Carrollton to allow advertising on water bills
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By Carmen Ensinger
Carrollton water customers might see something a little different on their next water bill. Thankfully, it is not an increase, but rather an advertisement from an internet provider. The city agreed to let Wisper Internet advertise on the back of their water bills at a special meeting on Feb. 22.
Several months ago, Wisper Internet, approached the city about advertising on the back of the city’s water bills. Originally, the company had offered to either pay for the mailing of bills, printing of the bills, or free internet service as remuneration for the advertising.
The city mulled it over and came back with an offer to Wisper. They will allow them to advertise on the back of the city’s water bills for a fee of $1,000 a month for the next six months.
Public Works Director Steve Rosentreter had been dealing with the company for the city.
“They emailed me yesterday and said they were willing to meet our terms ($1,000 a month) for the next six months,” he said. “They wanted to know the size of our water bill so they could figure out how much they could put in.”
City Attorney Bill Strang, who could not attend the special meeting, thought the city should have some kind of contract with Wisper.
“I contacted Wisper and asked them if they had a contract from another city since they do this with other cities,” Rosentreter said. “If they did, we could just modify it to fit us. Bill (Strang) said it just needs to be a simple little agreement.”
The council granted unanimous approval to Wisper for the advertising and Alderwoman Bernie Faul even asked why the city didn’t offer a 12-month contract.
Discussion was also held at this meeting about what to do with the old water tower location and what to do with the land behind the new water tower.
Mayor Mike Snyder said there is someone interested in purchasing the property, but before it can be sold, there has to be an appraisal done.
“The problem is, I talked to a realtor about this last month and she said to appraise it you have to find a like piece of property in the county to compare it to,” he said. “The only thing they could find was a parcel of land in Roodhouse and it was valued at only $2,000.”
The cost to have the land appraised will be about $450.
“But just because they say that is all it is worth doesn’t mean that is what we have to sell it for,” Snyder said. “We can ask for whatever we want to out of the property.”
The issue at the new water tower is what to do with the approximately 3.25 acres behind the water tower.
Last month, Rosentreter said he had someone who was willing to farm that area, but Mayor Snyder has a much more eco-friendly approach he wants to utilize the acreage for. He wants to put in a patch of wildflowers.
However, to grow these wildflowers, everything has to be killed out three times – whether it is chemically or by burning it off.
“I am going to bring the figures back in March as to what it is going to cost to do this, but I would really like to see that area in wild flowers,” Snyder said. “I would much rather see that than crops because then it would never become anything else.”
