Grayson City Council met on February 13, and the first order of business was to recognize the achievements of some special, dedicated young people in the community. Councilman Bradley Cotten presented members of Scout Troop 163 and Girl Troop7163 to the council and noted that the Girl Troop was the first of its kind in the Tristate area. Cotten gave special recognition to two Eagle Scouts from the troops, introducing Aaron Bailey and Elizabeth Bailey, respectively. Mayor Troy Combs welcomed the scouts to the meeting, congratulated them on their achievements, and commented that it was wonderful to see young people interested in the workings of their local government.
Council received a report from Utility Director Gerald Haney who discussed utility projects and their progress, as well as maintenance. The major topic of Haney’s discussion was the tracking of potential lead contaminants in the drinking water supply. As a routine procedure the city checks for lead in the drinking water supply on a monthly basis, and Haney reported that there has never been any lead contaminant show up. However, that doesn’t mean there couldn’t be lead pipes on private property. Haney explained that the City of Grayson received a $450,000 KIA grant for lead abatement, which he described as being a “loan with 100 percent forgiveness” with no match funds or payback required.
Haney said these funds would be used for surveys of the city’s service lines to the meter, as well as from the meter to each customer’s home, to find and eliminate any lead in water pipes. The money will help the city find any lead that might be in the water system, but he also told council that he had yet to encounter any such lead pipes during his career with the city. Haney also noted that they have been able to eliminate about 50 percent of their service area based upon the decade in which that service was installed.
“Anything installed after 1988 could not be manufactured with lead,” he informed the council.
Based on that a lot of areas, such as those along the AA highway, are self-eliminating. As for the downtown Grayson area, there will be some digging and visiting customers, he said.
One of the checklist items for the grant, Haney told the council, was for the city council to adopt a resolution to accept the KIA money and appoint a Utilities Commissioner to administer it. The grant falls under the auspices of the Safe Water Drinking Act Amendments of 1996 (Public Law 104-182) and amendments to KRS 224A where the State is authorized to render financial assistance to eligible project applicants by way of capitalization grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and State match funds comprising the Federally Assisted Drinking Water Revolving Fund (State Revolving Loan Program). The council voted to adopt the resolution (01-2024) and appoint Haney as the Official Project Representative.
Council also received financial reports from the Tourism Commission, which was broken down into two categories – hotel/transient tax and restaurant tax budget. Grayson Sports Park Manager Grant Harper provided the report and also discussed the current projects at the Sports Park. After a January lull to projects such as pouring concrete, Harper said progress is once again picking up, with a tentative March 1 completion date on any projects.
The council also received reports from department heads and heard concerns from them. Police Chief Tony Cantrell brought an issue before the council concerning the clocking in and out of police officers with each shift. Chief Cantrell made the council aware of a redundancy, being that officers are recorded through their radios whenever they are on active duty, and given that an officer might start their shift some distance away from the police station, the redundancy of a time clock often causes logistic issues and a waste of manpower hours.
The council discussed a request by 911 to change the name of a street currently called Hillview Court. The issue, as Mayor Combs informed the council, arises from two streets by the same name causing confusion for first responders as well as the delivery of packages. The name change was suggested for the street located between Horton Brothers and Brown and the old Dyer Hardware store. Discussion was tabled until a future meeting when alternate naming will be discussed.
An ordinance for a dog leash law was proposed by Assistant Street Department Director Damon Robinson due to the difficulty for city workers to manage potentially aggressive animals within the city limits. Robinson cited an instance where he had picked up an aggressive animal, and after multiple attempts to contact the owner without success he took the animal to the county shelter. The following day, Robinson said, he was informed that the dog had already returned to the home and was again exhibiting aggressive behavior to other city residents and their animals. Robinson told the council that without a leash law in place there would be no effective way for city employees to manage all the animals running freely through the city. Discussion among council members was that the lack of a leash law was due to the county already having laws in effect, and a plan was made to attend the next fiscal court meeting and bring animal control concerns to their attention.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
