MOUNT VERNON — The county commissioners met with representatives of The Station Break on Thursday morning, and in the afternoon with several members of ADR and Associates to discuss the ongoing decentralized sewer project for the county.
In the morning, the commissioners talked with Director Kelly Lybarger-DeWitt and Assistant Director Bob McIlvain of The Station Break about their meal delivery service. Commissioner Allen Stockberger noted that he was present at The Station Break’s last board meeting, and talked about how one board member said that more meals should be served to seniors in the county.
Commissioner Bob Wise spoke of his recent interaction with a senior resident of the county and her troubles that she encountered at The Station Break when trying to secure meals. McIlvain asked Wise if the woman that he was speaking about had contacted The Station Break directly, and Wise said that he didn’t know. Lybarger-DeWitt said that if The Station Break staff knew more about this particular woman’s situation, they would be able to assist her better; she also said that The Station Break was able to help seniors in special circumstances at times.
There was also discussion of the criteria for senior residents of Knox County to be eligible for meal delivery services. Stockberger said that the senior levy was supposed to fund meal services for any resident of Knox County who is age 60 or above. Lybarger-DeWitt said The Station Break would be able to change their policy so that meal delivery criteria would be for any resident of the county aged 60 years or older. Also, everyone present agreed that serving and delivering meals was the highest priority service provided by The Station Break.
Lybarger-DeWitt also reported that the summer chore program was running smoothly, and the policy of The Station Break had been changed to allow persons 18 and older to work in the program; previously employees had been required to be age 21 or older.
The meeting was also attended by Carl Miller, who is on the advisory board for senior levy funds.
In the afternoon the commissioners met with representatives from ADR and Associates of Newark to discuss the plan for de-centralized sewers in small hamlets throughout the county; Ron Simpson, water and wastewater superintendent, was also present for the meeting.
Jeff Carr, project manager with ADR, announced there would be an anti-degreadation meeting on June 18 at 6 p.m. at the public library, and that this meeting would be open to the public for input. Carr also said that the EPA would be present to record comments from the public, and urged the commissioners to attend the meeting to show their support for the project.
There was also a good deal of discussion about acquiring land for future wastewater treatment facilities throughout the county. In particular, the locations of Millwood and Amity were discussed.
Carr said that he would like to designate Simpson as a contact person in the county, because as the decentralized sewer project proceeds, more meetings will be required and the commissioners are only scheduled to be available two days per week. Carr said that having Simpson as a contact person would be helpful in terms of working through technical details and would be easy to communicate with.
As the decentralized sewer project progresses, Carr said that it would be necessary to have local community meetings in all of the hamlets that would be affected by the project. Stockberger advised that these meetings should be scheduled at a time in the future when more concrete plans are in place.
Also in the afternoon:
•The commissioners unanimously approved a resolution that vacated Tanners Alley in Bladensburg and revert it to the adjacent Hunter property.
•The commissioners unanimously approved a motion to allow the Olen Corp. to apply salt brine to control dust.
