Much was covered in the April 2 North Carrollton Board of Alderman meeting. After the approval of the agenda and the minutes, the Board received the Fire Department monthly activity report, in which the report is broken down by minutes for each incident. Following this, the Board discussed a possible billing issue from B&B Chemical in which a bill and letter were addressed to the Board most likely in error. B&B Chemical is paid every three months for water chlorination in the town of North Carrollton. On a recent bill, there was an additional $500 charge for a cylinder issue, which was unapproved by the Board. The Board discussed and decided that the issue would be tabled for a later date when Water Operator Galen Shumaker would be present.
Next, Alderwoman Barbara Shepherd presented the Board with an exercise to demonstrate the advantages of the Board having their own wards, as it would be advantageous in their ability to divide and conquer to complete larger scale tasks which otherwise are more time consuming to complete. She cited that this method would allow for better familiarity of areas for the aldermen, and better communication of issues within the community. Currently, aldermen are not representing specific wards or districts within the community and the Board as a whole represents the community at large. In addition to this, Alderwoman Sheppard spoke to the Board concerning water account issues she was looking into personally.
Following this, the role and description of Joe Holman was heavily debated by the Board as Title-Attorney Ryan Taylor gave advice on the subject. The Board discussed creating an official document to define the scope of his employment, the expectation for his role, and the rate of pay/compensation. In a previous story for The Conservative, Holman was addressed as Town Marshall, which is an unofficial title that has not been confirmed by the Board. The Board’s main concern for the way they go about defining Holman’s employment is to ensure everything is legal and the process is done correctly.
“If anybody asks, it’s in the minutes, and we’ve done it the right way,” Mayor Ken Strachan spoke on the subject.
“We’re gonna give you the title of security for right now, and we’ll revisit it and talk about it, but we need to understand, from our standpoint,” Alderman Christopher Givens added.
“You can’t be a Town Marshall, until we get a definition of that. We have to cover it legally… because if anything happens, it falls right here at this table,” Alderwoman Sheppard added.
Next, the Board received Town Clerk Lyndera Willams’ report. Clerk Williams informed the Board of recent water thefts, which led to Sheriff’s Office involvement. Deputies became involved after the issue was reported, possibly due to the dangerous conditions of the suspects rig, which created an electrocution hazard. In addition to this, Clerk Williams discussed with the Board the possibility of them advertising with the GneraXtion Dream-Pushers. Following a bit of discussion, the board agreed to advertising in support of GeneraXtion-DreamPushers in the amount of $500.
As the final matter of the night, the Board received Mayor Ken Strachan’s report. Mayor Strachan informed the Board of multiple Carroll County Board of Supervisors commendation awards that were presented at the Remembrance Ceremony at the Old Black Hawk School on Saturday, March 30, some of which included the Town of North Carrollton in its response, and GeneraXtion in their contributions. In addition to this, he informed the Board of a request made by locals requesting the placement of a “No Dumping” sign near the Kozy Kitchen. Finally, Mayor Strachan read the Board a Letter of Appreciation from a resident.
In other news, the Board:
• Approved a donation in the amount of $100 to the Veterans of Foreign Wars fundraiser.
• Discussed switching internet services from AT&T to Delta Electric Lightspeed at the Fire Department.
• Discussed Financial Reports.
• Agreed to the payment of bills.
• Approved the purchase of a half page ad for the Conservative Profile in the amount of $620.
• Discussed a TextMyGov proposal, a public announcement service that would allow the Town of North Carrollton to text residents directly with information concerning the town. The Board was in support of contracting the service, but a special term contract needed to be written and proofed, so the topic was tabled for later discussion.
