Town council

The issue of parking next to the community center was discussed by the council with input from police chief Tom Clark. The decision was made to utilize perpendicular parking with spaces marked by white stripes on the east side of the building, beginning just north of the door to the town clerk’s office. The area adjacent to the fire hydrant at the corner of First Avenue and First Street would become a no-parking zone. The question of whether perpendicular parking of large pickup trucks would allow enough space on the street for the truck traffic on it was resolved to the satisfaction of the police chief, so angle parking was not deemed to be necessary.

The double doors on the community center’s east side and the door to the kitchen would become “loading zones” only.

Nate Lathrop attended the meeting to request that Division Street be closed to through traffic during the hours of the car show on Spring Fling weekend. He also requested that the street sweeper be run the length of Division in the downtown area to pick up the sand and gravel used on the street during the winter. The council approved both requests.

Public works director Rod Webster reported that the town crew is working to fill potholes, first measuring and taking pictures of the worst areas, then ordering the materials to do the work. He said that money for emergency repairs may be forthcoming from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Webster applied for and received a grant for $3,211 to pay for the hiring of an arborist to trim the trees in the tourist park.

The west section of the cemetery property will soon be sprayed to kill the vegetation, Webster reported, prior to smoothing the land and preparing for the installation of an irrigation system for this expansion of the cemetery.

Mayor Lois Hubbard said she had met with three applicants for the airport engineering job. Construction at the airport is not expected to begin until sometime in 2018.