Town Council Meets
Dec 7 2021
Clay Town
Council held their monthly meeting Dec 7th beginning at 5:30
Council person Joyce Gibson was absent from duty for this
gathering. How about an upbeat piece of knowledge. Here goes
Back in May the idea of donating a piece of Town property to the be used as a headquarters and maintenance center for the new State Park. Presented by Mitch DeBoard, the idea was, the state needs the property right away and plans called for construction to begin reaaaal quick.
The original idea changed a couple of times over the Summer months including the bit about getting the metal building built reaaaal quick.
Now seven months later, during this public meeting, the announcement was made, the property giveaway deal was complete. signed and delivered. Details announced by Mayor Shamblin included: the State (not the non profit Elk River Trail Foundation) is purchasing the vacant lot in Pisgah; they have 18 months to get started or the land reverts back to the Town; and, whenever the place is no longer a State Park, the land goes back into Town ownership.
Know the place we're talking about? When you cross the Pisgah Bridge, on the right, along the banks of the Elk, the Town owned that lot that once housed the first Sewer Plant... long discarded.
A little slow but it sounds like the good idea is going to happen in 2022. With a headquarters and maintenance center here, that's sure to bring a couple new jobs, albeit seasonal most likely.
Somewhere in the mix of chit chat came news that Wawa Plant operator Drema Thomas penned a letter to Council just before the meeting start. Not sure if she wants a pay raise or what but, Council seemed alarmed upon its receipt. Mum's the word readers.
A month ago, the Apple Festival Committee came to a Council meeting asking for free $$ to help host the 2021 Christmas Festival. According to the Mayor, before this meeting, the Committee told him, they didn't need any of the freebee COVID funds on hand.
In the middle of 2021, engineers came in to smoke test sewer lines in downtown Clay. As has been done several times before, the idea is to find homes, buildings, that have their gutters and down spouts hooked up to the poop lines. That's a real no no. Reason. After a big rain and all the rain water gets into the Log Factory, the bacteria that makes everything work, it's washed out.
If we heard right, the smoke testing exercise netted 90 violators. The idea of making property owners correct the problems has been tried before but without much success. Don't expect much to change after this round of testing.
Back in May the idea of donating a piece of Town property to the be used as a headquarters and maintenance center for the new State Park. Presented by Mitch DeBoard, the idea was, the state needs the property right away and plans called for construction to begin reaaaal quick.
The original idea changed a couple of times over the Summer months including the bit about getting the metal building built reaaaal quick.
Now seven months later, during this public meeting, the announcement was made, the property giveaway deal was complete. signed and delivered. Details announced by Mayor Shamblin included: the State (not the non profit Elk River Trail Foundation) is purchasing the vacant lot in Pisgah; they have 18 months to get started or the land reverts back to the Town; and, whenever the place is no longer a State Park, the land goes back into Town ownership.
Know the place we're talking about? When you cross the Pisgah Bridge, on the right, along the banks of the Elk, the Town owned that lot that once housed the first Sewer Plant... long discarded.
A little slow but it sounds like the good idea is going to happen in 2022. With a headquarters and maintenance center here, that's sure to bring a couple new jobs, albeit seasonal most likely.
Somewhere in the mix of chit chat came news that Wawa Plant operator Drema Thomas penned a letter to Council just before the meeting start. Not sure if she wants a pay raise or what but, Council seemed alarmed upon its receipt. Mum's the word readers.
A month ago, the Apple Festival Committee came to a Council meeting asking for free $$ to help host the 2021 Christmas Festival. According to the Mayor, before this meeting, the Committee told him, they didn't need any of the freebee COVID funds on hand.
In the middle of 2021, engineers came in to smoke test sewer lines in downtown Clay. As has been done several times before, the idea is to find homes, buildings, that have their gutters and down spouts hooked up to the poop lines. That's a real no no. Reason. After a big rain and all the rain water gets into the Log Factory, the bacteria that makes everything work, it's washed out.
If we heard right, the smoke testing exercise netted 90 violators. The idea of making property owners correct the problems has been tried before but without much success. Don't expect much to change after this round of testing.
Mayor Shamblin
That's
the house, right beside the Wawa Plant on Main Street, that
Council is looking to purchase. It is owned by Councilperson
Jerry Stover.Years ago, before they rebuilt the new wawa
plant, the engineers highly recommended a purchase to increase
the foot print for the plant. That never happened.
Fast forward to this year when the entire wawa plant was shut down due to raw wawa pumps locking up, the lot size reared its ugly head. To get the wet stuff pumping again (while new pumps were on order), Town enlisted fire trucks to suck wawa from the River and into the plant. Problem was, the plant is so small, the trucks couldn't get down to the river's edge.
Here's the biggy readers. For the first time in 8 months, the Log Factory is working good enough now to meet DEP regulations. Yelp you heard it right. The big logs were chopped up into pieces so small, they are within regulation..... no not working 100% but for once in a long time, things are better. Now that's a nice Christmas gift for everyone that rafts, swims, wades, fishes in the Elk River.
Finally, Council went into secret time to discuss the purchase of Jerry Stover's house next door to the plant. Stover was not allowed to sit in on the price setting. Also, and a big guess on our part, the secret time included whatever was in the wawa operator's previously mentioned letter.
AW
Fast forward to this year when the entire wawa plant was shut down due to raw wawa pumps locking up, the lot size reared its ugly head. To get the wet stuff pumping again (while new pumps were on order), Town enlisted fire trucks to suck wawa from the River and into the plant. Problem was, the plant is so small, the trucks couldn't get down to the river's edge.
Here's the biggy readers. For the first time in 8 months, the Log Factory is working good enough now to meet DEP regulations. Yelp you heard it right. The big logs were chopped up into pieces so small, they are within regulation..... no not working 100% but for once in a long time, things are better. Now that's a nice Christmas gift for everyone that rafts, swims, wades, fishes in the Elk River.
Finally, Council went into secret time to discuss the purchase of Jerry Stover's house next door to the plant. Stover was not allowed to sit in on the price setting. Also, and a big guess on our part, the secret time included whatever was in the wawa operator's previously mentioned letter.
AW