Lake Santeetlah – Repairs to well houses and repainting water storage tanks will cost the Town of Lake Santeetlah $185,000.
During the March 12 town meeting, council members discussed at length the idea of raising the threshold from $165,000, to give some proverbial “wiggle room” in the event of unforeseen circumstances. The motion passed unanimously.
The town will procure the funds needed for the project through a 10-year loan.
Another lengthy discussion on the size of the council and the term limits also took place. Council member Roger Carlton suggested switching to staggered terms, which would see the top two vote-getters in an election get four-year terms and the remaining three receive two-year terms. The idea was formed so Lake Santeetlah could run its elections at the same time as Fontana Dam and Robbinsville, saving money.
Council member Keith Predmore spoke in opposition to changing the terms.
“Over the history of the town council – and probably at least for the three years that I’ve been here – the changes have not been significant,” he said. “There’s not 15 people running, so there’s not five new people every four years. We have continuity, just by the fact that we’re not huge.”
“It is a fact that your pool of residents are so small – and that this town is so unique on the scale of size – that the data about towns normally do is not very informative, because of how small your pool is,” town attorney Craig Justus added.
“You will constantly be struggling with getting to five (council members). At the end of the day, wouldn’t you rather have five candidates and the top three go (onto the council)? This is just my two cents worth. It just seems like a good idea, based on the size of your town.”
Mayor Jim Hager pointed out that there’s no rush. All feedback should be weighed before Justus drafts a resolution.
“We’re not under any deadline,” he said. “If it were going to be on a ballot, we’d have to have something by July.”
The board agreed to put the topic back on the agenda for the next meeting – which was scheduled for Thursday, April 16, but has since been canceled – and send out a survey with the monthly water bills.
“Keith feels that staggered terms are not important; I feel like it is important. That’s democracy,” Carlton later said. “I think we ought to decide it, one way or another. The rest are details, once you make the basic policy decision.”
Other tidbits from the meeting included:
* Council member Diana Simon informed the board that Kyle Garland with Cherokee Realty expressed interest in filling the vacancy on the town’s Tourism Development Authority board.
The motion to nominate him passed unanimously.
* Hager announced that during the town’s public workshop March 11, a kudzu eradication team – comprised of Carlton, Simon, town maintenance worker Eric Hayes and resident Stephanie Danforth – have combined forces to begin exploring options on curbing the issues, which could take 2-3 years.