During a meeting of the city council on Tuesday, Evarts Mayor Eddie Manning said he was “very happy” with new Evarts Police Department officer Jeremy Jones, who was introduced to the council during a June meeting.

“I’m very, very happy with Jeremy,” Manning said. “He’s pulled a lot of people over and given a lot of warnings to speeders. He’s only wrote one ticket so far because the person was getting snotty with him.”

Manning said Jones has helped crack down on speeding and made sure vehicle occupants stay buckled.

The nuisance ordinance was also brought to the table as shopping carts continue to be a problem for the city.

“We started really strong enforcing it, but here lately we’ve slacked,” Manning said.

According to council members, shopping carts can be seen scattered throughout the city instead of being returned to the proper stores. The store owners, however, don’t question how they disappear or where they are, leaving shoppers without carts to place their items.

Council members said the owners need to create some form of a policy for the shopping carts to be used in their stores. Members also questioned why the store owners haven’t told customers they cannot remove carts from the property.

The council agreed some form of action needs to be taken to keep the disappearance of the carts in check, suggesting a fine or ticket be placed for every cart the store owners come back to collect.

The council estimated around 25-50 shopping carts are collected every week.

In other council activity:

• A motion was made to adopt the minutes from the last regular meeting on June 18 and the minutes from a special meeting on June 28. Both motions were passed;

• The financial report for the city was read, including a variety of check balances. As of June 30, the general fund ($82,307.32), coal severance money ($1,990.62), fire department ($954.64), police drug ($1,170), street fund ($415.52), recreational fund ($3,248.09), county garbage fund ($10,444.66), Cops for Kids fund ($3,974.56), tourism account ($13,241.88), sanitation ($38,998.86), sewer operations ($27,140.83), sewer depreciation reserve ($4,014), Hope Detention Center project ($100), water operations ($81,417.63), water depreciation reserve ($11,984), USDA bond account ($614.53), water deposit fund ($46,993.22) and water KIA fund ($100), combined, gave the city a total of $329,110.36 in checking account balances. A motion was made to accept the financial report;

• As stated in the city of Evarts statement of activity for June, the city had a total revenue of $8,075.37 and total expenditures of $22,232.87, giving the city a net revenue of $-14,157.50. The statement of activity was accepted by the council;

• In the Kentucky sanitation statement of activity for June, the department reported a total revenue of $6,798.98 and total expenditures of $8,782.60, giving the department a net revenue of $-1,983.62. A motion was made to accept the report;

• In the Kentucky sewer statement of activity for June, the department reported a total revenue of $7,647.28 and total expenditures of $6,487.68, giving the department a net revenue of $1,159.60. The council made a motion to accept the report;

• In the Kentucky water statement of activity for June, the department reported a total revenue of $45,737.75 and total expenditures of $49,009.80, giving the department a net revenue of $-3,272.05. A motion was made to accept the report;

• In the Kentucky tourism statement of activity for June, the department reported a total revenue of $2,502.35 and total expenditures of $6,606.98, giving the department a net revenue of $-4,104.63. The statement of activity was accepted by the council;

• The Evarts Fire Department head reported that for the month of June there was one fire, two lift assists and that state training starts Tuesday. The motion to accept the report was made by the council;

• The Evarts Water Plant reported the monthly water loss for the month of June. The plant produced a total of 13,894,000 gallons of water and sold 10,070,300 residential gallons to leave the plant with a difference of 28 percent water loss. Line breaks accounted for an estimated 200,000 gallons with 26 percent unaccounted for water loss. The plant reported 120,790 gallons of water loss per day and 84 gallons per minute. After hearing the report, the council made a motion to accept it.