From left, Council Member Doug Jones and Council President Tom Moore. InkFreeNews photo by Lasca Randels

By Lasca Randels
InkFreeNews

LEESBURG — Town Council made the decision to join Kosciusko Economic Development Corporation at the town’s  meeting Monday, Oct. 11, but agreed to wait until January to officially do so.

The subject was first broached when KEDCo representative Greg Fitzloff attended the September meeting to speak about the organization’s housing initiative.

“I recommend that we join KEDCo. There are a lot of things about the growth of our physical community that will require expertise that most people sitting on this side will not have any experience with,” said Leesburg Council President Tom Moore. “I think it’s foolhardy for us to sit here on our haunches and hope that some individual is going to come in and put up the XYZ housing subdivision without any encouragement or help from the people sitting on this side of the desk.”

The cost to join will be $3,000 per year. If Leesburg were to join now, the fee would be pro rated at $1,200 for the remainder of 2021.

Council member Doug Jones pointed out that there are other items that need to be paid for this year and wondered if the town could wait until January 2022 to join KEDCo.

“I don’t think the world would stop rotating if we didn’t join tonight, if we make it very clear that come our January meeting that our decision will be voted on,” Moore said.

Both Jones and Council Vice President Christina Archer were in agreement with joining KEDCo and in favor of adding the item to the January agenda and officially voting on it at that time.

In another matter, Waste Management will continue to be the town’s trash service provider.

The town received bids for 2022 from both Waste Management and Borden Waste-Away Service Inc. There was less than $100 difference between the two bids, which council members said made for a difficult decision. 

Ultimately, council agreed that Waste Management has provided good service and made the decision to renew their contract. 

In another matter, Street Commissioner Craig Charlton told council he received a complaint regarding feral cats in town.

The ordinance doesn’t specifically address cats, Charlton said, but does reference pets. 

Archer said two complaints on this issue have been directed to her as well.

“It does bring a lot of wild animals into town. And when I say wild animals, I mean coyotes and fox. As many as there are, there will be predators coming after them and that will cause a problem,” Charlton said. “It’s something that we probably should think about. Where we go with it has many different directions, but if you feed them and you want to keep them, then get them spayed or neutered. I called the Humane Society and that’s what they recommended.”

No action was taken Monday regarding feral cats.

In other news:

• Council members would like to remind the community of the following: No parking on any street between 3-5 a.m. (every day); No burning anything anytime; Please be mindful of what you flush.
• An update regarding a proposed traffic control agreement between Leesburg and Claypool will be provided at the November meeting.
• The 2022 budget was adopted.
• A sanitary sewer report was provided by Derek Tenney of Tenney & Sons Inc.
• Town council approved the purchase of an aeration system from Flow-Technics Inc. to be used at the main lift station.
• Leesburg Council will put $15,000 toward an emergency alert signal being implemented by Plain Township. The funds will be available in 2022. The tornado siren will be maintained by the township following installation.
• The next regular meeting is 6:30 p.m. Nov. 8. 

From left, Leesburg Council President Tom Moore and Vice President Christina Archer. InkFreeNews photo by Lasca Randels