Better bulbs brighten Deerfield streets

Nevada Daily Mail

In an effort to deter crime, the village of Deerfield brought in KCP&L to install better lights throughout the town.

"We had a total of 15 mercury lights, ranging in wattage from 70 to 100," Deerfield board trustee Terry Forgey said at the Board of Trustee meeting on Tuesday. "We eliminated three lights and replaced all the others with 150 Watt sodium filled light bulbs."

Forgey said now the town has four times the amount of light and the monthly bill increased $23. The instillation of the lights came at no cost and will be maintained by KCP&L.

The electric company will return to Deerfield to find any additional areas which need lighting.

"It was well worth it," Forgey said. "Some of the poles were extended from 2 foot arms to 6 foot arms to better reach the street. Two people have requested a shield on the light."

Trustee Matt Forgey added he thought the new lights would help with "hooligans."

In other business, the trustees approved renewing the village's five-year contract leasing office space to the post office.

"The contract has a typo," Clerk Bill Smith said. "They have the start date as 01-01-2015 when it should be this year."

Smith said the village currently gets $275 a month for renting the space to the post office. The new contract would raise the rate to $357.42 a month.

The trustees agreed to sign the contract with the date fixed and the new rate.

Smith reminded the trustees that two seats are open on the board. Only Matt Forgey filed as of yet.

"I was thinking of not running again to get on the board, so I could just be the clerk," Smith said. "Think about who can chair and serve on the board."

A third seat may become open if trustee Kris Sisseck resigns.

Smith handed out the village financial report which showed a beginning balance of $17,621.05, payments of $55.89 for repairing a snow plow's hydraulic line and replacing hydraulic fluid and $1,000 for repairing frozen pipes in the community building and post office and an ending balance of $17,580.86.

The trustees voted 4-0 to approve the financial report.

Smith explained the problem with frozen pipes to the trustees.

"It took the repairmen three hours to put in all new supply lines and shut off valves," Smith said. "They said the pipes will never break again because the old pipes were replaced with pipes that expand and contract."

Trustee Terry Forgey agreed the work had to be done.

A resident of Deerfield requested the right to butcher a cow inside the city limits when necessary.

The trustees agreed to give permission to butcher cows as long as everything was promptly cleaned up.

Trustee David Prickett told the board he had no luck finding a company with grade-all ditch equipment for cleaning out Deerfield's ditches.

"It could be done with a backhoe if the person knew what they were doing," Prickett said. "It would take a lot longer than with one of those grade-alls."

The trustees agreed to look for grade-alls from the county and Fort Scott or place an ad in the paper if none can be found.

"It's getting to be a pain taking the fire hose out there, blowing them out and then still having water standing," Terry Forgey said.

The trustees also agreed to meet Saturday morning to install a new heater in the fire barn.

"I may not be very pretty, but I'll make it," Smith joked.

Prickett added the door to the fire barn needs a seal along the bottom edge.

"It's a wonder we don't have rats out here the size of my cat," he said.

Smith suggested using old fire hose to plug up the draft, and the trustees agreed to try that.