Roachdale looks at raises and town improvements

ROACHDALE -- As the last two months of 2013 start creeping down, many towns are making final adjustments for the next year. Roachdale is no exception.

At Tuesday's town council meeting the town board discussed pay raises for town employees, grants and several property issues.

The board began discussing a possible salary raise for town employees. During this time council member Zack Bowers stated that he could not in good conscience as a board member agree to an across the board raise for everyone.

After the board conversed with Town Attorney Dave Peebles it was decided to perform individual performance reviews in the next week. By doing these performance reviews the board will have to schedule a special session to pass a salary ordinance before the year is out.

Clerk-Treasurer Martha Louk brought to the board the final payments for the company hired to help with Roachdale obtaining the half million Community Focus Fund Grant to the tune of $70,000. The payment will come from Economic Development Income Taxes fund. This fund allowstowns to pay off costs that concern economic development.

After receiving the $500,000 grant Louk suggested that the town continue applying for another grant. The board agreed with her suggestion and will begin the process of applying for more grant money to help improve the waste water treatment for the town.

In other areas of town improvement, the town took a bid for the addition of some concrete in front of one of the churches. After an $850 bid was received, Greg Poole said that the town would take care of the pouring themselves.

The town also revisited the property cleanup that has been a plaguing issue for the town. The board will be reviewing some of the properties and deciding on litigation against one on Columbia Street.

The board looked at ordinance 7-2013 at the end of Tuesday night's meeting. The ordinance's purpose is to regulate any adult entertainment business that would look to establish in Roachdale. The board approved of the ordinance.

The next town board meeting will be on Tuesday, Dec. 10 at 7 p.m.

In other business:

- Two building permits were tabled due to lack of information on where the structures would be placed on the property and several other key points of information.

-Town Marshal Mike Mahoy told the board that for the Roachdale Christmas parade that the size was unknown at this time, but he did not see any need to shut down any roads.

-Mahoy also informed the council that the Charger was out of service at this time due to necessary repairs.

-The town will be reimbursing $70 to a town resident whose sewer line was damaged during the fixing of a gas leak near the property. Bowers and fellow council member Barbara Scott believed that it was on the town to reimburse at least half of the inspection fee that was incurred by the property owner to find the problem. After the damaged line was found the town was able to fix it.