Tonight’s Mayor’s Report:
Our inspections of the Maple Hill cemetery have been mostly positive despite a very rainy Spring. The new crew has been very aggressive in keeping the cemetery cut and trimmed. We will continue to watch as we near the always important Memorial Day weekend.
City police have started marking vehicles parked for more than two hours on Main and Delaware. Residents of apartments on those streets need to find alternative long-term parking spots. We will be installing new “Two-hour parking” signs in the downtown area. An ordinance is already in place.
There have been several positive economic developments inside the city over the last few weeks. One downtown merchant reported over 75 out-of-town retail clients visited the business in the last 30 days as evidenced by their credit cards.. We also learned of the expansion of a commercial recycling business on the south highway. L&E Recycling LLC will tear down some older buildings around the old Southern Lumber Company and the former service station across the street. L&E specializes in the recycling of cardboard cores used at Champ Labs.
The city met with the county health department last week to discuss a future electronic recycling event. This time, the health department will secure space in the former recycling center just south of the police station. The city will offer the use of a forklift and operator. Electronics will be stored in the building instead of putting them directly onto semi-trailers. Then, after the event is completed, trailers will be ordered to ship out the entire cargo.
The Fairfield Public Library had an open house to show off it’s renovation Saturday. The $60,000 remake was funded by a gift from the Babe Ward estate.
I’ve been in office one year and will be announcing my annual appointments at the next meeting on May 24th.
Fairfield Municipal Airport had 70 operations from the Ag Monkey from April 10th-to-May 9th and another 25 from another Ag business. In total, there were 111 operations.
Fairfield firefighters had 37 responses, 28 of which were EMS Assists. There were two automatic alarms. Fire officials also did a walk through of the Fairfield Memorial Hospital addition and of the area used by Kids in Motion at New Beginnings.
Police department- One felony arrest, five misdemeanors and five warrants were served. There were seven citations written and 12 motor vehicle crashes. The department met with Kiddie Kollege to introduce kids to our officers. The kids asked questions and were given a tour of one of our police cars.
Water treatment- An Indianapolis engineering firm has inspected our side channel reservoir along with Jerry Quindry and have presented a proposal which includes seeking federal grant opportunities. We will take this to the water committee (Cody is chair) in the next few weeks.
Water distribution- We repaired a service line leak on Farm Drive last week. We have also had 64 Julies and building permits.
Street and Bridge- Robert reports mowing has become a major issue with the wet spring. His department, which at times is reduced to three people, also keeps busy patching streets and picking up brush.
Sewer plant -Jon reports they are pumping down the east oxidation ditch, installing the new tri-pods for the mixers and replacing diffusers.
