Roachdale looks to make improvements

ROACHDALE -- Tammy Folck continued to promote development of Roachdale Park at the town meeting on Tuesday evening.

Folck requested permission from the Roachdale Town Council to apply for two different grant programs to aid with the Roachdale Park project. The council unanimously approved permission to apply.

One of the grants is for $5,000 from Cardinal Health and the other is from Eli Lilly for an unspecified amount.

The town council also approved the formal creation of two separate committees to help manage funds, continue development and to manage the evolving park.

Dave Peebles informed the committee that it is common for small towns to have such boards and that often one committee is connected to the government and another is operated as an independent non-profit to help navigate various issues pertaining to grant allocation.

As part of an ongoing process to clean up various lots around Roachdale, the council approved the demolition of one house, and the mandatory removal of "nuisance" materials from two separate properties.

One of the nuisance properties was at one point designated an "unsafe building" by the committee and has since been torn down, but the rubble was not actually removed after the building's destruction. After being granted numerous extensions to take care of the site, the council agreed that the property classification has shifted from "unsafe building" to "nuisance" and still requires needs action to be taken by the property owner.

Each of the nuisance properties will have 30 days from the date served by Town Marshal Mike Mahoney to remove the accumulated materials.

The Roachdale Water Plant requested and received approval for a spray-on roof replacement. Two different bids had been brought to the meeting with the final approval being given to Rockville Roofing.

An individual clothing allowance was approved for town employees, changing the process from earmarking of funds to a specific annual allocation for individual employees. The determined annual amounts were $500 for full-time and $250 for part-time employees, with boots seeming to take up a large portion of that allowance.