Carlyle town council has expressed some concern about the potential for flooding within the municipality come spring thaw, and is considering ways to mitigate the potential damage this would cause to infrastructure.
Following an extremely wet year, the level of ground water, capacity of the town's sewer systems, and the impact of the flooding seen in July of 2010, has raised the concerns of council regarding the impact of a rapid thaw or heavy precipitation this spring.
Council plans on considering the issue further, and putting into place some flood-management protocols.
The council meeting began as normal, with minutes from previous meetings and the administrator's report passing quickly.
The property committee has held two meetings, whose reports and minutes were read.
The first of the two meetings was regarding a concern from a resident.
The resident, who had purchased a residential lot on the southern-most edge of town, was under the impression that there would be no further developments south of the property.
This belief was based on statements from the former town administrator that the area south would not be able to be serviced with sewer, due to the lay-of-the-land.
Carlyle makes use of a strictly gravity-driven sewer system, which keeps some areas from being serviced because the relative elevations would not allow a proper flow in the sewer.
However, the recent engineering reports proved the land could in fact be serviced by sewer, and an interested party stepped forward to enquire about purchasing the land.
Attending the meeting, the concerned resident spoke to the issue of available space for Lion's Park and expansion of the number of baseball diamonds, as the land in question abuts the park.
Answering to the concerns, council explained the planned purchase of approximately 20 acres of land to the direct south of the Lion's Park pavilion to provide expansion opportunities.
Councillors further explained that the road on which the resident's property sits was not ended with a cul-de-sac because the plan was to expand the residential areas of the town to the south already, and it was just the present issue of the gravity feed sewer that had put a stop to the development.
Admitting that there was an amount of self-interest in the appeal against the sale of the town property, the resident was then informed that they could make a formal dispute once the property was listed in the newspaper for zoning.
Stemming from this discussion, council decided to call a meeting with all of the area recreation bodies regarding the further expansion of the park, and will be calling the meeting for Wednesday, Feb. 16 at 7 p.m.
Following this, the second property committee meeting report was presented, detailing plans to tender for painting within the town office building.
The final action of the evening was a pay-scale change for sitting councillors.
Councillors had been paid to a scale of $70 per attending council meeting for more than 10 years.
Therefore council voted for a payment increase for attended council meetings.
The councillors will now receive $85 per meeting they attend.
