At the November meeting of the Callaway Village Board new member TJ Elliott was sworn in. He replaces long-time board member Ken Pitkin who elected to retire from his position.

At the December meeting the board was faced with the dilemma of losing another member - Abe Hinman. He and his wife Morgan have purchased a home outside of the Callaway city limits, which by state statute prohibits him from serving on the village board.

The Hinmans closed on their new home on Dec. 18 and plan to move out of the village before the first of the year. Therefore, the search is on for a replacement.

“Finding people who want to be on the board is a struggle,” said Village Board Chairman Mark Kimball who has served on the board for 10 years.

Filling the now vacated seat was one of the items on the agenda at the Dec. 10 board meeting. However, the discussion was pretty short. Chairman Kimball informed the board that only one application for the position had been received and recommended keeping the position open until the January meeting in hopes of generating more interest.

“The response has not been overwhelming. Not that the gentleman that put his name in is not worthy of it, but it would just be nice to have more than one,” Kimball said.

The rest of the board agreed. The board regretfully accepted Hinman’s resignation from the board, effective Dec. 18. Hinman served on the board for six years.

The board vacancy also postponed the reorganization of the board, and it was agreed to fill only the committees that will need to take action prior to the January Village Board meeting. One of those was the cemetery board, which Elliott and Kimball agreed to sit on. Lawrence Paulsen moved from the water, trash and sewer committee to the financial committee and Elliott agreed to take Paulsen’s place and serve with Dan Lewandowski.

Other village appointments approved by the board were clerk - Lori Bonde; attorney - Julianna Jenkins; engineer - JEO Consulting Group; and street superintendent - Andrew Wilshusen. Kimball was also voted in as chairman, and Paulsen as vice-chairman. The rest of the reorganization will be done at the next meeting.

A discussion was also held on insurance for the town’s library. The board agreed that the first step would be to determine all of the items in the library and try to get an idea of what the contents might be worth. At the conclusion of the discussion Elliott and Paulsen agreed to visit the library and work on making a determination of items and value to bring back to the board at the January meeting.

In his monthly report, Rod Brestel updated the board on the radiator system at the light plant. He has gotten a quote to fix the radiator system inside the plant, and also discussed the radiators on the outside.

“Kimball is redoing their generation plant and they have a radiator just like the one we have, and said they would give us a good deal - whatever that might be,” Brestel said. “He said it is only two years old. So I told him to find out what his council wanted for it. I don’t think we’re in any big hurry to change that out, but we’ve got options.”

The board approved spending $4,500 for radiator replacement at the power plant, the price quoted to Brestel.

Brestel also reported that the new Callaway Community Center sign has been installed on the north side of the building. It replaces the sign that was damaged in the hail storm.

Village Clerk Lori Bonde reported that with Elliott coming on the board that creates a vacancy in the zoning board. His dad, Tim Elliott, has agreed to fill that position.

The board also discussed swimming pool family passes as someone wants to purchase one as a Christmas gift. After some discussion, the board decided to keep the prices the same this year as last year for the time being. They also talked about a method that could be implemented at the pool to keep better track of the number of daily visitors.

The final order of business was a decision of what to do with a sinking fund CD that had come due at First Interstate Bank in the amount of just over $780,000. The board discussed the option of moving the funds into a money market account which will generate more interest. Paulsen agreed to talk with the bank about what they can do, and the board voted to authorize him and the finance committee to make a final decision on where to place the funds.

The next meeting of the Village Board will be Jan. 14.