Fire station lease topic during council meeting
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by Mark Cheffey
The Palmyra City Council last Thursday received some push back from a proposed lease agreement with the Palmyra Fire Protection District.
Andy Bross and Darin Heimer, two members of the district’s board of directors, questioned the lease for its shorter length and for a hike in the monthly rent of the fire station building still owned by the city.
“Do you have a plan for the building?” asked Bross who also asked if the city was wanting to do something else with the building.
He also quizzed the council about the raise in rent from $500 per month to $1,800.
Mayor Rusty Adrian assured Bross the city was not trying to move the fire department out and said the new lease agreement was one of several the city had changed in an effort to update them.
“Quite frankly, we hadn’t updated them for 20 years, many of them,” Adrian said, noting it was also an effort to “get a little normalcy here.”
Adrian said an effort was made to learn what the market rent rate was for buildings like the fire station and that it is actually closer to $3,500 per month.
“We thought we’d split the difference,” Adrian said.
Bross noted the district had already paid rent for the year and asked the district be credited for it.
Adrian said that should not be a problem.
City Attorney James Lemon said he had advised the council to go in a different direction with leases in order to make them more uniform and easier to keep track of, especially by aligning them with the city’s fiscal year, which starts on May 1, and by shortening their length.
Bross asked the city to have a representative attend the district board’s next meeting which will be held at 6:30 p.m. Monday, May 15, at the fire station, and Adrian indicated someone would attend.
The council discussed a request from Street Commissioner Austin Dornberger, that his department be allowed to go to a four-day work week, at least on a trial basis during the summer months.
While there was support expressed for the idea, the issue was tabled, at the request of Council Member Brock Fahy, who wanted more time to consider it.
Dornberger said the four day work week, which would be 10 hours a day, Monday through Thursday, would help his crew get more work done earlier in the day, when there would be less interference, and that it would be an enticement for retaining and drawing interested workers in the future.
“I have been asked about it by some of the employees,” Dornberger said.
The mayor and some of the council members expressed support for the idea, but there were questions raised about if anyone would be available to address street issues on Fridays and how yard waste pickup would be handled since it is normally done on the last Friday of the week.
Dornberger said his department is basically on call at all times and suggested the yard waste pick up day could be moved to Monday, since it is common for many residents to place their yard waste at the curb during the weekend after the pickup anyway.
Lemon noted the yard waste issue is actually addressed by ordinance, but with no pick-up day listed, and suggested the council update the ordinance.
The council is expected to take up the four-day work week issue again during the next council meeting, May 4.
The council resumed discussion of the replacing or elimination of the library’s handicap ramp on Main Street.
Dornberger said the city was notified by a resident that she uses the ramp on a regular basis and asked that it not be removed.
She is probably not the only person who uses it, Dornberger said, and suggested the ramp should stay but that an effort be made to make it safer for use.
BPW Superintendent Brent Abell updated the council on efforts to appeal a decision by FEMA not to award the city $231,000 for replacement of one of the city’s water wells in the Mark Bottoms that was damaged by flood waters in the past.
Abell said the BPW had voted to attempt a second appeal after the first one was denied, as opposed to taking the issue to arbitration.
However, Lemon said the BPW may want to reconsider taking it to arbitration, which he considered a more favorable route to take.
Abell said he would hold off until after Lemon visited with the board.
City Clerk Deena Parsons told the council the city’s new website would have a soft startup May 1. She said there would still be work to do on the site, but that enough of it was ready for it to go live.
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