Wagoner sworn in as city administrator during Colfax city meeting

Not even the heavy snowfall could keep council members from attending their monthly Colfax City Council meeting Monday night.

The meeting started off with the recently-hired Wade Wagoner being sworn in as the new city administrator. Wagoner then passed out documents highlighting some of of the work has has done to get to know his new city. Most of those items included meetings regarding Historic Red Bridge with the Historic Red Bridge, council work sessions a meeting with the waste water superintendent.

Also at the meeting, council members voted unanimously to approve the purchase of a new pump for the city pool, a backup part since the original replacement pump had to replace the broken pump. The pump, according to Colfax Mayor David Mast, cost more than $7,000.

Also on the agenda was Maple Street, north of the rail tracks, being sold off to the property owners, as part of their vacating of the alley. This meant Mast and Nancy Earls, Colfax city clerk, authorized sign quit claim deed.

Earls said the county auditors, after doing thorough research, wanted Colfax to get that part of the road sold after Colfax submitting their documents on the subject, and that process is complete.

“It was planted that way, originally. It was never used as a street,” Earls said. “We’ve sold that piece of ground to Dickerson. We actually did this a long time ago, in September. “

Also on the agenda included minor money concerns. One of which was to authorize a total of $60 in reimbursement to the new city administrator and police chief for usage of their cell phones. This eliminates the need for each to possess a city phone, and having to carry around two cell phones at all times.

Water treatment employee Tony Thompson also received a $0.60 raise, per hour as well as Amanda Bode with a $0.50 raise per hour as a city billing utility clerk.

“Amanda Bode has been here for several months, and has done quite well,” Mast said.

One other piece of business voted on was voting unanimously on a settlement agreement for Colfax Food Mart for cigarette violations. The store won’t be able to sell tobacco products from Feb. 13 to March 15. Earls said within the last year, the store has illegally sold tobacco products to a minor for the third time.

“This was their third violation, in a number of years,” Earls said. “They’ve been hit with this violation before.”

Contact Orrin Shawl at 641-792-3121 ext. 6533 or at oshawl@newtondailynews.com