The council began their meeting with the approval of the January meeting minutes, funeral deeds, annual fishing license, payroll vouchers, and all monthly bills.
Rachel Runge, Commonwealth Engineering said that there will be a planning meeting this Thursday. She said that currently they are scheduled to begin laying pipe in March and construction and work at the plant would be this summer.
The council unanimously voted to appoint Andrew Brunni to be the Town of Westport representative on the Decatur County Board of Zoning Appeals. The council then voted to appoint Bryan Gatewood to be the representative on the Area Plan Advisory Council on Town Affairs. This Advisory Council is created to elect a representative to the Area Plan Commission by the small towns in Decatur County to replace a non-voting member on the Area Plan Commission.
The council announced a change in the annual dumpster days. The dumpsters will be available at Town Hall on April 17th & 18th. With the Decatur County Recycling holding their Electronic Recycling Day on April 12th 9a-11a.
The council spoke about Ordinance 2025-1 which outlines the proper way to purchase items and who can sign off on the purchases. This ordinance is something that they are already following however the latest version of this document is more than a few years old and recent audits mention updating the ordinance. The council members voted to table the vote until the next meeting.
Damon Land, Superintendent of Public Works received unanimous approval to move forward with the estimate from Letts Hardware for a Gehl skid loader for the cost of $66,806. The council also approved Damon to move forward with accepting the bid from Koors Heating & Cooling for the remaining outdated HVAC unit at the Community Building. This unit is 33 years old, and the parts are no longer available. The estimate to replace is $5,509.00.
Vanessa Martin, Greensburg Decatur County Public Library came to the board and discussed updated hours at the Westport Library. She spoke about exciting new programming that is going to be available. Vanessa received approval by the council to use the front room of the community building for activities. Recently they held bingo and had 16 participants.
A citizen asked the council why the 2 corners that is owned by the Westport Business Association look to be in poor condition. Mentioning that an apartment complex on one of the corners has garbage and appliances sitting out in front of it. Bryan Gatewood stated that he would bring these concerns to the Business Association meeting later this week.
Gloria Alumbaugh. Westport Clerk stood to speak as a citizen of Westport. She stated that during the recent snowstorms that we had in January. Someone had volunteered and came to her home and used a skid loader on her driveway. She found that a meter lid had been damaged and immediately reported it. She received an invoice in the mail for $82.42 for the replacement of the lid. She requested that the council waive that fee because she did not do it, and it was an accident. Bryan Gatewood said that there has not been any type of forgiveness for these types of costs before. Bryan said to avoid the appearance of favoritism for the board to waive it he would personally take care of the cost of the invoice.
The meeting was adjourned.
