Village needs dog catcher

MT. AUBURN — The Village of Mt. Auburn held a regular meeting on Tuesday, December 7 at 7:00 p.m. in the Village Hall.

Mayor Mike Whitehead brought up an ongoing problem the community has been facing for the last month. That is, the need for the community to have a reliable dog catcher.

“We need to put out an application for a dog catcher. We have had three instances with dogs getting loose. In particular, one on November 11 where a dog got loose and killed another dog.” He told the board. Whitehead explained that he had been working with the county over that incident, but was less than impressed with their handling of the issue.

“There has been no follow up with the woman who lost her little dog. She texted me about it, and I wasn’t even supposed to be involved, but I guess I will be now,” Whitehead explained, “I talked to Matt Wells about it and the County Board is supposed to be looking into what they can do for us. But we need someone who can respond in a timely manner.”

The Board agreed. Whitehead said he would see what the County was going to do before moving forward, but added that something needed to be done about the dogs running loose in the Village. As a reminder, the Village of Mt. Auburn does have a leash law.

The Board finalized three payments to the engineers for work done during the Water Project Phase II. In the invoice for that bill, the Board noted that an additional $74 dollars has been added to round up the numbers to the nearest hundred. When Village Treasurer Charlene Saulsbury called to check on the legality of the charge, she was told that engineers now do that and was advised to pay the bill. The money to pay the bill was coming from the grant funding, so the Board went ahead and agreed to pay for the Grant Administration, the Invoice for Design and Construction Engineering, and for Steve Pamerpin as a Consultant.

Looking ahead to future project, Whitehead said he was feeling around for bids to repair the roof at the big and little sheds at the water building. He was concerned about the amount of money in the water fund, though, so wanted to take a much closer look the costs before committing to anything.

The Village is now accepting credit card payments for the water bills. Since the system went live, the Village has processed three payments that way. Saulsbury explained that the money from those payments is deposited into the water fund once a week. Whitehead also added that the required corrosion test for the United Regional Water Cooperative was underway.

The Christmas in the Park lights are up at the Mt. Auburn park.

Also approved at the meeting:

– 2021 tax levy in the amount of $29,734

– Treasurers report

– Payment of November bills

– November meeting minutes

The next regular meeting of the Mt. Auburn Village Board will be held on Tuesday, January 2, 2022 at 7:00 p.m. in the Village Hall.