Let’s hope that the plan for the water tower is more successful than the aftermath of saving money on the installation of the new one was! It’ll be great to be able to take a shower with more than a dribble of water again!

As always, Clint, thank you for all you try to do, and for keeping us informed.

As always, thanks for all you try to do to keep us informed!

Mary: I had to leave the meeting early because of work obligations, that being said, I do not believe the rest of the council should be held back if I can not be at the entire meeting.

The ordinances ended up being tabled because of a disagreement between the remaining council members.

This is not only unprofessional, but unethical. Nice to know such things about our council and mayor personal lack of those qualities.

And agree with you that the reporting in the Banner Press, although more informative than it used to be, is still lacking in giving us some of the relevant information we should expect from an unbiased news article.

I was successful: We used 900 less gallons of water since the last billing. However, our water and sewer charges were almost $3.50 higher than last month!

To say I’m disgusted with Shrum’s estimate of an average raise of $4.83 with the increase, and with the vote to raise the rates again, is a mild comment. Haven’t figured out what our bill might have been with that additional 900 gallons …

Don’t know about the ‘typical’ family’s usage that you estimated, but there are three in this household, and our average usage since moving here has always been between 4,000-5,000 gallons. And this in a household where the water pressure has been abysmal since the new well went in!

Somehow I missed that the trash rate was going again, too … ?

My advice to people who have always heard that small-town living is cheaper is … Don’t believe it! And don’t believe small-town government employees or elected officials will care more about the public than they do anywhere else!

Which means that in reality… there is no deficiency.

I will bring the subject of posting minutes on the City website at the next board of aldermen meeting, until then , I will do my best to inform the citizens about what is transpiring in their city government.

On granting employee raises, I did not know that social security/ ssi recipients did not receive a cost of living raise this year. That being said, I really didn’t want to leave our maintenance personel hanging without some kind of cost of living raise, given the current economic environment it was held to 3%. Their rate of pay is determined by experience some of the new maintenance employees make around $9.00 per hour if memory serves me correctly while a few of the most experienced employees make between $10.00 and $11.00 per hour. I will double check my figures and get back to you on this subject.

We wanted to give our City police officers a pay rate system based on their rank, while trying to give them an incentive to stay in our little town. I realize that $11.50, 12.50 and 13.50 per hour is not a lot of money given the fact of the risks the job entails, but it really was all we could affort to give them at the present time.