At the Dec. 15 meeting, Hollow Rock Mayor and aldermen gave Republic Services high marks for their pickup of the town’s solid waste before agreeing to renew the company’s contract for five more years.
“They gave $300 to our motorcycle ride,” said Mayor Rob Woods, noting the company had served the town for a number of years and had given good service.
The mayor noted that Red River, who also submitted a bid, was a little cheaper but there had not been any negotiations with them and their bid had just been e-mailed a short time before the meeting.
Alderman Morris Rogers said the town should stay with Republic and made the motion to that affect.
“Republic has done very well,” he said.
For the first year of the contract that begins Jan. 1, 2021, Republic’s monthly fee bid was $13.07 while Red River’s was $12.31.
The town has a new city clerk. Aldermen named Sharon Mann to the position during the meeting. She will be working part time, assisting new town recorder Tandi Hall who was hired at the October meeting. The board did not meet in November. Hall takes the place of Pam Gallimore who retired. It was noted that Mann will have to acquire a bond in order to sign checks. This was Hall’s first meeting to act as recorder.
Rogers gave an update on the clearing of pine trees from the park behind city hall. He had mentioned at last month’s board meeting that many of the trees were leaning and were also deterring the growth of anything else in the park. Rogers said he had spoken with the person who would be doing the clearing.
Rogers said at this time, the man’s wife is ill and he projected that it might be spring before anything can be done.
The mayor noted there is a vacant alderman’s seat that needs to be filled at the Jan. meeting. Michael Smith did not seek reelection Nov. 3 and no one else qualified to run.
A fire department report from fire chief Bobby Brotherton for the month of November showed that three calls had been made. Five firemen answered a call to a structure fire at 1900 Hwy. 219 on Nov. 6. On Nov. 23, smoke was reported, but no fire was detected at 20755 Seminary St. On Nov. 26 a smoke alarm was activated at 21715 Seminary Street.
A November report from police chief Danny Emerson showed there had been 33 calls for service, 21 citations issued, two traffic accidents, one animal call, three escorts, two citizen assists, one medical call assist, one other agency assists, and one arrest and two charges.
Trains blocking the crossings in town for long periods of time was discussed. Rogers said he had the name and phone number of someone in Nashville that could be contacted.
