The Lisbon City Council discussed applications for the Downtown Reinvestment Grant by Indulgence Salon and Bill’s Tap.
In terms of Indulgence Salon, the work had already been done, but a $4,853.46 rebate would be given. Lisbon’s Historic Preservation committee approved the rebate at their meeting on Thursday, Feb. 19, and the final step was the approval by the Lisbon City Council that was given at the Feb. 23 council meeting.
Regarding Bill’s Tap, the work has yet to be done. The total cost of the project is $19,013.37, but the maximum grant award is $5,000. The project is for the upstairs apartment to put a bathroom, kitchen, new shower, vanity, new flooring, and new lights in, as well as to touch up the drywall, paint the walls, gut and replace the ceiling in the existing kitchen, and fix all the plumbing from the bar to the main.
The Bill’s Tap proposal went to the Historic Preservation committee as well, and like with Indulgence Salon, they approved it. The Lisbon City Council voted to approve the grant at the meeting. Mayor O’Connor abstained.
Committee reports
Continuing on to reports, public works director, Travis Bagby, shared that Alliant had responded to the concern councilman Rawley Alger had previously brought up by marking the sidewalk and explaining that it would be filled with concrete once the weather warms up enough.
The city’s radio reads are now up, with only eight left to take care of, four being ones that need residents to leave before they can be done. This was a project that the public works crew spread across about five years’ time.
The racking for the old firetruck that the public works crew is repurposing is underway. The racking that they are building will be used to “hold generators, ladders, and all that,” according to Bagby. The goal is to have the project complete before the next council meeting.
Recently, the dump truck experienced some hydraulic leaks, but those have been fixed, and the truck is back up and running. Lastly from Bagby was reports that the public works crew has been doing work for the library and is hoping to get the fireplace-their final part of the project-done “in the next week or so.”
Parks and recreation director Drayton Kamberling shared that boys and girls both had a successful basketball season, with boys’ basketball having wrapped up just a couple weeks ago. Looking forward, Parks and Rec has a busy spring schedule.
Spring soccer registration has been sent out with a deadline of Friday, March 6. Coming up on April 4 at 11:30a.m. at Lisbon City Park, there will be the annual Easter event. More information will be released on social media.
Parks and Rec has their annual field cleanup coming Saturday, March 7 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. in which teams will help to pick up leaves, sticks, trash, and more from the fields in town. If weather issues arise, there will be a reschedule date for the following Saturday.
The spring field cleanup is early this year, as the fence was left up around the baseball fields all year, which led to leaves collecting around it in the fall and winter. Doing the cleanup early allows plenty of time for the grass to re-grow in those areas.
Kamberling spoke with the school and said that going forward, if they would like the fence to stay up year-round, it will be their responsibility to clean up everything that collects around the fence before baseball season starts.
The fire chief report stated again that if people need assistance with burns, then please let the fire department help. It is not only easier to manage but also becomes a good training exercise for the new hires.
The St. Patrick’s Day fundraiser dance will be held March 14 at Tin Roof from 8 p.m. to midnight. According to Siggins, “this year they’re fundraising for the new truck, the supplies that go in it, as well as a new air pack.” The air pack is around $9,000.
The noon whistle should be back up and running soon, as the siren box should be delivered the first week of March. The issue that caused Siggins to unplug it was that it was “sending some errant messages due to the encoder basically fizzling out.” It can still be plugged in if necessary, so in the event of a severe weather event, the siren will still go off.