Mayor breaks tie vote

SOUTH POINT — The first reading of a revised trailer ordinance for the Village of South Point met a tie vote at Tuesday’s meeting of village council.

Mayor Jeff Gaskin said he cast a vote in favor, resolving the deadlock.

Gaskin said the ordinance is a revision of what is currently in place in the village, forbidding trailers and doublewide homes, but has condensed the language from “18 pages to 3.”

Gaskin said the village also discussed changing water and sewer bills for rental residences, by putting them in the name of the renter rather than the landlord.

“It would be like electric and gas bills,” he said, noting no action was taken.

Gaskin said the council approved an ordinance raising the cost of trash service from Republic Services by 50 cents per month.

“The cost of fuel has been skyrocketing,” he said of the change.

Gaskin said the village pumped 17 million gallons of water in the month of April, a high amount for “a slow month.” Water meters have been placed on some customers outside village limits. Gaskin said one of those meters found a man using 89,300 gallons per month. “He had a leak and he didn’t know about it,” Gaskin said, noting this was 16 times the normal rate.

A second reading on the trailer ordinance will take place at the next meeting of council, set for 7 p.m., Tuesday, June 7.