LIBERTY TIGHTENS DRUG POLICY

LIBERTY - Council members adopted a new substance abuse policy covering
town employees at its regular monthly meeting Monday night.

The new policy will cover the town's approximately 30 employees, all
prospective employees and volunteers. Random drug testing for alcohol and
controlled substances will be implemented for employees in
"safety-sensitive positions," which includes any employee who drives or
operates a town vehicle, town equipment or their personal vehicle for town
business.

That includes most of the town's employees, from members of the public
works department to policemen and firefighters. It also includes Town
Manager Chad Howell, who often drives his car on town business in the
course of a day.

Howell said no single incident led to the move to strengthen the substance
abuse policies.

"It was just a feeling that the town needs to be as safe as we can be,"
Howell said after the meeting. "The policy we have is not as strong as it
needs to be."

An employee will be required to take a drug test if there is a "reasonable
suspicion" of drug abuse and if they are involved in an accident (or
incident) where personal injury requires immediate medical treatment,
property damage is estimated in excess of $2,000, or is the employee is
issued a ticket in connection with an accident.

Among other provisions, the new policy prohibits an employee in a
safety-sensitive position from consuming alcohol for four hours before
performing safety-sensitive functions or reporting to work with alcohol
blood content greater than .02. The policy even addresses the use of
prescribed and over-the-counter medications that could impair an employee's
ability to carry out safety-sensitive duties.

Denise Davis with Safety Network, the company that will oversee the drug
testing, suggested that the town wait a minimum of 30 days before beginning
random drug testing to give employees with a drug abuse problem a chance to
"start on a new foot." After testing begins, the goal is to test about 25
percent of the work force, selected at random, every quarter.

The policy encourages employees to seek professional help if they have a
problem.

"No employee will have job security jeopardized by such a good-faith
request," the policy states.

In other business, council members:

* Heard another request from a group of citizens from West Liberty
who want to see a public facility or street named in honor of Dr. Philip
McCleave, a minister who served the town for 40 years. The group's original
request was to rename Paul Henry Smith Park after McCleave. Mayor John
Stanley reiterated his belief that taking an honor away from one person to
give it to another would not be right. Council members voted unanimously
against renaming Paul Henry Smith Park.

Arletha Smith, a spokesperson for the group, offered a few options for
honoring McCleave, such as renaming town hall, the elementary school, the
fire department, a senior citizens complex on Brewer Street, or Greensboro
Street.

Stanley asked that a committee of the residents meet with Howell to present
their entire list of alternative suggestions for honoring McCleave so the
town manager could make a recommendation to the council.

* Discussed hanging banners on electric poles downtown. Dr. Andy
Sykes said members of the Ruritan Club are interested in donating $400-$500
for such a beautification project and thought that other groups might be
interested in joining the effort. Banners could promote Liberty and even be
changed seasonally, he said.

Howell reported that Progress Energy officials said it would be OK to hang
banners on their poles, but that formalizing an agreement would take about
three months. Council members voted to begin that process while they gather
more information about the banners, including costs and how to hang them.
Banners would cost $40-$50 each; the hardware to hang them would cost more,
depending on the type of brackets picked.

"I think there are several organizations in town that may be willing to
help, maybe all of them," said council member Pike Johnson.

"We have always in the past depended on peoples' kindness to hang the
Christmas lights," said Howell, adding that volunteers help might be
recruited to help hang and change banners.

* Voted to increase from $1,000 to $25,000 the amount of money that
could be spent for minor building and water or sewer system repairs.
Projects that cost more than $25,000 will be treated as capital
expenditures. Town auditors suggested the increase during a recent audit.
* Voted to allow the closing of North Fayetteville Street from
Swannanoa Avenue to Starmount Avenue from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Sept. 27
for an antique car show sponsored by the Liberty Chamber of Commerce.