Olanta Town Council to meet on ordinance updates

OLANTA — Olanta Town Council plans to meet at 5 p.m. Tuesday to discuss updates to town ordinances, including a new measure to create a separate account for funds raised through a recent water-rate increase.

The town plans to ask its attorney, Jim Peterson of Florence, to develop an ordinance for the separate account, where half of the $4 increase to town water bills will be maintained.

That money would go toward reducing debt since Olanta has made $21,000 to $24,000 in repairs to a main water tank, and it would also help the town repay a $43,000 tax anticipation note from The Citizens Bank.

The remaining $2 of the increase, meanwhile, could be placed in the town’s sewer reserve fund, where it would be used only in case of an emergency, Mayor Betty Sims said Wednesday, when she and the four council members held preliminary discussions on ordinance updates.

The council needs to enact such an ordinance because the rate increase was included on the most recent water bills the town has mailed, Mayor Pro Tem Willie Mae Gallegos said.

Sims announced earlier this month that Olanta has has received $600,000 in federal stimulus money to replace its two water wells.

Council plans to revisit dozens of ordinances, some of which are maintained on the original paper they were typed onto in the 1940s or earlier.