Baxter County Friends of the Taxpayers

MEETING NOTES

BAXTER COUNTY FRIENDS OF THE TAXPAYERS

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2006

Meeting was called to order at 1:00 pm by BCFT Director Frank Kaye.  Treasurer Ken Blade gave the following report:  Checking account balance as of 1-31-06 was $366.04; since then, one check in the amount of $7.50 had been written (hall rental for January meeting), deposits of $84 had been made (dues), plus $29 collected at last meeting, leaving a current balance of $471.54.  There are also checks totaling $132 (more dues) and $100 (a donation from a member who lives out of town) still to be deposited.

Old business

Parks & Recreation:  Frank, Ken and Carl Graves were present at the last Parks & Rec committee meeting.  Parks Director Jackie Leatherman passed out a monthly summary of hours worked for both the Parks Department and the Youth Center. She reported that the average attendance at the YC is about 50 kids per day.  Carl asked a question about painting the speed bumps and redoing the striping in the parking lots at Cooper Park – thinks it is a safety issue for people who use the facilities after dark.  Carl reported to the group about his discussion with Jackie; Frank told about our meeting with her, and that he is trying to get a meeting set up with her and with Joan Statler (director of the Senior Center) to discuss the issue and find a way to get the job done.  (BCFT is willing to do the work as a community service project – would try to find a donor for the paint.)

Streets:  The city street department recently purchased a new crack-sealing machine for about $49,000.  The new machine heats the tar much faster – old one used to have to run for the better part of a full day (with an employee in attendance) before it could be used.  New one should save a substantial amount of money just on payroll expense.

Public Safety:  Meeting was cancelled due to snow & ice.

Water & Sewer:  Meeting was held at the water treatment plant.  The new filtration system is complete; it is made up of different layers of rock topped with carbon.  The city now has an air-flush system to flush out the sediment that collects in the filters.  The project cost approximately $2.5 million.  The #1 filter has twice the capacity of the other seven; the department is monitoring this one to see if it meets specs – if it does, they will replace the elbows on the other seven filters to double the overall filtration capacity of the plant.  This would require a second intake structure (at a cost of $14-15 million); our position is that this second intake should be on the other end of the system (potentially Lakeview).  The committee also approved Johnny Moore’s request to destroy old records. 

In other business, it was determined that the chlorine feeder needs to be replaced, at a cost of about $5000 – it is at least 16 years old.  This money will come out of the general fund, not the depreciation fund, because that money is needed in the near future for the work that will be done on College Street (needs resurfacing; all water & sewer lines must be replaced).  They plan to start soon, should finish in 2008.  One of the committee members mentioned that the increase in the cost of materials and utilities has eaten up last year’s 26.5% rate increase already. 

John Beach brought up the fact that Hwy 62 B (Main Street) also needs resurfacing (a State project), and the city should make it a priority to replace the water & sewer lines that run underneath the street before the State begins its work.  The city engineer is coordinating this effort, but there is no money in the budget to do the work.

BCFT Shirts:  Available after the meeting – sizes M-XL are $8; XXL $9.50 & XXXL $10.50.

Covered pool:  Marlene Schapiro and Lorraine Blade reported that they have lots of good leads to work with, but several of the people they’ve tried to contact have been out of town.  The change in the CEO at the hospital should not be a factor in our plans.

Truck pollution:  Ken pointed out that there have been numerous letters to the editor in recent issues of the Baxter Bulletin (all from members of the general public, not BCFT), plus 2 articles.  He has spoken to BB Editor Tom Garrett, and would like to work with the paper to resolve the issue.  Jim Bond said that he has owned Mack trucks and says that Guy King’s maintenance department could set up a schedule to replace some of the parts in the exhaust system each month.  Mr. King will not return Jim’s phone calls.  Frank suggested that he keep trying to set up a meeting with someone from Guy King to discuss our concerns.  Mel Scott reported that he had noticed less black smoke than usual coming from a King truck the previous week (maybe they’ve already starting refitting the engines with pollution control measures?).

New Business

Baxter County Fair:  Suzan reported that BCFT is now on the waiting list for a booth for the fair in September.  Cost will be $120; the group voted to approve this expense.  We won’t know until June or July whether they “will have anything for us” – Marlene said she would call the fair office and find out whether booths are assigned on a first-come first-served basis, or whether they pick and choose who gets to have a booth.

Chamber of Commerce:  One of our members has suggested that BCFT join the Chamber of Commerce; cost would be $100 for membership, plus $75 for a link on the Chamber’s website.  One member made a motion that we join the Chamber but not obligate for the website link.  The motion was seconded.  Question was raised about any rules and regulations we might be expected to follow – motion was tabled, and no vote was taken, until the next meeting, when the question can be answered.

Fact Book:  Several members had noticed the misprint in the recent Fact Book published by the Baxter Bulletin.  “Our” listing had been butchered so badly that there was no way anyone would ever be able to contact us if they were interesting in obtaining any information.  After some discussion, it was decided that the only practical recourse would be to send in a correction and hope the paper would print it.  One member pointed out that the Bulletin had begun a telephone survey campaign – and that if anyone in the group was contacted to make sure to bring up the Fact Book and the lack of support for BCFT letters to the editor.  Another member said that belonging to the Chamber of Commerce might reduce the instances of “snubbing” that we have experienced.

After passing the bucket ($13 collected), the meeting was adjourned.

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Suzan Kaye, Secretary

424-6235

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Secretary’s Note, March 19, 2006:  After checking my records, I discovered that no information was ever submitted to the Bulletin for the Fact Book … I did send info for the Community Calendar, but didn’t send anything for the Fact Book. I can’t explain how/why the info that was there got published!