Spring cleaning efforts, remodeling for Roachdale

Friday, April 11, 2014

ROACHDALE -- Picnics, parks, building permits and animal control were all topics at the Roachdale Town Council meeting this week.

Continuing with the development of the park, Tammy Folck informed the council that she has secured an auctioneer for the May 10 auction at the North Meeting House.

The auction is a charity event to help secure the remaining few hundred dollars needed to pour new concrete for the park.

Meanwhile, the Roachdale Revitalization Cooperative Alliance was given approval to hold a community picnic the week following Roachdale's annual Summerfest.

The picnic would include free popcorn, free cotton candy and a piano player to provide music for the event, the RRCA was still seeking a piano player at the time of the meeting.

A park rededication was also suggested as part of the festivities.

Lisa Mock and Caroline Shotwell of the Putnam County Animal Control Advisory Board were in attendance Tuesday night to pursue financial support from the town of Roachdale to help fund a county animal shelter.

Mock and Shotwell are visiting town meetings to ask for an annual donation equivalent to $1 per head of population from each town in Putnam County.

The City of Greencastle and Town of Fillmore have already pledged this amount.

Roachdale Council member Zach Bowers raised questions not about the facilities but about two new merit officers who would handle animal control in the county.

Bowers inquired that if the animal control officers are merit officers of the sheriff's department (giving them the same rights of law enforcement as any sheriff), what would keep them from getting bogged down with non-animal related issues?

An explanation was given that the merit officer status is intended to allow the officers to collect animal fees and effectively enforce the laws of the county as they pertain to animal control.

The Roachdale board seemed in favor of the new facilities and of donating toward the project, but tabled a final decision until the next board meeting in May.

In other business:

* The town council approved four separate building permits.

* Approval was given to issue an "unsafe building ordinance" to three individual properties in Roachdale. The properties include: a reissue of the ordinance at 405 E. Washington, the property at 207 N. Meridian, and a third property that did not have a known exact address but was known by council members and Town Marshal Mike Mahoy, who is ultimately responsible for serving the notices.

* The council also approved the removal of two tree stumps, one at 4 N. Walnut and the second at 209 E. Washington.

* A property purchase was approved by the board for a lot adjacent to the sewer treatment plant.

* A resolution draft was approved for the annexation property at the request of the owner of said property. The property sits on the edge of town and technically part of the property is within town limits, and part of the property is outside town limits. The owner had requested for the remaining portion of property to also be classified as part of the town of Roachdale.

The next Roachdale Town Council meeting will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 13.

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