By Heather Clower
The Parsons Advocate
After Davis Mayor Doug Martin called the Town Council meeting to order and gained approval of the July 22 meeting minutes, Angie Lipscomb asked to address the council regarding her efforts to bring recycling back to Tucker County. According to Lipscomb, “A REAP grant was issued for $75,000 to Sunrise (Sanitation) to expand their recycling program, and that was announced in October of 2019, and then in February of 2020 they announced that they were going to decrease the number of items that they would accept and they completely closed the Mount Storm location.”
Lipscomb stated that one of the biggest issues leading to this decrease in accepting recyclables was contamination which led to an employee sustaining an injury. She then reached out to Sunrise Sanitation, the Department of Environmental Protection, and Tucker County Solid Waste Authority to attempt to rectify this issue. She got in touch with one of the CEO representatives of Sunrise Sanitation, Nathan Walker, who Lipscomb said has been extremely cooperative with the matter.
The goal of Lipscomb attending the meeting was to not only inform the council of her efforts to bring back recycling services to the county, but also to ask for their assistance and support in engaging an interest survey to the residents to show the desire of these services. This would assist Sunrise Sanitation in knowing what kind of services would benefit the residents most and help guide them on implementing them. Councilwoman Cindy Robeson offered to display paper surveys at her business and Councilman Al Tomson suggested a note be attached to the residents’ water bills. The council asked for Lipscomb to gather more information and prepare the interest surveys and return to the next Town Council Meeting and be listed on the agenda to provide an update.
Jeanette Ware was also present at the meeting and asked about the current location of the Mon Forest Towns Initiative sign. Currently the sign is placed on the side of the former Shop N’ Save building, though this is just a temporary home for the sign. Discussion followed with potential permanent locations to erect the signage, though questions arose with who owns the property within these suggestions.
Councilman John Felton suggested by the Davis City Park sign and all agreed this would be an ideal location. Mayor Martin will be validating who owns the property to ensure they can legally relocate the sign to that location.
Martin presented the council with the accounts payable along with Councilman Terry Helmick including a list of completed and ongoing projects for streets, alleys, and water works. Councilwoman Lisa Cousin brought up a concern of Alcohol Alley frequently becoming blocked with vehicles, stating, “Alleys are supposed to be open for safety purposes.” Martin assured he would address the situation and speak to the individuals.
Council received a request to approve vacation for Jay Kennard, which was approved with motions from Helmick and Cousin.
The second reading of the garbage rate and grass ordinances were performed and approved as presented. The residential garbage rate increase will be $2, taking the monthly total from $9.50 to $11.50. This increase is solely due to the increased rates at the Tucker County Landfill. The limit for the grass ordinance was formerly 12 inches which has been decreased to eight inches. Martin also recommended posting the land owned by the town on the outskirts of the cemetery. Felton made a motion to post the property with a second by Helmick and all in favor.
The parks within the town of Davis have remained closed due to COVID-19 and will continue to be. A request to re-open the bathrooms attached to the first responders facility near the boulder park has been made due to many food services only offering take out options and no restroom facilities being available. Contact was made with James Snyder of the Tucker County Health Department on how to go about safely doing such, however many of the council members did not agree this was a safe option. After much discussion, Recorder Andy Snyder made a motion to reopen the facilities from 8 a.m. until 7 p.m. with additional hand sanitizing stations being provided. When Martin asked for a second, there wasn’t a motion made. Therefore, the motion died for a lack of a second and the restrooms will remain closed.
Within old business, Martin stated that a safe was ordered to be installed within the Town Hall, though the wrong one was sent. The correct one is being ordered and will be delivered upon availability. The newer trash truck has been received, though the compactor is still approximately two weeks out.
New business consisted of Martin stating he signed all all pertinent paperwork for the water projects on August 5. The project for contract one is set to begin on August 31 and the second project under contract two will begin on September 5. With the way the new lines are set to be installed, residents should not be without water when the transfer to the new lines takes place.
There were no correspondences and the bills were approved to be paid as presented. Robeson then made a motion to adjourn with Felton offering a second. The next meeting of the Davis Town Council will be held on Wednesday, August 26 at 6:30 p.m.
