COAL GROVE — Hoping to curtail unexpected expenses in the future, the Village of Coal Grove is looking to update it’s mayor’s court computer software.

The current system is from 2005, Mayor Larry McDaniel said at Monday’s council meeting.

“We need to get ours updated because that one little mishap cost us over $9,000,” said McDaniel.

The “mishap” McDaniel referred to was an error that resulted in the village owing about $9,495 to the state to correct an issue with mayor’s court fees paid to the state.

Part of the court costs from each moving traffic violation case where there are fines goes to the state. That fee was raised an additional $5 at the end of 2009, but former Coal Grove clerk and treasurer Debbie Fields said no one notified the village or the bonds clerk when the change was made.

Police Chief Eric Spurlock said at the time that updated software in another village alerted state auditors of the glitch.

McDaniel also said the village paid about $1,100 in excess to the state and he asked village attorney Mark McCown to draft a letter asking the state to give the village credit for that money.

“And we’ll try to get them to waive some of (the fee) if they can,” McDaniel said.

McDaniel said the village has two years to pay the state back.

HE also asked clerk Diane Wise to check with other villages to see which software products they use.

The cost of new software would come out of the police computer fund.

In other business of the village:

McDaniel told council members a sewer repair project to replace one of the system’s 23-year-old aerators cost almost $17,000.

McDaniel also said a part in the well had since broken and he thought it would be covered under warranty.

“I hope that’s covered under warranty … to spend that much money on something,” McDaniel said.

Councilman Bob Markins suggested draining the well to ensure there wasn’t some sort of debris in it that would continue to damage the system.

Markins also told council the No. 4 water well needs a new pump.

McDaniel said he would call E.L. Robinson engineer Paul Amburgey.

In other business:

• Police Chief Eric Spurlock reported for the month of April, the department wrote 28 reports, 140 tickets, responded to eight crashes and towed 16 vehicles.

Spurlock also reported Saturday’s police auction brought in $7,100 for the village.

• Sherman reported the fire department was approved for 14 new pagers through a local homeland security grant.

• Ron Brammer asked council to trim the trees and brush on the hillside below the village townhouse, which is near his residence. He also asked council to put yield signs on his street so cars and concrete trucks would be aware of each other.

“We’ll try to get some yield signs there,” McDaniel said.

• Blaine R. Woodburn asked council to lower the speed limit on Hamilton Street from 25 mph to 15.

“They don’t care how they’re flying out of there,” Woodburn said of the cars that travel his street.

Councilman Chris Brammer said he lived near that area and agreed with Woodburn.

“It’s like a runway,” Brammer said. “The way they take off.”

“We’ll put some speed limit signs up there,” McDaniel said. “We’ll see if that helps.”

Woodburn also told council streetlights are out on Hamilton Street.

McDaniel said the streetlight fund is depleted and money has to be taken out of the general fund.