By REID TUCKER
The Paxton Town Council unanimously approved an amended ordinance allowing city utilities customers to apply for additional water bill waivers, whereas the previous rule limited waivers to once-per-lifetime affairs.
Passage of the ordinance was a long time coming for the city, as the council members had debated the relative merits of one plan or another to tackle the issue of multiple waivers at various times over the last several years. However, the board swiftly voted 4-0 to pass the amended ordinance on the night of regularly scheduled Aug. 18 meeting after hearing first reading on the amended ordinance in May.
The revised ordinance allows the Town Council to award more than one bill waiver, but it will need a supermajority of votes to do it – for instance, the decision would need to be four-of-five in favor if any subsequent waiver was to be passed. A customer’s first waiver can be granted by a simple majority of the council members present at a given meeting.
Though a waiver is not guaranteed and is solely up to the Council’s discretion, good cause will have to be established before a waiver is granted. The revised ordinance includes several guidelines or metrics against which waiver requests can be judged in order to help future Town Councils decide on these cases of multiple water waiver applications by the same customer. The board will look at how many times a customer requested or received a waiver in the past, the current payment status of that customer’s utilities accounts, and whether or not the situation that led to the request was of the customer’s own doing or if it was due to circumstances beyond their control.
The remainder of the agenda went by quickly, with Councilwoman Ann Sexton broaching discussion about planting shade trees at the city’s playground located on the grounds of the Paxton Dixie Youth Baseball park. Sexton was concerned that such trees, if newly planted, would take several years, if not a generation of park-goers, before providing adequate shade and that low-hanging branches could present a tempting proposition for young climbers, who, if injured in a fall, could land the city in a legal mess. Visiting Laurel Hill City Councilman Scott Moneypenny suggested that the Town Council look at purchasing and installing a so-called “sail shade,” which would provide both immediate respite from the sun and less insurance liability for the city.
The Council did not take action on the matter at the Aug. 17 meeting, but city staff members said they would try to bring back a price on a sail shade at a coming meeting.
Finally, the Town Council set the dates of its two annual budget workshops. In keeping with Paxton tradition, the board will convene two special meetings, with the first being set for Aug. 25 at 4:30 p.m. and the latter for the last day of September. The Council will hash out the details of the proposed Fiscal Year 2016 general fund and water and sewer budgets at the first of the two meetings and vote to amend any year-to-date over-expenditures before finalizing the budget at the second meeting.
