North Webster to Draw Up New Leases for Pier Spaces
Posted
Jordan Fouts-
NORTH WEBSTER – A 10-year lease of 128 feet of lakeshore for pier use expired at midnight Tuesday, meaning the town will have to draft a new one. North Webster council members and Park Board President John Brown discussed the lease during Tuesday’s council meeting and how they would like to see the new one written. To be decided are issues like whether the town or lessees will be responsible for the piers themselves. The park board will be responsible for determining the terms of the lease, which Brown noted will require special meetings beyond their regular quarterly meetings. He also noted that the previous lease was written 20 years ago, and offers spaces for as little as $100 a year, council member Tim Hine observed. The draft of the lease will go to town attorney Jack Birch and then to council for approval. There’s no rush, Birch noted, though a new lease should be in place by the beginning of next year. The spaces will go to sealed bidding once the terms of the lease are set. Also Tuesday, council gave first reading and a public hearing to the 2014 budget. The budget is proposed at a total of $1,398,704, which Clerk-Treasurer Betsy Luce said is a 2.6 percent increase over this year’s budget. The max levy for 2014 is proposed at $364,076. The budget will be adopted during a special meeting Oct. 10 at 8 a.m. And council approved about $3,100 to install a fence along the east side of the recycling depot in the New Market parking lot, to keep debris from blowing into surrounding yards. They briefly entertained the idea of fencing off the entire depot and leaving one gated entrance but decided to start with the one fence for now. They also directed Mike Noe, utilities superintendent, to find additional quotes for an engineer for North Webster’s side of the Knapp Lake Regional Sewer District service agreement. Noe and Birch both recommended the town use its own engineer rather than the one used by the sewer district.
