news Sewers and ‘Spreader Events’
Gulfport Council Approves Lift Station Generator and Spring and Summer Events By Ryan McGahan
The March 2 Gulfport City Council meeting concluded in under 90 minutes as council quickly ran through five resolutions related to upcoming events and the city’s ongoing sewage system maintenance.
The council approved a $39,000 payment to Paramount Power to cover a rented generator needed for one of the city’s lift stations. The generator at the sewage pumping plant next to the Gulfport Recreation Center failed in early December and could not be repaired, so the city rented a replacement, which it plans to use through April until a new permanent generator can be installed. Council also approved a Fiscal Sustainability Plan for ongoing maintenance to the city’s sewage system over the next 10 years.
HELEN SIMON
Council Continues Sewage System Repairs
Events and Programs Council signed off on its annual Summer Recreation program, which looks after children during seven of the eight weeks of summer vacation. Due to COVID delays in the school year, summer break this year starts June 9 and ends August 10. Gulfport residents can get a 25% discount when signing their children up for the program, if their child receives free or reduced lunch at school or another form of financial aid. Council also approved O’Maddy’s St. Patrick’s Day Celebration, the annual March 17 event that was shut down last year due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Ward 1 Councilmember April Thanos called O’Maddy’s owner Joe Guenther up to the podium to answer questions she had about the COVID safety precautions the restaurant was taking for the event. According to Guenther, they will surround the event area with
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Scott McGeehen serves up a platter of corned beef, potatoes and cabbage at O’Maddy’s St. Patrick’s Day event in 2016.
a fence, with two entrances, and “when the guest enters the area, their temperature will be taken, they’ll be required to wear a mask anytime they’re standing up or walking around… tables will be six feet apart… there will also be staff walking around making sure folks are wearing their masks,” Guenther said. Council approved the event, with Thanos dissenting out of fear that it will be “too much of a spreader event.” Council unanimously approved the application for the Gulfport Merchants Chamber’s Pink Flamingo Garden Tour, which took participants through a series of Gulfport’s gardens on March 6.
Thanos is not a GMC board member, but is on the planning committee for the Pink Flamingo tour. When asked whether or not she should have recused herself from the vote on the event, Thanos told the Gabber that she had asked the city manager and the city attorney that question well before the vote came before council. According to Thanos, she was told that because she does not profit from the Pink Flamingo tour in any way, she did not need to recuse herself from the vote. Even if she weren’t part of the planning committee, Thanos said she would have voted for the tour, because it was “a masked and socially distanced event.”
theGabber.com | March 11, 2021 - March 17, 2021
