City council moved through several resolutions at Monday evening’s meeting, the first of which was the acceptance of a federal Transportation Alternatives Program grant to construct a sidewalk that is to run from Planer Hill to the Community Center.
Public Works Director Dwayne Allen explained that the grant would cover 80 percent of the cost, and that the city had sought to seek bids again due to believing the initial bids were high. With bids back, the negotiated price for the first section of sidewalk that will run to Nelson’s Funeral Home will cost $329,665, with the city required to pay $66,931.
Alderman Autumn Slane questioned what line item the money would come from, and Allen answered it would be the Street Fund. He explained that the city would be seeking a TAP grant next year to finish the sidewalk. The bid acceptance passed unanimously.
Resolution 824 passed unanimously as well, allowing the city to waive bidding to purchase a used fire truck. Mayor pro tem Terry McClung, sitting in for the absent Butch Berry, explained that the truck was a 2007 model with 20,000 miles. The price is $55,000 and McClung said that it had been well maintained and that the city should be able to get up to 15 years out of the truck.
The final Resolution 825 to amend the 2022 budget per the mid-year review passed unanimously as well.
Discussion of trash bags and computer resets comes up null
Alderman Melissa Greene referenced a recent article in the Lovely County Citizen that showed the City Advertising Promotion Commission had hired an IT company to copy computers and had found some computer hard drives unrecoverable and factory reset. Greene questioned who would authorize a factory reset.
With no answer forthcoming, Greene pointed out that when she was serving on the CAPC, the commission never authorized any resets and that wiping those computers meant information was no longer accessible to the public. She again questioned who could authorize such resets, directing the question to City Attorney Forrest Jacobi. Jacobi didn’t answer directly saying that if the computers were reset that the resets were unauthorized, and that Greene could “look at that however you want to” and that a record should have been maintained.
Alderman Harry Meyer told council he recalled that when an employee needed a new computer, an IT assistant from Georgia had come up and instead wiped several computers to install software, and the commission had only found out after the fact. The city currently does not have an IT department and instead hires out all its IT assistance.
The discussion pivoted quickly back to who can give permission to factory reset computers and Slane said that it was an important topic to discuss. She said that as a community we are “not always at the forefront of technology” and protocols should be established.
McClung said he assumed the city has directives for backup systems and that if someone is failing to do so on a regular basis, it’s negligence. Alderman Nick Roberts suggested hiring an IT department be something to discuss in the future. In the end, the talk of computer resets was left to the next meeting with Greene saying she would ask to have it on the next agenda.
Yellow trash bags similarly stayed within discussion with Greene asking Dwayne Allen once more to the mic to explain the history of the bags. Allen said that the bags were the way Carroll County Solid Waste supported the recycling program and that they were equivalent to other grocery bags, but not top of the line.
Greene questioned if the bags had at any point become thinner and McClung said that council had at one point voted to use a thinner bag to have them be more biodegradable within the landfill. Allen said he would investigate other manufacturers next year about getting a different bag, but that there would be a fee to change bags. Council agreed they would look at it when it came up again.
Other Items
- 2328 to renew utility easements in the Freeman blocks 23 and 24 passed its third and final reading unanimously.
- 2329 and 2330 passed first, second, and third readings unanimously. Ord. 2329 vacates an alley in Magnetic Bay Block 1 with a public hearing having been held at the start of the council meeting with only one speaker, a realtor representing the buyers of the property. Ord. 2330 allows for the city and city commissions to transfer funds electronically.