Town restroom attendant gets raise for 2020
The contractor who cleans public restrooms for the town is getting a 3-percent raise.
The contract for 2020 was proposed and approved at the Nashville Town Council’s Dec. 19 meeting.
The proposal was to go up to a monthly pay rate of $3,990.24, plus $20 per hour for services requested outside the contract. The restrooms to be cleaned are the ones at the Village Green, on Old School Way and on Mound Street. The Mound Street restrooms are closed from January to March, and all restrooms are closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.
Town Administrator Phyllis Carr said the contractor normally receives a 2- to 3- percent raise each year, and that it’s based on cost-of-living increases and the fact that she often works seven days a week and odd hours, especially in the fall.
The contractor provides her own equipment, but not cleaning supplies; pays her own insurance and taxes; and can hire someone to help her using the pay she gets from the town if she wishes.
Council members Anna Hofstetter and Nancy Crocker weren’t sure about the 3-percent figure. Most county employees received 1-percent raises, with the exception of the police and the town council. The council and police chief elected not to get raises; police officers received pay increases that totaled more than 1 percent. The restroom attendant is an independent contractor, not an employee.
The vote was unanimous in favor of this raise.
Town, maybe county to pay out damage claim
The town’s attorney has been given authorization to settle out of court for a water damage claim involving the town and a property owner.
James T. Roberts told the council on Dec. 19 that the town’s insurance carrier, Tokyo Marine, had contacted him about the claim. He said that back when the county was in charge of maintaining Old State Road 46, property owner Mark Threehawks had reportedly contacted the county about cleaning out the ditch that runs along the Hard Truth Hills woods on that road. The county never cleaned it out then, Roberts said.
The town took over maintenance of that road when Hard Truth Hills was annexed into Nashville in January 2019. In February 2019, an unseasonable flood hit, and water from that ditch damaged Threehawks’ property to the tune of about $14,000, Roberts said. The insurance adjuster brought that down to about $12,000, and that’s the amount the claimant would be happy with, he said.
The county did clean out the ditch after the flooding happened, and “it looks good now,” said Nashville Utility Coordinator Sean Cassiday at the Dec. 19 council meeting.
Threehawks had filed a tort claim on the town — an intent to file a lawsuit — but not on the county, because it was too late, Roberts said. He suggested that if the council wanted to settle, it should do that, but on the condition that the county pick up half of it.
The council told Roberts to handle it.
