Cartersville City Council Meeting Live

7:45 p.m. Following the presentation of monthly financial statements and a second briefing on Citizens Survey results — and discussions on both — the meeting is adjourned.

Retail and job growth are viewed as too slow by a large number of respondents to the survey.

See the agenda attached to this article for more information on the items before the council. The council took no action on the Fiber Department's agenda item.

7:24 p.m. Leaders approved the Water Department to pre-purchase material for the SPLOST-funded project currently under design to connect an existing high-pressure main on East Main Street to another high-pressure main and storage tank on Center Road. The materials will cost $270,830, but officials say pre-purchasing allows the city to avoid a 10-percent price increase that would come with a contractor providing the materials and the payment of sales tax.

Officials expect lower operating cost as a result of the project, which will allow the Water Department to shut down one of its pump stations.

7:20 p.m. Councilmen awarded a bid for deep patching of pavement on various city streets to the low bidder, Kennesaw’s Butch Thompson Enterprises, for $88,917.22. The roads include Douthit Ferry Road, Old Mill Road and Terrell Drive, among others.

No local companies bid on the work.

7:18 p.m. The council approved a move to Midwest Employers from Safety National — which had provided catastrophic insurance coverage for the city’s fully self-insured (up to a certain level) worker’s compensation claims — at a lower cost. Safety National had increased its premium, but the city will pay $41,171 with Midwest. Leaders also approved renewing an $9,900 contract with USIS to process insurance claims.

7:14 p.m. Councilmen approved an with Bartow County and other cities in the county to form a second local Joint Development Authority that would oversee the 2014 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax extension to be up for approval by voters in the November election.

An antenna radio system to be shared among the county and cities is included in the project list, as is work to the county landfill and debt to assist in its marketing and sales.

Other projects include infrastructure and railroad crossing improvements.

7:08 p.m. The council approved a grant period extension request for the Habitat for Humanity project to construct affordable homes in the North Towne and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive areas. City officials say the project got off to a slow start, but now is moving at a steady rate. The extension would allow grant monies to be spent beyond Nov. 17 and through the same time next year.

In a related move, leaders approved the transfer of two properties the city purchased using grant funds to Habitat for Humanity. Dilapidated homes at 407 Johnson St. and 26 MLK Jr. Drive were demolished as part of the project and now construction on new affordable homes is set to begin.

So far in the project to construct seven Habitat homes, one house has been completed and two other are expected to be constructed this year, which will be followed by two additional homes built next year. Affordable rentals also will be built with the grant, but it will be bid out to a contractor.

6:59 p.m. The meeting begins with a prayer and the pledge.