SALYERSVILLE – Salyersville City Council met in regular session on Monday, March 17, discussing spring cleanup and street parking.
The council discussed the upcoming city-wide spring cleanup, which will run from April 7 – 25. People are encouraged to set out the items to be collected near the curb or the side of the road, then call Salyersville City Hall at 349-2409 to let them know where the items are located. Items that will not be picked up include the following: hazardous waste, construction debris, containers with liquids (such as paint cans), and household waste.
The council met in executive session to discuss the state audit, but no decisions were made in executive session.
Mayor Stanley Howard told the council that he has been receiving phone calls about people parking on Church St. in a way that is blocking the road, noting people have even sent him pictures. Howard said the ordinance said drivers are to park between the white lines for street parking, but also noted there are no white lines for parking there. He said the parking ordinance is fairly old and needs to be updated. City Attorney Jeff Lovely said parking meters are still included in the ordinance, passed in 1992. Howard said they will rework the ordinance and bring it back to the council, with Lovely saying he would bring examples from similar cities to compare to. The mayor also said they would send out letters to property owners along the downtown streets where street parking is available, asking them to watch the parking along the street and to not block the two-lane roads.
During audience comments, which were limited to three minutes each, per the agenda for the meeting, David Gardner addressed the council, stating he sent an open records request to the city clerk on January 10, but said there are still portions of that request that have not been delivered to him, noting his next step is to bring the issue to the state’s attorney general. He also said the mayor had stated in the February meeting that maps did not exist of the water lines for the parking lot in the Magoffin Plaza. He said he saw on Facebook that a past employee who had been terminated shared an aerial view online showing some of the lines, so Gardner brought a screen capture of the Department of Highways plans that showed those lines, noting that was the last time the water lines there were changed.
Howard said he has a guy coming in with a piece of equipment this week to look for the leak there, and he is working with the former employee to determine where to look.
He also said he had asked for all the information regarding the tourism commission in one of his open records requests, noting that in the minutes he received in response he couldn’t find evidence of a budget being approved for the tourism commission, and there was no motion to pay for the stage in the city park, asking that if there’s more minutes or documentation of what the committee is doing that information be provided to him.
Gardner also showed a budget the city had passed, showing money allocated to tourism, but noting there are no minutes showing the tourism commission had approved the expenditures, and that if the purchases exceeded $20,000 there was no place in the budget for it, Gardner said.
He asked the mayor about the reported illegal raises made to employees he had asked about last year, noting he had been told that couldn’t be talked about due to a pending lawsuit, etc., asking, again, if anything has been done about the issue. Mayor Howard said nothing has been done at this time.
Gardner also asked if anything has been done about speeding on the lower end of town.
Mayor asked a city employee to look into whether the tourism commission had paid Gardner’s landscaping business while he was on the board, with the employee stating it had been paid $93,597.96, which Gardner disputed.
At Gardner’s questioning about the $7 fee on water bills that was deemed illegal by the state auditor, a city employee and the city attorney confirmed they were working with the League of Cities for a policy to handle that issue, and that the decision will be made by the city council and be made known to the public once they have a policy to correct that error.
Howard also asked a water works employee to look up everything that was spent regarding bonuses, parties, etc., at the water board, as had been reported in the most recently released state auditor’s report, and asked that amount be given to the city clerk.
Gardner said he would send his documentation regarding the things he brought up in the three minutes to the council.
Margaret Arnett also addressed the council, asking if she could come to the city’s office and get the information about everything that has happened in the past. Mayor Howard walked her through the open records request process, noting she would have to fill out a form at city hall, then they would have five days to reply.
All council members were in attendance at last Monday’s meeting with the exception of Darrell Arnett.
The next Salyersville City Council meeting is tentatively slated for April 21 at 7:30 p.m.
