Council addresses their role in city’s 150th celebration
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Commissioner Thad Crispin brought to the council’s attention a post on Facebook regarding the issue that a citizen was having about the city not doing enough for the Sesquicentennial Celebration.
“It’s getting out of hand in the way that things are being handled,” Crispin said. Crispin presented the council with a list of the things that had been done for the celebration.
“Someone decided to get a quote (from a tree service) for the city to get a tree down and didn’t talk to anybody. I got a cheaper quote and got the tree down for them,” Crispin said. “We put up the 150th signs. I didn’t see where that was our job to do.”
Crispin talked about the multiple sidewalks that were fixed that wasn’t at the top of the list. Crispin was informed that one of his street employees received a private message on Facebook, telling him what needs done before the celebration.
“I don’t agree with personally Facebook messaging him to tell him what needs done,” Crispin said. “We take work orders. We have a board in here. Call up and put an order in. Talking to them over Facebook and telling them what needs done is out of hand. It’s ridiculous. There’s no sense in it.”
It was also put on Facebook that there are no golf carts, bicycles or side by sides allowed in the park. It went on to state that the city was involved in that decision. A number of councilmen stated they were not involved in this decision.
“It was new to me, I hadn’t heard that. I thought I missed a meeting” Commissioner Cory Chaney said.
“We’ve never let that happen,” said Mayor Danny Owen, concerning the vehicles. This issue has rubbed the council the wrong way. The city has been short handed and has tried to do all they can to help out, including giving $2,000 to help with the celebration, though it wasn’t exactly budgeted for.
In another matter, the Epps Building, located next to City Hall has a leak. It was told to Commissioner Bryan Haddix that water was leaking everywhere.
“We’re not blessed with money, but let’s get a price to start with and see where we’re going,” Owen said.
The city will be looking for a new Water Operator. For now, the job will be on the shoulders of the city workers to take care of water/sewer testing needs until a new operator is found. “Michael (Burgess) has been sampling the water every Monday,” said Haddix. “I know he was taking samples down to Massey to ship them today.”
Mayor Owen told Haddix to relay the message to Burgess to keep up with the testing as Owen did not want any certified letters arriving at the city building.
On Washington Avenue by the gravel pile, one particular semi with a trailer has used this area to turn his truck around. “He’s tearing up the road,” Haddix stated. Commissioner Crispin said that he hadn’t seen the driver, but was aware of the issue. Haddix mentioned putting up a truck/trailer sign. “If he’s tearing up the road, we can’t have that,” Crispin said. “We can do that (put up a sign). I have no problem with that. Especially after the tar and chip.”
Commissioner Cory Chaney asked if there was any ordinance that keeps trailers off of side streets. “I know there are several guys who have trucks in town that park in their driveways,” Chaney said. Haddix stated that the driver usually parks his trailer at the intersection and drives his truck home.
Currently, the ordinance fee for Gambling Machines is $25.00 per machine as a permit fee. At the end of last year, the state passed a law where the charge could be up to $250 per machine. “I don’t know if that’s something that we want to look into, now that the corner closed and if someone else wants to have machines in town, do we want to up the price since we don’t have any revenue coming in?” asked Chaney.
Chaney suggested that the city charge the full price, but knew that wasn’t reasonable.
“One hundred and fifty dollars is,” the Mayor said. “They make quite a bit of money on those machines.”
Crispin said that he would hate for places like the American Legion to lose out on money from an open public event due to the high price of the permit.
“I don’t want to scare anyone away, but one hundred and fifty per machine isn’t outrageous by any means,” said Owen.
Discussion continued about what the price should be with some resistance on the $150 price. It was suggested a price of $125. The matter was settled at a price of $100 per machine.
City Clerk, Autumn Perryman has given her two week notice. She’s received a position that’s more along the lines of her Ag Business Degree as a sales rep for a seed company. A few people have expressed interest in the position, along with one application already being handed in. Three others picked up applications.
“As soon as I get a handful of applications, we’ll go through them and do interviews and find someone to hire,” Chaney said.
The tar and chip project for the roads will begin after Chrisman Days and Commissioner Brice Stratton announced that his last meeting would be October 1st, leaving an opening for the Water Commissioner.
Also minutes from the August 15th meeting was approved along with claims in the amount of $36,841.51. Building permits were also approved for 621 East Jackson and 5 Quail Court.
