Adult day care facilities in the city have been given the green light to go ahead and reopen.
The city's lawmakers had voted in a prior meeting as part of its emergency proclamation to suspend the operation of the facilities after some local physicians cited the impact their continued operation was having on the rise of positive COVID-19 cases in the county.
At Monday night's Indianola Board of Aldermen meeting, the city leaders revisited the previously adopted declaration and based on the advice of Attorney Kim Merchant, decided to allow the facilities to resume operation. The stipulations require that they must adhere to the guidelines as outlined in Governor Tate Reeves' executive order.
Merchant told the city leaders that since other businesses have been allowed to reopen, there was no justification for prohibiting the reopening of the facilities. "And if something pops up that then makes it necessary to address them specifically like before, doctors calling to say that several people have contracted the disease through the facility, then we can address it then," Merchant said.
The city leaders also decided to have Merchant draft letters to retail businesses reminding them of the 50 percent customer capacity requirements mandated by the state that still apply and must be carried out. Mayor Steve Rosenthal and some of the other leaders alluded to certain stores that were violating those restrictions.
Alderman Reuben Woods also indicated that certain stores were not enforcing social distancing requirements. Referencing the proposed letters, Merchant said, "I'm going to outline all of the parameters that are required.”
She stated that the letters would advise the merchants that if they need clarification on what their capacity is they should contact Fire Chief Orlando Battle. The letters will be hand-delivered to many of the larger stores by police officers and the enforcement of the code will be the responsibility of the city's inspection department.
The proclamation still calls for the enforcement of the city's 10 p.m. curfew. Merchant said that the curfew is a part of the governor's executive order and the city is still abiding by it.
In other business,
The city lawmakers also voted to authorize several pay requests to Hemphill Construction for the installation of the city's new radar-read water meters. Plus, payment was authorized to Southern Pipe & Supply Company for the materials used in the installation.
Gardner Engineering was approved payment for their role in overseeing the project. City Engineer Ron Cassada told the leaders, "The water meters are done."
Alderman Marvin Elder questioned why there were water meter leaks in certain places across the city and Cassada explained that there are varying reasons and that they were being addressed individually. "I'll send my inspector out there, he will determine if it's on the city or the contractor." He said the contractor’s work is guaranteed for one year.
Rosenthal offered up an explanation that homeowners using riding lawn mowers are driving across the meter boxes and since the dirt around the boxes likely has not had an opportunity to harden and is still soft the weight of the mowers cause the PVC pipes to break and cause leaks.
According to Cassada, a final inspection will be done in about a week and once that is complete that will begin the one-year warranty agreement on the installation of the meters.
The city leaders also voted to add several properties to the adjudication list so that fees for maintaining the property can be added to the owner's taxes.
A motion made by Alderman Ruben Woods to approve the water bill credits for the month of March was rescinded and the April totals were not approved after questions arose that highlighted discrepancies in the process.
According to Woods, the water department supervisor provides the data and is supposed to take an average of the last six months of bills to generate an amount, but that apparently was not handled properly. "It appears that they just picked some months at random. I've got months that go as way back as April 2019," Woods said.
Alderman Sam Brock raised a question about one individual's bill that was apparently around $900. Rosenthal said he was familiar with that claim and the leak lasted for about four months.
Alderman Gary Fratesi took issue with why the late fees were adjusted off. He asked that the policy regarding water credits be made available to him. "I want to see where it says take the late fees off. I want to see the policy. We got to have policy or are we just making it up as we go along," said Fratesi.
Rosenthal contended, "That's how we've done it since I've been here."
Fratesi clapped back, "It doesn't matter how you've done it, we need to figure out what's going on, because we were doing it wrong doesn't mean we need to keep doing it wrong," he said.
