Grayville leaders spent an hour in executive session Monday night evoking the joke, this meeting could’ve been an email, especially considering there was no action following that stint. Council was only in open session for a total of 23 minutes with no major news coming out of the gathering. Mayor Travis Thompson says the reason for the lengthy closed door discussion was primarily collective negotiations with the union.
The municipality is sitting on about $3.2 million in assets between restricted accounts, investments, and cash available for operations. Council heard updates from both Scott Irvine, the Grayville Utility Manager and Engineer Rex Gower of Milano & Grunloh. He discussed the Phase 2 Water Main replacement, the Albion/Grayville Water Treatment Plant, the unsuccessful OSLAD application, among other topics.
City Attorney Jay Walden gave a pair of updates, one on the Pulaski Street easement and also details on the White County Landfill property.
“One, related to what Rex said on the easement issue…we had a meeting with William and Dorothy Lingafelter. They couldn’t have been more cordial. They’ve indicated based on communication they’re willing to grant the easement. We’re working on language, but I appreciate their cooperation with us today. Second thing, White County landfill closure…the litigation started to go off the rails again. I think we’re back again and in very short order, I’ll be requesting from the city our 12% of the closure fee to wire to Matthew McCarthy’s office as part of the sale of the landfill property. It should be the $12,500 but there will be some closing fees related to the real estate sale but all the municipalities have agreed, ‘yeah, we’ll pay it.”
Street Commissioner Chris James made a motion to approve the 2024 Motor Fuel Tax Program. It includes $71,700. $52,704 for oil and chipping, $5,860 for blacktop, $5,280 for salt, and $1,360 for concrete. It was approved unanimously.
Council adjourned at 8:22pm and is next scheduled to meet on April 8th, assuming traffic has died down after the eclipse. A public hearing for the annual budget is scheduled to precede that meeting at 6:45pm.
