Grayville leaders spent 30 minutes in executive session Monday night with no action concerning that half hour closed door discussion. Prior to that, the treasurer’s report revealed the municipality has more than $3 million in assets including $200,000+ in cash available for operation.
Following executive session, council skipped over the first two old business items with no new developments on the vacated Pulaski Street easement and New Resident Attraction Program.
Attorney Jay Walden advised against the city making a donation to the White County Ambulance Service for the purchase of a drone stating statute.
“I had some limited communication with Jo Ellen. I’m not gonna say I’ve done a bunch of research on this while I was off. But I’ve dealt with this before. My position on this, my feeling, is that you’re talking about an intergovernmental agreement. I do not think the city is able to make a donation to the ambulance service for a drone that we might get some incidental benefit out of. So that’s my off the cuff position…not to say it’s not a great idea, I don’t mean that. But I think you have to do something more formal where everybody benefits and you explain how everybody invests in it and how much your usage goes. But I think a simple donation in my opinion as city attorney is not an option for us.”
Attorney Walden also advised against allowing the Grayville Athletic Association to utilize a street for a bucket brigade with a similar stance.
Council passed a second reading of an amendment to an ordinance which would potentially allow for profit businesses to obtain a special events liquor license.
There was some confusion over when bids were due for the seasonal mowing contracts. Instead of awarding those agreements, council instead decided to table it until the March 11th meeting and to post that the city was taking bids on the City of Grayville facebook page.
Finally in Old Business, the city heard from Sherry Garcia with a request to block off downtown for the solar eclipse. Commissioner Don Baldwin says he thinks the city is vastly underprepared for what’s coming.
“I could be very wrong, but I don’t see closing North Street is going to help anything. Like I said, I could see closing Middle Street and leaving these parking spaces available for people to get into, but I’m afraid we’re way underprepared for this. I can see people in my backyard right now who I’m gonna say, ‘who the hell are you and where’d you come from.”
Commissioner Chris James agrees
“We’re gonna have a lot of people, no matter what. It’s gonna be here…it’s gonna happen, we need to figure out what we’re gonna do now. We should’ve already done this 8 months ago and we’ve been told that several times, but now we’re dragging our shoes through the sand.”
In new business, council tabled a beautification request for funding that would be used for signage and landscaping at the depot. Commissioners say they’ll figure it out, but they may not be able to use money out of the tourism portion of the budget for the improvements. Council agreed to allow the Grayville Moose Lodge to utilize the park, shelter house, and restrooms for an Easter Egg Hunt scheduled for March 30th. Finally, council agreed to up the fees at the campground moving daily rates from $15 to $20 and weekly rates from $80 to $100.
Grayville Council adjourned at 8:08pm.
