Storm downed trees in park and cemetery

Aug. 13, Mayor Paul Gilliland called to order the meeting of the city council with members Terry Howe, Rick Becker, Peter Davenport, Levi Schenk and Mike Cronrath present and Bunny Haugan, Scott McGowan, Margie Hall, Ashley Schenk, Charles Marsh, Sharon Schultz and Marge Womach in attendance. Margie Hall of the Economic Development Council gave an update of activities and meetings and provided the council with handouts. She noted that the mayors would be meeting on Sept. 12, and on Sept. 16 an informational meeting on local investments would be held at the Davenport Memorial Hall. She furnished a report on Broadband and concluded with informing the council that the EDC had viewed a local building in Harrington with an eye toward making the building more attractive to potential buyers by having a one-day cleaning by volunteers of the Harrington Historic Preservation Commission and the Harrington Public Development Authority. Once organized, she will make the proposal to the owner of the building before progressing to the actual work-day.

A brief review of the marijuana moratorium resulted in acknowledging that its purpose had passed as well as its six month time period, and having expired, the city now has no policy on marijuana except to allow the state to manage its regulation. All seemed in agreement that the city needed no involvement or ordinance.

With the search grant that Alan Gay has been working on, the city is not able to meet requirements and this will be tabled for this year. The council discussed the need for the city to have an accurate water-sewer mapping on file, since the old maps are not available.

City attempts to locate the owner of the abandoned trailer discussed last month resulted in city letters being "returned to sender". The city now has the legal right to remove the trailer. The taxes on the property had not been paid since 2011 and will come up for sale by the county next spring if the owner fails to make contact.

Charles Marsh requested a variance for his property at 408 W. Main Street which, if granted, would allow him to build a new garage structure in his back yard to the alley. The dimensions he provided need to be assessed on location by the mayor to determine the feasibility of granting a variance. Mention was made that if Mr. Marsh's diagrams met with the mayor's approval, the issue would then need to come before the neighbors and the council.