Coal Grove Village Council opened their Wednesday evening meeting with a moment of silence for the Jim Wheeler family, before taking action to adopt a new rummage sale ordinance and enter into a new cell phone contract.

Ordinance 2017-15, the rummage sale ordinance, requires anyone wishing to hold a rummage sale within the village to purchase a $5 permit. The permit is good for three consecutive days, and residents are limited to one permit every thirty days.

Holding a rummage sale without the proper permit could result in a fine of $150.

Council emphasized, however, that the intent of the ordinance is not to punish someone holding a garage or yard sale in a residential area that wasn’t aware of the new ordinance, though technically they could fine those individuals for failing to obtain a permit.

“This isn’t about making money,” explained Mayor Larry McDaniel.

Rather their intent is to stop “flea market”-type junk stands from being set up along public sidewalks or in private lots within the village.

The ordinance would not impact farmers setting up vegetable stands during the summer season, a concern raised by council Tom McKnight, because the ordinance is worded to indicate the open sale of pre-owned sundry goods and household items.

Council also moved to suspend the rules requiring an ordinance be read on three separate occasions and to adopt an ordinance authorizing the fiscal officer and mayor to execute a contract with AT&T to provide new cell phone service for the village. Fiscal officer Dylan Markins told council that it would save the village around $1,000 per year over their current cell service. It could also prove beneficial it the village decides, in the future, to move to a system where village employees could read meters with devices like smart phones, he explained.

The village entered into the first reading of a resolution authorizing the payment of unpaid sick leave days to a former village employee. In the past the village has paid employees for unused sick time, unless they were transferring to another government position where that sick time would transfer with them.

The 26 days of unused sick leave that this employee had accrued would amount to a payment of $2300. While four of the six council members voted to suspend the rules requiring three readings, and pass the resolution, councilmen Nick McKnight and Tom McKnight voted against suspending the rules. The rules state that a simple majority is not enough to suspend rules, but that five of six would have to vote to suspend rules, so the resolution received a first reading instead of passage.

Council passed a resolution in support of the Ironton-Lawrence County Memorial Day Parade, and issued a proclamation in support of the parade committee.

The third reading of a motion to retain legal counsel died for lack of a second. The motion, first raised at a council meeting on April 26, would have allowed the village to retain additional counsel if there was an instance where their current legal counsel, the firm of McCown & Fisher, had a conflict of interest. For instance, if their current counsel also had a professional relationship with someone they might enter into litigation with. There are no plans to replace McCown & Fisher as the village’s legal counsel.

Council also entered into the first reading of ordinance 2017-16, a clean property garbage ordinance, and approved a motion to pay invoices, before entering into executive session for the evening.