Gate, pay rate, leave some council irate

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

CLOVERDALE -- Five Cloverdale High School students got an up-close view of American democracy in action when they attended Tuesday night's town council meeting.

The students, who were working on a class project for teacher Maureen Wagner's government class, watched as Town Attorney Allan Yackey gave lengthy answers to legal questions, council member John Davis verbally sparred with realtor John Setty about a 16-foot gate that might or might not be at the end of Setty's road and members rehashed political matters that they have been wrangling about for months.

One student, who did not want to give her name, said the entire ordeal was educational, but it made her glad she lives in Owen County and not the town of Cloverdale.

The town council voted unanimously to remove two concrete barriers at the end of Crosswinds Road that Setty said Davis and Utility Manager Mike Gray placed there.

In place of the barriers, the town will erect stop signs and "Road Ends" signs at the end of the road.

But this decision only came at the end of a lengthy deliberation in which Davis accused Setty of lying to the council, and Yackey and Gray weighed in on the proper course of action.

The council seemed deadlocked and ready to do nothing on the matter until Development Commission Director Don Gedert suggested the stop sign solution.

Meanwhile, council members also voted 5-0 to approve the rezoning of a property at 601 E. Main St. that will allow Phyllis and Jerry Thacker to open an antique shop.

The board unanimously signed off on a letter to the Indiana Department of Environmental Manage-ment that Gedert said will go a long way toward getting approval for the construction of sewer and water lines that run to the Crossroads Horse Arena on Stardust Road.

The debate over amendments to the salary ordinance that the council approved at a special meeting last month brought up an old disagreement over the town's K-9 unit again.

In order to move forward with the police department reorganization that Marshal Don Pearson recommended to the council, the members had to vote to strike several positions, including the K-9 handler, from the town salary ordinance.

Pearson's new police hierarchy makes room for just four positions -- marshal, senior patrolman, patrolman and probationary patrolman.

But council member Judy Whitaker argued that since some members of the community are planning to raise the money to re-launch the police dog program without any cost to the town, council members would be remiss to eliminate the job.

Council President Don Sublett, Vice President Dennis Padgett and member Glen Vickroy voted in favor of striking the position -- causing the measure to succeed 3-2.

Council members also voted in a split decision to raise the deputy Clerk-Treasurer's salary to $28,000. Whitaker and Davis favored raising the pay to $30,000 per year since other towns of similar size paid that much on average. Vickroy wanted to keep the deputy's salary at $26,000. In the end, Whitaker joined Sublett and Padgett in passing the measure 3-2.

Gedert also told the board about a study he has in the works that will use DePauw University students to poll Cloverdale residents about their income levels. The data collected in the study will allow the town to apply for several economic assistance grants, he said.

The town council regularly meets on the second Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. in the Cloverdale Town Hall.

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  • Gedert managed to settle an arguement, got a good letter on its way to IDEM, and has an economic study to benefit the town.

    Mr. Gedert, why don't you move to Cloverdale and run for a seat on the town board? At least you can see that if the town can prosper, you can prosper as well.

    -- Posted by Xgamer on Wed, Dec 12, 2007, at 7:35 PM
  • This town is in a serious "delusions of grandeur", it's not funny!!! It's only begun...2008 looks worse..but, only if we let them. Get involved NOW!!

    -- Posted by ckenthefacts on Thu, Dec 13, 2007, at 9:50 AM
  • This town is in a serious "delusions of grandeur"

    The town and the majority are not the problem. The voting during the election was clear. 3:1 wanted the nonsense that was brought forward by Judy "for the good of the community" Whitaker, John "I don't sign illegal documents" Davis, and their supporters stopped. I'll agree with their supporters in that I would have liked to have seen a larger voter turnout so that the ratio would have been even higher than 3:1 but then again this wasn't a presidential year election.

    I have an idea! Let's file a lawsuit to change the voting for the town council members and make all of them be voted on the same year as presidential elections. That ought to make things more fair. I got an even better idea, stop the fighting and the nonsense if you want this town to grow, or don't you want it to grow?

    -- Posted by CdaleResident on Fri, Dec 14, 2007, at 6:43 PM
  • Excuse us Cdaleresident, I think you posted one of your anti JD & JW blogs in the wrong comment box. Your comment had nothing to do with this particular story.

    I myself was trying to be nice and actually found something good and positive to type about from this meeting.

    You could have attacked Mr. Davis for wasting time arguing with Mr. Setty over the "gate" or how Mrs. Whitaker was trying to keep a K9 dog program in this small town.

    "Your comments:

    Please be respectful of others and try to stay on topic."

    See? This rule is pretty simple, go ahead, try again, this time focus, crack your knuckles and type up a real good zinger! Throw me under your bus as well, just please make your comment on topic.

    -- Posted by Xgamer on Sat, Dec 15, 2007, at 5:59 AM
  • "Yackey and Gray weighed in on the proper course of action."

    The term "weighed in" does not actually express the real picture of what happened at the meeting. Adding the details that Gray slammed something down on the floor and went back to the podium would give the readers a more clear picture showing the anger and unprofessional behavior Gray displayed.

    -- Posted by South of 40 on Sat, Dec 15, 2007, at 10:04 AM
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