Anthony Cloud

Staff Writer

Three sub-committees of the Middlesboro City Council met Tuesday.

At parks and recreation meeting, it was announced that the annual firework display will be held on July 4. The city will also hold its traditional celebration of the 4th on the same day. Thecelebration, which will begin at noon at the Community Center on 30th Street, will include food, drinks and other activities.

During the street department portion of the meeting, committee members briefly discussed negotiations involving the pickup of material. The committee decided that it would be best to allow the mayor to negotiate the price of picking up the material.

The committee also talked about the possibility of cleaning the grass out of the curbs in Middlesboro and spraying in between the cracks of the sidewalk. These issues are planned to be discussed at the next city council meeting.

The finance committee was the last committee that met. City clerk Sandra Wilson was not present at the meeting, but she did submit a letter stating that she and the accounting consultant met last week. She and the consultant are looking at the general ledger in the new software.

There are some issues with the programmers that will be corrected. The consultant is going to assist Wilson in entering the new year budget in the software and will help with the end of year information. He also plans to help prepare the council for the next audit.

Middlesboro Police Chief Jeff Sharpe stated that there will be an amendment to the budget. This amendment will involve the expenditures and income that came from the June floods last year. Sharpe stated that they had been waiting to get it on paper.

“It is such a significant amount that we are going to have to amend this budget,” said Sharpe.

In an off-topic discussion, it was announced that city attorney Robert Bowling had submitted his resignation to Mayor Kelley. The city council will be responsible for hiring a new city attorney once the resignation is official.

Anthony Cloud is a staff writer for the Middlesboro Daily News. He can be contacted via email at acloud@heartlandpublications.com.