Staff editor

Leitchfield City Council members voted on Monday evening to uphold the decision made by planning and zoning commissioners to deny a rezoning request made recently by Sherri Huff for property at 501 Hardin Street.

The request for the R2 to R5 rezoning change would have made the building of multi-family dwellings possible. Two duplex structures are situated at the end of the street which require an R4 zoning.

Birds were on the minds of council members again. Darrell Harrell, public works director, informed the group that the U.S. Department of Agricultue has presented the city with a renewed proposal for the relocation of nuisance birds in the area. Starlings and pigeons have presented a persistent problem to the city for years. The proposal for the next year's contract presents the relocation service for $4,990, which was approved by the council.

Mayor William "Turkey" Thomason shared a communication from Comcast Cable Company announcing the addition of TV Guide to the local channel line-up. The letter also indicated that QVC will be relocated to the basic service tier on Channel 4 and WBKI will move to Channel 7. Additionally, WTVW and WEHT will be deleted from programming, effective April 1.

Thomason voiced his concerns to the council about the deletion of the Evansville stations. In a letter he passed out to the council, Thomason replied to Comcast stating, "We are quite disappointed that you are removing the two Evansville stations from your basic service tier. For geographic reasons, we rely heavily on the Evansville stations for weather news and the live reports they do on inclement weather conditions moving in our direction. As the ice storm from this weekend proves, it is important that we know the conditions coming our way in order to prepare and make the best of a bad situation for the citizens of Leitchfield."

In other business, Harrell reported that a recent meeting of the solid waste committee resulted in the consideration of bidding out part of commercial services for private companies. No firm decisions have been made yet.

The group also voted to reappoint Ray Montgomery as tourism director.