Cedar Grove Council Meeting

I went to a very short council meeting last night. They really didn't talk about much, and two of the five members were absent. A copy of the agenda was not made available, but I did get a copy of the minutes. One thing the council talked about was paying the town's bills. I don't ever remember the Huntington City Council talking in a meeting about paying bills, so I found this interesting. They didn't specify what bills they were paying.

Another thing they talked about was the Small Cities Block Grant. The town is hoping to get some money from this grant, so council accepted a resolution to submit an application to the Small Cities Community Development Block Planning Grant. They applied for a similar grant a few years ago that allowed the town to replace old, worn-down playground equipment. They've been talking in recent years about adding more to the playground, so if the application is accepted and the grant awarded, this may be where that money goes.

Most of the equipment members of the town crew use are beginning to show their age, including the garbage truck. The mayor, James Hudnall, said he has been working with members of the House of Delegates to procure money for a new garbage truck. The "meth bill" proposed in the legislature in the most recent session was also discussed. Hudnall said he attended a meeting at the Kanawha Co. Sheriff's Office to show his support for the bill. Unfortunately, many meth labs have been discovered and dismantled in the Cedar Grove area over the past few years. This bill before the legislature would have  made medicines with pseudophedrine, a key ingredient in meth, harder to get. However, the bill did not pass.

It was interesting to compare a small city council meeting to that of a larger city. The problems facing Cedar Grove are very different from the problems facing Huntington. The way the two cities communicate with residents is also very different. For example, I've never heard of Cedar Grove's council holding budget hearings open to the public. If they do hold these meetings, I've never heard about them. Cedar Grove also does not have a website of any kind, so finding out how to contact members of council or the  mayor is a little harder than it is in Huntington. However, because Cedar Grove is so small, everyone knows everyone else so contacting our representatives is not difficult.