Nicholson Council Meeting Minutes
October 3, 2016
7:00 P.M. Community Center
Call to Order – Meeting was called to order by Mayor Jan Webster. In attendance was, Mayor Jan Webster, Council Members – Judy Kesler, Mike Barfield, Max Whitlock, City Clerk – Debra Fontaine. Mainstreet News – Charles Phelps
Pledge of Allegiance
Max motioned to approve the September 12, 2016 Council Meeting Minutes; Judy seconded, all were in favor. Motion approved.
Judy motioned to approve the September Financials; Max seconded, all were in favor. Motion approved.
NEW BUSINESS: – There was no New Business
OLD BUSINESS:
Adopt Cemetery Policy – The Cemetery Policy was previously discussed, the following changes were made: typo’s, corrected acreage of the Nicholson Cemetery, removed “Interments” from page 2 section 3; removed the following line under “INTERMENTS” on page 4 – “This 24 hour notice must be given during regular business hours”, removed # 4 from page 6. Council Members agreed that if someone wants a Funeral Plot on the weekend, a list of city contacts will be left with the local funeral homes. Judy motioned to adopt the Cemetery Policy; Max seconded. All were in favor; Motion was approved.
MAYORS REPORT:
Jan gave the following report to council members for the month of September:
- Fire Extinguishers are being added to all of the Nicholson buildings after an assessment of how many are needed.
- Doyle signed up for Safety Coordinator classes on October 4 & 5. – This is part of the LGRMS Safety Grant in order to purchase High Visibility Clothing, Traffic Cones, Eye Wash Station, Light Bar and Strobe Kit for Trucks, Traffic Barricade.
- Debbie and Jan will meet with the cities Insurance Agent on October 5th to discuss current policy coverages.
- Website is complete; John is waiting for our current website to release to him the domain transfer.
- Bids for the concrete are out- 1 has come back so far.
- Budget – We are still working on the Budget and will get you a copy in the next few days. Our first Budget Hearing will be October 27th – 30 minutes before the Work Session. The second and final hearing will be before the November Council Meeting, at 6:30. Debbie will post an ad for both hearings in the Jackson Herald.
- We met with NEGRC at the Mayors Luncheon… They were asking if we had any questions on implementing the Short Term Work Program or any part of the Comprehensive Plan. Jan asked if council members had any questions or items they wanted to address. Council Members did not. Jan told council members that other cities brought up the bicycle paths. NEGRC will help with planning and applying for grants.
- We will need to change our Work Session date in November since it falls on Thanksgiving. We can look at this when the time comes.
- Jan also reminded council members that Employee Evaluations were due and proposed that the Department Heads do the evaluations for their employees since they know their own employees best. This was not taken as a motion or a vote but there was no opposition. Max mentioned that this would need to be done before the Budget is adopted. Jan agreed and said Dept. Heads have already been working on their employee evaluations.
LIBRARIAN’S REPORT –
Rhonda reported that the library has started back with their regular programs and informed all that the schedule changes during the summer months. The Library has added two new story times. One is once a month and the other is twice a month. They also have their regular story times on Monday mornings. There are two adult programs in September-a Safety Course, and Winter Gardening Tips. In October they will have a person facilitating the Trim Healthy Mama book; they will share information on the diet program. October 25th there will be a Halloween/Fall Program; the library will send out notices to all the local schools with information. The Jackson County Library Board Meeting will be held in Nicholson this quarter. Rhonda is also looking for someone to do the Yoga class. It must be someone certified.
CITIZENS REQUESTING TO SPEAK
A Nicholson citizen, Thomas Gary, requested to speak to council members about flowers being removed from his family members’ cemetery plot. He said sometime within the last three weeks, flowers were missing from his father, mother, and brothers’ graves in Nicholson Cemetery. He contacted council members and was told that “someone from the city removed”. Mr. Gary also notified council that he spent 140 on the flowers and would like to be reimbursed or the flowers replaced. Jan told Mr. Gary that the issue with removing flowers was dealt with and it would not happen again. She also told him that the Maintenance Dept. was acting in response to responsibilities assigned to them in previous years/administration to remove faded flowers and flowers blown about the cemetery due to weather. Mr. Gary insisted on a refund or replacement and Jan said she would look into it.
Adjournment: Max motioned to adjourn; Judy seconded. All were in favor. Motion approved.