The Pineville City Council approved the Fiscal Year 2023-24 audit report during Monday’s regular meeting. It was a clean audit with no negative comments.

Mayor Scott Madon pointed out a few highlights from the audit, including that the city had an ending cash balance of $1,478,739, which was $87,643 more than in 2023.

“On page 43 she says, ‘We did not identify any deficiencies of internal control that would be considered a material weakness,” Madon said. “That’s always the big thing we look for and there were no negative comments.”

In other business, the council approved a resolution accepting a $1,000,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission during Monday’s meeting. Madon said that was on top of a $704,000 grant the city received from the ARC about three years ago. The funding is all for work on the Courthouse Square project.

He also provided a quick update on the project.

“We had a pre-construction conference meeting last Thursday and everything is closed. The contractor is supposed to start (Tuesday),” he said. “KU is working on Virginia Avenue, moving their lines from the old wooden poles to the metal poles. Our guys are working on Pine Street around Long’s Pic-Pac getting the underground conduit in”

The mayor said one of the first things the contractor would do is move the statue at the K-9 Memorial on the courthouse lawn near the intersection of Kentucky Avenue and Pine Street.

“The underground conduit will be running under the dog statue so moving it for now is the best thing to do,” Madon said.

KU, AT&T, Spectrum and Kentucky Wireless all have to move their wires from the poles on Virginia Avenue so they can be run through the underground conduit so the work will likely start on Walnut Street along a section running from Virginia to the Post Office entrance.

“There will be contractors doing the sidewalks — taking them out and pouring new ones, there are contractors putting in the brick, contractors doing the underground wiring and the water company is assisting in that. Then you’ve got Green Construction doing their part so we’ve got four or five contractors working on this project,” Madon said. “We feel like its going to take three or four weeks to do each of the four sections. By Christmas or at least around Christmas they should be way down the road. Will they be done? No, because by the time they’re done the blacktop plant will be closed.”

He said plans are to go ahead and mill the road around the square so that it’s more level than it is currently and at least lay down a base layer that can be driven as the work on each street is finished.

“So we’re looking at four to five months before the biggest part of the project is done,” Madon said.

The council also approved a resolution designating September 2024 as “City Government Month.”

“We plan to do some things with the Fire and Police departments and City Hall to bring some students in and let them see how the government works and participate in a few things,” Madon said.

The council also declared a 1988 bucket truck as surplus property.

Johnna Callebs provided a Main Street update to the council.

“We have begun construction at the city park. We’re putting in restrooms with the money we received through our T-Mobile grant,” she said.

Upcoming events  include a free showing of Friday the 13th at the Bell Theater on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

On Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Heather Caldwell of the Anxious Hippy will be holding the second annual Appalachian Hippy Festival starting at noon at the Bell County Fairgrounds.

Main Street Pineville will be holding a casting call in the theater at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 18 for the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Saturday, Sept. 21 Cody Fuston will be performing at the Bell Theater at 7 p.m.

“He’s a Bell County boy who has a big song out right now so we want to support him,” Callebs said.

Fuson’s song “Was it the Whiskey?” is currently number 8 on Spotify and he recently signed with Sony Records.