Mullin selected as interim city public works director

By BROOKS TAYLOR

Mt. Pleasant News

There is a changing of the guard in the Mt. Pleasant Public Works Department.

Rick L. Mullin, who has been the assistant director of the department since Sept. 18, 2005, was named interim director of the department, effective July 16. Mullin will be paid an annual salary of $43,014.40 while he serves as the interim director. The Mt. Pleasant City Council approved the appointment during its regular meeting last night.

Mullin replaces Robert Kephart, who is retiring. Kephart has worked for the department since Sept. 6, 1977. Kephart?s last day on the job is tomorrow (July 15).

Council members received presentations from Dave Helman and Carol McCulley on the special supervisor districting election. Following the presentations, council comments indicated they were favoring the status quo (at-large selection of supervisors).

?We represent the City of Mt. Pleasant,? remarked Mayor Steve Brimhall. ?Why would a citizen want to vote for option three or option two, for that matter? What is the benefit??

Option three on the ballot for the Aug. 2 special election calls for electing supervisors by district through a vote of district residents. Option two requires supervisors to be elected by district through an at-large vote.

?Mt. Pleasant is not getting any special consideration because all three supervisors are from Mt. Pleasant,? Councilman Steve Engberg said. ?If you have qualified candidates (from the rural area), they will get elected. I don?t think the system is broken so it doesn?t need fixing. What would happen if you would only have one candidate in a particular district and the candidate isn?t qualified??

Helman, a retired federal prison warden from Salem, spoke in favor of option three, saying the best government is when government is closest to the citizens. ?Districting where you vote for people closest to you is the best form of government. Districting is working for city councils and school boards, and districting is the most common form of government. I don?t need to vote for someone in another district. I feel those people are competent, but I need a ?go-to? person.?

He said that the issue is non-partisan and he became involved because he believes in community service.

One of the myths circulating regarding the election, Helman said, is that with districting people will have to travel all over the county to vote. He noted that six years ago the county cut the number of precincts from 16 to nine. A second myth, he continued, is that everybody should vote for every supervisor all the time.

?If plan three is chosen, one supervisor will always be elected from the rural area, one will be elected from Mt. Pleasant and the third could be from either Mt. Pleasant or the rural area,? Helman said.

McCulley, a former county auditor, said plan three is not good for the county. ?Nobody can tell me how Mt. Pleasant benefits from all three supervisors living in Mt. Pleasant. In years past, we have had all three supervisors from the rural area and I haven?t noticed any difference.?

She said remarks about supervisors not caring about the rural areas upset her. ?People had a chance last fall to elect a rural resident and chose not to, and now they are concerned (about the lack of a rural resident on the board)??

Supervisor districting, McCulley claimed, is the first step to enlarging the board to five supervisors. ?That is what happened in Washington County.?

Plan three, she stated, is ?giving up your right to vote on two supervisors who are spending your tax dollars. I don?t want to give up my right to vote for my officials.?

In other news, City Administrator Brent Schleisman said the Washington Street project ?is moving along pretty well.? He said that contractors hope to have the two newly poured lanes (north side of the street between Haynes and Locust) open for travel by the end of July or the first week of August.

?There are five different contractors working there at times,? Schleisman said. ?The biggest thing they have left (on the north side of the street) is installation of the storm sewer intake boxes.?

Shipley Contracting Corporation of Burlington was the low bidder for the Madison Street reconstruction (from North Adams to North Harrison streets) project and reconstruction of the intersection at Marion and Monroe. One of four bidders, Shipley submitted a price of $302,440.25, which was higher than the engineer?s estimate of $290,989. Bids ranged upward to $369,342.57. City officials theorized that the reason project bids were higher than the engineer?s estimate was due to timing (bids were solicited during the peak of the construction season).

Finally, the council approved the mayoral reappointments of Bob Stull and Lynn Cochran to three-year terms on the airport advisory board. Brimhall?s appointment of John Freeland to fill the remainder of Pat Heusmann?s term on the library board also was approved. Heusmann resigned his seat.

James Powers and Todd Schinstock were appointed firefighters. Both had been reserve firefighters.

Council members meet again in regular session Wednesday, July 27, at 7 p.m. in the council chambers of City Hall.