Franchise fee finalized

The franchise agreement between the town of Saratoga and Carbon Power and Light (CP&L) is a done deal.

At the Aug. 19 Saratoga Town Council meeting, council members passed Ordinance 827; granting a non-exclusive franchise to CP&L.

The third reading passed with some slight revisions from the previous draft, Saratoga Town Clerk Suzie Cox said. Whoever is sitting on the Saratoga Town Council in 2016 will have it within their power to impose the franchise fee on CP&L if they wish.

Changes to the ordinance include small grammatical errors throughout the ordinance. Both party’s respective legal counsels have agreed to all of the changes.

Police funding

The Saratoga Police Department (SPD) will hire a new police officer to fill the vacant School Resource Officer (SRO) position.

SPD Chief of Police Tom Knickerbocker said his department had received a last-minute $75,000 a federal grant drawdown for having an officer in the school. Though the original SRO position was supposed to end on January 31 of this year, the grant will provide funding to keep the officer until May 31.

Whoever is hired as the SRO could potentially be offered a field officer position if one comes available.

In order for the town to receive federal funding for their law enforcement, the SPD has to keep six officers on their payroll. Without the $75,000 grant, Knickerbocker would have had to find an officer to fill the SRO from now until Dec. 31,2014. Hiring an officer for four months would have been an extremely difficult position to fill, Knickerbocker said.

Airport Master Plan

The master plan for the Saratoga Municipal Airport is all but completed.

Pilot and hangar lessee Dave Worthington expressed discontent over the master plan to the town council. He said many of the hangar lessees are not in favor of many of the additions in the master plan.

“It is a tremendous amount of money being spent, and we do not take care of what we have out there,” Worthington said.

Worthington said part of their issue with the plan is it does not provide an area for self-service fuel, which he says will invite more aviators to spend money in town. Additionally, Worthington said there are weeds growing near the taxi ways, and he has to personally spray the weeds despite the responsibilities of those duties laying with fixed base operator.

“As a citizen of the United States … we have a huge, huge debt, and our grandchildren are going to inherit this. I just think it’s money better spent elsewhere,” Worthington said.

Cox said 97 percent of the master plan has already been paid for. The council voted to have Saratoga Mayor John Zeiger will sign the final papers when they arrive.

The next Saratoga Town Council meeting will take place at 6 p.m. on Sept. 2 at Saratoga Town Hall.

 

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