Jasper Mayor John Weaver expressed his gratitude to the city’s employees at the Tuesday, July 2nd city council meeting, saying that because of the recent tremendous heat many of the city’s employees are constantly having to fix water leaks and other things of that nature.Mayor Weaver also commented on his fear of a water pressure loss in Jasper because of the current construction being done at the Pickens County Courthouse.

The Mayor said that because of the construction at any given moment the city could lose water pressure because of the water lines being exposed and the heavy equipment having to work around them. The Mayor even commented on how the city had had to shut down water in the city for a couple of hours on Tuesday because of the fear of the loss of water pressure.

“It could happen at any time because these old lines are very fragile,”

said Mayor Weaver.

When asked what the city would do in the event of a loss of water pressure, Mayor Weaver responded,

“If we do lose pressure, we would have to order a boil in order to maintain the safety of the water system.”

Also in the meeting, City Animal Control Officer Lonnie Waters updated the council on the status of the Dangerous Dog Incident at Magnolia Station as reported on from the last city council meeting. Waters told the council after working with the city’s attorney and Mr. Shields, the owner of one of the two Rottweiler dogs that were involved in the attack of another dog on May 16th, that one of the dogs will be euthanized.

Waters told the council that as a result of a new Dangerous Dog Control Law that went in effect July 1st, which raised the insurance cost of dangerous dogs to $50,000 per dog, Mr. Shields had decided to euthanize one of his two dogs.

“Under the laws prior to July 1st, we could have made other arrangements with these animals,”

said Waters,

“But we have not found anyone who his willing to take one of the animals and be obligated with the state laws.”

Waters stated that he had recieved a letter from Mr. Shields with his own statement saying that it would be better for him and everybody involved if he went ahead and decided to euthanize one of his dogs.

In addition, during the meeting City Clerk and Finance Director Tacie Williams reported that the city council has already submitted its 2011 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report to the state and Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) in time before the June 30th deadline. The GFOA is an organization that gives awards for excellence in government finance. Williams said the city had received an award the last two years from GFOA and was hoping again to recieve an award this year. Williams also said that since the city likes to take the time to read reports before accepting them, they decided to give the council a month to look over the report before the council will chose whether or not to accept the report. Williams also said that the city’s accounting firm, RL Jennings, will also be at next month’s meeting to present the report, but told the council in advance

“I think you will find it sheds good light on the city and we ended the year on a good financial note.”