The Maysville Board of Trustees approved several cost-cutting measures during an April 23 special meeting. The action taken included altering the hours of operation for Town Hall and the public library, cutting hours for specific employees and the termination of at least one municipal authority employee.
Though not specifically addressed during the meeting, the actions appeared to be intended to reduce overhead costs as trustees try to catch up past due amounts related to police pensions, employee retire-ment accounts and federal payroll taxes and restore the town’s financial footing. The board did not disclose during the special meetinghow much they expect the cuts to save.
With relatively short agendas for both the Maysville Town Board of Trustees and Maysville Municipal Authority, trustees began the meeting with a 20-minute executive session to discuss “all town employees,” including nine listed by name.
When they returned to open session, the board voted 4-1 to move librarian Janet Dinwiddie from full time to part time hours, “for now.”
In a related item, the board voted 4-1 to cut the library’s hours of operation, reducing the number of hours the library is open by 16.5 hours per week. The new library hours will be 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Trustee Joy Taylor was the only no vote on both motions related to library operations. Taylor is the trustee over the library.
“I’m not for cutting the library. I don’t want to close the library. I don’t think people realize how much our librarian does, and I don’t think they realize how many people use the library,” Taylor said this week.
Taylor and Dinwiddie both said the new schedule may affect the library’s eligibility to receive state aid, which helps with purchasing new materials. Those requirements include keeping the library open after 5 p.m. for a total of at least two hours per week.
During the April 23 meeting, trustees also voted unanimously to alter the business hours for Town Hall, cutting four hours from the weekly schedule.
Town Hall will now be open from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and 1-5:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
The board then voted to reduce a cleaning stipend of $200 per month paid to specific employees with the additional duties of cleaning Town Hall to $100 per month.
Under the Maysville Municipal Authority meeting, trustees convened another short executive session to discuss “all MMA employees,” with six listed by name.
Upon returning to open session, trustees unanimously voted to reduce one municipal authority employee to three days per week and terminate a second.
The board also had a discussion with city attorney Micah Ayache regarding what steps need to be taken to expand the town limits “to increase sales tax revenue.”
Ayache told them it would require annexation, a process which entails written consent from a majority of affected property owners, a public hearing, and a plan to provide municipal services such as water and sewer, law enforcement and fire protection to the annexed area.
Trustees expressed interest in expanding the town’s footprint in all directions, including west on State Highway 19 possibly as far as the ONEOK gas plant, north along State Highway 74 to the Washita River, which would encompass the Burford Corp. facility, and south on SH-74 at least as far as the Shebester Bechtel, Inc. field office.
The board took no official action on the item, instructing Ayache to look into what steps needed to be taken and report back.