Council decides to return City of Lewisport’s first fire truck to HC Farm Museum
City Administrator Jason Roberts said everything is “going as planned” for the 2024 Heritage Festival, at the Lewisport City Council meeting on Thursday, April 18th. The festival is scheduled for Thursday, Friday & Saturday, May 30th, 31st and June 1st.
Roberts said the Heritage Festival Committee has made some changes on this year’s t-shirts and on a couple of other details, in an effort to save a little extra money. All of the bands are booked: Randy Lanham on Thursday night, Blackford Creek on Friday night, and Josh Merritt & Lohden Boys – 2 bands on Saturday night.
Conexon Connect and Independence Bank are sponsoring fireworks for this year’s festival and Yager Materials is sponsoring a tugboat and 2 barges to shoot them off the river. (*Full details will be in an upcoming edition of The Clarion.)
Lewisport’s First Fire Truck
Council members approved the decision to move Lewisport’s very first fire truck back to the Hancock County Farm Museum. The truck was at the museum for several years until the museum committee asked for it to be moved to the Lewisport Volunteer Fire Department. The committee wanted to make room for an antique farm truck at that time.
The fire truck has been stored at the Lewisport fire station since, but they no longer have room for it. The Hancock County Rescue Squad has now been disbanded and the Lewisport Fire Dept. will be housing some of the equipment, including a boat, and they will need the extra room. (*See full article on the HC Rescue Squad in this edition of The Clarion.)
In the discussion to return the City’s first fire truck to the HC Farm Museum, Councilwoman Josephine Hagan recalled the day when citizens first saw the truck. “I can remember it was 1951 when they drove the fire truck into Lewisport,” Hagan said, “and everybody stood out on the street like we had won the lottery.”
Police Dept. Report
Lewisport Chief of Police Greg Linn reported the good news that Nick Jarboe, new Lewisport Police Officer who was injured during his police academy training last year, will be returning back to work without restrictions made on May 6th.
“He’s been released from the doctor on that,” Linn said. “We had firearms training earlier today. This past month we’ve had 38 calls for service. It’s slowing down a little bit. Everything else is doing well.”
Public Works Update
The Public Works crew has finished up the spring hydrant flushing and getting some of the hydrants fixed that weren’t working well. Two new crew members took the pesticide test and passed, and the new truck recently purchased is doing very well.
Military Banners
Councilman Kelly Vanover provided an update on the military banners that will be placed in downtown Lewisport. The City has around 12 now and they plan to purchase more in order to have approximately 30 total. They are durable and double sided, with a thank you to all of our veterans in active duty military as well as the City’s logo.
Council members will be deciding on a uniform size and ordering them so they can be placed by Veterans Day this year. As soon as they get all of the details, Vanover said citizens will be able to submit information on local veterans they’d like featured on the banners. Each of the new banners they may order are estimated at around $80 each, and the company they will likely be ordering from is veteran owned.
Second Reading of Ordinance #24-1
City Attorney Charles Kamuf read aloud the second reading of Ordinance #24-1, an ordinance amending the City of Lewisport’s Annual Budget for the Fiscal Year 7-1-2023 through 6-20-24.
Kamuf outlined what was previously reviewed and approved by council members, which included: the City’s Gas Fund amended from $1,424,300 to $1,554,500; the Water Fund amended from $1,128,825 to $1,954,299; the Sewer Fund amended from $486K to $646,025; the Fire Dept. Fund remaining at $34K; the Parks Fund remaining at $5K, the Heritage Fund amended from $34,300 to $37,800; the Municipal Fund remaining at $6K, and the American Relief Fund remaining at $66,075; with Total Assets of $5,779,162, and estimated fund balances at the end of the year at $46,641.
By Jennifer Wimmer
