Carmi Township met for a short meeting this week, with only one item on its agenda.
At the July meeting, a significant policy was established for the Township vehicles, ensuring that they are exclusively used for Township business by all elected and Township officials. The introduction of a mileage log, to be used daily, was a crucial step to safeguard the Township and taxpayers.
Road Commissioner Chris McEwing was not in attendance for the policy, but was for this month, where he did not agree to the policy.
The Road District is its own entity with its vehicles,
“Say me or even future Road Commissioners, and they’re coming back from Brownsville getting off work and they hit Walmart and they hit the gas company or you know whatever. Are they going to try to hang me out to dry and say, “Hey, you know he’s running errands in the company truck.” And I don’t really think you can do this anyway. It’s a Road District truck, bought for the Road District. I don’t think you guys have any authority to put any policy for the Road District, with all due respect.”
Township Supervisor Pam Deig stressed the necessity of the Township Attorney, Greg Stewart’s, presence for the discussion. McEwing also shared that he has been in discussions with the Township insurance company, TOIRMA, which confirmed the Road District’s status as its entity. Trustee Mike Baxley proposed that McEwing obtain a statement from TOIRMA to validate this and gather policy examples from other Road Commissioners for the next meeting. The board and McEwing agreed to postpone the amendment to the policy until next month.
While on the topic of the Road Commissioner, Deig asked McEwing about a quote the Township received on truck repairs and why it wasn’t turned into insurance before they paid the coverage. McEwing claimed he would contact TOIRMA to see if he can still turn it into insurance and the Township can be reimbursed, even after it has been fixed and paid.
The General and Emergency Assistance had a total of 36 sign-ins, which is a lot for Carmi. Still, the board understands that the cost of living and utilities have gone up quite a bit,
“It’s gone up so much that we’ve actually been working a lot more with WADI and they’re out of funds with the Salvation Army, and they’ll come in and pay what they can and we’ll come in and pay the remainder because we have one flat fee we can give.”
The Township assisted families as much as they could for July, with the total being $4,793.77.
Lastly, there will be a special Township meeting scheduled for September 2 at 6:00 pm. Township Attorney Greg Stewart requested the special meeting due to a wrongful termination case threat.