by Matt Hughes
J-E News Editor
A proposed business license was once again a hot topic for the Clay council on Tuesday, November 12, 2013.
The idea was first introduced in May after the city was visited by a group of suspicious women who went door-to-door trying to sell magazines. When city clerk Juliana Rhye requested the women’s presence at the city building, only a few of the women answered the call, and according to Rhye, the only one willing to present a photo ID gave her a fake one.
Reports from residents said that the women asked for credit card information and insisted on coming into houses, even if the home owner wasn’t interested in buying anything.
“You don’t come into our town and treat our people that way,” Rhye said. “If you come in the right way, you’ll never find a friendlier town. But I feel like if we aren’t here to defend our residents, we shouldn’t be here.”
Rhye reported on Tuesday that she had once again received similar calls from Clay residents.
City Attorney Ben Leonard told the council on Tuesday that he and Mayor Rick Householder had finally come up with a draft of the license that was manageable. If everything goes as planned an ordinance can be presented at the city’s next council meeting on December 10, 2013.
“It’s not an issue of money,” said Householder. “I just want anyone who comes to town to sell things to report to us. I don’t care if the license cost $1.”
Householder and Leonard added that they were working on an exception for groups such as the Girl Scouts and Schwans which everyone knows and is aware of.
“I do want people to know that this just means that they’ve registered with the city,” said Rhye. “It doesn’t mean that we have approved them. It just means they have a license.”
In other business, in October Mayor Householder presented the council with an estimate on insurance. Travelers Insurance, which has covered the city’s buildings for a number of years, was expected to raise rates from $33,000 a year to $38,000. At that time he reported that United World Assurance, an insurance carried by the city’s insurance agent, offers the same coverage with a few increases for only $28,600.
This month he reported back that the final estimate actually came back at $29,714.74.
City employee Paul Stone reported that Sturgis had approved a proposal to pay their half of the bill to reroute an exposed gas main under Caney Creek.
The same line runs from the sub-station in Providence, through Green Grove and Diamond to Clay and then on to Wheatcroft and Sturgis. Because their is no emergency cut off, an outage or leak at the creek crossing could affect everyone along the entire route.
Fire chief Jeremy Moore was no presented, but he did submit his monthly report to the council. Clay Rescue made six runs in October for a total of 98 for the year. There was also one fire run made in the month.
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