The City of Grayville is getting new benches and commissioners say they want to take a better look at 14 trees before agreeing to sell them. It happened during a 22 minute Council meeting Monday evening. The city currently has a bit over $3.5 million in assets according to Treasurer Sharon Walden. That includes more than $1.5 million in assets and CDs were just renewed at Citizens National Bank.
Those new benches will come from Greentree Plastics. Five of the benches will be 6 feet and placed uptown. The other three will be 4-footers and placed around the pond at the park according to Mayor Travis Thompson. Council passed the purchase order amounting to $3,661 which will come out of the city’s revolving loan fund.
Council also received an update Monday from Rex Gower of Milano and Grunloh, the city’s engineering firm. He gave updates on the Albion/Grayville water treatment plant and also the wastewater treatment plant project, a recipient of a million dollar grant.
Utility manager Scott Irvine reported culvert replacements and other projects. Mayor Travis Thompson also took a moment to let residents know of a brush route upcoming following Sunday night’s storms.
We had a few trees down last night. We got those cleaned up fairly easily. We are running a brush route on Thursday and Friday. If you haven’t had it picked up by Friday afternoon, call city hall and they’ll be happy to swing by, but there is no need to call the city to tell them about brush prior to that. They’ll make the rounds.
In old business, council officially signed off on meeting dates, times, and locations for the upcoming year and also approved the intergovernmental agreement with Poseyville for Gas Department service assistance. Additionally, leaders approved the sale of excess real estate at 117 East Martin and 611 Water Street. Officials tabled the annexation of 1309 North Main as the city is still waiting for a survey.
Commissioners approved a first reading on Ordinance 976 which adds a chapter to the code regarding utility charges, disconnection fees, and procedures. Jean Carr was in attendance and said she appreciated the council listening to landlords and making the appropriate change extracting civil liability language which some argued could’ve made landlords responsible for tenants unpaid bills.
The city received two bids on the purchase of 14 trees near the park. Mayor Thompson says a company was doing work for a resident and approached the city to ask about 14 specific trees prompting Thompson to ask another company if they would be interested and both submitted bids. John K. Jones presented a bid of $2,792. JHT Robertson Lumber bid $4,300. Commissioner Baldwin offered his thoughts before the council decided to table it to gather more information.
My personal thoughts…I don’t like cutting down trees. They were put there for a reason. They help hold the bank. Eventually, they’ll grow up and die. I don’t see 14 trees for $4,000 especially right behind the shower house and sewage disposal plant or dump; I don’t know that it’d affect it, but it could. So my personal feelings are I would vote no to harvesting any trees.
Before adjourning, council accepted the resignation of Miranda Morris from the Grayville Library Board and appointed Terri Garman to take her place.