Members of Mount Gilead Council welcomed a new face to the legislature last night, as Aron Frazier was sworn in.
Frazier filled the vacant seat left by former Councilman Keith Strait’s passing last month.
“We would like to welcome Aron to council,” Mount Gilead Mayor Mike Porter said.
Frazier’s wife Annie and son Luke were in attendance to see Aron join the legislative body.
Council then wasted no time getting to village matters and discussed the ongoing issue with extending Mount Gilead Fire Department coverage to the Village of Edison.
Fire and Police committee chair Chris Sherbourne told other members of council that he and the remainder of the committee met with officials from Edison about extending the MGFD contract with the village.
“We agreed to a payment of $10,000 (to continue coverage),” he said. “They previously felt the payment should be $8,500.”
Despite agreeing to the new figure, Edison made a payment of $7,000 to the Village of Mount Gilead, which is $3,000 short.
“We did not sign the new contract,” Porter said. The mayor continued saying the villages were still in talks about resolving the issue.
“They had no valid reasons for not being able to pay the additional balance,” he said.
And as a result, Mount Gilead will only extend fire coverage through the end of March if Edison does not pay the remaining contract balance.
“If you don’t pay for fire service, then you don’t get it,” said Mount Gilead Fire Chief Greg Young said. “The Village of Mount Gilead is not obligated to provide them with fire coverage.”
Both Young and Sherbourne indicated that the increase in property insurance rates for residents of Edison will cost them more than the millage needed to extend fire service to the village.
Additionally, council unanmiously approved ordinance 1760, which will allow MGFD to sell some of its unused inventory on govdeals.com.
Council then unanmiously passed legislation that gave Edison until the end of business on March 31 to make the additional payment to Mount Gilead before discontinuing fire coverage.
