Bethany Council Approves Search For Economic Development Candidate

Bethany’s Board of Aldermen approved City Administrator Jacob Taylor to begin the search for a candidate for an Economic Development Position for the City of Bethany. The action came during a meeting held Monday night. Administrator Taylor says the move of the Harrison County Community Hospital and ongoing downtown projects create good timing for the consideration. Administrator Taylor told council members that he envisions the candidate to solely focus on economic development and event planning. The person selected for the position would report directly to the city administrator and would provide monthly reports to the mayor and board of aldermen. The city has budgeted $40,000 for the position in salary. There will also be a benefits package on top of that. The Industrial Development Board has contributed $10,000 of the $40,000 salary. A job description for the position was also provided to the council.

Bethany Council members also followed up on recent discussions on water and sewer locates by approving ordinances specifying the city and property owner’s responsibility for the construction of water and sewer lines and the water line installation parameters. The City of Bethany will have no responsibility to locate any part of water installations on the customer’s side. Diagrams of various set-ups for water installation will be available at Bethany City Hall.

This year’s Dispatching Agreement with Harrison County will be lower for the City of Bethany. The Harrison County Commissioners approved a formula that reduces the city’s cost from $43,125 to $34,659. The formula now takes into account the amount of time spent for dispatching calls instead of the amount of dispatching calls when coming from any particular agency.

Council members will consider an ordinance regarding a zoning change following a presentation of Bailey and Deb Daniel who had been denied a zoning change of a lot from Residential to Highway Business by the city’s Zoning Board. There will be an opportunity for the public to comment about a zoning change during Bethany’s council meeting on February 6th.

Council members approved a bid of $7,700 for materials for the 2023 Electric Pole Project for the city. A contract was also approved with Rose Hunt to be the city’s Dog Adoption Liaison for $100 per dog.

Materials will be ordered for work on the standing wall following the demolition work performed on the square. Bids for those materials will be available during the February 6th meeting.