Town's tree troubles trimmed back

The Russellville Town Council meeting started off with a bang Thursday night in regards to the cutting down of a tree.

President Sally Spencer McAfee told the BannerGraphic Friday night that Davon Davis had come to the board a couple years back to ask if she could have a tree on her property removed due to dead branches falling on to her vehicle. The former council president informed Davis that the trees on the greenway were property of the town and the town would take care of it.

When McAfee took over as president, the situation still had not been taken care of. Davis returned to the council to inform them of the situation. The board felt that they should honor what the former president said, even though they had created an ordinance that stated the greenway trees belonged to the property owner.

But the trees kept getting pushed aside due to weather and other issues. In the spring of this year, Mr. and Mrs. Ed McBride came to the board and asked them not to remove the tree because it was alive and such action was not in the minutes.

During Thursday night's meeting, Ed McBride informed the board that he had a concern with the town having enough money to cut down Davis's tree when she should be taken care of it. He said that the town has ordinances that the town is not following, and instead of paying to remove the tree, the board should be taking care of the junk vehicles and cleaning up the properties around the town.

Board member Jim Rodgers informed McBride that the board had told Davis they would honor a previous agreement even after the ordinance was created.

Davis said the town did not pay for the tree to be removed, that she in fact paid for it herself. The board announced to those in attendance that the subject of the Davis's tree was finished.

McAfee informed the board that the town was now third on the list for receiving a loan from the State Revolving Loan Fund through the Indiana Department of Environmen-tal Management.

Receiving the loan will help the town receive a grant from the Indiana Department of Rural Affairs which will go toward completing the water improvement project. "This is going to happen after hard work and high water bills," said McAfee.

The board did not realize that how high the water bill prices were going to go, even though they placed $2,300 in the water fund. McAfee said, "This is going to take some creative bookkeeping."

The board will be holding a meeting with the State Revolving Fund, West Central who is handling the affair for Indiana Department of Environmen-tal Management, Wessler Engineering, and Umbaugh and Associates on Thursday, July 27 at 9 a.m. This meeting will help to coordinate everybody when they receive the loan and the grant.

In other business, the board:

-- Learned that the town would receive a host fee from the hazardous waste fund for the waste that the town has in it's backyard starting next year. This host fee is paid in the amount of a percentage every month.

-- Learned that Chester Leatherman would be flushing the pipes every second Thursday of the month.

-- Learned that the Putnam County Sheriff's Ride is expected to arrive in the town around 4 p.m. on Saturday. This will be the ride's last stop in the northern part of the county before heading back south.

-- Learned that Davis's son will be taking postcards of the town to Amersterdam. Davis's son was nominated through the Nation to Nation program to wrestle for the U.S. team and has to take something with him that reflects his way of life. These postcards will be given to foreign diplomats and citizens he connects with.

-- Approved the removal of the Westler bill and the Branico bill from the February and May master claim sheet. The board needs to correct these sheets for the audit.

-- Approved ordinance 20063, abolishing the position of deputy clerk-treasurer, to a vote of two to zero. Rodgers informed the town after a question was raised that the real reason for creating the ordinance was because McAfee was going to take over the water project and they did not feel like the position was needed anymore.

Board member Scot Bushong was not present. The next meeting is scheduled Thursday, Aug. 10 at 7 p.m. in the town hall. The meeting is open to the public.