The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
By Dessa Rodeffer, Quill Publisher
Last month, many attended Gladstone's regular July 9th board meeting to respond to comments that had been made during the June regular meeting.
Part of the Gladstone Homecoming Committee was present of which Lisa Lafary reported for them. Speaking on feelings of the Homecoming committee, Lafary said the committee was upset about what was reported in the June board meeting.
To clear issues she had with statements made in the newspaper, Lafary said she was not aware she had been Homecoming representative to make reports at the Gladstone Board meetings.
"Homecoming....Lisa Lafary" has been one of twelve representatives that has been regularly featured as part of the monthly agenda now for over two years, since Rex McKinney has been serving as mayor.
A long discussion took place between members of the Homecoming committee and the board concluded with a motion by Junior Bielser to donate $700 to the Gladstone Homecoming Committee for one night's band at the stage in the park. It was seconded by Byron Sebastian and all approved.
Wanda Fillman of Oquawka said Rosalie Melvin asked her to be contact person for Heritage Trails and that she would like to be the contact person but indicated she did not want to be if Joyce Hetrick was. Joyce said she was asked by John Allaman, President of the Historical Society, to be the contact person and that the Gladstone board approved his decision. In that way funds collected by each vendor could be turned into the Gladstone Village with a full report of each transaction, and then funneled on to the Historical Society.
In June Village Attorney Mike Neff sent John Allaman a letter, as instructed by the village, of the board's approval of Hetrick.
A motion was made by Jr. Bielser to allow the Historical Society to continue using the Gladstone Village Park for Heritage Trail Days the end of September on Saturday and Sunday and that Clerk Joyce Hetrick can directly give park rental charges collected from the vendors to the Historical Society. It was seconded by Darlene Manes and all approved the motion.
Clerk Hetrick said she will continue to keep a full report of the vendors and money turned in from use on village property for the board's records.
Willie Bielser was on the agenda and he said he wanted to publicly "apology to Darlene Manes for the thing that happened last month. She was sitting to close to me and she got wacked but I'm not going to apologize to those other ___ _____ idiots!"
Mayor McKinney quickly said, "Ok, that's all you got to say. That's the end of that topic."
Florence Stewart was on the agenda and complained about having her name in the paper the last three months. She also discussed that she had come to the community building the last three months to check it out and that she does not charge for cleaning it but volunteers her time.
Last month, the board hired Margaret Johnson to clean the building after Flo's grandson, Justin Parsons who had been hired for the job, had not turned a bill in for three months.
Marty Lafary was on the agenda, but said somebody already said what needed to be said..
Mayor McKinney mentioned that committee chairs need to be selected but it was decided to wait and see who wanted to chair which committee before making appointments. Hetrick said that maybe some people would like to be chair of another committee and suggested waiting to see where people wanted to serve.
Mayor McKinney moved on to the Cat Ordinance that was brought up at last month's meeting. He said Attorney Neff sent information to all the board members on another town's ordinance on cats. Darlene informed the mayor, who was absent at the last meeting, that the board had decided to see what other towns were doing about the issue.
Mayor McKinney said, he didn't think a cat ordinance was needed.
He said, "The way we enforce our ordinances is we have Mike Neff send a letter. We don't have a deputy. ....and probably half the cats in town don't have owners and run loose, and I don't see how it's going to benefit the town. I think we are just going to waste a lot of money." McKinney said they could be sending a letter every week and he doesn't want to waste taxpayers money.
Mike Hopkins said he thought a cat ordinance to keep cats from running at large would be hard to enforce. The ordinance remained as is which requires inoculations for rabies for all cats 4 months and older and are not confined at all times to an enclosed area.
A motion by Sebastian to have Margaret Johnson in charge of renting out the community building and in charge of renting out and reserving the park was unanimously passed, seconded by Mike Hopkins. The action replaced Evelyn and Junior Bielser.
Margaret is to get a receipt book to keep track of the transactions. She is to give the rules to the renters and have each renter sign an hold-harmless form.
It was agreed that rental fees continue to be $50 with $25 refundable provided the community building is clean and there are no damages.
Mike Hopkins make a motion to hire someone to mow the weeds and ditches possibly, Kurt McChesney, seconded by Robert Swanson. All agreed to the motion.
Four speed limit signs at 20 mph were unanimously approved to be ordered to be placed at the top of Walnut Street, and another a block off Main Street on Walnut, and a third at the ball diamond and an extra one on hand.
Darlene Manes had no report for the village property or village attorney. But she did report of a water issue in her yard. It was suggested the ditch be dug out on the east side.
It was reported that the ballpark scoreboard was broken and an electrician will be asked to look at the problem.
Rex McKinney presented a form showing proof of liability insurance for Earl Seitz who is mowing for the village.
The Clerk was directed to contact TJ Florist to get an estimate for landscaping at the east end of the community building.
The Clerk reported that residents had called her asking about a 4-wheeler route in Gladstone and Mayor McKinney said he didn't think anyone would like four-wheelers running on the streets. The meeting adjourned at 8:40 pm
All board members were present at the meeting, and bills were approved and checks signed after the minutes were read and approved. Guests present were: Tom Morrison, Jim Seaman, Margaret Johnson, Frankie Johnson, Matt Gray, Gary Binder, Randy Goble, Jeremy DeWitt, Steve Haynes, Gary Thacker, Florence Stewart, Millie Bundy, Dee Holford, Brenda Holford, Brenda Smith, Sherry Petermann, Lisa Lafary, Marty Lafary, and Wanda Fillman, and representative from the local newspapers.