Local News – Wednesday, February 14th, 2018
The Salem Board of Aldermen held a special meeting Tuesday evening at the Salem Community Center @ the Armory with Alderman Powell attending via video. Park and Recreation Director Tye Lydon presented a construction change order for renovation of a new pool house that totaled $418,981.82. This would be paid out of the Certificate of Performance over the next 20 years using park sales tax funds. Attorney William Camm Seay could not advise the alderman to approve the proposal due to legal issues. He wanted the project to be bid out as stated in city ordinances. The board did not approve Bill No. 3363, an ordinance that would have changed the utility bill due dates back to the 20th of each month with disconnection on the 27th. The current utility bill due dates are the 5th of each month. The previous ordinance to change the date to the 5th was thought to decrease the amount of disconnect notices that would go out since some checks are received on the 1st of the month. This has not been the case, in 2015 there were 16 bills subject to cutoff each month and in 2017 the number rose to 52. The alderman will look at changing the due date back to the 20th after either giving 3-6 month notice to customers of the forthcoming change, or wait and change it after the new automatic metering system goes into effect. The bill failed with a vote of 2-2 with Mayor Nash casting the final negative vote. The board did approve Resolution No. 1-2018 a resolution adopting a policy on budget billing, payments plan and a helping hand assistance fund. This resolution will allow customers to sign up for budget billing after 12 months of continuous service with no late or disconnect notices. The plan will be based on the average of the current month’s bill, plus the previous 11 months. Customers may also sign up for a payment plan where a past due amount is spread out over a 3 month time frame. At least 50% of the bill is due at the time of the payment arrangement. The resolution also creates a fund where customers could designate a set amount, or round up to the nearest dollar to help those that need assistance paying their utility bills. This fund will be administered by the Salvation Army or other non-profit organization to be determined. The board then adjourned.
In November of 2017 at the city’s request, WCA started offering a curbside recycling pick up to all residents in Salem and it has been an overwhelming success! Using data based off of other similar recycling programs, WCA orginally anticipated a participation rate of 30 to 40%. The residents of Salem have really adopted and excelled with recycling and WCA is happy to report that they are seeing participation in Salem at 70 to 80%! They are happy to announce that due to the incredible participation, WCA is going to be increasing the number of days they pick up recycling in town. Starting the week of February 19th, WCA will start collecting recyclables on Wednesdays and Thursdays! Recyclables will still be collected every other week, just like it currently is, with everything west of Highway 19 picked up one week and everything east of Highway 19 picked up the other week. The only change to the recycling pickup will be whether you’re recycling will be picked up on a Wednesday or a Thursday. If you live on or North of Center Street, you will have your recycling picked up on Wednesday. If you live South of Center Street, you will have your recycling picked up on Thursday. WCA would like to thank the residents of Salem for the care you have shown for our planet by diverting the flow of trash into a landfill and putting your waste to good use by recycling it!
The 2018 Salem High School Court Warming will be held this Friday night at the SHS Gym in between the junior varsity and varsity basketball games between Salem and Willow Springs. The senior queen candidates include Carrilee Holliday, Trista Heavin and Alyssa Bowers. Their court will consist of junior Hailey Corkell, sophomore Jana Cook and freshman Reggie Parks.