Hampton to appoint to Ward IV vacancy

The Hampton City Council decided how they will fill the vacant Ward IV seat during their workshop meeting on Monday, May 23.

Steve Birdsall held the Ward IV seat until being appointed as mayor earlier this month. By filling the mayoral vacancy, the appointment created another vacancy to be filled.

As before, the council agreed the best course of action would be to appoint somebody to fill in the vacant council seat, rather than go through the expensive process of a special election. As with the previous vacancy, the council will solicit applications from people interested in filling the position and then hold interviews with candidates before making their decision.

Applications will be accepted until Friday, June 17, with interviews scheduled for the Monday, June 20 council meeting. The council will then plan to make their decision on appointment on the Thursday, June 23 meeting.

In other business, the council met with Darwin Larson, who presented a slideshow on pavement management, explaining how stress from traffic and climate causes decay to pavement and going over the various techniques that can be used to extend the life of a road. The various techniques have their pros and cons in regards to cost and lifespan, but ultimately the larger issue is that the city has limited resources to utilize even temporary solutions.

"Our problem here is we don't have enough growth to support road maintenance," said council member Barry Lamos. "We're just in a bind here."

The council also considered a request from Kevin Blanford to allow a UTV poker run fundraiser for the Hansell Fire Department scheduled for Saturday, June 11. Blandford was not present at the meeting, but did submit a potential route. The council had some questions before agreeing whether or not to approve it and will invite Blandford to the regular meeting on Thursday.

In old business, the council discussed the ongoing efforts to resolve garbage accumulation downtown, particularly regarding the use of dumpsters. Police Chief Robert Schaefer reported on dumpster regulations and suggested that reminders be sent out to dumpster users about the city's ordinance. He also suggested that the Chamber of Commerce might relay a notice to their members as well.

While on the subject, the council also discussed nuisance properties in the city, reporting that demolition of an old church building will be consuming much of this year's nuisance budget.

Meanwhile, it was noted that with the grass growing for spring, mowing grass out into the street is prohibited.

Noticing that there are limited resources to monitor such code violations, the council discussed having notices made that council members themselves could hand out as they see violations.