North Egypt News

City of West Frankfort City Council met March 24.

Here is the minutes provided by the council:

1. Mayor Jordan Called The Meeting To Order At 6:00 P.M. Requesting A Roll Call. All Commissioners Were In Attendance, Along With The City Attorney And City Clerk.

2. Mayor Jordan Asked For Approval Of The Minutes From The March 10, 2020 Council Meeting. Commissioner Simpson Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Harkins. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

3. Mayor Jordan Next Asked For Approval To Pay City Bills And Payroll In The Amount Of $223,780.77. Commissioner Simpson Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Harkins. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

The Next Item Was Discussion, With Possible Action, Covid-19 Related Issues. The Mayor Stated We Operate Under The Order The Govenor Has Passed With His Guidelines. I Want All The Commissioners To Know That Under That Guideline It Gives A Lot More Authority To The Mayor To Make Decisions As Far As Resources, Financial And Personelle. I Would Only Make A Decision On An Emergency Situation That Had To Be Made Immediately Without Informing The Council With What We Are Going To Do And Having That Conversation, But It Does Give That Authority Because Of The Nature Of This Situation Being An Emergency. What We Are Going To Operate Under Is Something Called National Management System Where The Department Heads Basically Over Their Departments. The Fire Department, Jody Will Be In Charge Of That, Jp For The Police Department, Roger For The Street Department, Jim White For Water, Charles Hubble In Charge Of Sewer And We Will Work With Them As Far As Things On Immediate Need. Understand That We Have The Ability And I Need You To Okay This That If We Need Two Department Personelle To Take Dump Trucks To Mcords Or To Go Get Stuff That That's Okay. If We Need Water Department Personelle To Help The Fire Department Put Up Structures, That's Okay And We Are All Working Together As A Community In That Nature. Again, I Want To Make Sure Everybody Knows As Much As They Need To Know, But I Don't Want To Impede Anything That Would Be An Emergency Decision. Any Questions That You Have I Will Try And Explain Or Jody. I Saw The Council Meeting Pickneyville Had On Tv And They Spoke About Not Charging Late Penalities On Water Bills And Not Cutting Water Off. I Think Under The Order The Governor Signed Those Things Were Included In That. Just For Information I Would Like For You To Understand On That List There Is A Lot Of Talk About What Can And Cannot Stay Open. I Have Been Working With Rent One Today And In Some Communities, They Are Trying To Close Those Stores, But He Sells Computers Which Is Listed As An Item Needed For Staying At Home And Working From Home. He Sells Washers And Dryers Which Is An Item Listed Under Sanitation So He Has From Me As Far As I Am Concerned The Ability To Stay Open. I Personally Think We Will Deal It On A Case By Case Basis, We Had A Complaint Today About Quest Fitness Center That Was Still Open, I Think What Was Happening There Was They Had An Automatic Key Card System Where People Can Go In And Out 24 Hours And That Has Not Been Disabled Yet. We Have Placed A Call To Him To Notify Him That Under The Guidelines That We Can See Fitness Centers Are Required To Close. Again, We Will Deal With This On A Case By Case Basis.

The Mayor Stated Our Businesses Are Having A Lot Of Problems. I Talked To Dixie Cream And All Three Of Their Businesses Are Suffering Because The Gas Stations Have Stopped Purchasing Donuts So There Are No Deliveries, Churches Are Not Having Services So There Is Nothing There On Sunday And The Inside Sales And Donut Sales Are Down. Subway Has Curbside Pick Up But It Isn't Working Very Well For Them, Lets Just Pray That This Is Over Soon. At This Time, I Don't Think We Need To Take Any Action On An Emergency Issues As Far As The Covid-19 Goes I Will Keep All Of You Updated On A Daily Basis Through Email.

4. The Next Item Was Approval To Pay An Invoice From Brown & Roberts, Inc. In The Amount Of $8,280.00 Regarding Il Route 149, Ken Gray Boulevard And Bob Burton Way Preliminary Engineering Invoice #2. Commissioner Chambers Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Simpson. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

5. The Next Item Was Approval To Pay An Invoice From Brown & Roberts, Inc. In The Amount Of $27,915.80 Regarding 157 & Route 149interchange Modification Phase 1 Engineering Invoice #5. Commissioner Simpson Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Chambers. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

6. The Next Item Was Approval To Pay An Invoice From Wiggs Excavating, Inc. In The Amount Of $1,864.00 Regarding Repairs To 9th Street For The Water Department. Commissioner Warren Stated This Is A Big Water Break We Had Out On 9th Street. Commissioner Warren Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Simpson. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

7. The Next Item Was Approval To Transfer Lake Lot Lease #100 From Ryan And Sara Ridgeway To Patrick And Deanna Smillie. Commissioner Warren Made A Motion To Approve To Stock Both Lakes, Seconded By Commissioner Harkins. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

8. Building And Sign Permits:

N/A

9. Mayors Comments:

We Had A Meeting With All Of Our Department Heads And Want To Thank Them For All Their Cooperation. Everything Is Running Smooth And I Feel Like We Are On The Right Track. We Are In A Situation Where The Governor Is Making The Decisions And The Orders That We Have To Follow.

10. Commissioner Comments:

Commissioner Harkins Stated The Police And Fire Chiefs Have Been Keeping Me Updated. As Always, They Are Doing A Good Job And I Do Appreciate Them.

Commissioner Simpson Stated I Think All The Departments Are Doing An Excellent Job With The Crisis We Are Faced With. They Are Handeling It Very Well, Not Only The Fire And Police Departments But The Street, Sewer, Water And Codes.

Commissioner Warren Stated I Want To Thank Everybody For Their Cooperation During This Ordeal. All The Departments Just As You Said And The Cooperation In The Office Too Because I Know That It Is Scary And Something We Have Never Dealt With Before And I Appreciate Everybody Keeping A Cool Head And Trying Our Best To Keep The City Going. The Sewer And Water Are Doing A Great Job. I Appreciate The Fact We Can Have These Meeting Electronically And Everybody Is So Willing To Learn, We Have Just Stepped Into The Future Here And I Think It Is Really Neat.

Commissioner Chambers Stated I Feel The Same Way And I Appreciate Beign Able To Participate And Not Be There Right Now. I Know Roger Has Had A Hard Time Just Trying To Keep Up With The Weather. I Think Everybody Deserves A Round Of Applause For Getting The Temporary Pump In Place Because We Have Needed It. That Was A Good Move In Advance And We Appreciate You Guys For That Too.

11. Audience Questions Or Comments:

N/A

12. With No Further Business To Be Discussed, The Meeting Was Adjourned On A Motion By Commissioner Harkins At 6:21 P.M.

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