Village of Lodgepole Swears in New Trustee

(Editor's Note: A correction/clarification has been made to the online version of this article. The original article said that Gwen Devie resigned her position in part because the issue of the water tower being decommissioned was not addressed properly. The reason for her resignation was solely over concerns of the village's handling of finances. We apologize for the error.)

LODGEPOLE--The Village of Lodgepole held its regular meeting on September 3, and agenda items were discussed, the appointment of a new trustee occurred, and he immediately joined the other trustees in conducting the village's business.

The meeting opened with Gwen Devie, former Trustee, explaining why she had resigned from her position. She had referenced a recent article by the Sun-Telegraph saying that RJ Savely, current chairman of the trustees, had no business stating why she had resigned her position. She clarified the reason for her resignation was that the village's finances were not being handled properly She said that she resigned to draw attention to these issues. She also noted that the financial issues continued, with the village running a $97k deficit over the past year. She suggested accounting duties be taken away from the Village Clerk and transferred to a professional accountant. Devie ended by saying that she feels an audit of the village's finances is necessary.

Susan Mitchell also addressed the trustees, saying that there are open positions available, and people have been submitting letters of interest to serve, yet none are contacted. She said a current trustee was approved and did not submit a letter about the position at all. RJ Savely denied that that happened, and after the meeting, Mitchell said it was the current trustee herself who said that she never submitted a letter.

After the comments, RJ Savely swore in Eric Dana as a new Trustee, and he immediately assumed his position then left the audience area and took a position at the trustee table. The first issue they started to talk about was the water tower problem the village was having. A few years back, it was decided to upgrade the aging water tower which held 30,000 gallons of water with a new water tank that holds 150,000 gallons of water. Rather than decommissioning the old tower, which was built in the 1950s and is beyond its expected use time, it was decided to join the two towers together to increase the water capacity. However, since that decision was made, the new water tower has not been able to operate properly. It is suspected that a difference in size between the water lines of the two tanks is causing an issue where the new water tank is unable to be filled. This is resulting in a loss of water pressure for residents and other problems. The village has been trying to decide whether to fix the issue with the old water tank or just decommission the old tank completely, However, many Lodgepole residents consider the old water tank to have historical value and do not want to see it taken down. As the village does not have the budget to maintain the structure for historical purposes, there has been an effort to raise private funds for its maintenance. But time is running out, as a grant that was approved to take down the old tank will be expiring soon, and the issue needs to be resolved.

There was another resident who addressed the trustees concerning the sale of land adjacent to the water tower, as it is of no use to the owner and would help the village with access to the water tower for maintenance and repair work. It was determined that the landowner and village would come to some agreement on a sale price prior to the landowner paying for a required survey. The issues were tabled until the next meeting.

The majority of the meeting concerned the water tower issue and how to move forward in the best way. We will have an additional story about the water tower issues and the details concerning the project in an upcoming issue of the Sun-Telegraph.