Published: June 01, 2009 09:40 pm      

Police officer graduates from academy

COVINGTON, Ind. — Police Chief Larry Weber told the city council Monday night that Marc Griffith graduated from the police academy last week.

Weber said that Griffith graduated with excellent grades. Both Weber and Griffith remarked that he is glad his time at the police academy is complete. Weber recommended Griffith’s immediate promotion to first class patrolman.

“I commend Marc Griffith for graduating from police academy and for doing so with excellent test scores,” said Mayor Brad Crain.

In other business, city council members:

-- Approved a six percent salary increase to the pool manager’s salary for the season. Last year the pool manager made $4,000 and this year Cindy Bushue will make $4,240. Also this year, the assistant manager will make $8 per hour, all life guards will make $7.50 per hour, and all concession workers will make $7.25 per hour.

-- Learned from Crain that the city will not lose any money from this year’s budget and that it will be fully funded, the same as last year. Crain said that due to some misinformation on the part of the Department of Local Government Finance it was believed that Covington would lose around $300,000 from its budget. Crain said that he and clerk-treasurer Debby Gurley sorted out the problem with a local DLGF representative, who did not take into account several factors including the city’s miscellane-ous revenues.

-- Discussed with resident Dan Noble the overgrown grass and weed problem on the west side of town at the ends of Crockett, Canal, and Jefferson streets. Crain told Mr. Noble that the city would make an effort to improve the areas that Noble has complained about.

-- Discussed the problem of overgrown grass at a property located at Fifth and Washington streets. City attorney, Rich Rennick recommended that the city find out the house’s foreclosure date before anything can really be done.

-- Approved trading the city’s skid steer and backhoe attachment to D.E. Haii, a Bobcat dealer of Lafayette, and in exchange Covington will receive a smaller enclosed skid steer with four attachments including a bucket, grapple, snowblade and jackhammer.

-- Learned that the spring cleanup will be a concerted effort between all Covington city employees and Allied Waste to pick everything on one day. The city’s cleanup is set for July 18, and residents are asked not set anything out for the pick up until July 13th.

-- Approved hiring Ortman Drilling & Water Services of Kokomo to perform well maintenance and testing on three wells in Covington for $250 per well. Water superintendent Greg Myers said that testing will create a baseline for future well maintenance.

-- Discussed that the city fire department does not fill private swimming pools; however, the city will fill water tanks for individuals from metered hydrants. The city will bill the person based on the volume of water taken



WHAT’S NEXT

The Covington City Council will meet at 7 p.m. EDT June 15 at the city building, 1329 Second St.