Small and short

The City Council meeting on January 22 was both small and short. The mayor was absent, so Council President George Cover presided. Two of the Council members were also absent, leaving three to conduct business. Fortunately, there was not much.

The Council re-elected George Cover as President of the Council, which gives him the task of conducting meetings when the Mayor is absent. It then discussed and approved an environmental consultant for the electric department. The person who has been doing the environmental reviews had left the previous company and had set up her own, and the Electric Utility wanted to continue using her. In addition, her bid for services was lower than that of the company that she had left. The Council approved the recommendation of the Electric Department.

The Council approved a retainer for a computer consultant. The person or company has been providing services in the past, but not on a retainer. I do not understand what is changed with this approval.

The Police Chief reported that framing and hanging dry wall has begun in the future police station. The utility office requested permission to spend $6000 for a new copier. The Watts substation on Bunkum road went on-line on January 18 and is now serving the Interstate area. The Powerhouse requested approval to also replace old electrical wiring when the new derrick is installed. And Grimmer has been working on the water line extension at the Mount Calvary Road intersection. It should finish this week. The meeting adjourned at 6:25.

Balloons Galore and More is moving two blocks further east on SR 114 in a building that a few years ago had a different ballon store in it, Sue's Special Occasions. (It was most recently Fairmeadows Home Health Care Center.)

The melting snow and rain has raised the level of the river and cleared away the ice.

Work continues on the next batch of apartments on Elza Street.

On Tuesday a CSX crew was working on repairing the spur line south of the main line.

Another crew, probably not CSX, was starting to chop up the tank cars. They are using a machine that has a giant claw. I hope I will be able to get a better picture of it before they are finished.

Train day at the library was a big success, with lots of excited little boys and perhaps some equally excited little girls. This year they had a large train display in the story-time room.

Finally, there were other meetings on Monday night that took a lot longer than the City Council meeting and drew a lot more citizen interest. I will try to write about them before the end of the week.