Wadesboro residents could have automated trash pickup seven months from now, providing more reliable garbage service.
Town Manager Alex Sewell said that the town applied for a USDA interest-free loan with Pee Dee Electric on July 20. The town should receive a response within 60 days of the application.
If received, the $360,000 eight-year loan will be used to purchase a large trash truck, a smaller truck, 2,200 trash cans, can tippers for the current trucks and more. The town would also have to commit an additional $27,000 to cover all of the costs, which Sewell said can be covered by a loan or fund balance, which the council could spend to avoid loan interest.
Once the town makes the purchase, it will receive the larger trash truck within about five months and the other equipment sooner than that, Sewell said.
The council hopes the new truck will save worker compensation pay since sanitation employees won’t be picking up as many heavy trash cans and the truck will prevent the employees from having to continuously cross the street to pick up cans. Having a new truck would also likely make the trash service more reliable, since there would be a backup when one is down for maintenance.
Sewell provided a brief financial report for the town, saying that while the town is doing fine so far, it is too early in the fiscal year to foresee any problems. At the moment, the town water and sewer revenues continue to stay ahead of pace. The mild drought has also provided a boost since town customers are using more water.
PARKING BOOTS COMING?
The council also discussed the town’s lax parking ordinance enforcement in the uptown area. Sewell said that business owners and employees tend to park in spaces near their business for long periods of time, reducing the amount of available uptown parking. Some have multiple parking tickets, but have failed to pay them. Since the costs for the town to take civil action against the motorists is more expensive than the $25 parking ticket, the town has not enforced it.
To remedy this, Sewell said the town has two options: charging a $25 late fee for tickets left unpaid more than one week, or installing a vehicular immobilization device, commonly known as a boot, to cars until the removal fee is paid.
The late fee would take unpaid tickets to $50, which would reach the minimum to allow the town to send the debt to a collection agency, Sewell said. He recommended that the town use a parking boot instead, since it would take less time for the police to enforce.
The boot would be put on cars that have two or more unpaid parking tickets. A $50 removal fee would be charged.
Most of the people who break the ordinance are locals, Sewell said, but he suggested a way to avoid slamming visitors with unforeseen fees.
“We want to crack down on folks, but not scare visitors away,” he said. “So we can write it into the ordinance that if you have been spending money in town in Uptown, you could potentially get that waived.”
The council took no action on the matter during the meeting. If the council decides to, it can work to use a debt collector for late fees and unpaid parking tickets dating back three years, the limit the town can punish parking violations.
Councilman Bobby Usrey said he would rather see the council start fresh with the policy rather than surprising people with the fee collection.
During the time for citizens’ comments, John Lockhart told the council that with every increase, the town’s sewer bills become more unmanageable for some residents.
“It hurts me, it bothers me to see my family and friends struggling to pay their bills,” he said.
Lockhart also asked the council to bring more jobs to town.
The council also recognized police Lt. Steven Kelly, a 16-year veteran, for receiving his Advanced Law Enforcement Certificate.
PARK, POND HOURS
At Councilman Fred Davis’ request, the council changed the hours for City Park, which is open from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. from April 1 to Oct. 31.
“I don’t think much good is going on at 10 o’clock at night,” Davis said, pointing out that neither City Pond nor the county’s Little Park are open that late.
The council voted unanimously to change the hours to 5 a.m. to 9 p.m.
It also voted to change City Pond’s statement that it closes at at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and Sunday at 7 p.m., “or sunset, whichever is earlier.”
Councilman John Ballard argued that park visitors may have a different idea of when sunset is than the park employee charged with closing it. The council voted to eliminate that line from its City Pond hours.
Mayor Bill Thacker asked the council to continue to think about removing the parking spaces near the post office on the left side of the street near the old Leavitt house on the west side of Greene Street. He said he believes the spaces are dangerous, forcing trucks on Greene Street to nearly come to a stop to avoid hitting post office patrons who park there.
Clerk Cindi Pope advised the council that the town festival committee will change the name of its annual festival from Taste of the Pee Dee Festival back to its original name of People Fest. The committee renamed the festival last year to try to rebrand it and generate more interest, but Pope said most people still call it People Fest, so the old name will be reused.
DOLLS IN TREES
Ballard told the council that he wants the town to work with a horticulturist to see if the small trees that decorate the uptown area will ever grow beyond their short stature. The town stopped pruning the trees earlier this year in the hopes that they would grow larger, but only random branches have grown out.
“It’s not aesthetically pleasing right now to look at them,” Ballard said. “A holly bush is a holly bush, and doesn’t grow like a leaf bush.”
The mayor said that some of the trees are doing well while others continue to struggle.
“Some of them are really flourishing, and that’s the part I really don’t understand, why some are doing better,” he said. “It looks like those on the sunny side are doing better than the ones in the shade.”
While on the subject of the trees, Usrey said that he has heard citizen comments about the baby dolls that are stuck into the branches of the tree across the street from the town hall in front of the antique store.
“Some people have made some comments that it’s kind of weird,” he said. “So I would ask that if there’s no reason for those baby dolls to be stuck in the trees — there’s four or five of them — it’s kind of spooky to some people. I know it’s getting to be Halloween season, but one of those dolls doesn’t have a head on it, so I don’t know if it’s someone doing a prank or what.”
Usrey suggested Sewell check with the antique store owner to see if he knew the origin of the dolls and, if not, to have the street department remove the dolls.
The council will hold its next meeting at 5 p.m. Sept. 14 at Wadesboro Town Hall.
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