LEITCHFIELD CITY HALL -- The first December meeting of the Leitchfield City Council opened with a discussion of the immense storage problem created by the taping and indefinite storage of every meeting held in City Hall.

Each meeting takes up to two tapes, stated City Clerk Kerry White. He said that the present tapes are kept forever,. There has never been a time limit put on the keeping of the tapes. He recommended keeping the tapes for 60 or 90 days after the minutes were accepted. White also added that the indexing of the thousands of tapes was another problem.

Leitchfield Mayor William H. Thomason recommended that the tapes be kept for the fiscal year and then recorded over.

Others wanted to keep the tapes for a year and reuse the tapes as they aged to 13 months. That would keep a year's worth of tapes on hand at all times. The council moved on that and approved the rotating schedule of 12 months from the date of taping for the new policy on taping meetings.

The council then addressed departmental fund raising policies. The council moved that all contracts be approved by the council before they could be signed by police, fire or other City departments. This motion excluded the Crusade for Children held each year. The policy only affects the fund raisers done by City departments and does not affect civic organizations, stated mayor Thomason.

The much talked about and stalled out City web site was then discussed. The council had approved a June 2001 proposal from K-105 radio for the construction and maintenance of a web site. A conflict was discovered with the plan and it was tabled for a while. A deal was worked out and the City approved the same contract with Eric Foster for the web site and its construction. The fees for the site are; $1,423,75 for construction and a $70 monthly hosting fee.

The next item of business was the reappointment of Hershel Langdon to the Tax Appeals Board.

Mileage expense reimbursement was next on the agenda. Employees had asked the City to raise mileage from the present .27 cents up to the State rate of .32 cents. White recommended that the rate be set to the prevailing state rate for the area. The item was tabled until more information could be gathered on the state's mileage rates.

Council woman Brenda Huffman recommended that the City post signs directing drivers to the industries located around town and also to City Park. mayor Thomason asked Public Works to check into sign regulations and report back at the next meeting.