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WINDSOR

On Tuesday, during the first regular scheduled Windsor Town Council meeting of the year, Isle of Wight County Circuit Court Clerk Sharon Jones administered the oath of office to the town’s newly elected mayor, Glyn T. Willis, and its three newly elected council representatives.

Willis, who previously served on the town’s Planning Commission, was elected on Nov. 6, as was George L. Stubbs, also of the Planning Commission, Kelly G. Blankenship and J. Randy Carr.

Once everyone was sworn in, the council voted unanimously to appoint Stubbs as its representative on the Planning Commission, replacing Greg Willis, whose term as the council’s temporary representative on the commission expired on Dec. 31, 2018.

The council will also need to appoint two new Planning Commission members: one who will serve the remainder of Glyn Willis’s term, which will end on Dec. 31, and another to serve the remainder of Greg Willis’s term as a regular member of the commission, which will end on Dec. 21, 2022. Seven town residents have expressed interest in serving on the commission. They are Ricky Vaughn, Desiree Urquhart, former councilman Tony Ambrose, Jesse Taylor, Sue Meadows, Mercer Meding and Dale Scott.

At the end of the meeting, the council went into closed session to discuss the qualifications of each candidate. The council expects to announce its decision at its February meeting.

In other business, the council voted unanimously to appropriate $250 in donations intended to buy toys for the town Police Department’s annual toy drive. The council also voted unanimously to authorize Stallings to execute a $47,000 work order with Bowman Consulting to provide all needed engineering work throughout the design, bidding and construction of new water lines on Duke Street and Virginia Avenue.

According to a memorandum from Stallings to the council, in December 2017, the previous town council entered into an agreement with Bowman to provide “on-call” engineering services to the town. One of the projects the council had in mind on which to use Bowman’s services was the replacement of these water lines.

This fiscal year’s Water Fund capital improvements project contains $300,000 for the construction of a new 8-inch pipe on Duke Street to replace the existing 4-inch one, and a new 6-inch pipe on Virginia Avenue, also replacing a 4-inch one. The $47,000 will come out of the allocated $300,000.

The purpose in upgrading these water lines is to correct leaks and increase the capacity of the town’s system so that it can install fire hydrants along these streets. Construction of the pipes will likely happen sometime this summer, though Stallings said the town would ensure that the roads are not torn up during the town’s Fourth of July celebration.