Russellville council fields contract questions, 2020 budget

RUSSELLVILLE -- Highlighting a brief set of agenda items, the Russellville Town Council recently tried to clear up misunderstandings in a contract between the town and the Russellville Community Center.

An in issue that held the council’s attention for most of its regular session Tuesday evening, town officials addressed questions brought by those who manage the community center. As it turned out, the contract wasn’t signed due to these concerns.

One point was whether the town, which owns the building, budgeted the community center’s budget without having a definite event schedule. Council President Cary McGaughey said the town’s budget for the building would be halved between the two. As an example, if $10,000 was allocated, $5,000 would be allowed.

Another miscommunication concerned whether the community center’s stewards could apply for a grant for building repairs. McGaughey said the community center could not pursue those from Community Crossings or the Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA), but could go through the Putnam County Community Foundation.

Acting on that grant only requires that the community center inform the council of doing so, which McGaughey said would certainly be supported if it helps maintain the building.

Clerk-Treasurer Martha Mandleco added that the State Board of Accounts (SBOA) audits to the town’s minutes, and that the contract’s going into effect wasn’t recorded as such.

In effect, the issue was relegated to confusion about the language of the contract and, as councilwoman Cathy Jones invoked, both parties not consulting with each other and “stamping and going.” Jones also said the questions had now come up because of this more in-depth review.

The council said Town Attorney Stu Weliever would be contacted to review these concerns and other verbiage, and that it hoped to have an approval to the contract soon.

The council then had a public hearing on the town’s budget for 2020, which Mandleco said had remained virtually unchanged from last year except for a lower insurance cost.

The total in the general fund equals to $107,365, while the MVH addressing streets comes out to $17,500. $6,000 of the MVH fund was allocated for paving, while the local roads and streets fund was budgeted $4,000 and the riverboat/casino got $2,000.

Overall, the grand total for the 2020 budget will be $161,865. The council will vote on adopting the budget during next month’s regular meeting.

Mandleco and the council also briefly spoke about the status of the Russellville Town Hall. The clerk-treasurer said she had tried to get in touch with a structural engineer, but was unsuccessful. Mandleco also said the town’s insurance was still ruling the building as safe.

To the agreement of his peers, councilman Jim Davis said he didn’t understand why the insurance was not assisting with determining whether the building was safe or not.

A local resident said it would be difficult to get a structural engineer to make that determination without having any blueprints to consult. Besides knowing what the building is made of, this reverts back to liability on the engineer’s part if it were to eventually collapse.

The issue goes back to when the town hall was condemned by Putnam County Planning and Zoning back in March. Since then, the town’s insurance has claimed it isn’t liable for damage, since it wasn’t directly affected by wind damage to nearby buildings.

As one of only two water-related issues, Mandleco said 24,200 gallons were pumped more than paid. This is a drastic reduction from August, when 574,700 gallons were recorded at the first of the month. This can be linked to the recent repair of a large leak that was located behind the town hall.

The council also was informed local residents were interested in hauling various scrap items behind the building. The trio said scrapping leftover copper and cast iron was not a problem, but it would be preferable to remove it all before winter begins.

The next regular meeting of the Russellville Town Council and the Russellville Water Board is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 15 at 7 p.m. in the Russellville Community Center.