Gallatin, Spickard and Laredo City Officials Hold Meetings

The Gallatin, Spickard and Laredo boards of aldermen held meetings this week, giving the oath of office to those elected on April 5.
Gallatin
In addition to giving the oath of office to aldermen West Ward Alderman Dan Lockridge, and East Ward Alderman Dan McCann, who were elected April 5, the board heard an update from Public Works Director Mark Morey on the boil advisory that was issued a couple of weeks ago.
According to information provided by City Clerk Hattie Rains, Morey told the board the boil advisory was issued after crews couldn’t get the water pressure shut down enough to repair a leak on the eight-inch water main. Crews eventually had to shut off the valve feeding the water tower, which reduced the pressure enough for the line to be repaired. Morey said that unfortunately, in the process of shutting off valves to reduce the pressure, a valve separated due to disintegrated non-stainless steel valve bolts. Crews held off replacing all the bolts in the four separate valves on Thursday until school was let out. Crews were able to quickly replace the bolts, however, the additional valve repairs extended the boil advisory for the town until Friday. He said crews will need to eventually dig up all the 12 valves that were originally installed in 1995 and replace all the bolts with stainless steel bolts.
City Administrator Lance Rains told the board that there is a possibility the city pool won’t open this year due to the lack of a pool manager and lifeguards. He also announced that the Main Street Downtown presentation is scheduled for 1 p.m., April 18, with volunteers currently working on a skit as well as giveaway bags for the visitors who will be touring downtown.
A discussion was held concerning a complaint received regarding a bad debt utility payment from 2007. The board will hold a discussion at a future meeting about options for utilizing a collection agency regarding outstanding utility bills. Also discussed was the street issue on South Market Street, with the board voting to proceed with legal action.
Rains told the board Amy Barnhilll with the Community Development Block Grant will visit city hall in May to begin the close-out process for the AMI Metering Grant. Morey told the board the crews are still installing the meters, with electric crews to be done installing the remaining electric meters that are in the inventory this month. Water crews, he said, may take a couple of more months to finish installing the new AMI water meters.
In other business, the board learned from Morey that the new brush cutter has been delivered from Terry Implement. Rains said he has corrected the requested items for the street grant and it has been resubmitted. He will begin discussion on finding the match funding for the grant. He hopes the street resurfacing projects can begin in October, if funded. The Mules contract has been given to the city for review and Rains has submitted the draft to Attorney Robert Cowherd. It will be presented to the board when available.
Board members reviewed the March 2022 financial report and agreed to transfer the sales tax and sales use tax deposits for April, May and June to the Sales Tax Savings Account, with the intention of taking out another certificate of deposit after June.
In his report, Police Chief Mark Richards presented a list of incident reports and said there are no dogs currently in the pound.
The next regular meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 25.
Spickard
According to information provided by City Clerk Amy Chapman, the board certified the April election results and gave the oath of office to Tanja Younger and Cindy Holtzclaw, who were elected on April 5.
Board members accepted a hay bid for the lagoon from John Wagner in the amount of $274.50. It was also agreed to get batteries for the diesel maintenance truck.
The 2022-23 budget was approved, with those figures not available as of press time.
The next regular meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m., Monday, May 9.
Laredo
The only action taken at the Monday meeting of the Laredo City Council was the administration of the oath of office to council members.
According to City Clerk Ashley Bonnett, the oath was given to Mayor Carol Holloway, who was re-elected to a two-year term; Bruce McFie and Helen Golden, who were re-elected to two-year terms as aldermen at large; and Amanda Tobias, who was elected to fill the one-year unexpired term.
Derek Eckert was elected as mayor pro tem. He is new to the position.
The next meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, May 9.