A post before Thanksgiving

The City Council met Monday evening with a short agenda. At the last meeting the Council expressed interest in examining the rates for trash pickup. At this meeting they gave the Mayor approval to sign a contract with Bakertilly, which recently merged with Umbaugh, the company that has advised the City in the past. The Council also approved accepting the supply bids for gas and diesel that were opened at the last meeting. (There was only one bidder, Ceres Solutions.)

The Mayor and other City officials had met with residents of Owen Street earlier in the day to discuss options for the sewer project the City is planning for the area. There were three options. The low priced option was for low pressure with grinder pumps. I believe the pumps would be the responsibility of homeowners, so this was not popular. A second option was the most expensive, one that used only gravity. This option would require lines to be up to 20 or 24 feet deep. The third relied somewhat on gravity but also used a lift station. This was the option that the Council approved.

The Council approved establishment of a fire department donation fund that would be used for expenses and purchase of equipment. The City received notification from the State that it needs to cut its budget for next year and the Council gave the Clerk-Treasurer authority to make the cuts. Parts are in for repair of the fire department's aerial truck and the repairs should be made in about a week and then there will be testing to see if the problem is solved. It was a short meeting.

Work continues on the concession stand/restrooms for the new ball fields in Brookside Park. Below is a photo of what the structure looked like on Tuesday.

The City has put up Christmas lights.

I stopped by the alley behind eMbers late last week and noticed that the wall that had the last bit of the angry birds mural was no longer.

 Below is another picture taken from the same place but with the camera held above the fence.

I rode over to Monticello on Tuesday afternoon and only saw one unharvested field along the road. I might have missed some. The bridge on 114 opened about a week ago.

My post on the aftermath of the fire now has the most page views according the the statistics that blogger provides. I think the fact that I updated it and then gave it a second push on Facebook helped. (Most posts have between 200 and 300 page views but there is a lot of variation from post to post. It is very rare for a post to exceed 1000 page views.)

Have a nice Thanksgiving and drive safely if you are on the road.