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The City of Hogansville announced Monday night that someone has recently bought Station Coffee House and a new market is moving into downtown.

“We want anybody that wants to be an entrepreneur to come to me or Brandon Rettke, and we will help them develop a business plan,” said City Councilwoman Toni Striblin. “Ultimately, I would love to turn this over to the Downtown Development Authority and have a systematic way approach to promote growth in Hogansville. Right now, we don’t have something set up with them, so right now Brandon Rettke and I are taking the lead.”

Striblin encouraged the council to reach out to entrepreneurs that they know and steer them toward setting up in Hogansville.

Mayor Bill Stankiewicz informed the council that the selection of the new city manager has been narrowed down to 11 candidates.

“I have received an email late this afternoon from Tom Berry (with the Strategic Government Resources Job Board), and he has completed his interviews of the 11 candidates that the council selected,” Stankiewicz said. “He has ranked them, and I will share that will the council. We don’t want to release the names because of confidentiality. He has selected of the 11, five that he feels are fully qualified.”

Stankiewicz said the council will have to make a decision whether to interview all 11 or the five Berry selected.

“We would love to get them on board by July 1,” Stankiewicz said. “Time is of the essence.”

On May 28, the council will begin to review the budget for the year.

“The city manager is looking for an alternative site, where we can have an alternative site,” Stankiewicz said. “It is really critical we get together for this, with social distancing and personal protective equipment.”

The council also voted to accept the agreements with CCR Environmental, Inc. and Turnipseed Engineers to perform the annual monitoring and reporting to Environmental Protection Division (EPD).

According to Interim City Manager Lisa Kelly, EPD requires annual monitoring and reporting associated with the new wastewater treatment plant, above and beyond current requirements, due to direct discharge of treated wastewater into Yellow Jacket Creek.

The annual cost for monitoring will be $10,370 and $4,500 for the annual cost for reporting.

Kelly added that no dollars will be expended in the current budget year, and funds were set aside for operational costs. The new 2020/2021 budget will reflect those operational costs.