At the July 9 meeting of the Climax City Council, Gwen Wingate was sworn in to fill the unexpired term left vacant when Kaye Hickox resigned.

Climax City Clerk Karen Toole gave the oath of office. Wingate was selected and appointed by the council, with a motion by Bob Jones and second by Vanessa Martin. The motion carried unanimously.

Mayor Charles Hadsock stated that four bids had been received by the city for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) water system improvement project. Those bids were: Little River Contractors Inc., $384,094.25, Doyle Hancock & Son Construction, $386,856.31, Po Boy’s Plumbing Inc., $387,384.72 and Circle B Constructing, Inc., $408,940.15.

A motion to award the project to Little Rivers contractors made by Robert Thomas and seconded by Jones, and carried unanimously.

The citizens are again notified to be ready to collect water in containers, due to the water being turned off at times for this improvement.

After some discussion, the council voted unanimously to allow police officer John Presilla to take the police vehicle home with him on a trial basis for two months.

Presilla is still working on the installation of the school zone lights, trying to get them working before school starts at Head Start. He anticipates the lights to be working by Aug. 1. Citizens should be aware of this.

The council approved $165.08 to repair the porch at City Hall, and also approved $642.92 for repairs at the Depot. Another $300 was also approved for the replacement of the light at the Climax Volunteer Fire Department, with the funds coming from the fire department budget.

Due to the current water billing system not catching some  mistakes at the time of entering the water readings, and even though customer are not being charged for these mistakes, Toole requested that the council consider replacing the system with a new QS1 System for better service. The motion was made by Martin and seconded by Thomas, and carried unanimously.

The council voted to increase the rent on the Tigers Den from $75 with a $25 deposit, to $100 with a $50 deposit. The rent on the depot will also increase from $50 with a $30 deposit, to $95 rent with a $50 deposit.

The council also approved $3,547 to replace the dirty carpet at the Tigers Den with vinyl flooring, and $1,621 for the same flooring in the depot, all with a 10-year commercial warranty.

Toole will be attending a worker comp workshop in Tifton on July 17, and she and maintenance worker Greg Toole will attend a Health Grant seminar on July 24, also in Tifton.

Reporter’s note: A special thank you to city clerk Karen Toole for her assistance with this article, and to officer John Presilla for taking pictures due to my illness.