Eupora residents will pay $2 more for trash collection starting in October.
The garbage rate increase was approved by the Board of Aldermen on Sept. 3.
Jerry Gary (at-large) told fellow board members the city is spending about $20,000 a year more on its contract for residential garbage collection than it is taking in from fees. Specifically, he said the city is collecting about $128,500 from garbage fees while paying Golden Triangle Waste Services $147,000 a year.
Gary made a motion to increase residential garbage rates from $13 to $15 a month, which he said would be a break-even rate. Howard Rumore (Ward 2) seconded his motion, which was approved 5-0. The rate increase will take effect Oct. 1.
This is the city’s first garbage rate increase in 11 years. Aldermen in office in August 2008 approved a $1.50 increase to $13 for residential service and a $6 increase to $20 for commercial service. This came after GTWS increased its charges to the city for truck and waste services by 5%.
Hugh Gibson (Ward 3) said most towns pick up garbage only once a week and charge more than $15 a month. The city of Eupora has twice-a-week collection.
Timber Sale
At the request of Mayor Lamar Dumas, the board voted to advertise for bids for the right to purchase all timber designated on a tract owned by the city.
The tract is commonly referred to as the “Toby Brantley Property” consisting of about 12 acres located across from Eupora Elementary School behind the outside basketball courts on Gifford Street. Bids are due by 5 p.m. Oct. 7; the board meets that night.
Students from the Forest Harvesting and Technology Class at the Webster County Career and Technology Center completed an inventory and appraisal of the tract of mixed pine and hardwood under the supervision of instructor Buck Meek.
Before the vote, Dumas suggested that the property be clear-cut to “see what we have,” referring to its possible development.
City Beautification
City Attorney Jacqueline Meek was not present because she had a meeting conflict, and therefore was unable to give a blight update.
In a related agenda item, Bruce Walters and Ashtyn Krusee addressed the board about city beautification/ordinance guidelines. Walters said volunteers had formed three committees: Beautification, Cleanup and Economic Development.
Walters, chair of the Cleanup Committee, asked the board to pass an ordinance to help with city cleanup. The city does have a blight prevention ordinance in place along with a litter control ordinance that was adopted in July. Krusee also said a code enforcement officer is needed and was informed that Public Works Director Mike McCain serves in that capacity.
Walters gave Police Chief Gregg Hunter a list of abandoned vehicle locations and also had addresses of additional unkempt properties. Walters said when people clean up their properties, they will be sent thank you letters.
Krusee, who previously offered to post property maintenance codes online, requested city boundaries maps by the next regular meeting. She said these could be used to take a different quadrant at a time in regard to code enforcement. Walters requested old property maintenance ordinances, saying it would be best to consolidate them all into one.
The board also granted the Eupora Beautification Committee permission to plant four trees on West Roane Avenue. Committee chair Teresa Ozborn said someone had volunteered to pay for the trees, which will be planted where some Bradford pear trees once were located across from the Depot Park.
Food trucks,
city website
The board approved a request from Kristian Berryhill to have “Food Truck Fridays” in the empty lot on the west side of Abraham Dental (2784 E. Roane), which is closed on Fridays.
She said Juicy Butts BBQ, Small Time Hot Dogs, and Eupora-based Schmidt’s & Jiggles and Wicked Burgers and Sandwiches are interested in participating. Berryhill will also be asking other food truck vendors to participate.
Aldermen emphasized the need to make sure sales tax is collected from the vendors.
Berryhill also requested funding to set up a host website for the city. Krusee, who works with her at Belinda Stewart Architects, will be helping with this. The board approved a budget allocation of up to $214 from the Economic Development Fund for the purchase of a website domain.
HOME Grant
Legal Services
The board considered two proposals for legal services in connection with the 2016 HOME Grant to reconstruct/rehabilitate four deteriorated houses in Eupora.
Meek & Meek Attorneys and Burchfield Law Firm submitted proposals, which were opened Aug. 16. Using a point system to determine the best offer, aldermen rated both proposals on qualifications, experience with similar projects and capacity to do work in a timely manner.
The board accepted the proposal from Meek & Meek Attorneys, which scored the highest. George Crawford of the Golden Triangle Planning and Development District was present for that agenda item.
Other Action
Other action taken by the board on Sept. 3:
• approved a mobile home variance request from John Ray of 434 Old Walthall Road. The board granted the variance for a year with the understanding that he will come up with a plan for a 20-foot extension to meet minimum size requirements. Ray told the board he would be adding onto the new mobile home he placed there.
• Authorized the mayor to sign letters of engagement with two appraisers. One is with Mitchell Gordon to appraise property owned by Shirley Gary, which is known as the Canterbury place and located near Grady. The city is planning to buy a small parcel of land from her to build a new water well in connection with improvements to the city water system.
The other letter of engagement is with commercial appraiser Mike Brooks to determine the value of property owned by Jim Smith (the old Brooks Logging site) in Industrial Park. This is for a land swap that is necessary as part of the planned industrial access road project off U.S 82.
• Accepted annual material and supply bids.
• Authorized Water Department worker Donald Newton to attend a water operator certification class and McCain to attend a mandatory wastewater continuing education course, both in October.
Fire Chief Mitch Jackson announced that Charlie Shaw and Steve Wells had retired from the Eupora Fire Department. They have been granted honorary lifetime memberships in the department because each had well over 25 years of service, according to Jackson.
Budget, tax levy
The board had a special-called meeting Sept. 11 to adopt the 2019-20 budget and resolution setting the city tax levy for the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. All aldermen were present except Robert Gibbs (Ward 4)
The budget for General City is $2.13 million and the budget for Water/Sewer is $2.21 million. The millage rate will remain at 24 mills. A public hearing on the matter was held Sept. 4, with no comments or objections made.
The board will meet again at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 26 to approve the year-end accounts payable claims docket and year-end budget adjustments.
