Town Concerns Addressed at Liaison Meeting with Brevity

The Town-County liaison committee meeting of Thursday, April 17 was executed in under thirty minutes in a discussion largely driven by Mayor Lori Cockrell, who, accompanied by Vice Mayor Amber Veitenthal, addressed the Town’s questions for the County to Board of Supervisors Chairman Jerome “Jay” Butler, moderating, and Vice-Chair John Stanmeyer. The County had no questions for the Town.

As the Joint Towing Board was unable to send a representative to the liaison meeting, the request from Gloria Knott, Vice Chairman of the Board, to continue the discussion of a cap on the number of their service providers was postponed to the next liaison meeting of July 2025. The Town’s finance director, B.J. Wilson, present to answer any questions, then announced under the heading of septic haul rate that there will be a rate increase from $50 to $58.55. There will be a two and a quarter percent increase in that rate year over year for the next five years at which point the Town will conduct another rate study. “It sounds like this is overdue!” Stanmeyer remarked laughingly when Wilson estimated that the rate has been at $50 since roughly 1999.

The Town-County liaison committee meets on Thursday, April 17. Royal Examiner Photo Credits: Brenden McHugh.

For the MOU regarding building code enforcement, the summary on the agenda reads as follows: “In January 2022, Council voted to repeal the Building Department, returning responsibility to Warren County for code enforcement thus creating the need for a building code and [erosion and sediment] enforcement MOU. That MOU contains erroneous and outdated provisions.” Cockrell specified the need to get Town staff and County staff together to articulate two different MOU’s, one for building code inspections and enforcement and the other for erosion and sediment inspections and enforcement. The County representatives responded favorably to this point, agreeing that a double MOU could be possible. Tangentially, Cockrell mentioned that Town staff has been eating a cost when it comes to requesting from the County information that disappeared in a three-to-four-year window when the Town began using a new program. This is like paying to access their own information, she explained. Stanmeyer was optimistic that although there might be a “one and done” fee, the County could collect all the information from that window of time and deliver it to the Town.

County Administrator Edwin Daley (L) sits beside Town Manager Joe Petty.

After addressing the need to bring the entirety of Town maintained rights-of-way into the Town limits on Criser Road and after discussing the division of parts pertaining to the Avtex property wherein Veitenthal underlined the three-party agreement between Town, County, and EDA which governs the disposition of Avtex assets and brings the county into the conversation about whether the Town may receive a portion of what remains under EDA control, the mayor asked if the County has hired a consultant in the interest of bringing about the much discussed possibility of a law enforcement practice shooting range, to which County Administrator Edwin Daley’s response was: “No.” The hope is that such a facility could benefit both Town and County, although Daley explained to the mayor that initially their intent had been to generate a facility that is regional in nature but they did not receive from the state the support they would need to do so. At this point, the sheriff has other priorities. Asked in parting about any anticipated increase in tipping fees, the supervisors explained that they are somewhat at the mercy of a third party. But the answer to the question is: likely not in the immediate future.