By: Madison Fugate
This month’s regular Stanton City Council meeting was kept fairly brief compared to most as the council joined together via technology on their streamed Zoom meeting. However, there were a few matters of business that needed the council’s attention. For one city council member, this would be his last meeting to attend as a council member, that member being Paul Mallory. The council appointed Mallory to continue serving the city as a member of the planning and zoning board for the city of Stanton. The vote was unanimous to appoint Mallory for this membership, with Mallory sustaining his vote.
As many citizens are already aware, there are three individual tourism entities within the county. The city of Stanton is responsible for delegating certain crucial matters for the Stanton Tourism and Convention Commission. Earlier this year, they selected Natalie Faulkner as the tourism director for said entity. At this meeting for the month of December, three members terms were nearing expiration, those members being Kim Tharpe, Annie Reed Kinser, and LeAndre Knox. According to the description of Mayor Allen, the term for these roles is set at 3 years. Each of these three individuals were reappointed for an additional term on the Stanton Tourism and Convention Commission by votes of the council and as per the discretion of the Mayor in presenting them in the first place.
On December 8th, the city of Stanton park surveillance was able to record the illegal actions of a vehicle causing destruction in the parking lot while cutting donuts. An announcement and plea for help from citizens was posted to social media. The plea from city officials consisted of the following, “ATTENTION! WE NEED YOUR HELP! We’ve been hard at work reconstructing the baseball field for the Spring season. Unfortunately, someone decided to cut donuts in the gravel parking lot by the field; slinging gravel all over the newly cleaned out field and wasting our time and money in the process. Please help us locate the driver of this vehicle.”City council member, Tommy Mays, who serves the parks and recreation for Stanton as well, informed the council that local law enforcement had received a tip as to who was causing destruction. The tip made to city of Stanton officer, Ian Morton, informed officials that the destruction was indeed caused by the actions of a juvenile. Also according to Tommy, this juvenile would be responsible for community service as a result of the actions he/she committed.
The last urgent need for the council was in regards to a potential tax increase in the coming year of 2021. Allen believes a tax increase of 1% on water and sewer is completely necessary and urges city council members to consider the increase. The city of Stanton attorney was present and advised the council that the increase would need to commence the month of February, 2021. Allen estimated the increase to be an increased average amount of .21 cents additional to the regular owed water and sewer bill for citizens. Finally, city attorney, Scott Graham, informs the city council members they need to be sworn in and announces the action of a newly elected council member, Mark Merriman, being sworn in.