Council Defers Bathroom Project, Approves Flagpole Purchase

by Michael Boyink/mike@douglascountyherald.com

On Tuesday, November 12th, the Ava Board of Aldermen convened for a business session at 5 p.m.

City Finances
City Treasurer Peggy Porter reported that the city’s finances were “holding steady” with $2.4M across its accounts. 

Bill #19/10.15
The Aldermen voted 3-0 to approve this update to the city codes around the use of bicycles, motorized bicycles, scooters, and skateboards.

SCOCOG Update
Mayor Loftin recently attended a South Central Ozark Council of Governments (SCOCOG) meeting. He reported that across the seven member counties annual dues were $33K, while the value of SCOCOG-related projects to those counties was $12M.

City Hall Furnaces
Loftin reported that three furnaces had recently been replaced at City Hall – just in time for the cooler weather.

Waste Water Treatment Plant Filter
Mayor Loftin said that one of three filters had been successfully changed at the Waste Water Treatment Plant. He expected another would have to be replaced next year.

Fall Cleanup
Loftin said the recent fall cleanup had city haulers bringing 24.9 tons of trash to the landfill, and 52 loads of brush hauled to the City Farm. He estimated the cleanup cost the city a total of $1500, which he felt was money well spent in keeping the city looking better.

Lower Park Bathroom
The contractor who won the bid for building the replacement bathroom in the lower park backed out. The Aldermen voted 3-0 to table the project until next year.

Power Outage
Loftin said the city had a power outage scheduled for the Henley and Pennington area for November 25th. The downtime is required to repair equipment damaged in a recent lightening storm.

Flag Poles
In a 3-0 vote, the Aldermen approved the purchase of seven spun aluminum flag poles for the  Veterans Memorial. The poles will cost the city $6800.  

Johnson Avenue House
Mayor Loftin reported on the city’s intentional burning of a recently-purchased derelict house as a training exercise for city firefighters. The City of Seymour was also able to send two trainees. Loftin said the exercise went well, and the resulting mess has all been cleaned up by city workers.

Concrete Pad
City workers will begin laying a cement pad by the electrical shed this Friday. Loftin estimates the city will save $2250 by having employees of the city’s maintenance and brush crews doing the work rather than an outside contractor.

Memorial Dedication
Mayor Loftin said the dedication ceremony went well, with more people attending than expected (due to the inclement weather). He also mentioned attending a ceremony on the square on Sunday to celebrate the birthday of the Marines, and to retire flags from the square.

Leaf Pickup
Mayor Loftin announced a city-wide leaf pickup for December 18-20. Details will be forthcoming.

Closed Session
There was no closed session.

Attendance
Councilmen present were Billy Stewart, Noel Dye, and Keith Jones.  Stan Lovan was absent.

Video
Video from the Ava Board of Aldermen meeting will be posted to the Douglas County Herald’s website at douglascountyherald.com.

Next Meeting
City officials and aldermen will reconvene on December 10th at 5 p.m. at City Hall. Meetings are open to the public.