Huntingburg Common Council meeting notes

The Huntingburg Common Council met Tuesday night for their monthly meeting.

The council passed the 2012 salary ordinance, but not before it was amended so that the Mayor and City Treasurer received a pay increase of 1 ½ percent. The Council had previously approved the city employees raise of 1 1/2 percent (story here). Council member Glenn Kays stated  he was not comfortable with the fact that supervisors would have higher pay than the Mayor and City Treasurer if the ordinance passed without an amendment that gave the Mayor and Clerk-Treasurer a pay increase as well. The council passed the amendment and adopted the ordinance – numbered 2011-25 unanimously.

Also passed was ordinance 2011-24 which is the City Budget for 2012. The only change made to the ordinance was the addition of a $140,000 appropriation for the splash park. The park was a key addition by Mayor Belcher in the final months of his first and only term as Mayor of Huntingburg.

In other business, Utility Superintendent Tony Traylor reports that the Gas Department performed a second leak survey by increasing the pressure to 45 psi. Only four leaks were discovered and none were classified higher than Class 3. The city is required to monitor the leaks only at this point. Pressure will be increased to 60 psi with one more leak survey, which will happen the first week in November.

Traylor is requesting a public meeting with the Rate Advisory Board to propose a new rate for bulk water usage. The city only charges $6.21 for 1,000 gallons of water. Traylor is recommending that a new rate be set at $30.00 minimum charge for 1,000 gallons and then an additional $1.55 for every 250 gallons after that.

A new generator has been installed in the Electric Utility, which backs up the Control Center. It runs under full load for 20 minutes every Tuesday at 8 am. The generator is fueled by natural gas, so there is no concern for standing diesel or gasoline as fuel sources that can go bad over time.

Traylor also says that fall hydrant flushing is going well and the water in the system is cleaning up nicely.