An hour at Grayville last night resulted in a handful of updates, but not much action during the city’s initial February meeting. Updates included Chief Burrows Police Activity Report and the Park Restoration Committee via Doug Ford. Ford reported the organization had received it’s 501c3, which will allow them to start writing grants and seeking larger donations. Their next meeting is Wednesday, tomorrow, at 6pm in City Hall.
Following a brief Executive Session spent discussing collective negotiating between the public and it’s employees or representatives, there was no action taken.
Old Business consisted of nothing new on the Abandoned Properties Demolition front or the amending of the zoning code. The website topic on the agenda has tabled again while members plan to talk to Mr. Bob Sandidge who reportedly owns the domain. Tom Cook of Cook Funeral Chapel will continue to wait for approval for his Funding request for his parking lot improvements as the council was unprepared, though City Attorney Jay Walden had made progress on getting the language correct. He said if a special meeting was necessary so that Mr. Cook could move forward, he could have the information provided to council members quickly. We learned that both of the entities that were looking at the I-64 plaza have since fallen through. After getting clarification on the amount in the Milano-Grunloh Professional Services community block grant, council was able to move forward with that agreement at $120,000. The Police Department roof made it onto the old business portion of the agenda as well, but it was recommended tabled as the police commission is meeting Tuesday. Mayor Travis Thompson recommended holding conversation there.
New business included an agreement with USDI for Natural Gas Engineering and Services Contract. That motion was passed unanimously. The council also agreed to the purchase of an additional ESRI GIS Mapping License. Councilman Don Baldwin explains.
“When USDI was here and went through some other things they suggested we need to get a second license. This additional license is for gas mapping and utilities. Julie digs had one license but that’s only supposed to be for one phone. We’re using it on a second phone, put it over the shoulder of the first guy. So to be completely legal with the board we need to get a second license so all of our employees will have it on their phones. If someone calls into Julie dig they can go right and it has the whole city laid out where everything is at. My understanding is that the cost of the license is $500.”
Council spent some time discussing the city’s Brush Dump again as Chief Burrows has caught on camera another contractor utilizing it. Discussion circled around disallowing access to the site with a cable/gate forcing folks to request access, adding signage, and imposing weight limits on the roadway to the site. Instead of taking direct action, council agreed to have Utility Manager Scott Irvine look into the cost of having someone come and push/compact the site annually.
The Water Tower Maintenance Project made some progress as well with the council agreeing to choose the 6 year payback agreement. And finally, the city will advertise 12 parcels to be bid out for mowing. That number is about half of what was bid out last year. You can get details at City Hall, and bids will be due by March 4th.
Council adjourned just before 8pm and will next meet in regular session on February 24th.
