LINGLE – The Lingle Town Council met on Wednesday, January 8 at 6 p.m. in the Lingle Community Center. Mayor Micah Foster called the meeting to order promptly at 6 p.m. with the Pledge of …
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LINGLE – The Lingle Town Council met on Wednesday, January 8 at 6 p.m. in the Lingle Community Center. Mayor Micah Foster called the meeting to order promptly at 6 p.m. with the Pledge of Allegiance. A motion followed to accept the evening’s agenda with the addition of an open container permit for the Lingle Volunteer Fire Department and a catering permit for the Corner Bar. The Christmas lighting contest winners were also announced and added to the evening agenda.
Moving on, the council approved the last meeting minutes and bills for December 2024 and then on to the public comment portion of the meeting where the council heard from Joseph Randolph, Goshen County LifeWise director. Randolph stated his group would like to rent the community center.
Randolph explained the group had been looking for a place to hold their afterschool Bible study program until they could move to a more permanent location at the church.
“A little bit of background about what LifeWise is. It is a release time for religious education on the Bible during school hours,” Randolph said.
Since the group would only be using the community center for two hours, Randolph requested the rental fee be lowered. He also noted they would rent the center for a few months due to insurance issues. After a brief discussion, the council motioned to allow LifeWise to rent the community center on Monday afternoons at no charge. Next, the council heard from Jess Oaks. Oaks asked for permission to lay wreaths at both cemeteries in Lingle for the National Wreaths Across America next year. Next, the council heard a presentation from Gremlin Garage about a car show the group would like to have in Lingle the last Saturday in June.
Next, the council moved on to departmental reports where Lingle Chief of Police, Endra Andrews explained, “barking dogs, traffic, children and snow” were all she had been up to recently.
“I have been asked by a concerned citizen to remind people that it’s very cold and those freezing temperatures are not always appropriate for dogs on the outside,” Andrews said. “Also, I would like to remind the community that we have 24 hours after the last snowfall to remove the snow from our sidewalks. I’ve been talking to people all day about snow removal.”
Andrews also noted she had two new department of family services cases and she had completed her three-year refresher course on intoxication.
“Keisha (Nakisha Garner, deputy clerk/treasurer) and I work together on overdue utility accounts. We have four that we’ve been working on. She has one set up on a payment plan, one that semi-regularly makes payments. Then we have two that have been notoriously difficult to be able to get a hold of them. When we get a hold of them, they say they’ll call them set up a payment plan with Keisha and they don’t,” town attorney Anna Barnes explained.
Barnes noted there is an account which has been delinquent since the end of 2020 for $273. The account holders no longer live in town and the costs incurred by the town would be more than the actual bill.
“They’ve owed that amount since the end of 2020. We sent notifications in April of 2021, May of 2021, October of 2021, January of 2022, September of 2023. We would send those through certified mail and first-class mail. And they would call our office and say okay, ‘We’ll set up a payment plan’. Then they would never call Keisha and set up a payment plan’. With a balance of $273, Keisha’s typical legal option is to pursue small-place courts,” Barnes explained. “But to do that, you still have to have them served the cost of service depending on if you use a private office server or the sheriff’s department is $40 to $50. And so, when we have about $273, we incur more costs to try and have them served and they’ll be gained back by potentially getting the judgment. Because once we have a judgment, it doesn’t mean they’re going to make a payment. We still have to find a way to either garnish a paycheck or get a lead against property. And that takes more time and more expenses because your filing will be out working.”
Barnes and Garner asked for permission to write the account off and after a brief discussion, the council agreed. It was noted other towns or utility companies should be notified when bills go unpaid. Garner noted people who skip out on utility bills are the reason the town had to increase their deposit.
Next, town maintenance supervisor Logan Dailey provided his report to the council.
“Mr. Mayor, Council, the first thing that’s going to bring up is the phone that Keisha brought up when I was talking about at the meeting that I missed last month,” Dailey said. “What we were looking at is if we could just get a cell phone because currently, Endra (Andrews) has an account set up and we would just get one cell phone that Jeremy (Jackson) and I were swapped when we were on call and then there’s just one number that goes to. Whoever has the on-call phone would be whoever got the call.”
Currently, Dailey and Jackson receive $40 per month for the use of their private cell phones during on-call hours. Dailey explained to the council, even when he is not on call, he receives phone calls. Dailey noted it is $40 to get a plan and Verizon would give them a free phone.
“We ran the numbers because I got to thinking about it. The phone would be $0 and then the line would just cost $40 a month and then we would have one phone number for our town maintenance,” Dailey said.
The council agreed to move forward with getting the town maintenance department an on-call phone. A motion was made to move forward with purchasing the plan which carried.
Dailey noted the department would be adding gravel to the intersection. Dailey also explained the backhoe has had problems with flat tires. Dailey spoke to four different companies about replacing the tires with solid or foam-filled tires.
“I got quotes, they are not cheap,” Dailey said. “But the quote that we were entertaining is ‘Evolution Wheel.’ It would be for all four tires and rims on it. It’s a solid tire,” Dailey explained. “What it is, it’s a segmented tire around the rim and so, if we had a chunk go out, we could just buy individual segments to replace otherwise you could retread the whole thing.”
Dailey further explained should the town decide on the foam-filled tires, there would be a 30-60-day wait period while the tires were sent elsewhere to be filled whereas if the town voted to proceed with Evolution Wheel, the town maintenance department could put the tires on. Dailey noted the price of the Evolution Wheel was $12,000; solid tires were $12,000 and foam-filled tires were $5,100 to $5,200. Dailey also explained the foam-filled tires would last half the time as a solid tire.
“I know that’s a lot of money. I had a mini-stroke when they told me the price. But we do have plenty of money in our budget from the vehicle sales and what we had leftover from that. And so, I sat down with Jeremy and he kind of discussed with the money we had in the meaning of the budget, and what we wanted to do because it’s all allocated for equipment,” Dailey said. “We decided we should probably invest in what we used the most and that’s the backhoe.”
The council agreed on proceeding with Evolution Wheel and Dailey mentioned he would like to seek more recreation grants to add more to the town. Dailey noted there had recently been some minor electrical issues on aging equipment.
“We have some old infrastructure that we’ve been replacing slowly. We have plenty of stock right now and plenty of parts, so it hasn’t been a huge issue. But we are having a few of those that we’ve had to deal with,” Dailey said. “One of the breakers that we replaced here recently actually had a date on it of, I think it was, in 1979.”
Next, the fire department announced the upcoming coyote hunt on Friday and Saturday and CPR/first aid classes the department would be holding.
“If anybody’s interested in taking first aid CPR in these classes, we’ll have those available in the public. More details to follow,” Dailey mentioned, representing the department.
Moving on to administrative items, Ritch Reyes told the council he had submitted the annual electrical report and Benchmark had issued a certificate of substantial completion for the landfill.
Under unfinished business, the council approved the open container permit for the fire department’s coyote hunt and the council approved the Corner Bar’s request to cater a business party in the community center.
Under new business, the council approved a fowl permit application submitted by Brian and Sara Ingram and their Go Goshen annual membership. The meeting then adjourned to reconvene on Wednesday, January 22.