SCOTT CITY COUNCIL DISCUSSES PARKING PROBLEM

SCOTT CITY -- The priest at St. Joseph's Catholic Church asked the Scott City Council during Monday night's regular meeting to readdress an issue "the Christian way -- to try to solve it so everyone is satisfied."

The Rev. Pat Wissman said he would like the council to find a different way of solving a parking problem on Sycamore Street then restricting parking directly across from his church. The council approved an ordinance recently prohibiting parking on that part of Sycamore because the property owner, Councilman J.T. Gulley, said his lawn was being damaged.

Wissman said two visitors to his church who had parked in the restricted area during Easter services found tickets on their windows when they left. He said the fines were excessive, $51 each.

He asked the council to reconsider the ordinance, remove the no-parking sign and use the $102 to buy something to spread over that part of the lawn to protect it.

Mayor Jerry Cummins suggested a meeting between Wissman, Gulley and the council to try and find a compromise.

The council may also have to face another situation outside of its regular meetings. Rural Scott City residents Orley and Betty Jackson said an ordinance passed last month setting rural water-hookup rates at $500 violates an agreement they had with the city.

Betty Jackson said a series of one-on-one meetings council members had with a group of rural water users produced a verbal agreement that set the rates at $250.

Last month when the council set the current rate, Gulley, who heads public works, said the council never agreed to a rate during the private meetings. The city lowered its hookup rates from $2,500 to $500 at that meeting for water but sewer hookup remains at $2,500.

Jackson said the $500 rate also violates a contract they had signed with the city previously. The Jacksons are trying to set up a subdivision outside the city limits that would require 80 water hookups.

Orley Jackson said he is upset that the council conducted these private meetings, which delayed his filing suit and did not produce a suitable agreement.

"Don't call me down here any more," he said. "You can talk to a judge and jury. I'll believe what they tell me, because I sure can't believe you."