At the tail end of Tuesday’s Cadiz City Council meeting, Mayor Todd King and City Clerk Barbie Johnson opened the floor to council members — noting that, due to city employees receiving a 3% raise, they, too, were entitled to the same cost-of-living increase.
Johnson and King both assured the council that the funds were there to make such a gesture.
However, it wasn’t something King and Johnson could just immediately implement. Per City Attorney Allen Wilson and multiple statutes, “a governing legislative body” has to enact the increase upon itself.
So, in what was a flat denial of such a raise, no motion ever hit the floor, and several members of the council openly said they didn’t need it.
Bob Noel said, “I’m fine where I’m at.”
Susan Bryant said, “It’s not something I’m looking for.”
Frankie Phillips said, “I don’t really do it for the money.”
Johnson and King both said someone had inquired and brought it up, and so they wanted to make sure the option was open.
The council can approach a raise at a different time, should it so choose to.
In other city council news:
— Following a brief visit in executive session with FiveStar representative Blake Anderson, council members unanimously approved its typical tax incentives pursuant to Ordinance 35.09, which allows a business with 1-to-50 new employees a two-thirds rebate of all payroll tax due from new employees for three years; and 100% rebate of the business license tax due for two years.
The two-part gas station is set to be constructed at the very entrance of Jolly Drive, near US 68/80 and across from FNB Bank.
— While owner Scott Sanders wasn’t available for Tuesday’s executive session, King did confirm that Trigg County Liquors Wine & Beer is all but assured to be closing its old location and moving into a planned new construction inside of Jolly Drive, which would move the business to inside the city limits of Cadiz.
Councilwoman Susan Bryant only had questions about the number of liquor stores Trigg County could house, to which Cadiz Police Major Tyler Thomas quickly answered.
— And as for “Hometown Heroes” veteran banners, Johnson said more than 230 new ones have been ordered in this second go-round for the community. This is in addition to the already 120-plus banners on poles, and she’s urging the community to both remain patient on the order to come in, as well as the work it will take to fully place the banners around the community.
Johnson said it could be up to a month, or longer, for the order to arrive and the work to be completed. And the community is not only running out of poles, but it’s been up to the hands of a few city staff to affix them.
In some places, some poles are going to now have more than one banner. She said to be on the lookout in the coming weeks.
