Karen Reynolds
Contributing Writer

The Holton town board met November 11 at the Holton Community Center at 7:00 p.m. Board member Ryan Lauber brought a proposal before the board to have a mural painted on the new shelter house at the park.

Thom Maltbie, art teacher at South Ripley, has proposed to use elementary art students from the Holton area to design and paint this mural, which will be designed to have motifs and symbols that have special meaning to the Holton area. Any design produced would be sketched and brought before the board for approval before any painting would begin.

The town will pay for project supplies which, according to Maltbie would cost around $200.00. The students and their teacher will provide the labor and the vision. The board unanimously approved this project to be started in the spring and finished in June 2011.

Kathy Stratton has been hired as an office assistant and will be paid $8.00 an hour once a month until January of 2011, at which time she will begin her duties as Holton’s assistant clerk.

Gretchen Moore, town clerk, filed 21 new sewer liens this month for a total of $18,065.05. The sewer debt is now $26,497.00. The town has $8000.00 out in sewer bills that are at least three months in arrears. Twenty sewer accounts have been set up on payment plans but only about half of these people are keeping agreements with the sewer department. The town of Holton has a total sewer debt of $44,562.05. Paul Hughes, board president, says the town board needs to continue filing liens in an attempt to “get the debt down.”

Questions arose concerning how the town’s employee’s personal time is accrued. Two employees have a total of 26 earned days of personal time that is carried over from year to year, if not used.

The USDA operating budget has requested a copy of the Holton town sewer budget. Gretchen Moore will call them and ask for help in completing the necessary paperwork.

The Indiana Association of Cities and Towns dues were scheduled to have a 2% increase in dues in 2011, but that agency has rescinded the increase due to hard economic times. Dues are the same as they were in 2010.

Wilbur Myers reported that the pop machine at the city park has been shut down for the winter. Nine cases of soda pop were returned to the bottling company, giving the town a $150.00 credit to be carried over to the 2011 summer season.

Jimmy Adkins, town worker, almost has the town’s Christmas lights ready to go for the 2010 Christmas season. He also requested a new flag to be used on the flag pole in front of the Community Center. Angi Farrell requested that Adkins put up the snowmen decorations, in addition to the Christmas decorations.

All board members were in attendance. The next meeting will be on Thursday, December 10 beginning at 7 p.m. at the Holton Community Center.