The Crothersville Town Council decided to move forward on four improvement projects totaling $215,000 when the met on Tuesday, June 2.
The council signed a grant agreement with the Indiana Economic Development Corporation to officially commit to expansion of Industrial Way to allow for an expansion by local manufacturer Aisin Chemical.
In addition to the $25,000 local contribution for the expansion of Industrial Way to allow for a second access to the town’s industrial park, the council agreed to seek bids on re-surfacing three streets in town. Contractor bids are being sought for milling and re-surfacing Dixon Street from Kovener to the railroad, Marshall Drive from US 31 to Moore St., and Main Street from US 31 to Preston. Cost estimates have been placed around $40,000 for the three streets.
The town barn near the water utility high tower will get new siding, council decided. The barn had been a topic of discussion for months as it would be a target of the town’s own derelict building ordinance.
The council approved awarding the bid for re-siding and new overhead door to Riley’s Home Improvement at a cost of $19,264. Installation of electrical serviced was awarded to low bidder Crothersville heating and Air Conditioning at a cost of $4,350.
The council estimated it would cost up to $3,000 to tear down the barn and by re-siding and adding electric, the town street department can use the building to store salt for winter street treatment.
Finally, the council agreed to move forward on upgrading the town water utility manually read meters to electronic meters that are read by computer scanner. The cost of replacing approximately 750 meters was placed at $125,000.
“It has been obvious to town hall from the complaints of estimated bills utility customers received that they want accurate and on-time billing monthly,” said council president Ardell Mitchell. “Upgrading these meters will alleviate those problems in the future.”
This past winter, due to snow cover town workers were not able to read meters for three consecutive months. When they were read in March, April bills for some local residents were exceedingly high, some were lower that usual.
According to town water superintendent Chris Mains, the electronic meters will allow a single town worker to drive through town reading meters in a single day as opposed to the current method of two workers taking up to three days to accomplish the monthly reading.
Mitchell told those at the meeting that the town was making a large investment in the four upgrades but that he felt reserve funds and unspent surpluses in other accounts could be used to fund the improvements without seeking a loan.
In other business, the town hired reserve police officer Brent Turner as a full time police officer paying him $10.50 an hour. Turner replaces Jordan Bayes who resigned to take a full-time police officer job with the Madison Police Department.
The council also hired two workers for summer help to mow town property, clean street gutters and paint fire hydrants. Hired at $7.50 an hour were Micah Mains and Tyler Peters.
The council agreed to hire Westwind Signs of Seymour to replace the street sign at the Crothersville Police Department.
In a final matter, they also agreed to seek proposals for a rate study of the town’s water and sewer rates.
