City Council Meets; Courthouse Revitalization Project Approved

by BOB STOETZEL


Roll Call consisted of Dottie Duggin, Joanne Davis, Charlie Harrell, Clayton Cason, Lois Larimer and Mayor Harold Patrick.

There was a motion made to approve the minutes of the last meeting; all agreed to approve the minutes without being read.

The next order of business was to hear a request from Alderman Cason in behalf of John Francis. Cason told the others that Francis wanted to dump septic waste into the solid waste facilities belonging to the city and that he would gladly pay for this service.

The mayor called Public Works Director Alan Paschal to comment on it. Paschal said that the city used to do that for people who had campers, but it was stopped because the ammonia levels went up and that State who tests the numbers at the sewer plant showed that they were higher and told the city that they weren’t set up to do that correctly. The city would be penalized for those higher numbers.

When the waste water detention tanks get the waste through the normal sewer system it treats it accordingly. But Paschal says that they really cannot treat the waste brought in sufficiently. He told the council that after the waste is treated it is taken and spread on land parcels of land, (the Courier is not aware of where the land is). The mayor called on the aldermen to see if there was any comment and there wasn’t so the question became moot.

Ronnie Nichols addressed the board to let them know that he also had land that he wanted to be put into the running for the land to be used for the new location of the Woodbury Fire Department. Of course this would be contingent to the grant being awarded by the Presidents Stimulus Package.

Chief Bill Johnston had told the board at a prior meeting that they are in the running for receiving a $100,000 grant for the building of a new fire department. And the city will be the one who will furnish the land for that project. His land is where the barn is on Massey Lane where Dr. Tate and the Woodbury Inn is located.

Doug Combs, president of the Historic Cannon County Chamber of Commerce, and director Caroline Motley were present at the council meeting to present the city a check in the amount of $708.00 which was from the Department of Education and for the County being a member in the Three-Star Community Development Program.

The city was awarded the money for their involvement in continuing education; by keeping accurate records of what was spent to send employees to schools to keep them on top of their game. The costs are refunded to the city by this program which is being helped by the local Chamber of Commerce.

The mayor was advised by the County Executive Mike Gannon they had just been approved for the money to revitalize the courthouse square. Gannon said that the bid will be let on on October 6. The Mayor says that he doesn’t know how much they will be able to get done this winter.

The city’s attorney Bill Bryson reported to the council that they had come to terms with the allegation that there were unethical dealings pertaining to the City Manager Alan Paschal, made by a local citizen. Bryson said there was no evidence that showed that any unethical behavior was founded.

Fire chief Bill Johnston reported to the council that they had to do a patchup job on one of the engines to one of the fire truck and eventually they would have to replace the truck. The cost to repair the engine is more expensive than the truck is worth, said Johnston. Vice Mayor Harrell asked the Chief how that would affect the city’s fire protection rating. The chief advised that if the state knew they were working on getting another truck that everything should be the same.

Having no further business before the council the call for adjournment went out.