The Jefferson City Council met last night in regular session.
The Council approved a $2,000 request by Tri-County Lumber for reimbursement for demolishing a house at 500 South Maple Street with funds from the Neighborhood Incentive Improvement Program and increased Police Captain Mark Clouse’s salary 1.5% from the recommendation of Chief Dave Morlan.
The Council also approved increasing the overall burial charge from $450 to $500. Cemetery Committee member Harry Ahrenholtz said they wanted to make a flat increase and get rid of the $50 thawing fee to thaw the ground in winter time.
Several appointments were also approved. Linda Eighmy was appointed to the planning and zoning commission for a five-year term, Kathy Calvert was appointed to the board of adjustments and Mike Wahl was appointed to the fire department.
The Council directed City Attorney Robert Schwarzkopf to eliminate the specific examples of water, street and sewer and leave existing infrastructure to the ballot for the Local Option Sales and Services Tax which will be voted on during the November election to extend it for another ten years to the year 2026.
Greene County Economic Development Director Ken Paxton gave an update to the Council. He invited the Council to a town hall meeting on August 18th at 6pm at the Greene County Community Center to inform people about the expected jobs, housing and daycare needs in the County. He also spoke about a county marketing plan with Wild Rose Jefferson as a central piece to the new marketing plan that will be used in 2015. The Council approved the quarterly funding to GCDC of $11,250.
During the reports, City Engineer John Milligan told the Council that he spoke with some representatives with the Federal Emergency Management Agency about not including seven areas in the City to not be classified as flood zones when they re-do their maps and he got that approved by FEMA.
City Clerk Diane Kennedy talked about the new water bill collection policy of not allowing any extensions or special accommodations if people got passed the 12-day notice for paying their water bill before their service is turned off. She said that they’ve sent out 235 notices of the change and have only received 3-4 phone calls about it.
Council member Lisa Jaskey reported that the property at 507 South Locust Street is underway to get a new house built using the new program with Region XII Council of Governments and plans are to have a new home built by the spring of 2015.