Infrastructure repair major issue at council meeting
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Harrisburg City Council spent much of Thursday night's meeting discussing the repair of a motor and other components of a pumping station at the sewage treatment plant.
"We have to maintain the integrity of our infrastructure," said Mayor Eric Gregg.
City Engineer Jim Brown said the south digestor needs rehabilitation, which will require draining the tank and sandblasting it.
Commissioner Ron Crank suggested setting up a fund for infrastructure repairs because there is currently no money in the budget for emergency repairs, and TIF money cannot be used for repairs. Everyone seemed to agree that would be a good idea.
City Treasurer Charlie Will also spoke at the meeting. He discussed plans to consolidate the city's Internet service providers and phone services from three separate providers to only Clearwave. Will said the move will save the city at least $1,000 a year.
Will also discussed the need to engage auditors for the fiscal year ending in April. The council voted unanimously in favor of using Emery Accounting for the audit.
During the meeting:
--The council honored Charlotte Taborn as citizen of the month for her work in organizing the Martin Luther King Jr. Day breakfast for the past 10 years.
"I'm very happy and very honored to accept this," said Taborn. "There are 10,000 people in Harrisburg and there's only one little me."
--The council also honored Wal-Mart as business of the month for their participation in Shop With a Cop, their work to help support the troops overseas and their donations of dog and cat food to local animal shelters, among other charitable activities. Rhonda Bottoms and Jonathon Holder accepted the award on behalf of Wal-Mart.
--Hayley Clark of Clearwave Communications presented a $5,000 check to the council to fund software for in-car computers for Harrisburg police.
--Gregg plans to implement a policy for incident reports for city employees. The new form will most likely go into use at the beginning of February.
--The council discussed the need for the county to follow through with preparing the Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan.
"If need be, I plan on going to the County Board," Gregg said.
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