Pikeville searches for administrator - Wayne-Wilson News Leader, Fremont, NC

9 August 2007 — After several months of waiting, the Pikeville Town Board decided to move forward in narrowing the search for a new Town Administrator.

The town has been accepting applications since former administrator Bob Buchanan resigned in May. However, no action had been taken on the more than twenty applications the town received.

“We haven’t called for an opinion,” said Mayor Herb Sieger. “But now we’re sitting in August and, as I see it, we have two options.”

The first option, he said, was to go ahead and have a board workshop to discuss the applicants. The other option is to wait until the November elections to make a decision, since the board faces the possibility of three new faces around the table.

Commissioner Johnny Weaver moved that the board narrow the field down to five applicants by the September meeting.

Commissioner Bruce Thomas suggested narrowing the field to three, because many of the applicants don’t meet all the criteria the town wants. However, the motion stayed at five and passed unanimously.

The commissioners also discussed several issues regarding ditches on privately owned property that were affecting backup in town.

Several citizens had approached Commissioner Lyman Galloway about a ditch that was causing problems along Washington Street, allowing rainwater to flood yards instead of draining properly.

He said he wasn’t sure how the town could deal with the ditch, however, because it is located on private property. He suggested that the town contact the Corps of Engineers to see what the town could do with ditches on public property.

Commissioner Thomas agreed with the motion, citing several other ditches that cause problems in town, despite being on private property outside it.

“We’ve got a backhoe, and we’re not talking about that much money to get in there and clean them out,” he said. “We just need to see exactly what they’ll let us do, so that we know what we’re doing is legal.”

Commissioner Al Green asked whether the town could charge some sort of easement fee to the landowners for cleaning out the ditches, but Mayor Sieger said that would also have to be addressed by the Corps of Engineers.

The motion to contact the Corps for boundaries on what action could be taken unanimously passed.

The board also approved expenditures for computer upgrades to the town hall and police department, totaling $7,203.50. The upgrades will allow the department and town to use required software for generating reports. The cost was included in this year’s budget.

In addition, the board approved the sale of a broken Kubota tractor and a dump truck with no back end. The town will put both machines on eBay, and will accept bids online until the town’s September meeting.

The town will repair a backhoe that has been out of service, but will remove a few cosmetic items from the repair because of funding issues, bringing the cost down to around $12,000. The complete repair was estimated at $18,441.71, but the town had only budgeted $15,000.

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