Simon Sworn in as Holly Mayor, New Trustee Decision Pending

Brad Simon was officially sworn in as the new mayor for the Town of Holly, beginning his two year term in office.  Other agenda items regarding the Board of Trustees was postponed during the June 6 meeting as one Trustee, the Town Administrator and Town Clerk were absent.  A vote for mayor pro-tem and discussion on two letters of interest for a Trustee position will be taken up during the July meeting. 

There were two appearances before the Trustees, one from Lamar Community College President, John Marrin, who offered a power point presentation displaying the annual economic impact LCC had on a community, plus the dollar return on investment realized by a student who holds a college degree.  Marrin said conservative studies indicated that for every dollar spent by a student in their LCC education, they receive $3.70 in return on future income.  Out of state college students put back an estimated $206,000 to the local retail sector in Lamar and the annual net income added to the community from the college is $4.517 million.  Marrin said he’d be happy to offer any additional information regarding the college to the Holly Trustees in the future. 

Trevor Choat, Supervisor for Prowers County 911, explained the advantages of having Holly residents enrolled in the Code Red emergency warning program.  The free alert system provides timely warnings for subscribers 24/7, he said.  The computer based warning program issues alerts for dangerous weather related events and can put out as many as 60,000 calls within two minutes.  “We’ve seen a lot of subscribers to the Code Red system following the April 27 tornado,” he added.  Residents can register their land line or cell phone in a matter of minutes when they link on the Code Red button on either the city of Lamar or Prowers County website.  Choat said additional registration information will go out to Holly residents in their monthly utility bills.  Editor’s Note: A Code Red Link is also available online through The Prowers Journal website. 

Terry Whisenand, Holly Field Services Supervisor ran through his crew report for the previous month.  The Holly swimming pool has been cleaned and filled and lifeguard chairs have been rebuilt, the ladder at the slide was also replaced.  Twelve water meters were replaced with new touch read meters, a water main at the school was repaired and three lights at the ball field have been fixed.  Whisenand said a new dog shelter has been rebuilt to replace the old enclosure and speed bumps on Park Street were repainted. 

Under personnel action, the Trustees approved the job descriptions for the Library Director and Assistant and approved the hiring of five, part-time lifeguards at the pool.  The lone bid from Jerry Adams for the town-owned shares of the Buffalo Canal was approved.  The firm, Datamap Digital Services, Inc. submitted the low bid of three companies at $7,500 for mapping the town landfill, the first part of a project which will bring the landfill up to state code on several levels.  Administrator Marsha Willhite will need to sign the contract which will be ratified by the board at its next meeting, set for July 11 due to the Independence Day holiday.

By Russ Baldwin