Three Callahan town councilmen began new four-year terms Nov. 21.
Mayor Bobby Rau read the oath as Ken Bass, Marty Fontes and David Mellecker were sworn in.
The next general election will be held in 2018, with two open council seats, the town clerk, the town treasurer and the mayor’s seat up for re-election.
Bass will continue as council president for another year. Councilmembers will retain their current commissioner duties. Councilwoman Janet Shaw was absent.
During the meeting, Callahan Middle School teacher Laura Mock sought a donation to support the school’s Advancement Via Individual Determination program. The non-profit assists children as they work toward college and career goals.
The council donated $500 toward the program in 2015. The funds went toward educational field trips that year.
Three students spoke in support of the program, sharing their experiences with improved grades and future goal setting with plans to attend college.
The council will consider a donation at its next meeting.
Another topic of discussion included the addition of impact fees.
In early October, Melleker asked the council to consider adding a $250 impact fee for parks and recreation, $300 for roads and drainage and a $150 administrative fee for homeowners. The new fees would be in addition to the $1,500 impact fee for residential water and sewer customers. Commercial customers pay $1,800.
Because the park receives greater use, the council voted unanimously to approve only the $250 parks and recreation impact fee.
Councilwoman Kathy Smith said that she didn’t want to see the impact fees grow larger than existing county impact fees.
Fontes agreed, saying, “I want to keep us a lot lower than the county.”
Additionally, water and sewer customers will pay a $2,000 tap fee based on meter size. If the town provides the meter, the customer will assume meter costs, with $3,330 charged for 4-inch pipe, $4,681 for 6, $6,758 for 8, $16,800 for 10 and $19,100 for 12 inches.
In other council news, the board unanimously approved a $500 donation to the Nassau County Economic Development Board via Resolution 2016-R26.