HIGHFILL - With only three of its six council members present, Highfi ll’s council had a short agenda for its Oct. 8 meeting at city hall, passing an ordinance to set the city’s millage rate and the usual resolution to transfer excess sales tax revenue from the water improvement fund to the general fund.

Present were council members Chris Holland, Paula Pautsky and David Williamson. Absent were Ryan Evans, Toby Lester and Michelle Rieff.

With rules suspended (requiring the vote of Mayor Stacy Digby), the council adopted a required ordinance setting the city’s millage rate on real and personal property for 2013, to be collected in 2014, at 5 mills, unchanged from last year.

Discussed at the meeting was the proposed cost of contracting services from an Internet technology technician to provide services to the city. Of concern was the possibility that hiring an IT technician for an hourly raterather than contracting for a monthly or yearly rate could cause the city to go over its budgeted line item for the service.

Holland requested that the mayor obtain additional bids since it only had one bid for the work and that at an hourly rate.

According to Holland, the cost to install the city’s recently-purchased server - estimated at $2,500 at the meeting - could put the city over budget for the year.

Mayor Digby reported a successful Hay Daze celebration on Oct. 5 in spite of the rain and cool weather. He said the many event sponsors made the day successful even if the numbers of those attending was smaller because of the weather.

Digby said the city’s trunk or treat event was set for 5 to 7 p.m., Oct. 27, in the city park.

At Holland’s request, the council went into executive session to discuss a personnel issue after other business was handled in the opening 30 minutes of the meeting. No action was taken following the session.

News, Pages 3 on 10/16/2013