The Norris City Village Board met Monday night for what would turn out to be the last time the board would meet on the First Monday of each month. Scott Mareing was there for this one hour plus meeting, which also had a plot twist, and has this report…
At the very beginning of the meeting, when the topic of paying the bills of the month came up, board member Wayne McKenzie asked if it would be easier if the board would meet on the second Monday of each month, because they almost always have a partial list of the bills instead of all of them. The village compiles the bills at the end of the month and usually they aren’t all in in time for the next meeting. Mayor Skip Land agreed and said it would make things a lot easier, so he asked board members if they would be willing to move the monthly meetings from the first Monday to the second Monday of each month, and they unanimously agreed.
In the original version of this story, it was reported in the section below that the incident happened at the NCOE Grade School. White County Sheriff Jordan Weiss has clarified that the incident in question occurred at the Wabash and Ohio Valley Special Education District building.
Mayor Land in his comments spoke about an incident he heard about last week concerning a14 year old boy at the Norris City Annex threatening to stab another boy with a knife. Everyone was led out and locked out of the classroom, except for the boy with the knife. The police were called and Dustin Dale talked to him, since he had a rapport with the boy and had dealt with him before. Dale kept talking with him, got closer and grabbed the knife from him. Fortunately, no one was injured. Land found out the boy had planned the attack and other kids in the classroom knew about it. He said that Dale is owed a great debt of gratitude for his quick thinking and his quick actions.
The Mayor also noted that one of the pumps at the sewer plant is down and needs to be replaced, with the old one to be refurbished so there would be a backup pump. And he will look into whether the lightning strike that happened recently that affected the lift station had anything to do with that pump. He wants to see if he can attach it to the insurance claim about the lightning strike that hasn’t been resolved yet.
Then, Mike Rowe addressed the board about his TIF request, as he was unable to attend last month’s meeting. First, he noted that he heard there had been questions if there were any business in those buildings that received TIF money. Rowe then ran down the businesses that were operating in his buildings. He said that he wanted in his TIF request money for repairs to the roof and remodeling the front of the building. Then there was the question of what to do if a business folds before they complete their five year commitment, for which there didn’t seem to be an answer. There was a lot of back-and-forth for about half an hour on the subject. Mayor Land and the board appeared to be ready to approve Rowe’s TIF request. Rowe said he had an issue with the claw back provisions of the TIF district agreement, which is a way for municipalities to recover funds from those that fail to meet agreed-upon performance goals. He said he brought up a point that needs to be dealt with and abruptly withdrew his TIF request, thanked the board members for their input, that he had no problem with anyone of them, and then left the meeting. The board then honored his wish to withdraw his TIF request.
It was agreed that the village would, upon the fire department’s recommendation, that there be four storm sirens in town. The current siren in the center of town, a new siren on the north end, a new one on the south end that would take in the grade school, and another one at the sewer plant. All the sirens would be in synch. Novacom was presented with the recommendation and said the village doesn’t need that many sirens. The village agreed with the fire department’s request, though, and thought an overlap in sirens would save lives. Two of the sirens can be paid for with TIF funds since they’re in the TIF district. A new siren costs about $36,000. The board agreed to the proposal.
The village’s request for a ballfield grant with federal money was turned down. The ball park at Beaty Field needs six new lights and six new poles, costing $48,000. The board members agreed spend the money.
The payout for Phase IV of the Water Project has already been approved. $328,728 is the payout for Phase V, which was approved. Total cost of Phase V is about $1.5 million.
The price of gas the village will need to pay will not be available until about Thursday. It was decided to wait until then, with the possibility of a special meeting to be held on the matter.
As far as Flock Safety Cameras go, the matter was tabled due to invasion of privacy concerns.
The board agreed to pay $18,000 on a new pump for the sanitation plant that was struck by lightning.
In the Animal Control report, there was a pit bull biting incident.
In the Police report for January, there was one arrest, one traffic stop, two verbal warnings, and 22 calls for service.
The next meeting of the Norris City village board will be Monday, March 9 at 7 PM.