By Jeremy D. Wells
Carter County Times
Olive Hill City Council cancelled their regular meeting last week, for lack of a quorum. Council followed that up, though, with a special meeting on Thursday night, where they accepted the resignation of a council member in addition to defining job roles and passing a property tax ordinance,
Councilman started the meeting by accepting the resignation of senior councilmember Allen Stapleton.
Council then moved to accept the nomination of Kirk Wilburn to fill the position. Wilburn was sworn in before joining council for the rest of the meeting.
After Wilburn was sworn in council moved to review and approve the job descriptions for roles of code enforcement officer and fire chief. Those positions were added to the city jobs in a previous meeting, city clerk and treasurer Chimila Hargett explained, but this ordinance further defines the job duties and classification for each.
In other action council moved to adopt a municipal order modifying the salary classification schedule to include the newly described jobs, accepted the treasurer’s report, and passed the city’s 2021 property tax ordinance on second reading.
Council also approved the appointment of Nathan Eldridge to fill a vacancy in the housing board before going into executive session to discuss employee issues and pending litigation. No action was taken.
Stapleton explained that he was stepping down because he was taking a position with the city. He said he will take on the role of the newly defined code enforcement officer.
Wilburn, who stepped down from his position with the school board earlier in the day before being sworn in as a council member that evening, said he felt he could make a positive impact as a council member. He said that the last year, with all the COVID restrictions, had been taxing but that as things returned to normal he was ready to pass the torch; hopefully, he said, to someone who has children in the school system.
“My time has run its course with the school board,” Wilburn said. “It’s time for somebody young, with kids in the system.”
He said he felt comfortable with stepping into council because he followed city council and was familiar with the governmental processes of the city. He served as a city council member previously, he said, and while things had certainly changed over that time, the basic mechanisms of government had not.
“I was on city council 30 years ago,” he said. “I can pick up where I left off at.”
Contact the writer at editor@cartercountytimes.com
