HIGHFILL — Going green may be in the future for meetings of the town’s council if it adopts the suggestion Mayor Chris Holland made at the town’s March 9 council meeting.
While it may not represent an immediate savings, Holland suggested the city purchase a number of laptop computers for use by council members and that packets which include pages of department reports, financial reports and proposed ordinances and resolutions not be printed out but be given to council members and anyone desiring copies in digital format - most likely as portable document format files. The packets could be sent to council members and anyone else requesting them by email, saving on trips to city hall by council members and possibly postage if documents need to be sent.
The laptop computers would make it possible for council members to view and review documents at the meetings, Holland said. Whether or not council members would take the computers home was not specifically discussed.
Cost savings to the city could add up, Holland said, with current printing costs being about 3 cents per page, not counting the paper. Holland estimated that printing costs alone for council packets was approximately $3,200 per year.
“A lot of the council packets just end up in the trash, anyway, after meetings,” Holland said.
He suggested going green as a way, not only to better the environment, but to save the citymoney in tough economic times.
In his report, Holland also asked council members if any knew of any legal issues related to using creek gravel from Oklahoma as a base for some of the town’s roads. According to Holland, obtaining creek gravel from Arkansas was not legal, but Oklahoma still allowed the mining of creek gravel and using it could result in significant savings to the town in rebuilding and maintaining roads.
According to Holland, a load of Oklahoma Creek gravel could be purchased and delivered for $125 per load, while a comparable-sized load of SB-2 gravel costs the city $250.
Holland suggested the creek gravel could be used as a base and filler with SB-2 put on top of it.
Holland also reported that grant funding could possibly still be available to the town for work on the Hutchinson Roadbridge. The city’s application continued to be in the approval process, he said.
In official action, the town council accepted into the town by petition certain lands owned by Tim Long, Aubrey Long Revocable Trust, and Tina Long, trustee. Though council member Sandy Evans opposed it, with the vote of Mayor Holland,rules were suspended and the ordinance read by title only. The ordinance passed, with Evans, Toby Lester, Keven Varner and James Wiand voting in favor of accepting the lands. Council member Richard Boles was absent from the meeting. Also approved at the meeting, in the same manner, was an ordinance amending the 2009 budget to reflect actual expenditures for the town in 2009.
News, Pages 1 on 03/17/2010