income tax has increased by around $49,000 from the previous year.
The city has around one year’s worth of operating cash on hand. This is required to be in good financial standing. Changes to the water and sewer ordinances were also approved.
In another matter, Commissioner Bryan Haddix mentioned that the lot at 221 South Illinois has no reason to be maintained. “I propose we sell it,” Haddix said. “For at least five thousand. That’s a good place to start.”
The motion was made and passed to list the South Illinois property for sale. Commissioner Wolfe suggested accepting sealed bids. Any that were under $5,000 would not be considered. Commissioner Haddix had in mind just to put a for sale sign in the yard and those interested could inquire at the City Building.
Another idea Haddix had was to put a minimum on it and see who bids above it. The city made the decision to accept sealed bids for the property with the right to reject any and all bids with the end date of January 3rd, 2022. This would be the first meeting of the new year for the city council. The property would be sold as is.
In another issue, Centennial Park will now be closed at dark. City employee, Erik Bohle, suggested that a sign be made to be put at the park to let residents know of the hours. With the park being closed at the stated time, anyone who is caught at the park could be in trouble.
The council also approved the purchase of a new pump at the lift station. The pumps are custom made to specifically handle the workload at the lift station.
The city approved the spending of $7,350 to have all of the wells capped in the thirty-day period. The holiday schedule was also approved for 2022.
