SOUTH FORK—The South Fork Town Board met for their monthly meeting on Tuesday, June 26 to discuss several topics including the town’s water system. Town Administrator Dan Hicks presented the board with the year-to-date treasurer’s report stating that the town is currently on budget with an increase in revenue and a decrease in expenses.

“There was an increase in revenue this month for $16,928; we received a donation from the Greater South Fork Community Foundation. They had funding that needed to be exhausted; it was one of those where they needed to use it or lose it, so they donated it to the town,” explained Hicks.

The funding will be used for the six flag poles located at the intersection of Highway 149 and 160. The poles will be painted and redone with new equipment and new flags. Hicks stated that after some discussion with members of the Greater South Fork Community Foundation, they decided that the funding can also help with building a new gazebo that will be built outside the visitor center windows.

“We can relocate the webcam at the point and use the iron cut outs from the poles by the highway to make the gazebo. We have enough funding to purchase two years’ worth of flags that will replace the cut outs,” said Hicks. “Then, if we have enough money left over, we are going to explore purchasing an outdoor projector that can display lights or figures running across the screen. We would use the trees around the center as the screen and put the projector behind the South Fork sign.”

Hicks stated that town staff planned to use the projector to replace all the lights that were hung in the trees last winter, but that they planned to experiment with the idea before purchasing the machine. “It’s a very dramatic effect if you haven’t seen it. The new technology uses lasers to create the effect,” said Hicks. “There will be a wow factor. You can do Christmas lights to snowflakes to skiers; it’s really neat. We will put together a formal budget to present to you during the next work session.”

Town board members moved on to another topic of discussion which pertained to the regular monthly meeting times and locations. Over the last several years, the board has used the local community center as their meeting place, but after much discussion, decided that the space was too large for the small amount of people who attended the meetings. The board will now be meeting at the South Fork Carnegie Library conference room.

Board members also discussed changing the meeting time to 6 p.m. every fourth Tuesday of the month from now on. The board passed Resolution 18-14, which amended the original resolution made in 2016 announcing the changes to the public.

At the end of the meeting, the board presented their monthly Community Appreciation award to the Garden Walk South Fork Apartments for their continuous work within the community and for working to rehabilitate the old apartments over the last year and a half. Board members thanked apartment manager Brandi Wilson for her hard work.