Thanks, Dawnita

Grayson City Council held a special meeting last Thursday, August 20, to finalize certain business items before the end of the month. Mayor Troy Combs informed the council that he had appointed Bob Thomas and Diane Ferguson to fill the vacant positions on the Grayson Tourism Commission. Thomas will be filling the position as a member at large, and Ferguson will be filling the position as a representative of the hotel board.
The council voted unanimously to approve these appointments. Thomas and Ferguson are residents of the City of Grayson, and both are expected to assume their positions immediately. Ferguson was unable to be present at the council meeting, but Thomas was present and also attended the special, called tourism meeting that followed the city council meeting.
The city also discussed bids for paving projects, and voted to approve the bid submitted by Mountain Enterprises. The council also voted to surplus out two fire engines, Engine 1, a Pierce, and Engine 6, a Freightliner. Those engines will be replaced by the recently purchased fire truck the department secured partially with the $400,000 grant received from the State of Kentucky. The fire department will also be selling a 20 year old sonar device, a device that fire chief Greg Felty said was outdated technology.
The special announcement made at the special council meeting was something Combs described as being bittersweet. Grayson City Clerk Dawnita Lewis May, who has worked for the city for eleven years, announced her resignation, Combs said. May had been commuting to work from Ohio for the past two years, Combs said, where she had moved upon remarrying.
“Now, she has started a new chapter of her life in Ohio,” Combs told the council.
May told the council she had been offered and accepted a new position as the Director of Finance for the Lawrence County Community Action Agency. The agency May has accepted the new position from is the Ohio equivalent of Northeast Community Action Agency in Eastern Kentucky. “The agency helps with all of the things there is a need for,” May told the council. “They wanted me to go to work immediately. So, today is my last day.”
“I just want to say it’s a really beautiful thing that this agency thought enough of our own employee who moved up through the ranks here in Grayson,” Combs said. He also noted that May has served as both treasurer and clerk, and has received good training and served as an exemplary employee and asset to the city in every position.
“We obviously don’t want to see her go,” Combs said of the former clerk’s advancement. “But we are happy for her at the same time.”
To commemorate both her dedication to the City of Grayson and as appreciation for her service, Combs awarded May a Key to the City of Grayson.
“As the Mayor of the City of Grayson and your (former) boss, I bestow upon you this key to the City of Grayson,” Combs told May before the council. “And, of course, a pillow for your new ‘Home sweet Home’ and these flowers.”
“I want to thank you all for the opportunity,” May told the mayor and council.
The former clerk said she enjoyed serving the City of Grayson and its residents, and that both will always be a part of her life.

Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com