MENTONE - Mentone Town Council met Monday and discussed how it would pay for bills from Bonar Group after missing out on a deadline for a grant to upgrade the town's wastewater treatment facilities.
The grant deadline was missed because a notice of a public hearing failed to appear in the Times-Union by the Dec. 26 deadline. The notice for a public hearing was supposedly sent by the company applying for the grant Dec. 23. The Times-Union has no record of receiving that public notice.
The board moved that town attorney Larry Beeson draw up an ordinance to use money from the town's rainy day fund to help pay the bills.
The board discussed possibly paying Bonar in installments.
Beeson studied the contract signed with Bonar to see if there was any language in it to allow for the town to avoid paying since the project is delayed.
Utilities Superintendent Eric Carlin expressed frustration in the cost of the project in relation to the amount of work that has or hasn't been done.
In new business, Carlin told the board he'd like to look into getting a snow plow to put on the front of his truck.
Town Marshal Jim Eads told the board that he is trying to get the radios in his and officer Terry Engstrand's vehicles reprogrammed. Because of the equipment they use, the company usually charged with the programming, J and K, no longer has the equipment to work with older radios.
Eads said he is exploring his options to get the radio programmed before March 1.
In old business, Beeson told the board Verizon is ready to start construction of a tower in the town.
Beeson also told the board that he is moving along with the unkempt properties in town. The property at 123 E. Main St., after a letter to the owner is sent, is slated for demolition no later than March 2.
Carlin reminded the board that he will be out of town Feb. 17-19 because of a conference in Indianapolis.
The board also voted to keep Tim Croy as the board's president as well as keeping the other town positions and boards intact with the exception of naming Carlin as the cemetery board's sexton.
