South Point village council discusses water system, cemetery

Published 8:30 am Thursday, June 7, 2018

SOUTH POINT — The village council of South Point met Tuesday night.

Among the items of business were:

• The council voted for an ordinance to authorize the village to manage assets should the need arise for a loan for improvements to the village water system.

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Mayor Jeff Gaskin said the village has 17 miles of old line that are in need of replacement.

“We have quite an expense coming up,” he said. “But we aren’t going to have to replace them tomorrow.”

He said the village is fortunate to have unmetered water and to own its own system, but the need for upgrades has been put off.

“We’ve been sitting on our laurels,” he said. “But we can still keep bills lower than everywhere else.”

The mayor stressed that water rates would not be increasing.

• The council heard from a representative of Newman Fencing, who provided an estimate for providing a 700-foot long, 5-foot tall wrought iron fence and gate for White Cottage Cemetery.

The cost would be $36,000.

The company had been approached by council member Bill Patrick, who has put forward the idea for upgrading the aesthetics of the site.

The village recently purchased land next to the cemetery, for the purpose of expanded it and dividing it into plots.

Gaskin said that land has yet to be surveyed and marked, but the hope is that about 30 plots can be made. He said the village has put about $30,000 into the cemetery and that the cost of plots will be determined by dividing that figure by the total number available.

Gaskin said, in addition to himself, he knows of eight people who are planning to purchase a plot.

Gaskin said the fence would only be purchased if grant funds could be secured and no public money would be used.

• Heard from village administrator Russ McDonald, who said work is continuing on upgrades to the replacement of clarifiers on the sewer system.

He said there is about 90 days of work left on one clarifier and that work on the others would continue through around Christmas.

• Heard from council member Chris Smith, who said Independence Day events are set for July 6-7 at the village park, and would include a glow run, a car show and fireworks on July 7.

• Heard from Officer Reyes of the police department, who said a strong focus has been put on drug interdiction and that the department has cases regarding drug trafficking, burglaries and drug possession in county court.

He said the number of tickets for stop sign violations has increased.