There is a new line-up approved to work for the City of Magee. Tuesday night the board moved ahead with the filling of vacancies on the city crews.
Tim Bray is now in charge of public works as Building Superintendent replacing Hugh Dilmore. Matthew Blue is named Assistant Superintendent. Wallace Langston will assume Blue’s responsibility in water and sewer.
Phillip Magee is moving from assistant fire marshal to Building Inspector and Mema Coordinator replacing Joe Worrell. Keith McCullen was hired as a new entry level maintenance worker with water and sewer.
Shane Steele is promoted to Assistant Fire Marshal.
The city attorney is working with the mayor on the adoption of a new alcohol ordinance that reflects state guidelines. The Magee ordinance contained old standards and this will make the city complaint with state guidelines.
The city heard a report from Norman Miller regarding the city’s new ambulance service, ASAP. Miller told the board there were a total of 5,065 calls for the past year. He reported there were almost double the number of emergency calls as there were non-emergency service. He said the goal is to have equal number of emergency verses non-emergency calls. Stating that non-emergency calls tended to pay for services rendered and that was not always the case in emergency calls.
Bart Ballard, engineer with Guest Consultants and Survey introduced himself to the board. The board will be working with Guest to secure Community Development Block Grants. Ballard told the board they would also be able to assist in securing other grant opportunities for the city.
There was discussion from the mayor as well as board members about 18-wheelers being parked illegally in the city. It appears as though the police department will be letting violators know the guidelines.
The city has been working on the approval of an employees handbook since 1999. Brett Duncan informed the board there were some areas that needed to be addressed from the city perspective regarding holiday verses compensatory time in regard to employees who may have to work based on an emergency like water leaks. There was also discussion about notifying the board members in the event a non-typical emergency arose. This was so the board would have knowledge in the event they were questioned about issues. The board is expected to get a draft copy prior to the next board meeting so they may discuss adoption of employee handbook.
Chris Lane addressed the board about his intentions of starting his phase three of Cypress Point subdivision. There was also mention about a problem with water drainage. The city has had water tested and it indicated the water that was tested had no chlorine in it. Therefor it is thought the problem is coming from run-off because of the recent excessive rainfall. It was stated the normal annual rainfall is 56 inches and thus far this year there has been 130 inches. The city had spoken with a local plumbing contactor and cost for correcting the run off could meet $100,000.
Fire Marshal, Charlie Valadie, reported there are improvements in the SASE apartments and that the manager is working with him to correct problems. It was reported that all apartments have fire extinguishers and smoke detectors. Valadie is getting a copy of the rental agreement used in New Hebron for the city to review.
The board approved the rehiring of Billy Segheni to a full time police officer. He was approved to be the department K-9 officer and pay would be adjusted accordingly in the new budget.
It was announced that the splash pad is now operational in the ball park complex.
Jon Styron, city clerk, reported to the board that by the next board meeting the bank statements would be all reconciled.
There are budget meetings which are open to the public for August 4, 11 and 17. The budget is set for approval on September 14.
