Tuesday,  September 18, 2012 • Vol. 13--No. 063 • 14 of 53 •  Other Editions

Brotherton goes to bat for the Transit, and wins

• Clare Brotherton was adding my the savings that the council had approved for the 2013 budget. Then she gave her speech on donating to the Groton Community Transit. "I would like to revisit our donation to the city transit," she started. She pointed out that the transit has only two paid employees with the rest being volunteers. "They don't have any hired help," she said. "Everyone one of the drivers are volunteers. There's not one volunteer in the baseball program." She was referring to the day-to-day operations of the baseball program. "We subsidize the baseball and pool to $20,000 and $30,000 for three months. The transit provides a service to our community year 'round."
• When she was done with her speech, Mayor Roy Olson than asked her, "So what do you propose? Brotherton responded by saying the city takes care of the snow removal now, and they should at least take care of the utilities. There was a little resistance in providing free utilities for 12 months, but Brotherton stood her ground and made the motion to donate the utilities (water, sewer and electric) for 2013. The motion passed unanimously.
• April Abeln will be a happy person. She has been fighting to get a new copier at city hall. The current copier is 11 years old and is slowing showing major signs of age. Peggy Locke will also be happy. She is getting a new computer. Her computer is very essential as it gathers the daily water meter reads and has the city's bookkeeping system on it. It, too, has been showing signs of degradation. The computer will come in at $1,200 and the copier at $3,670. The city had saved $14,000 on the budget, so that is being used to pay for the computer and copier. Scott Hanlon made the motion to approve the copier.
• Have you been paying $5 or $25 for a dog fine. Well, no more. The council passed the new ordinance book which eliminates those fines at the recommendation of the Police Chief Stacy Mayou. Now, the single fine for dog at large is $50.
• Mayor Roy Olson talked about the test hole that was drilled for a proposed well for the golf course. The school had paid to have the school wellhouse capped and the city agreed to care of the additional water source for the Olive Grove Golf Course. There is a good chance that a surface well will provide good water, but there is no guarantee of how much water it will produce or even if the water will be good. It was agreed to go ahead and put in a 5" well and see what it will provide. The cost will be $4,500 as they are going 152 feet deep.  The cost of the test hole was $750.
• Olson reported to the council that the police department had applied for $28,000

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