but here are some of my notes on the 2.14.06 Thayer City Council meeting:
Contrary to what was published beforehand, there was no question-and-answer session about the sidewalk grant. Which is too bad, because I wanted to ask where the city's 20% would come from -- if it was money we already have lying around somewhere or if it is money that will have to be raised. I also wanted to ask how much the maintenance of the new sidewalk will increase the city's budget.
There WAS a meeting beginning at 6:45, supposedly about the annexation of Highway 63 south to the state line. They opened the meeting and announced what it was about, then sat and looked at each other for the next fifteen minutes. No discussion, no motions to approve anything. Nothing. When the fifteen minutes were up, they closed that meeting and opened the regular meeting.
It made me wonder if our city council is suffering from some sort of collective mental illness.
In the regular meeting, there were several routine "housekeeping" issues -- approval of minutes, paying bills, fire department minutes, etc.
The March city council meeting was unanimously rescheduled for the third Tuesday, which is 3/21, at 7:00 PM.
The city will publish a 6-month financial statement in the newspaper.
A city administrator ordinance was tabled by a unanimous vote on a motion made by Buddy Rogers.
A couple of mutual aid agreements were passed.
Ordinance #987 "Regulating provision for use of water outside buildings" was passed.
Cleanup week was unanimously scheduled for March 27th.
The caboose is scheduled to open March 20th. One of the council members asked City
Manager Administrator Gary Barton about whether or not "they" (I assume this meant the TCBA) would be able to pay what they owe on it. He sort of mumbled a response, so I'm not 100% sure what his reply was, but I'm pretty certain he said "They said they can pay half."
Half? Are we writing off the TCBA's obligations now?
There was discussion of a USDA rural development grant to get a 2004 police car. The city's cost would be $3750. They could save about a thousand bucks and not have to go through the grant process by simply going to
GovDeals.com and bidding on a model that's just a couple of years older.
Gary Barton reported that electric rates will rise 10.52% for the year beginning February 1. I didn't catch whether this increase will be on the amount the City of Thayer pays it's suppliers or on the amount the city charges it's customers.
The council went into closed session at 7:35.
# posted by The Last American @ 8:38 AM
