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By EMILY SPARACINO | Staff Writer

CHELSEA – In addition to approving an agreement for a turf and track project at Chelsea High School, the Chelsea City Council took action on items pertaining to the Park and Rec Board, a school system telephone survey, the city’s employee handbook and business license fees on Tuesday, Dec. 21.

The council approved resolutions to increase the number of Park and Rec Board members to 15, and to appoint new members and reappoint current members.

The council voted to reappoint David Burton, Jason Rudakas, John Palladino, Melissa Townsend, Jonathan Gill and John Chamblee to the board.

The council voted to appoint Tiffany Bolen, Nina Janchenko, Laura Cruce, Phillip Bolen and Teresa Chamblee to the board.

In a 4-1 vote, the council passed a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into an agreement with Red State Strategies LLC to perform telephone surveys.

The surveys are intended to gather feedback from voters within Chelsea city limits on whether they would support a property tax increase to fund an independent city school system and construction of a new high school.

Councilmembers Scott Weygand, Chris Grace, Tiffany Bittner and Mayor Tony Picklesimer voted in favor of the resolution, while Councilmember Cody Sumners voted against it, citing concerns during precouncil about the numbers in the property tax questions potentially being misleading since residents’ property tax amounts vary.

“I don’t feel like we can go wrong with asking for more feedback,” Bittner said. “We represent these folks that live here. If that’s a way we can gauge what our citizens feel like, we should try it.”

In other business, the council:

• Approved a resolution to amend the employee handbook to allow employees to sell back any vacation days they do not use by the end of a calendar year.

• Voted to amend an ordinance related to the city’s business license fee schedule to bring it up-to-date with the current number of residents.