Christian Peterson
reporter.riverbendnews@gmail.com
On Thursday, Feb. 20, the Jasper City Council met for its regularly scheduled meeting. First, the council approved the agenda for the evening, adding three items to it. The council moved on, approving the minutes from the previous meeting, along with January's checks and the code compliance workshop minutes. The council then moved on to its assigned persons to appear.
First was a presentation from Jasper Fire Chief Joe Branton and Community Disaster Program Manager Kathy Bland with the Red Cross. Branton explained to the council that the department was partnering with the Red Cross to provide free smoke alarm installations by request. Bland then took over, explaining that the program came completely free of charge to anyone who requested it. She explained that citizens can make requests via the Red Cross or to the city itself. She then went into detail about other preparedness programs that the Red Cross offers, expressing her excitement about working with the city and directing any interested parties to the Red Cross website for the details.
The next presentation was from Chuck Burnett, who was there to speak on exciting economic development opportunities. He discussed the retail strategies that the economic development office was working on, including a marketing grant for the city. He explained that the grant was focused on teaching classes and helping prepare local businesses with things like a five-year plan. The council approved the grant. The final presentation was given by Mia Mauldin Hamilton County Director of Tourist Development. She first told the council that City Manager Mark Meyers had officially joined the board. She also informed the council about a new downtown beautification grant that the tourist development council was providing to local businesses. The grant would allow for the purchase of planters to be placed outside of businesses, beautifying the downtown area. She explained that businesses can apply each year, until the funds run out for that year, they can acquire the planters and local flora for their businesses.
The council then turned to hear from City Attorney Rhett Bullard. He clarified that two ordinances on the agenda, one for procurement procedures and one for fire code prevention, still needed another week of advertising, so the council could not vote on them that night. He then gave them an update on the Municode process. He explained that they had been working on the 112 ordinances that had been passed by the city since 1977. On top of that, the attorneys at Municode were looking for any conflicting ordinances the council needed to be aware of.
The council then moved to hear from City Manager Mark Meyers and his report. He told the council that the snow had been hard on Jasper, but the public works team had done an incredible job dealing with it. He also said that he had the opportunity to meet with Representative Jason Shoaf and Senator Corey Simon and was working with them on a few grant opportunities.
After this, the council moved on to its new business. There were three items on the agenda. First was a request from Chris O'Brian regarding a special event to take place during Riverbend News' Blackberry Festival. He approached the council, telling them that he runs an organization known as Forgotten Coast K9. The organization offers free service dogs to Veterans to help prevent Veteran suicide. He explained that he usually raises money for this through a chili cook-off and Beerfest. However, due to the heat of June, when the Blackberry festival is scheduled, he thought it would be better to do a blackberry dessert cook-off and Beerfest. He was requesting the council's permission to serve alcohol. He clarified that he would pay for extra law enforcement presence and acquire a temporary liquor license, as well as ID every individual who attempted to purchase alcohol. The council approved unanimously.
The next item under new business was a resolution to ask the State of Florida to join the Southern Rail Commission. The resolution would simply require writing a letter in support of Florida joining the commission, and the council approved it unanimously. The final item was a request from Councilwoman Jhelecia Hawkins. She was asking the council's permission to represent Jasper with the National League of Cities at the upcoming Congressional Conference. The council once again approved unanimously.
After this, the council heard an item from Town Clerk Loretta Taylor. She explained to the council that, due to her cancer diagnosis, she had not been as available as usual. She stated she had taken time off to go to her cancer treatment appointments and had left work early a few days. She then alleged that someone was taking paid time off (PTO) hours off of her record without her permission. Taylor argued that this was inappropriate and wrong, and she wanted those hours returned to her. The council turned to Bullard to hear their legal recourse for the situation, and he responded that he needed time to look into the item more.
After this, the meeting was adjourned. The next Jasper City Council meeting will be held on Thursday, March 20, at 6 p.m. in Jasper Town Hall, located at 208 Hatley St. W.