Cleveland Town Board 9-12-2022 - Need to Name School Street Park and May Reinvest Town Money

 

Cleveland town commissioners met tonight 9-12-2022 for the monthly town board meeting. All commissioners were present, The mayor was at the beach.  

Brent Parks (who previously worked on audits for the town) and Brandon Rogers were at the town board meeting to discuss investing town funds. They said that there is a "window of opportunity" right now to invest in government bills and notes for higher interest rates. The government has been raising interest rates to stop or slow down inflation, so people (and towns) with extra money can invest now and take advantage of those higher rates per Parks and Rogers. 

Parks/Rogers said the current government interest rate is 3.37% with it changing every 90 days. They estimated that Cleveland could greatly increase interest with a ladder strategy with funds rolling over in a staggered manner for a year and get an estimated 2.75% return for staying invested for two years. Investing in this way for only one year would not be as lucrative and would pull in maybe 1.5% interest.  For comparison, the current interest rates from the bank would be more like 1/10 or 1/25% (so much lower). 

To break it down, the men were proposing that Cleveland invest a portion of the money we have above and beyond what is needed to pay water/sewer and run the town. The money would be divided and only a portion would be invested and then another portion at 90 days and then more at the next 90 days. (ladder approach) When a 90 day period would roll up, the money would be pulled and reinvested depending on if the rates were good. We would, in effect, not be putting all our eggs in one investment basket. 

Parks/Rogers proposed that they would manage the investments for Cleveland through Fidelity Investments.  

"We can help execute the strategy," said Parks who had been discussing this change with Mayor Pat Phifer. 

No decisions about town monies were made at the meeting, and there was no mention of the cost of having town monies managed. 

Meeting Agenda Items and Actions

The board agreed to begin seeking grants to help pay for the first phase of the expansion/relocation of the Waste Water Treatment Plant. The first phase is just a planning phase. 

The town got three estimates for replacing the flooring at town hall. The amounts were 18K, 25K, and 26K. The lowest estimate was by Empire, but the write up did not indicate if the flooring would be glued down which is required by insurance. Empire had not responded to emails. The board voted to go with Matlock (2nd highest bid), because they knew what was included in the estimate, and members of the board were familiar with his work which is high quality per the board. 

Town board had voted to buy a new police car previously. That car will cost a total of $4100 more than the original estimate due to the overall increase in vehicle costs, so the board voted to increase the payment. The car will not be outfitted with all the gear that an officer would use, because the car will be used for the new position that includes enforcing zoning. This kept the cost down some, but new cars have been going up a lot recently. The town will be selling an old police car, so that will offset some of the cost of the new car. Police Chief Jon Jessop said that he thought the old car should bring in around $6K. 

Police Report for August 2022 per Chief Jessop

75 calls for service (up around 30 calls from last month)

58 traffic stops

44 citations

19 traffic warnings

1 warrant with 1 arrest

5 traffic accidents

1 check point

Town Commissioners voted to set the pay for police officers at special events at $30/hour. Special events in Cleveland would include things like Dancing on Depot.

Commissioner Reports

Commissioner Travis Summitt said the new maintenance truck was here, but the bucket has not come in yet. The crew will plan to cut trees back in the fall.

New pumps for the waste water station should be here by September 17 per Commissioner Gerald Osborne. Water tank refurbishment should begin in October. 

No one is getting back with estimates about work at the town park and the new park on School Street according to Commissioner Richard Taylor. He said he would continue to press on getting estimates

Commissioner Danny Gabriel said that the new town park needs to have a name so EMS will know where to go if something happens at "the town park." Taylor said that everyone has been calling the new park School Street Park. Summitt said that he thought that the park should be named Veterans Park. 

Gabriel said that the zoning meeting did not take place last week due to not enough members showing up. There was an empty seat which he said had been filled. Zoning/planning will meet on Thursday at 6 at town hall

Gabriel also noted that painting on the town mural would start tomorrow morning.

Commissioner John Bradford did not have anything to report.