Cave Spring to set elections tonight

The city council also plans to consider recommendations from the sidewalk committee at its first meeting of 2019.

The Cave Spring City Council holds its first meeting of the year tonight at 6 p.m. in City Hall.

A slate of annual appointments is on the agenda, including election of the mayor pro tem — a council member to act in the absence of Mayor Dennis Shoaf.

The board also is scheduled to officially set the city’s election dates and qualifying fees for the coming year. Shoaf’s term of office expires on Dec. 31. The seats held by council members Tom Lindsey and Joyce Mink also will be on the ballot in November.

A special election on liquor sales also is expected to be set for March.

“Petition signed!,” the mysterious Cave Spring Distilling Co. posted on its Facebook page Friday.

The as-yet unnamed investors want to renovate a vacant historic building on the Square as a distillery with a tasting room and store, to open this summer. But the voters first must approve liquor sales. The city council indicated it would put liquor-by-thedrink and Sunday sales on the ballot but state law requires a petition to add package sales.

Council members also are scheduled to hear reports from the city’s various departments today and decide on contracts for tree-removal on Alabama Street and new lighting at the library and Fannin Hall.

The board will discuss several of the pending issues at a 4 p.m. work session before the regular meeting. Both gatherings are public.

During the work session, council members also are expected to give their special-committee reports.

Lindsey and Council member Nancy Fricks have been looking at dilapidated buildings and nuisance properties to be addressed under the city’s “clean it or lien it” policy.

Mink and Council member Nellie McCain are putting together a priority list of sidewalks in the city to repair and rehabilitate with state grant money.