Plains council tackles clean-up issues

The recent Plains Town meeting saw Mayor Danny Rowan speak with council members on some light, yet important issues at hand.

Mayor Rowan began the meeting with a few housekeeping items which included the judge’s report that saw 20 cases last month with $1,755 collected.

Minutes from the previous meeting along with payroll and claims, and the treasurer’s report were all accepted by council members before they delved into the night’s agenda.

First off on the agenda was the update on Farmers Street. Mayor Rowan made it known that Shari Johnson, who is helping head the project, had finished the final plans for the storm drain. He also advised that the process for putting together bid packages for council approval was in the works.

“We are hoping to get this started as quickly as possible, again weather permitting. With the warmer weather starting to arrive, once everything is approved we should be able to get this project done,” said Rowan.

The next big ticket item on the agenda was the safe street program that is being headed by Rowan with the aid of Plains Chief of Police Shawn Emmett. Though Emmett was not able to attend the meeting, Rowan filled in the council on the project’s status.

“The Plains Police Department, the Plains Public Works Department and I have worked on this in over the past month and have made some progress,” said Rowan.

“Four vehicles have been moved and some debris,” he added.

There has been some resistance from a couple of residents who have been contacted, however, the city has been attempting to find common ground to achieve the overall goal of cleaning up the streets, explained Rowan.

Rowan wanted to stress to council members that all options to help and aid those who need or require help will be taken into consideration as the goal is to ensure that rubbish and debris is cleared in a safe and quick manner.

From there, Rowan continued to speak in regard to cleaning up the town. With the yet-to-be-determined date for Plains Clean-Up day, council members discussed briefly the plan and also took on board the need to find organizers to help.

Members of the council as well as the mayor all agreed that the town was in need of some spring cleaning as they prepare for the influx of tourists this summer.

No definitive decisions were made at the table, however, council hopes to have a plan etched out after next month’s meeting.

Water leaks are still an issue for the town Over the last month there was nearly 4.9 million gallons pumped and 2.8 million gallons sold.

This still leaves a massive loss for water and purchase for Plains.

“This is a 44 percent loss. We’re still losing water, but we hope that as the ground warms up we continue to find leaks and get them fixed,” explained Rowan.

The next scheduled town meeting will be at 7 p.m. on May 7.