By ANNE SPONHOLTZ / My Clay Sun correspondent
A severe thunderstorm halted the Keystone Heights City Council meeting Monday, just as discussion turned to ways to get more water into area lakes.
Not long after a report from the Our Country Day committee on the July Fourth event and an award was presented to members of the Red Cross, a storm arrived with thunder so loud it was difficult at times to hear the discussion.
But the discussion stopped when the lights went out, throwing the meeting room into total darkness and temporarily stopping the meeting.
The emergency lights in the council meeting room failed to kick in. Also, the generator, which is supposed to provide power to City Hall in any emergency situation, failed to come on and no one on hand knew how to resolve the problem.
Most of those at the meeting earlier, including the city’s emergency planner, had already left. Water from the storm was discovered seeping in under a side door in the meeting room, and it looked like a rushing river along Lawrence Boulevard.
As several of those on hand gathered to watch the water flowing along the roadway, loud cracks of thunder caused a few screams and a quick retreat away from the glass door and windows.
Someone finally found a small flashlight. With the tape recorder and computer without power, City Attorney Rob Bradley said the meeting could resume with Assistant City Clerk Annette Ricks taking the minutes.
Mayor Mary Lou Hildreth called the meeting back in session, as council members gathered around Ricks’ desk. Interim City Manager Karen Nelson moved the flashlight between Ricks’ notebook and Hildreth’s agenda and an abbreviated meeting soon concluded.
Henry Barrow of Clay Electric Cooperative said power was out for 59 minutes at City Hall and approximately 40 minutes in other areas.
Kevin Mobley, of the Keystone Heights Volunteer Fire Department, said fire units responded to two reports in the McRae area of lightning strikes to structures. One was a home, but that strike did not cause a fire, while a detached garage in the area did catch on fire. No injuries were reported.
Prior to the arrival of the storm, the council approved a consent ordinance requested by the county adopting municipal service taxing units, or MSTUs, within the city’s boundaries for fire control and law enforcement services provided by the county.
The adoption of MSTUs will allow the county to tax city residents only for services the city does not provide, rather than taxing city residents for all county services, and then returning to the city in the form of interlocal agreements, funds collected for duplicate services.