Hennessey Board of Trustees and Utilities Authority’s regular monthly meetings will change from the second Thursday of the month to the second Tuesday of the month.

It will not take effect until the Tuesday, May 14, meeting.

The date change is because the newly-hired town attorney, Jared Harrison of Kingfisher, will then be able to attend meetings.

The board was told Harrison has obligations with other municipalities on Thursdays.

The change was approved 5-0 during a 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 2, special meeting, which was recessed from a Tuesday, March 26, meeting.

The vote came after Town Clerk Kelley Vaverka said her Love’s Country Store supervisor told her “she’d work with me (on my schedule).”

March Discussion

Vaverka told the board during its March meeting that she wouldn’t be available Tuesdays because of her work schedule.

That’s because she’s operations manager at Love’s “and there would have to be too many shift changes for everyone.”

She has worked at Love’s for more than seven years and said trustee meetings were on Thursday nights when she filed for the position last year.

Later in the meeting she told trustees she hadn’t had time to check with her employer. All five members agreed to postpone action so she could see about changing her schedule and recessed that meeting until April 2.

Town Attorney Talk

In last week’s meeting there were also comments about the new town attorney’s contract, which will be on the board’s agenda this Thursday, April 11.

Harrison was hired March 14.

He said his hourly rate is $225 and Trustee Bert Gritz suggested a contract rate possibly based on the total number of meeting hours over the past year.

All board members were present at the meeting: Mayor Clif Vogt, Vice Mayor Harold Shaw, trustees Gritz, David Jones and Randy Bohnstedt.

Also present were Vaverka and Town Treasurer and Town Hall Office Manager Shelley Burch.

Absent was Town Administrator Tiffany Tillman.