TRUMAN — The Truman City Council on Monday heard from Martin County engineer, Kevin Peyman, who came to provide an update on the reconstruction of Ciro Street, which is slated to take place in the spring or summer of 2020.

Peyman explained that they’re locked in to work on County Road 52 in 2020. While they’re working on that, they’ll work on Ciro Street, which County Road 52 passes through.

Peyman said he’s aware Ciro Street has been in need of work for a awhile and suggested they mill the surface of the street in order to fix it for a period of time. The last time Ciro Street had an overlay was in 1991.

While Peyman suggested they mill the surface, he let the council know that there are options and he’s open to hearing other suggestions.

“It’s not a complete solution but we could mill it down and it would probably buy us another 20 years before we need to have this conversation again. It’s not a perfect solution but it lasts awhile,” Peyman explained.

Peyman told the council they’ll work with residents and businesses in order to ensure there’s enough side streets and other ways people can get around and that they’ll make sure it’s open to local traffic.

Bill Eckles, CEO of Bevcomm, was also present to talk about the recent purchase of the cable TV systems in Truman, Trimont and Welcome. Beginning in 2019 they will begin the process of building fiber optic technology in order to provide world-class gig infrastructure, feature-rich digital TV and telephone services to the three communities.

While some other communities such as Granada and Winnebago are split half and half having fiber optics, Eckles said they’re planning on providing exclusively fiber in Truman and they should be ready to offer services in 2020.

Mayor Lynn Brownlee told the council that they were approached by the county about the former grocery store building in Truman, which is up for tax forfeiture. Truman has the opportunity to purchase the building before an auction takes place for just $1.

The plan is that the city will purchase it for $1 and then gift it to the EDA.

Most council members were for the plan as they expressed concern that someone will purchase it at an auction and turn it in to a storage space.

“At least we could make something of it or salvage it or get someone in there,” said council member Jake Ebert.

By purchasing the building from the county, the city will then have the option of offering a space to anyone interested in bringing a new business into Truman.

In other news, the council approved to change the next meeting date from Nov. 5 to Monday, Nov. 12 due to elections.

The council also discussed setting special meeting dates for PUC meetings moving forward so that the city council can attend together without violating the open meeting law. The next set PUC meeting date is on the 23rd of this month at 5:30 p.m.