NORTH MANCHESTER – The North Manchester Town Council met Wednesday evening to discuss initiatives to continue improving the town. Town Council member James Smith discussed closing a small portion of the Main Street parking lot for the Arts Festival. Twice as many artists are expected this year, so Smith believes closing a portion of the lot Friday before the festival will be beneficial. Town Marshal Jeffrey Perry proposed a new leasing agreement that would allow the police department to change three cars each year for four years. “I think leasing makes a lot of sense,” Smith said. “This is a partial answer.” Currently, the police force has 10 vehicles, and half of them exceed 100,000 miles. Perry said right now officers are sharing cars, which means they are doubling miles because the cars are running two full shifts and it’s “obviously not helping,” Perry said. He said the leasing program would aid in the mileage issue and that the goal right now is to lease three cars. “I like the plan,” Town Council member Christopher Garber said. “It sounds smart to me.” Perry also said Wednesday this would be the last year for the Operation Pull Over program. Park and Recreation Director Jennifer Hotchkiss said scheduling with the pool would be changing soon. Manchester University recently hired a new swim coach and they have scheduled swim team practice times that will be starting shortly. These practices will be six days each week and last one to two hours. The high school swim team practices will begin in late October to early November. During these practices, the therapy pool will remain open, but during meets, it will close. The Department of Public Works is in the process of hiring utility workers for the hydrant flushing set to begin Sept. 22. The fall clean-up is scheduled for Oct. 17 to 18. The next Town Council meeting is scheduled for Oct. 1 at 7 p.m.
