BATH

Last week, the Bath City Council was forced to redo a vote on a bond ordinance of $621,000 that was first approved of in June, after it discovered that the city had not provided proper notice of its second passage.

“ It had to be voted on twice by the council. During the second passage it was not published ( in a newspaper),” Interim City Manager Peter Owen said. “ Because it wasn’t published it didn’t follow the terms of the charter. So it had to be brought up again and voted on and advertised.”

While the council had passed the bond ordinance at two separate meetings earlier this year, city staff had failed to properly advertise the second passage. Because the proper process had not been followed, the second passage of the bond was null and void.

“It’s a technicality that has to occur for certain ordinances to pass,” said Owen.

The mistake was only discovered recently by city staff.

“ When they went to check on it they realized it hadn’t been published, so it had to go through that process again,” said Owen.

The bond of up to $ 621,000 will pay for the city’s capital equipment, specifically a fire chief vehicle, a police vehicle, an ambulance, a plow truck, a dump truck and a street sweeper. The bond ordinance received its long overdue second passage at a special council meeting Dec. 20.

nstrout@timesrecord.com