Councilman concerned about dead cat and overtime hours

By Marlene J. Bohr
mbohr@steelcountrybee.com
 
A Lone Star city councilman was concerned with a dead cat and public works reports at the Nov. 21 meeting of the Lone Star City Council.
Councilman Earl Alexander asked questions of the council, mayor and city secretary.
“I can’t get anything out of the public works report,” Mr. Alexander said. “How much time does it take to read meters? I used to work in the Army Motor Pool, and I could do everything sitting at a desk.”
Mayor Karl Stoermer said they used to have a report that had items on to check.
“Now each would have a time sheet saying what they worked on in that day,” Mayor Stoermer said. “It still does not have hours per job.”
Mr. Alexander had further questions.
“I assume there is no accounting,” he said. “The reports don’t do any good. I also would like to know how much overtime everyone gets.
“Where is this dead cat?  Was it in someone’s yard? Can’t a person pick up their own dead cat?”
Mayor Stoermer said he would have the city secretary get back to them regarding the location of the cat that was picked up.
“I saw we had went to a vet and there is no bill,” Mr. Alexander said.
City Secretary Ruth Nash said they take the animals to euthanize them and sometimes it takes the vet a while to bill the city. She said the bill was $45 for euthanasia.
An audit report presented to the council by Bob Arnold of Arnold, Walker& Arnold Company, P.C.
“What we do normally is an acid test,” Mr. Arnold said. “If the door opens and the lights come on, that is a quick test. The reason I came tonight is to be available if you should have any questions. If you think there is some way we can help, you can contact us and we will respond. I told my partner that we don’t have to make nearly as many entries as we do at a lot of places. Ruth Nash does a good job, and we appreciate that.”
In other business, Mayor Stoermer commented on the report by Sandy Duke, the city’s representative to the Northeast Texas Municipal Water District.
“One little piece of discussion here, as Sandy does a good job about how these things affect us; we could do the same things,” Mayor Stoermer said. “She talked about the discussion about the Avinger groundwater storage tank. Everybody knows we have a ground storage tank.”
In her report to the city, Mrs. Duke said a special meeting was called at the water district to address approval of a contract with AT&T Wireless.

Read more in our e-edition:http://www.etypeservices.com/SWF/LocalUser/Daingerfield1//Magazine40182/...