With snowstorm Izzy in the rearview mirror, Highlands Mayor Patrick Taylor updated the board of commissioners about the work during the storm and asked for comments on how to better prepare for the aftermath of storms like Izzy in the future.
Taylor said before the storm, they were expecting several power outages, but after the storm, there were no major power outages reported.
“I don’t know how that happened,” Taylor said. “I was talking with Lamar and Josh and told them it is just amazing that we did not lose major parts of the town to power outages. I think we need to go back and look at how we can do things better.”
Since the storm, Taylor said road crews were busy plowing.
“I know a lot of folks were anxious to get their roads opened up,” Taylor said. “We’ve had a policy in the past where the first thing we do is to plow the town roads that we own, then assess the DOT and make sure that all public roads are cleared. Then after that, we work with the private roads and private communities and assist them in clearing their roads. We did that in this storm, and there were a lot of folks in the private communities concerned that we were not reacting fast enough. I don’t want to be defensive, but this was not a three to four inch storm, and our folks were really struggling to move some snow and find a way to place it some where and we still have those issues downtown.”
Taylor asked that the Public Works Committee meet as soon as possible and review the policy about what roads they plow and what is the order and protocol for doing that.
He also asked the Public Works Committee to take a look at adding a separate call center during storms for people to call and ask about power outages.
“Josh and I were in contact with Warren Cabe with the Macon County Emergency system before the storm,” Taylor said. “We have always worked with MCES to take our outages after the normal business hours. That was the situation we were in going into the weekend and the King Holiday. Warren was very concerned that there would be so many calls that his system could not handle it and it would jeopardize response time for life saving emergencies. We talked with Warren and spread the word to not overtax the system, but on the other hand, there are people that lose power and need to know what to do.”
After discussing the issue with Ward and I.T. director Matt Schuler, Taylor said there are other options, including the separate call center.
“We need to look at coming up with another way for taking these calls for power outages or water line breaks, not just during the snow, but any time during the year when we are not at town hall,” Taylor said.
The board also:
• Approved to appoint Commissioner John Dotson as Mayor Pro Tempore
• Approved mid-year budget amendments
• Approved audit finding responses
• Approved ARPA grant project budget ordinance
• Approved an encroach into right-of-way of Maple Street
• Approved to print one copy of the agenda packet each month for Commissioner Marc Hehn
• Discussed a request for the redline version of the Hotwire Contract from Commissioner Marc Hehn
- By Christopher Lugo