Jones sworn in to Felsenthal City Council

Straight to business: Felsenthal Mayor Linda Newbury (left) and newly appointed Alderwoman Joyce Jones read over paperwork during the Felsenthal City Council meeting on Tuesday. Jones was sworn in at the meeting, replacing Alderwoman Virginia Harris who passed away recently.
Straight to business: Felsenthal Mayor Linda Newbury (left) and newly appointed Alderwoman Joyce Jones read over paperwork during the Felsenthal City Council meeting on Tuesday. Jones was sworn in at the meeting, replacing Alderwoman Virginia Harris who passed away recently.

By Haley Smith

Staff Writer

FELSENTHAL — Joyce Jones was sworn in as alderwoman at the Felsenthal City Council meeting on Tuesday, March 21.

Jones was sworn in on Tuesday and served her first council meeting to replace the recently the late Virginia Harris.

Harris served on the Felsenthal City Council for over 10 years. The council and city hall employees also discussed making a monetary donation out of their own pockets to Lifetouch Hospice in El Dorado to honor the memory of Harris.

Resolution 112- 17, stating that the the amount of $22,977.14 to pay of the loan for the city sewer system would be taken out of the city’s reserves was passed and signed by the council.

The payment for the loan should be sent out and paid for today. This payment will make the town debt free and the absence of the yearly payment of over $6,000 will be used to replenish the reserves that the payment was taken from.

Alderman Ryan Eads discussed the direction that the Breamfest committee planned on taking for this year’s festival. As of right now, the committee does not plan to expand advertising for the 2017 festival. They plan for the event to be the same size as last year.

“We are really not comfortable trying to grow this thing any more right now strictly because if anyone remembers ‘98, there was close to 3,000 to 4,000 people down there, one way in and one way out of the town, only two sheriff deputies and a fight broke out,” said Eads. ” Last year, there was 65 boats, which was a very healthy tournament and a lot of good fish were caught.”

Eads said that they plan to be taking $50 deposits from vendors who wish to participate in the event. When the vendor shows and sets up, they will be given their deposit back. The committee hopes that this will encourage all vendors to show up as promised.

“We want to do this to make sure vendors all show up like they said they would,” Eads said.

The council also decided to have the Solid Waste Office drop off a dumpster for 30 days to allow the residents to get rid of any large trash. The Waste office will charge the city $200 every time the dumpster must be pulled and emptied and $28.50 for every ton of trash they collect. They plan to have the dumpster put out quarterly and hope that this will diminish the amount of trash that is left on the road side.

"If we do it and it fills up, it would seem that we have a need for it, and may look at renting one on a month to month basis,” Mayor Linda Newbury said.

Newbury was approached by some veterans who requested that the flags that fly in front of the town hall to be reversed. They informed the mayor that the American flag should always fly on the right side of the way it was facing, and the city will be turning the flags around soon.

Haley Smith can be reached by email at [email protected]. Follow her on facebook and twitter @hsmithEDNT.

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