The Jasper City Council met in regular session early this month. Due to scheduling conflicts the meeting was held last Tuesday, June 11.
Mayor Michael Thomas announced that the city's new waste water lift station is finally complete and operational. He showed the council members photos of the finished facility. The next phase of construction will be the sewer plant renovation.
Several grant applications have been submitted for various items, including a new scoreboard for the ball field at Bradley Park, a new brush truck for the fire department and an emergency generator for city hall. All of those are still pending, the mayor said. There are also some significant grant applications for the sewer plant and water system that are in the works, he added.
He said a mechanic looked at a 2008 Chevrolet truck in the city's fleet of rolling stock. It was feared it needed a new engine. But instead, all that was needed was a new starter. The truck is now back in service.
The city council over the years have added piecemeal rules and regulations regarding the use of Bradley Park. Mayor Thomas suggested that those minute orders be collected and put all together in a Bradley Park Usage Ordinance. Thomas said whenever a question about park usage comes up it takes a while to locate the appropriate documentation containing the needed answer. The council had no problem making the city code a little more efficient and gave the Mayor the go-ahead to turn the project over to the city's attorney. The council will have final say on adopting the resulting ordinance.
The council also authorized the mayor to develop a policy regarding use of the city's information technology system to prevent unauthorized devices from connecting to the city's wi-fi and computer networks. The Arkansas Municipal League is recommending adoption of such a policy. City officials were scheduled to attend the Municipal Leagues Summer conference that started later that week.
