County council approves $250,000 loan to HC Regional Sewer District…
Nate adams - Reporter
In a meeting on Monday, November 22, the county council considered a proposal from Sheriff Nick Smith & Auditor Chad Shireman to allow the Sheriff Dept & Emergency Services to payout employees for accrued vacation hours beyond what they could carry over into next year. It is hoped that this will allow a little more scheduling flexibility so that employees can in some way take the benefits awarded to them without forcing the Sheriff Department to pay another employee overtime for them to do so. This will likely save the department money. They will vote to adopt the final language at the next meeting on December 3rd.
Harrison County Parks superintendent Larry Schickles was on hand to request funding to proceed on the Morvin's Landing. He requested $68,700 to replace money previously transferred away from the project, which will be directed towards installing electricity & lighting. He also requested $77,654 from the Morvin's Landing lease fund to begin permitting and acquire hardware for a boat dock. His tentative estimate of total costs for the dock is in excess of $155,000 based on numbers he provided to the council. He will return to request additional funds after the new year. Votes for both will be on the agenda for the 12-13 meeting.
Shickles’ presentation starts at 14:00 mark in the meeting video, click here to watch.
The council approved a $250,000 five year loan to the Harrison County Regional Sewer District so that they could install the new force main for the New Salisbury area. The HCRSD now has funding to complete all of their current expansion plans in that area. Councilman Nix has already identified areas where the RSD should expand access following their current round of expansion. He also broached the idea of the RSD giving over all of this not-yet built infrastructure to the not-yet incorporated town of New Salisbury so that New Salisbury could direct future expansion.
The council approved $25,000 for the commissioners to begin the incorporation process for New Salisbury. This will involve doing initial surveys of the area and polling residents for interest. Council members Schultz and Castetter sought assurance that the public would be involved in this process and councilman Hussung seemed to think it would be in the county's best interest to absorb the large upfront. In a conversation about the known level of interest in the New Salisbury community, Commissioner Charlie Crawford responded: