Redkey council keeps officer (1/18/05)

REDKEY — Violet Erlenbush was re-elected town council president for another year in a unanimous vote here Monday night, and Dixie Toy was re-elected council vice-president.

At the Redkey Town Council’s first meeting of the new year, departmental assignments also were approved, all by unanimous votes.

Erlenbush was appointed to supervise the street department. Toy will once again be in charge of the fire department.

Other council supervisory assignments included: Dottie Quakenbush, parks and recreation; Darrell Smith, water and wastewater utility departments; and newly appointed member Jim Guffey, police department.

Council members also unanimously accepted the re-election of Randy Young as the town’s fire chief for another year by the volunteers on the department. Don Knisely will continue to serve as secretary-treasurer for the fire department.

Several council members thanked and praised the fire and police departments for all their hard work during the recent spell of bad weather.

Young said the fire department members had logged approximately 1,500 volunteer hours helping community residents during the ice storm and power outage.

However, not all the news at Monday’s meeting was good. Smith said he and Erlenbush and Jay County community developer Wayne Bailey were trying to develop options for either repairing the town’s present water tower and reservoir tank at an estimated cost of $80,000 or putting up a new, larger one for about $400,000.

“The tower is really not adequate for the size of the town,” Smith said.

Young said that during the recent power outage, without a back-up generator, “We used up all the water in the tower in about three hours.” The fire chief said there would have been serious problems if the department had been called upon to fight a major fire during that time.

In other business at Monday night’s meeting, town council members:

•Heard a report from Redkey Park Board president Delford Lowe about Saturday morning’s community planning meeting for 2005 at the Redkey Park Cabin community center.

Lowe said that despite the unfavorable weather conditions, turnout for the meeting was good and a lot was accomplished.

Projects for the year were mapped out including plans for a town-wide rummage sale on May 20-21; a Fun for Kids carnival and street fair on June 23-25; a car cruise-in on June 11; July 4th celebration activities which will probably be held on Saturday, July 2; a community volunteer cook-out and appreciation program on Aug. 20; and a Christmas walk and Santa Claus visit program on Nov. 25.

•Approved another step in the process of changing the parking arrangements from angle parking back to parallel parking in the downtown area along High Street.

•Listened to a presentation by Jane Ford of Redkey’s Gamma Nu Sorority about planting some new trees, bushes and other vegetation to improve the appearance and landscaping in Redkey’s downtown mini-park.

•Tabled for more review a proposed ordinance to regulate golf cart traffic in the town limits.[[In-content Ad]]