Robbinsville – An automated system that would alert customers of water outages was heavily discussed at Dec. 4’s Town of Robbinsville meeting.
Shari Birchfield laid out the research done thus far on the system. Birchfield has spoken with Robbinsville High School and the suggestion of a service named Call-Em-All, a system Birchfield said would cost the town roughly $180 per month, plus another $180 when a notification needs to be sent to customers.
Alderman Brian Johnson spoke about the information he had gathered on a system called CodeRED – which would be significantly cheaper and appeared more informative than Call-Em-All, a point made when Johnson was told jokingly by the salesman, ‘The only two things this can’t be used for is to tell someone who to vote for or to ask for money’ – and the unlimited package would cost $1,200 a year.
The board agreed to table a decision until later, as one more client had not gotten in touch before the meeting took place.
Other news and notes from the meeting included:
* The topic of appreciation pay was once again brought up, as this was the final board meeting before the upcoming Christmas season.
Alderman Shaun Adams continued to defend his stance that the pay for Town of Robbinsville employees was un-constitutional, citing a state constitution article that says, “No person or set of persons is entitled to exclusive or separate emoluments or privileges from the community, but in consideration of public services.” The University of North Carolina School of Government further argued that, “…bonuses and gift cards paid to town employees may be a violation …”
Town attorney M. Ellen Davis explained to the board that she had completed research on the topic after Adams’ expressed his concern at the November meeting.
“You cannot give a bonus anymore without paying taxes,” Davis said. “What happened in a prior administration is that there were gift cards (given as bonuses). No reporting, nothing. You can’t trace a gift card.
“If you do a bonus for your employees, it’s not an emolument, because you’re going to recognize it as additional income and taxes.”
The motion passed 2-1. Hourly employees will receive the bonus on their next paycheck.
* Adams again requested missing credit card statements for two separate cards from July-December 2016 and the entire year of 2017, as part of the on-going investigation into misuse of the cards. Hooper asked the town’s finance director Sonya Webster to pull the receipts for Adams.
* The mural on the VFW building was discussed, as was the status of a lease the GREAT organization was hoping to acquire on the building. A motion to keep the mural in place and keep the grant for the mural – “for the beautification of the town,” Davis explained – passed with a 2-1 vote.
* After coming out of closed session, the town announced the hiring of Brandon Beavers as an emergency back-up at the water treatment plant. Beavers’ hourly pay is to be kept between $10-$13 an hour.
* During the financial report, Webster again proposed that the board increase the late fee for water and sewer customers. The current rate of five percent of the past due balance. Alderman Debbie Beasley proposed that the current rate remain intact until the next budget review in June of 2020.
“We want to encourage people to pay their bill on time,” Webster said.
* Webster also brought the idea of online bill pay for water and sewer customers before the board. The service would not cost the town any money and Webster agreed to further discuss the set-up of the system with a potential client.
* The town announced that it will be closed Dec. 24-27, with trash pick-up to resume Dec. 27.