Aldermen seek common ground on paving

Clarendon city leaders tried to find common ground as they again took up the topic of street improvements during their regular meeting last Tuesday.

Mayor Tex Selvidge urged the Board of Aldermen to unify on a paving plan so that another year does not pass with nothing accomplished.

“We need to focus and give them [the citizens] something,” Selvidge said. “We have to decide what we’re going to do and do it. If we don’t, then suddenly it’s the end of the summer, and nothing’s done.”

Alderman Michael Tibbets said he thought the city should set the goal of paving every other street and borrow just the money that it can pay back in a short time.

“Why don’t we go a million and a quarter, borrow against our CDs, and start our grid?” Tibbets said. “If we pay it off in five or six years, you won’t have any opposition.”

City engineer Che Shadle said he thought the board should go even further than that.

“As a citizen, I’m saying borrow more than that,” he said. “I’m speaking not as an engineer but as someone who wants to see his street paved.”

Tibbets reiterated his point that a smaller project would meet with more approval from the citizens.

“Something that’s paid off in the same time as a trash truck won’t generate any opposition. You won’t have any petitions,” Tibbets said.

Aldermen Bobbie Kidd and Mark White said the city should continue its idea from last year of focusing on controlling water flow in the city and connecting paved streets.

Without taking formal action, aldermen directed Shadle to come back to the next meeting with a plan to pave as many streets as possible for $1.25 million, concentrating on areas of water flow and chronic maintenance problems. The project would be paid for through revenues from fee increases that were imposed in 2003 after voters rejected a proposed $2.5 million paving project.

Tibbets also asked representatives of The Clarendon Enterprise if the paper would be supportive of the plan or just try to create controversy.

“The newspaper doesn’t create controversy; we just report it,” publisher Roger Estlack responded. “We have always been in favor of paving from day one.”

In other city business, aldermen discussed the idea of constructing a metal building for a new City Hall, but the board decided the city could not afford to tackle that project and pave streets at the same time.

“Let’s just get estimates to fix this [City Hall] and do the streets,” Alderman Janice Knorpp said.

The board also gave final approval to Ordinance 354, which amends the Livestock Ordinance, and Ordinance 356, which amends the fee schedule at the recycling center.

Aldermen approved the mayor’s request to give the Saints’ Roost Museum $4,500 out of the Motel Bed Tax for costs associated with the museum’s depot project.

City Administrator Sean Pate reported progress being made to clean up an old dumping area north of the recycling center. He also said that work on the ball fields is progressing and that plans are being made to tear down a house on Allen Street.