Going back over my notes from the city board’s second meeting and February, I came across a few odds and ends, including:

• The mayor’s Washington trip. Mayor Autrey will accompany other local officials for a one-day lobbying trip with the state’s Congressional delegation;

• Another request by a city department head for a crew cab truck. There’s a reason for it, Street Superintendent Teddy Austin told aldermen. Elected officials, during budget session last year and the year before, questioned the need for the more expensive cabs.

“The chipper men don’t have a place to ride,” Austin said, referring to city employees who feed branches in the chipper which then blows the chips into the bed of the truck that pulls the chipper.

Once the truck is full of wood chips, there’s no place for the workers to ride except hanging to the sides of the truck. In recent years, the city has tried to get away from workers riding outside of truck cabs because of the greater potential for injury in an accident.

• The mayor, Alderman Stan Harrison and perhaps other aldermen are frustrated with Tallahatchie Valley Electric Power Association over what they perceive as TVEPA’s intransigence about lowering the monthly costs of decorative street lights after the initial purchase cost for the more expensive lighting has been “amortized out.”

“This fee is a lot more than $10 like a regular street light; I was proposing that after these lights are paid (for) and the labor’s paid for, if they’re amortized out, they need to reduce the fee on the light,” Autrey said. It doesn’t need to be $30 or $40; they need to go back to $10.”

The mayor said TVEPA has raised the question of residual maintenance costs. He also said that TVEPA CEO Brad Robison has cited a Tennessee Valley Authority rule that prevents a reduction after the lights are paid for.

Mayor Autrey presented aldermen with a letter, written to TVA at Robison’s request, asking for a rule change on the lighting policy.

“If it’s a TVA policy, I think we’re better off with them (TVEPA) working with us to get it changed,” Alderman Eddie Nabors said. “The local folks are kind of stuck in the middle.”