VIENNA — The Vienna Board of Aldermen hired the city’s fourth clerk in less than a year after accepting City Clerk Brenda Davis’s resignation following a closed session during the Feb. 24 city meeting.

Following a closed session, the board hired Tracy Shiver as the new city clerk. She is married to Alderman Freddie Shiver, who, according to unofficial minutes, from the meeting, recused himself from discussion of the hire. The new clerk began work on Monday after shadowing the previous clerk the prior week.

Davis’s resignation was effective last Friday. She announced her departure from the city government in an email to city utility customers last week.

“The decision to resign was not made lightly, but is the best decision for me at this time,” she wrote. “It has been my pleasure to serve the residents and businesses of the city of Vienna, first as an alderman for 16 years, and then as the city clerk these last four months.”

During the public portion of the Feb. 24 meeting, the aldermen unsealed and accepted bids on two city vehicles.

A 2002 Ford F-250 truck equipped with a snowplow and salt spreader was the first item on the auction block. The city received two bids with South Central Regional Stockyards placing the $8,350 winning bid. Taylor Wyss submitted a $3,000 bid for the truck.

Utilities Superintendent Shon Westart said he expected the truck to bring more, but the value was close. He recommended that the aldermen accept the bid, and they did.

The second vehicle for sale was the 2010 Ford Crown Victoria previously used by the Vienna Police Department. Police Chief Shannon Thompson cringed at Westart’s suggestion that the car, which the chief called “Hazel,” would become a derby car.

The Crown Victoria garnered more attention with a total of six bids. Like Thompson, winning bidder Oscar Hart had a sentimental attachment to the car. Along with Hart’s $2,550 bid, Alderman Chuck Davis, acting as Mayor Pro Tempore in the absence of Mayor Tim Schell, read a note Hart had written.

“Only car I’ve been handcuffed in,” he read.

The other bids, which came from as far as Ohio and South Dakota, were

$2,501 from Don Kilmer, $1,328 from Tim Kscaya, $950 from Robert Crum, $700 from Michael Vanmeter and $678.18 from Emergency Remarketing.

Thompson said he believed the winning bid was equivalent to the trade-in value for the car. The aldermen accepted Hart’s bid.

Brenda Davis said she would inform the bidders of the results.

Later in the meeting, the aldermen met with Maries County Presiding Commissioner Victor Stratman, who requested that the city donate two pieces of land totaling 0.29 of an acre adjacent to the bridge on Maries Road 213 over Fly Creek.

The county has been planning to redo the bridge for more than a year and is now in the right of way acquisition stage. Stratman said the new updates will follow the same alignment as the current bridge, but the project will widen it.

The aldermen approved the right of way donation on the condition that the county cover the cost for changes to the deed.

New Maries County Emergency Management Director Mike Elliott also came to the meeting to introduce himself to city officials so they know who he is in the event of an emergency.

Heartland Regional Library System Director Lisa Garro spoke to city officials during the meeting to request changes to the parking space around Vienna Library. The front of the library, which faces the courthouse on Third Street, only has one-and-a-half parking spots.

Garro said the parking in front of the library used to be diagonal, but years ago the city striped the street to make the spots available for parallel parking. She asked if the city could paint diagonal lines next time it repaints the parking spots. Another request was for a handicap-accessible spot in front of the library.

Thompson said the city changed the street parking in front of the library to parallel parking because of collisions occurring on the street. VPD still works collisions on the opposite side of the courthouse at Fourth Street, which includes diagonal parking on both sides of the road.

“When court is going on, two cars can’t pass through that on the north side of the courthouse,” he said. “They can on the south side.”

Westart said the city could paint a handicap-accessible parking spot in front of the library. The reason it had removed the previous accessible parking spot was because it was not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Changes to the sidewalk in the interim improved accessibility, so a parking spot could be compliant there now.

Although more parking spots in front of the library was unlikely, Westart said the city could paint spots at the side of the building on Main Street.

Garro said that would be fine and thanked everyone before leaving.

Later, discussion shifted to changes in city technology. Brenda Davis said City Hall’s internet services had transitioned fully to RadioWire from Wave Internet and service had improved. She told the aldermen they could make a decision on how to proceed with Wave Internet, which had previously put its equipment on the city’s water tower in exchange for internet service at City Hall. The board planned to consider options and make a decision in the future.

The clerk also recommended investing in a server for the city’s digital records to provide a backup if something were to happen to the hardware at City Hall.

Thompson said RCS Computers was working on establishing email addresses for city officials and employees using the “.gov” suffix. The police cars were downloading documents better after getting upgrades to the computer equipment. An additional expense as part of the technology updates would be Microsoft licenses to separate police department and administrative files.

The city has been processing a change in utility billing software under the GWorks program. Throughout the process, the city clerk had sent emails to customers and posted on Facebook to keep them informed about changes to billing. However, some customers did not have emails on file with the city, so they had paid their bills late without realizing it.

All city utility customers should receive mailed copies of their bills due on March 10. The hard copies will include a letter from the mayor providing more information about future utility billing.