Council Approves Service Delivery
After months of review and several discussions, some often heated, the Monticello City Council voted to pass the Service Delivery Strategy (SDS) 4-1. Stone Workman, Mayor pro tem, was the sole hold out. Councilman David Wease made the motion and Councilman Larry Thurman seconded. The newly passed SDS will remain in place for the next 10 years.
Prior to the vote the council asked Peggy Billerman, Interim City Manager, what the city attorney recommended for the council. The city attorney suggested a 90 day delay in the passing of the SDS and “no one wants that,” according to Mr. Workman.
He went on to say, “Everyone has read it. The arguments have been made. What’s the council’s pleasure?” The Mayor pro tem presided over the meeting Tuesday night in the mayor’s absence. There was some discussion about an agreement with the Jasper County Water and Sewer Authority (JCWSA).
Councilman Thurman said, “I think that I read something from the attorney that the JCWSA and our representative should get together to work out a solution that wouldn’t hinder the SDS agreement. How do we go about doing that? We need get the JCWSA in here and to come to a conclusion on this.”
Councilman Wease said, “and another solution to this is to leave it TBD because there is nothing to do at this moment. Every time we’ve had something like this come up they’ve [JCWSA] been good about working with us, for example the school and other uses.”
Mrs. Billerman presented the council with the first quarter financial reports. She said that the City Hall employees were very proud of the document and that Carnethia Pennamon would love to hear any questions that the council may have.
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The council approved unanimously the personnel policy as it was the second reading of the policy. Mrs. Billerman commented that the policy had been distributed to all of the departments for their review.
The council was also updated that the Public Service Commission (PSC) inspections had been completed and all of the gas records were examined and there were no findings. She also noted that all of the pre-existing examinations could be released and that the positive report was the first in a number of years.
City manager items presented included:
• That the park to park sidewalk grant work was on hold as the city has to secure a pre-qualified daily oversight engineer. The previous city manager was under the impression that the state would provide that person, but the city must provide that themselves. Tyler Hewitt, the current city engineer has been contacted, and has yet to return any calls, said Mrs. Billerman.
• Demolition of the lodges has been completed for $23,500.
• 472 W. Washington (Pie House) was on the list to be demolished and the owners requested for it to stay. Those owners were given two weeks to clear the yards and secure the windows and doors, which they have done. They also have a 30, 60, 90 plan to keep the property up.
• Proposed that the city look at purchasing vehicles on the GEMA lease loan that had decreased in price from $38,000 to $24,000. This item was tabled until November as some of the pricing was yet to be determined. The vehicles were budgeted items and would save the city $30,000 off the top according to Mrs. Billerman.
• Was told that the LMIG money for 2019 was a little less than $39,000 which won’t pave much of Funderburg Drive as intended. The city manager asked council to consider rolling the $39,000 over to the next year making those funds $78,000 to put toward the project. The council tabled this item the November meeting.
The council heard from Captain Mike Steele with the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office regarding signage and times for the parks to be open and closed. Mr. Steele commented that the JCSO is doing what they can to patrol those areas, but that there need to be some definitive times for the parks. The council voted for the parks to be open “from sunrise to sunset,” and that the signage reflects those times.
