Following the preliminaries of the Grantsville Town Council’s city business, resident Larry Harris once again addressed the Council in frustration. His statements were mostly directed toward Mayor Robert Petrovsky and his conduct toward his recent visits to the City Office and the City Staff. Mr. Harris stated that since the last City Council meeting, it was a ”general consensus that he did not make himself concerned about city business,” so he had sought to become better informed on his own, but had been met with a ”very adversarial Mayor.”
The Mayor quickly responded to Mr. Harris’ assertions informing him ”You’ve been coming here daily, digging through stuff and you can no longer come in and wander around and intimidate staff. We will from now on have all questions and concerns be made known in writing. Do you have another concern?”
Mr. Harris further stated his concerns by reminding the council of the City Code that read ”The Mayor shall be the administrative authority and the City Council shall be the governing body,” and informing them that had not been the case, with decisions being made outside of the Roberts Rules of Order. He then asked the council if there had been discussion about the cutting of the Gingko trees following the recommendation that they be cut.
Council Member Dorothy McCauley said ”Yes, that for 5 months they had discussed it.”
Council Member Judy Powell stated that ”It was discussed under the Mayor’s Comments and voted on later in the meeting.”
The Mayor then complained that Mr. Harris had been taking a very long time to speak during council meetings and that this would not be tolerated in other official meetings, a matter for which the City had checked with the Municipal League for further clarification. He then asked Mr. Harris if there was something the Council had done that he considered illegal or improper?
Council Member Dorothy McCauley further informed Mr. Harris that ”She too had a copy of the Roberts Rules of Order. We’ve handled a lot over the past 6 months, some of which was underhanded things done previously.”
The Mayor attempted to move on with the meeting, but Mr. Harris delayed him yet again, asking if he ”must have a written document to come to the meeting?”
The Mayor advised Mr. Harris that you do not have to have written document to come to a meeting, but when coming to the city office you cannot ”graze, it’s not a grazing area.” He further stated that information sought must be given in writing to the office staff, at which time it will be answered accordingly and returned. He then informed Mr. Harris once again that he could not just come into the City building where city business was conducted and just ”hang out.”
Mr. Harris closed the conversati
ion informing the City Council that he hoped they would further develop the city park, even though it had been removed from the agenda for discussion.
The second matter of discussion with the Grantsville City Council was the announcement that Chief Operator David Johnson had informed the mayor that he would be considering retirement in March of 2023 and that the council should look further into hiring an operator before the same issue of only having one certified operator created more financial problems for the town. The Mayor stated that since Craig Gherke had become certified and there was no longer an overtime draw on the Water account, the water system was recovering. He would now be speaking with Kimberly Sweat, Recorder and Staff member Melissa Keener to determine viability of having funds to add a trainee for the Water Department.
Police Officer Charles McCroskey spoke up and said, ”Since we’re speaking about retirement, I want to retire some day as well. The Town also needs to look at hiring an officer that can be trained to become my replacement.” After some discussion, the council agreed that there would be an advertisement placed to hire a part time officer for the purpose of becoming Officer McCroskey’s replacement once certification had taken place. Any officer hired would be required to sign a contract of service before the City would invest in their academy training.
Another announcement of departure was that of Tim Meeks, Project Manager for the Mid Ohio Valley Regional Council who handles the Water and Sewer Grants for the Town of Grantsville. He informed the council that it had been an honor to serve the Grantsville Community, but he would be leaving MOVRC. Luke Peters will be filling in until an new manager can be hired.
Mr. Meeks requested the #10 draw down of funds concerning the water project in the amount of $151,034.46 to Orders Construction and $14,527.94 to Dunn Engineering.
A second draw down for the Sewer project was for $9,880.00 to Dunn Engineering.
The City Council addressed the matter of Pam Davis creating an interest bearing account for City deposits, the bill where paid and the meeting was adjourned.
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