Providence Council Ok's code enforcement officer

By CHARLIE HUST

Providence City Council held a brief regular session Monday night, with a short list of items on the agenda.

The council approved a resolution authorizing Mayor Eddie Gooch to enter into an agreement with the Department for Local Government (DLG) and begin the necessary steps for securing funding from the Kentucky General Assembly for several projects.

Mayor Gooch explained that funding for the projects, listed on the city’s priority list, would not be available immediately.

“These projects were included in the state’s two-year budget, so some will be done in 2015 and some in 2016,” Mayor Gooch emphasized. “This resolution allows us to begin the paperwork in order to secure the funding for the next two years.”

Gooch explained that the resolution allowed for funding for the following projects:

$70,000 — Generator for Water Treatment Plant.

$75,000 — Generator for Sewer Treatment Plant.

$100,000 — Funding for new garbage truck.

$75,000 — Carry-over funding from last year for equipment.

$319,000 — Kentucky Infrastructure Association (KIA) loan payment.

The Mayor noted that the KIA loan payment would retire-in-full a second debt on the water/sewer plant improvement project.

“We still owe about $2 million on a third loan that we probably need to refinance and get focused on retiring that loan now,” he explained.

In other business, Gooch announced that Billie Cole would be stepping down from her position as chairman of the Code Enforcement Board. He added that long-time Code Enforcement Officer Gary Myrick had agreed to take Cole’s position as Board Chairman.

“This would be great for the board. With Gary’s experience as Code Enforcement Office, he’s the perfect replacement as chairman,” Gooch stated. “We also want to sincerely thank Billie Cole for her service on the board as well as her years and years of volunteer efforts for our city.”

It was also noted that Shenna Cartwright, currently a part-time employee at the city building, has taken over the role as Code Enforcement Officer, which is also a part-time position.

“She has done really well,” stated Providence City Clerk Kay Travis. “She’s been sending out letters (on properties) and getting some results.”

Mayor Gooch added that having Myrick as Board Chairman, Cartwright would benefit from his knowledge and experience.

The council approved filling the positions with Myrick and Cartwright with a unanimous vote.

Gooch also added that the city had “cleaned up” four abandoned properties in the last six weeks, continuing the good work of the Code Enforcement Board.

Code Enforcement Board now includes Myrick, Mike Layton, Della Gobin, McCoy Chandler and Betty Dunn as an alternate.

Providence 9-1-1 Emergency Dispatch Coordinator Brad Curry gave the council a brief update on the city’s efforts to obtain funding from 9-1-1 calls from Verizon.

He noted that the system was not 100 percent complete as some of the calls “pinging” off the towers were from outside the city’s ambulance district and were being handled by the Webster County 9-1-1 dispatch center.

“It’s not an easy thing to get exactly right but right now we’re about 90 percent receiving all the calls in our district,” Curry stated. “I’ll have to do some mapping updates on our system and I think we can come back and get all of our areas covered within the next six months.”