Council approves purchase order for MITS

Coal Grove Village Council moved on Wednesday evening to approve ordinance 2017-12, authorizing the mayor to enter into a contract with MITS to purchase new tax software for the village.

The new software, which will be Coal Grove’s first digital tax system, had been a request of village fiscal officer Dylan Markins, who has been tracking all of the village’s income tax filings in a paper based system.

The village also moved to accept a letter of resignation from the utility clerk, and to advertise for a replacement.

In police report news, council learned that the recent vehicle auction brought in $10,120 for the village. The police report also noted that a recent cleanup event had gathered 34 truckloads of trash on its first day, 32 on the second, and 45 on the final day, for a total of 111 truckloads of trash collected over the course of the three day event.

In other action council discussed their concerns over potential plans by the Dawson-Bryant School Board to purchase a former bank property that the village would like to see redeveloped by business interests.

Council discussed approaching the LEDC to see if they would be interested in purchasing and redeveloping the property for future business development, and offering the school system property near the old jail, among other ideas.

Councilman Andy Holmes also noted that he has filed a second complaint with the Portsmouth Area Air Authority branch of the EPA about problems with coal dust coming from trucks transporting coal and coke without adequate covering.

Council noted there are also issues with coal dust being dragged onto Riverside Drive there, but Holmes said that the EPA informed him that while the problems might be egregious, it was not within their department’s jurisdiction, which is air quality, and would require a local ordinance to address.

Council also discussed a possible ordinance to put limits of the number of yard sales that may be held on a property each year as well.

Before adjourning for the evening, council went into executive session to discuss the employment of a village employee.