The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.

Village Sets Residential Light Contest

By: Shirley Linder, Quill Editor

At the regular meeting of the Village of Stronghurst it was agreed upon to hold the Christmas Lighting Contest again this year.

This year it will be for residential lighting only, no businesses.

Police Chief Arbry Vancil will do the judging on December 21st.

Chris Cooper of MSA Engineer informed the board the 6th payment for the water tower, in the amount of $404,024.96 was now due.

He discussed with the board the fact that the electric wiring would not be done at the well house on time. It was estimated the work would be done by January 18th but, it has not yet been started.

Mayor Brendan Schaley will call the McGuire project manager and discuss this problem. Work on the water tower is ahead of schedule.

The color for the tower was once again discussed. It was decided: Navy blue at the bottom will be 15', white in the middle 14' and red at top 13'.

David Vancil said the stem needs to be navy blue as well. Cooper will look into this to see if the cost would be more since it originally was designated as white.

Randy Jarvis inquired about the process for having a property cleaned up across the street from his house.

He was told to give it some time and it would be taken care of.

Jarvis also inquired how the board had decided on having 3 liquor licenses available as he felt the town could not support three.

He was told it was just decided to have 3 and if they all couldn't make a go of it, that would not be the village's fault.

The establishments have to be built and meet the village's specs before a license will be issued to anyone.

It was also stated if the guidelines set forth by the village were not followed, the license could be revoked and not renewed the following year.

The police report for November was:

105.5 hours worked;

squad car miles 623;

3 uniform tickets;

6 service calls;

2 assists with county;

1 arrest;

2 juvenile arrests; and

26 business checks.

In other business:

• Mayor Schaley led the Pledge of Allegiance, and minutes and bills were approved
• Ronnie Gittings reported: the work on well #4 was still not done. The tennis court has been cleared away. Matt Hicks is progressing very well in his job. They will purchase the insulation while on sale for the north wall of the well house.
• Robbie Root said he will start soon on his new building for a bar and grill.
• Amanda Kane reported the village is down to mainly one police officer, Police Chief Arbry Vancil. Danny Moore has taken a full time job with Henderson County Police Department and Colton will only be picking up and hour or two. She said the Stronghurst Police Department was the lowest paid department within 90 miles and it is hard to get someone who is qualified.

The board entered executive session for the purpose of discussing Christmas bonuses.

It was approved Ronnie Gittings, Morgan Lewis, Arbry Vancil, and Jeff Nichols would receive $200. Lou Ann Nortrup would receive $150 and Matt Hicks will receive $50.

Attending the meeting were: Mayor Brendan Schaley; Trustees, Shane Reed, Jerry Nortrup, Amanda Kane, David Vancil, Bruce Caldwell, (Mike Bohnenkamp absent); Employees, Clerk Morgan Lewis, Ronnie Gitting, Arbry Vancil; Guests, Chris Cooper, Betty Waterman, David Knutstrom, Virginia Ross, Randy Jarvis. Robert Root, Shirley Linder

The next meeting will be held on Monday, January 8, 2018 at 7:00 p.m.