Gainesville City Council hosts quick monthly meeting for September
This month’s Gainesville City Council meeting, held Sept. 8, took just 20 minutes before the council entered a closed session portion.
Gainesville Mayor Gail Reich led the meeting with assistance from City Clerk Lisa Goodnight. City council members in attendance included Lana Bushong, Treva Warrick, April Lynne and Teri Edades. Two city council members were absent, Dana Crisp and Amanda Rogers.
The council worked through the agenda quickly, giving updates on past discussed issues, and hearing some feedback from those in attendance.
In the public portion of the meeting, maintenance Supervisor Mike Davis formally announced his resignation from the city, which he says will happen Oct. 6, or when the current water line installation is complete, whichever comes first. Davis’s departure follows the recent resignations of the two other city maintenance workers, Logan Vaught and Levi Evans. In a written letter provided to the council and the Times, Davis thanks the city for the opportunity to work there for the last seven years and cites “ongoing workplace issues, recent changes and unresolved concerns regarding management transparency and workplace conduct,” as the reason he’s decided to quit.
Meeting attendee Ray Grisham asked the city how it plans to adapt to the loss of the three employees.
“So, how does that work? What does the city do about maintenance. I understand we don’t have any other maintenance employees either,” Grisham asked the council.
“We’ll be hiring and contracting out,” council member Treva Warrick answered. “This is our first meeting we’ve had since anything has been done.”
“OK. I’m just curious which way this might go,” Grisham said.
“We’ve had an ad in the paper, and we’ve got some applicants,” Mayor Gail Reich added.
“Well good. I’m sorry to see you go, Mike,” Grisham said.
Gainesville business owner Mike Gardner was also in attendance, along with Sheriff Cass Martin, and revisited the topic of his proposed change to a city ordinance that would allow side-by-sides and UTVs on city streets. Gardner said that the sheriff had drafted a second version of a proposed ordinance that would address some of the concerns that the council has expressed about potentially legally allowing the vehicles. He also asked for special permission to use the UTVs until the council is able to vote on whether or not to pass an ordinance.
“Well, there’s nothing we can really do temporarily. Don’t seem to matter, everybody’s doing it anyway. Nothing is being done about it,” Bushong said. “It is what it is.”
The council also revisited a project to repair facia and other elements on the City Hall building. The bid opening was first held two months ago, but the topic has been on hold until the council and city staff could get clarification from the company on what the bids meant.
“The facia repair, we had these bids and the guy, after talking to him and our roofing guy, these are two separate bids. One of for the north side of the building, and the other bid is for the east side. The one is for one bid, the other is for the other [side of the building]. We all, at first, thought it was just for the north side. But when he went up there to look at the north side, there’s damage on the east side, so it’s two separate bids,” the mayor explained.
Councilwoman Warrick read the amounts aloud: $850.80, and the other bid was soffit and gutter bid for $610.37. Clerk Goodnight said he did that because she told him when he showed interest in bidding to bid the project as advertised, and if he saw something else wrong to submit that into a separate bid. The present council members voted unanimously to accept the bid.
The council then discussed a project to reseal and stripe a city parking lot that sits adjacent to City Hall. The company completed the sealing, but Goodnight said that he said someone told him not to stripe it. She told him they did want it striped, so he was going to return to do that.
The mayor said that City Attorney Jessica Blackburn is currently in the process of drafting an ordinance that would prohibit anyone from panhandling or holding up signs asking for money. Once it is drafted, the city can vote whether to pass it.
Todd Plank, who has been hired by the county and city to cut brush around roadways, is in the Theodosia area. He will work toward Gainesville.
The council entered closed session. When asked if there was anything reportable from the session afterward, City Clerk Lisa Goodnight said the council voted to hire Jason Amos and Tyler Hogan to fill maintenance positions that were left vacant by Logan Vaught and Levi Evans’ resignation.