By Jason C. Mattox

A pair of different agreements between the City of Batesville and Crown, Cork and Seal caused some confusion among the Mayor and Board of Aldermen Tuesday afternoon.

The meeting began with Gail Blackburn of Williams Energy (the city’s natural gas buyer) saying the agreement Crown was seeking with the city would allow them to lock in their natural gas at a set rate for a period of no less than three months.

“That will help them with their budgeting and pricing over the course of a year,” she said. “The agreement can be extended beyond the initial year if both the city and Crown agree.”

Ward 3 Alderman Stan Harrison said he was OK with the proposed contract if Assistant City Attorney Colmon Mitchell had reviewed it.

“I am happy with the contract,” Mitchell said. “[Accountant Bill Crawford], Gail and I worked on this to get it done. We just need to get a reply for Crown, Cork and Seal at this point.”

From that point, aldermen began discussing a previous agreement with Crown that had the city unsure about compliance.

“They approached us over a year ago asking if we could give them an adjustment because of the amount of evaporation that doesn’t go through the sewer system, and we agreed if they could install a meter in the building and report the readings to us,” Mitchell said. “That was also contingent on the company keeping one line and 60 jobs.”

Ward 1 Alderman Bill Dugger said the city needed to get clarification from Crown before they did get into compliance and come in saying they were owed back adjustments.

“All the contract we are discussing today does is set their rate for natural gas for a period of time,” Mayor Jerry Autrey said. “The water and sewer adjustment is another deal.”

Aldermen voted to enter into the natural gas contract then went back to the water and sewer agreement.

“They came to us and wanted that adjustment, and I think we need to open our lines of communication back up with them to see whether or not they intend to get into compliance,” Autrey suggested.

Dugger questioned whether the board could simply rescind the original agreement and vote on it again in the future.

“We can certainly put this back in after we get in touch with them and see exactly what they want,” Autrey said.

In other board business:

•Aldermen agreed to purchase a new truck from Hallmark Ford for the city’s purchasing agent.

•Code Enforcement Office Administrator Pam Comer presented a permit report for the first time in 2009.

•Aldermen had an executive session do discuss a personnel matter at the Batesville Civic Center and accepted the resignation of civic center employee Doug Appleton.