Improvements continue in Cloverdale
CLOVERDALE -- The Cloverdale Town Council met for its monthly session Tuesday evening following a town meeting involving all town boards and committees held last Thursday.
Clerk-Treasurer Cheryl Galloway came before the council to update members on several items, including the possibility of charging a usage fee on credit and debit cards for utility bills.
"The town has never charged a usage fee for utilities," Galloway said. "We have never charged a fee, the utilities have always ate the cost."
Galloway noted that during 2013 it cost the town $2,326.94 on top of Endeavor's $440.64 to have the credit line to accept cards.
Members of the council seemed supportive of the idea, however it was asked by council member Larry Fidler that Galloway come back to the council next month with more information.
Galloway also asked that the council address Ordinance 2010-5, which was created to make utilities, police and the building inspector operate more efficiently by providing better service to the community.
Currently, the town has given those select people a $1,000 limit for such things.
"It used to be $300 when I came on board and then it went to $500," Vice President Dennis Padgett said. "It's just like over time as things have gotten more expensive we've just kind of upped it a little bit. Everything has doubled and tripled in prices."
The council agreed to increase the maximum to $1,300 following the approval of an ordinance, which will be presented during next month's meeting.
Galloway also in-formed the council that she recently met with IDEM to discuss the town's ongoing inflow and infiltration (I and I) issues. During this meeting, town officials were informed that some vacant property in Stardust Hills, which is currently not connected to storm drains or sewer drains, is causing drainage issues.
"Rainwater is getting into those drains," Galloway said. "It's having us cause I and I problems. We want to cut that line off and make it a "T" and run that line down to Rabbit Run Creek."
Property owner Don Gedert came before the council to ask that a resolution be created for the sole purpose of ensuring that if the said property location were to be developed in the future, the town would ensure that it would put it back to its original state.
"Over time I don't want this to get lost in the shuffle," Gedert said. "It's being disconnected from the town system and it's being diverted to the creek. I ask for a resolution to be passed by the board that this would be put back and repaired as needed at some point in time in the future."
The board agreed to sign a resolution to ensure that if Gedert should chose to develop the land in the future, the town would reconnect the line for the storm and sewer drains.
Utility Manager Charles Knuf also came before the council seeking approval for a long list of items needed to improve the work of the department.
Knuf informed the council that the utility department needed such things as a blower for the wastewater plant, tree trimming and truck servicing.
The council approved the following bids, including Quality Repair Service for the purchase of the blower for the wastewater plant at a total of $2,780; Haywood Sales for the service on the jetter truck for $1,252.32; Josh Harris at a rate of $1,800 for tree trimming and removal; and Wilson's Road Service at a rate of $2,100 for equipment to cut roots out of sewer lines.
However, Padgett advised Knuf that he would like a few other quotes on the tree trimming and removal. If Harris is the cheapest, Knuf is approved to move forward with the project.
"It's just the equipment we need to continue our operation," Knuf said.
Knuf also informed the council that there was recently an issue at the Doe Creek Lift Station with the pumps clogging up.
"We had an overflow back in December," Knuf explained. "The fix for that seems to be what they call a stilling well. All that is going to be is a piece of eight-inch PVC along with a transistor to keep it from clogging up. We're going to do this now before the rains come. This seems to be the fix now."
The issue was that the pumps filled up and shut down. After talking to the contractor who built the station, Knuf decided that the utility department would fix the issue themselves.
Knuf also advised the council that he believes there should be mandatory minimum on sewer and water.
"We're going to have a significant amount of repair on all of our sewer lines and all those vacant properties, nobody's contributing," Knuf said. "I just think that, this is my opinion, the time has come that we should get something for them. You cannot disconnect them from the sewer line of course, but if they want to disconnect from the water we could take their meter out and then charge them a connection fee."
In other business:
· Galloway informed the council that the town has received a total of $20,512.18 to date from the Food and Beverage Tax.
· The council will be looking into requiring that every five years, property owners or when there is a change of hands in a property, have the building inspector check the laterals on the property. It will ensure that the violations of the laterals are kept out of the storm water. This is becoming a fairly common ordinance prevision throughout the state.
· Patton appointed council member Don Sublet to the Redevelopment Commission.
·Redevelopment Commission President Wayne Galloway informed the council he recently met with the developers at Fresh Start. The owner informed Galloway that he received a free grant to do a phase one of the site.
· The town will soon be advertising for bids on the farm ground on the well property.
· The council approved Resolution 2014-2, which adopted the ADA Disability Act that is needed in order to receive grant funding.
· The council approved Resolution 2014-3 to transfer dormant funds to the appropriate accounts.
· Resolution 2014-2 was also approved to redact Ordinance 2013-1 to move $100,000 from wastewater to the general fund, which was a recommendation from the State Board of Accounts.