By Charles Romans
Carter County Times
Grayson City Council met for their regularly scheduled meeting at a special time on March 14 to discuss the regular business of the city. The council had a quorum with four members in attendance, and two members, Michael Harper and Bradley Cotten absent. Mayor Troy Combs opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance at the regular time. After approving the agenda, Tourism Director Lana Axtell was recognized by the council.
Axtell provided the council with information about upcoming events planned by the Tourism Board.
“The next events we have planned include a Summer Concert Series,” Axtell told the council. “So, once a month we will have a concert with food trucks, and art shows.”
In addition, Axtell said that there were two Poker Runs being planned along the new driving trail, Raider’s Run, over the next few months as well. The director also informed the council that she had secured a three-thousand-dollar sponsorship from Windstream for the planned events.
The renaming of Hillview Court was again a topic of discussion for the council. More instances of difficulty using GPS navigation were reported, due to the fact that another road named Hillview showed up on GPS, but Hillview Court did not. Once again it was proposed to rename Hillview Court to Tripp Court to eliminate the confusion and the council voted on the change. The voting resulted in two votes for and two votes against, with the mayor casting the tiebreaking vote for the name change.
The council also heard a request for speed bumps to slow the traffic on Robinson Street. In other action a motion was made, and carried, to add Jim Robinson to city bank accounts. The city audit was submitted, but council discussed their preference that someone from the firm that supplied the audit be present to explain it. A decision was made to look over the audit and request it be submitted by a representative at the following month’s meeting before being approved.
In further business the council adopted a resolution to allow Emergency Services to apply for a grant to provide AR-15 rifles to the city police department. The reasoning behind the addition of the AR-15 to the police arsenal is that in extreme safety situations, the police department is currently under armed. The grant would be for 11 new weapons – one for each officer – in addition to two of the rifles that are already owned by the department.
Council also discussed the need for event space in the city, whether it be for public or private events. The Senior Center is utilized, Mayor Combs pointed out, but it is usually booked up. He also mentioned that the city building itself is sometimes used as well, but that the city really needed more gathering space.
The Sports Park in Grayson is moving forward with its improvements, Director Grant Harper told the council. Concrete work is ongoing as of the day of the council meeting, Harper said, with projected completion by the first week of April 2024. Everything was proceeding according to schedule considering problems generated by uncooperative weather, Harper said. Work is beginning now on landscaping and sowing grass seed, with plans soon to add decorative plants and other finishing details.
“There is already a lot going on there,” Harper told council. “A lot of people utilize the facility not just for sports, but the playground as well and other features.”
Council also voted to approve the minutes from the previous meeting, and heard reports from city department heads before adjourning.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
