The Royston City Council will take up the issue of a pay raise when they met this evening.
At their meeting last month, City Councilman Kenneth Roach brought up the idea. Roach said the Royston City Council and Mayor have not had a raise in years.
“The City Council and Mayor have not had raises in ten years,” Roach told the board. “I think that is something we should discuss at our next regular council meeting.”
After hearing from Councilman Roach, the council voted unanimously to approve pursuing the idea.
For the past two weeks, the City of Royston has advertised their intention to pursue raising the pay for the City Council and Mayor in the local paper.
So far, there’s been no indication of how much that raise would be. Council members are expected to discuss that at their meeting tonight.
In other business tonight, the council is expected to get an update from City Manager Ed Andrews on a request by Steve Fortman, owner of Pure Web Computer Services to hang antennas on the support bars under the Royston Water Tower.
At last month’s meeting, Fortman showed the Council the 24-inch flat antenna that would help enable his company to provide true high-speed Internet service to customers in the Royston area.
Fortman said he has already begun buying the equipment needed to provide true high-speed Internet service to both homes and businesses.
“Six months ago we put in our order, and ours went live about 3 weeks ago,” he told the Council. “From that point what we have done is put a tower up on the back of our building. What we want to do is put a dish on that tower and point it to the water tower, and use the water tower’s railing that goes around the actually tank to mount the antennae.”
The antennas weigh 6lbs each and are 5.8GHZ. Fortman said the antennas would go all around the tank‘s rail for a 360-degree circle.
Subscribers would then receive a small radio dish receiver that would be installed either inside or on the exterior of their home. Total cost for a residential subscriber would be about $39 a month.
But before approving his request, the Council wanted to look over his proposal and check with Verizon first before making a decision. Verizon already leases space for their microwave antennas on top of the water tower. The Council wanted to make sure Fortman’s antennae did not impose on Verizon’s lease.
Tonight’s meeting begins at 6:30p at Royston City Hall.
