Council ends year with clean slate

In the absence of Mayor Bill Cunningham, Mayor Pro-Tem John Cook presided over the Pine Haven Town Council meeting last Tuesday night. With no guests requesting the floor, the governing body listened to staff reports and approved all necessary motions before adjourning a mere 28 minutes after the meeting was opened.

Fire

Chief Bob Rudichar of the Pine Haven Volunteer Fire Department reported that the department had worked with EMS on four runs over the preceding month and had conducted cleaning and maintenance on their hoses to ensure readiness in times of need an provided emergency vehicle operation orientation training for a new EMS member among other matters.

The department has been preparing their newly purchased fire engine #2 for service and are only awaiting SCBA orders that Rudichar anticipates arriving in January and a couple of necessary tools, “and we’ll be finished with that”.

Rudichar shared with the body that the Pine Haven Volunteer Fire Department personnel documented 739 hours this year including dispatch and EMS support. The EMS department volunteer hours were not included in this number.

Public Works

Public works director Sunny Schell brought the council up to date on the Christmas lights that her department finished putting up by the first of the month. She and her crewman Randi Flowers replaced a motor in one of the lift stations and they replaced one link in the chain that operates the sander on the sanding truck that is failing, “But it’s fine for this season.” They plan to replace the entire chain in the coming warm months.

Engineering

The safety fence has been installed around the town’s recently opened water well and the electricity is soon to follow. With both wells soon to be online, the town was advised by town engineer Heath Turbiville of HDR Engineering to rotate the wells in the future to maintain freshness of the water.

The street paving, according to HDR’s Mike Oakley, reached substantial completion before the weather stopped work. Contractor Sacrison Paving and members of the council conducted a walk through to create a “punch list”, a list of items that the town wants addressed before approving the work in full to be addressed in the spring.

Sacrison asked that part of the retainage funds held by the town be paid, leaving five percent held until completion of work and the warranty of said work be considered initiated last fall.

“They’ve honored their contract,” Oakley pointed out to the council, “putting the two inches [of asphalt] on and it’s serviceable and open to the public; so we’re using the product as it’s intended to be used.” These requests were approved.