Lamar Mayor Kirk Crespin and City Attorney Lance Clark are composing a letter of concern to officials at Charter Spectrum, the city’s cable and internet provider.
“I’ve received quite a few calls and emails regarding Spectrum’s services which have been interrupted recently and most of the calls I’ve received in the past month have been about the company,” he explained during the council’s February 22
nd meeting. “We operate on a 10 to 20 year franchise agreement with a provider which pays the City of Lamar a franchise fee and uses our infrastructure to connect to their customers,” he said, providing background on the cable company. He added that many of the comments are concerned about the amount of ‘down time’ when the signal fails to reach the community. Crespin said it could be due to a lot of reasons, from an Act of God or lines being downed because of poor weather conditions.
The Lamar City Council held its first meeting of 2021 this past Monday, January 11
th. City Treasurer, Kristin McCrea noted her findings for the city’s Water/Wastewater fund from 2016 to 2020 which indicated the operating expenditures for four of the past five years have been overspent. Her written report suggested the need to increase the fund balance in order to complete future capital projects. She recommended that for the 2021 budget, the city move closer to what the annual averages have been, based on a three-year history. McCrea outlined her goals including educating department heads on the differences between considered capital and operating expenses, explaining budget versus actual expenses and remaining within the budgeted guidelines for the year and develop an understanding of the needs of each department head to assist them to reach their annual goals. McCrea said the new, quarterly reporting system suggested by Administrator Kil will help with the financial breakdo