Earle calls concerned citizens to action

Earle calls concerned citizens to action

Community development meeting aims at getting residents involved in city improvement

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Earle will be holding a community development meeting in October to encourage residents to volunteer to serve on committees to help improve the city.

The meeting will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 3, at 6:30 at the city annex. Mayor Sherman Smith is encouraging residents to take an interest in the city by getting more involved in the community. “We’d like to bring everybody in who is interested in moving the town forward,” Smith said.

Smith said officials will be revisiting the city’s strategic plan to see what steps they can take to tackle the city’s biggest problems.

“This was developed a few years ago and we want to see what direction the people want us to go in,” Smith said.

Smith added that there will be plenty of opportunities for residents to serve on committees that will address issues such as beautification, housing, streets, attracting new businesses, and quality of life issues.

“We will set up some time tables and some goals which we will expect to get some things done,” Smith said. “Anyone who is interested should come out.

We’re going to need some bodies to get things going.

People have a lot of good ideas and suggestions, but they don’t help. This is where the rubber hits the road. We need to set some goals and timelines and make sure we stay on track. It’s going to take all of us to push it forward.”

In other business:

• The City Council tabled a discussion to next month to purchase a fireproof safe to house vital city records.

City Clerk Cynthia Conner told the council that she was waiting to hear back on a price quote.

“We should be able to get it for under $3,500,” Conner said. “But I just don’t have a quote.”

Conner said the safe needs to be big enough to store certain official documents, some of which need to be retained for 30 years.

Councilman Kenneth Cross asked whether it was something they needed to act on right away.

“Is it an emergency?”

Cross asked.

“Yes and no,” Conner responded.

“It’s not an emergency

per se. But our minutes are supposed to be in a safe properly.”

• Smith told the council that he was contacted by someone who is interested in buying the wrecked white Impala which is sitting behind city hall.

“It’s been in back there for a while and I would like to get rid of it,” Smith said.

The council instructed Smith to put them up for public auction and to run an ad for the Impala and several other wrecked vehicles which are also currently junked behind city hall.

“I don’t see us fixing them,” Smith said. “You can buy one that runs from the state for $3,500. So why spend the money on it.

And to be fair we will take bids and auction them off.

That makes it clear and transparent.”

• Smith also informed the council that they will need to develop a policy determining cases and situations where the city is responsible for damages to private property.

Auditors noted that the city paid $976 in damages after its tractor hit a parked car in an alley.

Smith said the city has some immunity from paying out damages and that its insurance may or may not have paid that claim.

“They’re not saying we’re not authorized to do it,” Smith said. “But we need a policy. You could be giving away city money. They just want us to be careful. This will safeguard you. We don’t have a policy tonight.

But I just want you to be thinking about it.”

By Mark Randall