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The Elizabethtown Town Council met for a work session at noon on Tuesday prior to their regular monthly meeting at 7 p.m.
Elizabethtown Police Chief Tony Parrish introduced two new officers to the Council. They are Joe Butler who previously worked for the Lumberton Police Department and Chris Avant who previously worked for the Leland Police Department. Mayor Sylvia Campbell welcomed the new officers and presented them with their employee pins.
Public Works Director Pat DeVane also introduced two new employees in his department to the board. They are George Hopkins, who has worked for the town before, and Jeremy Sykes who recently worked with PWC in Fayetteville. Mayor Campbell also presented them with town employee pins.
The board also heard from Councilman Ricky Leinwand regarding another successful Labor Day Sidewalk Sale despite Friday’s rains from Tropical Storm Hermine. The board also got an update from Public Works Director Pat Devane regarding the storm clean up in the town. He reported that leaf and limb crews will be working diligently to pick up storm debris.
Leinwand asked DeVane about mosquito spraying in the town.
“Typically this is the time of year we start spraying,” said DeVane.
Leinwand said he had received a couple of complaints from residents on Robeson Street regarding mosquitoes.
DeVane said the state office that once oversaw the mosquito spraying program for the state no longer exists. “We do have a sprayer. We do have the chemical,” said DeVane.
He noted that it has been a dry season and town staff are judiciously using the mosquito sprayer. DeVane noted thus far, the town has only had to spray a few times, but he added the town can do some spraying.
The board briefly discussed a rezoning request from Jewel Pritchard and Cathy Gantz for a property located at 1201 East Broad Street from R-20 residential to C-1 general commercial.
Planning Technician Billie Hall told the board that it is zoned commercial until the vicinity of a farm just off Broad Street.
Mayor Campbell said the property in question is located in a residential neighborhood.
No protest petitions were filed.
The board will vote on the matter at tonight’s board meeting.
The board voted to approve a resolution in Memory of Virgie McKiver who served 29 years on the Elizabethtown Housing Authority Board.
The board heard from Pat DeVane about a request to declare a Chevrolet Canyon pick-up truck as surplus and offer it for sale on govdeals.com. The board also heard a request from Elizabethtown Police Chief Tony Parrish to declare former police department uniforms as surplus and donate them to the Paul R. Brown Leadership Academy. Chief Parrish told the board that hopefully, by next week, the police department will be going to their new uniforms. The board will vote on both matters tonight.
The board also discussed a five acre tract of land located on Glenwood Drive that the Council is being asked to declare as surplus property and sale through the private party method. Pat DeVane said the tract fo land was originally earmarked to construct a well but when the NC 87 Bypass was built, the town no longer had access to the property. Town Manager Eddie Madden said that with no ingress and egress the town cannot use the property.
In a related matter on Glenwood Drive, the town has been asked to construct a cul-de-sac so that vehicles can turn around. Currently, there is no where to turn around and the town’s leaf and limb crews have been stopping at the sewer lift station in order to turn the truck around, said DeVane. He said that the drivers of the leaf and limb truck cannot back the truck down the street with the equipment behind the truck.
DeVane said the town currently has the opportunity to purchase some land at the end of Glenwood on which a cul-de-sac potentially could be constructed.
The board is asked to consider the sale of the surplus property through the private party method and then look at acquiring the second property for a cul-de-sac. The board will vote on the matter during tonight’s meeting.
DeVane also updated the board on the status of several of the town’s wells. He noted that recently the town has received some complaints about milky water. He said that is due to oxygen in the water. He said that there are some problems with wells No. 4 and No. 5.
“Basically we had to throttle them back,” said DeVane.
He said that the new well located on Swanzy Street will soon be coming online.
“Well No. 4 has always been a work horse for us,” said DeVane.
He recommended having Russell Underwood’s company come out and look at the wells in question. DeVane said the Board may want to begin considering the possibility of purchasing a property for the construction of a new well. DeVane added that currently, the town does not have any land designated for that purpose.
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