Paxton City Council appoints new chair and vice chair [PREMIUM]

PAXTON CITY COUNCIL

By STACY MARTIN

On Tuesday, Oct. 15, the city of Paxton held its monthly city council meeting. The meeting began with the approval of the minutes and approval of the bills.  

Next on the agenda was for the council to make nominations and appoint chair and vice chair of the council. Council member Charles Cook nominated and the council voted and approved Jenice Armstrong as chair. Travis McMillan nominated and the council voted to approve Ann Sexton as vice chair. 

The council then made a motion and carried resolution number 19-02 concerning water service rates, which will go up by three percent; base rate will increase by one dollar; and all sewer rates increased by five percent effective October 1, 2019.  

Under Old Business, a Paxton resident thanked the council for getting involved with code enforcement concerning a building on Adams Street. The resident stated that he was supposed to barricade the property to comply with code enforcement. However a couple weeks ago the barricades have been taken down. The council agreed that they would look into the issue and contact code enforcement again if there are any problems. 

Mayor Hayward Thomas presented issues with the council concerning a former employee.  A maintenance worker was in a minor accident in a city vehicle. A policy adopted by the city and signed by the employee at the time of hiring states that any accidents require a drug test. This employee has refused to take the drug test and quit without notice but is requesting the city pay his 2.42 hours of sick leave and 59 hours of manual leave. Due to the signed waiver of the employee and violation of policy, the council declined to take action. 

Under department reports, Council member Charles Cook said that he will hold a Halloween Community Dance with lessons, on Oct. 28 at 6:30 p.m. at the AG Building. The dance will have candy, a costume contest and Halloween themed dances.  

The next council meeting will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 19, at 5:30 p.m.