An debate that has been ongoing for years between the Adairville city council and mayor may have been resolved during last week’s regularly scheduled city council meeting.

For much of mayor Jim Wilkerson’s two terms as mayor, he has allowed the grass on some of the city-owned properties to grow up and then be cut for hay. Wilkerson would allow farmers who want the hay to come onto the city property and cut the grass for the hay - giving the farmers free hay and the city free maintenance of the otherwise useless property.

But over the years, that has been a sore spot for various members of the council.

“The city cannot allow these properties to grow up for hay if other people aren’t allowed to,” council member Donna Blake said at last week’s meeting.

Blake then made a motion stating that the city properties should be mowed “at least every other week.”

Wilkerson disagreed, saying, “I don’t think the city needs to spend its resources to do that.”

Blake said that the city should not be allowed to let its properties grow up if the citizens are required by ordinance to keep their grass cut to a certain length.

Wilkerson was concerned about the cost of paying city employees to mow the lots - some of which are several acres in size.

“It costs money,” Wilkerson said.

Blake restated her motion, saying that all city lots should be cut if they grow up over six inches in length.

“I’m going to ask the council not to pass that because it’s impossible to do that,” Wilkerson said. “There’s no way we can do it.”

The motion passed with a 4-0 vote - Art Violette, Becky Tinch, Bill Steen and Blake all voted yes and Danny Finch abstained. Council member Tony Nichols was not at last week’s meeting.

The council also had further discussion about the purchase of a stun gun for the purpose of helping to control dogs in the city.

At the July meeting, Adairville citizen Kathryn Wix told her story about losing two of her outdoor cats to a pack of roaming dogs.

The first time one died, she did not see what happened. She saw the other cat being mauled by a pair of dogs early one morning.

“They were large, black dogs,” she said.

Wix said that one of her neighbors has seen as many as four dogs out together at the same time - and has also lost cats, presumably to the same pack.

Wilkerson said last week that the dogs had not been seen recently and speculated the owner may have stopped letting them out

“I think the owners got scared and put them up,” Wilkerson said.

Wilkerson added that the city has not gotten any complaints about stray animals recently and that buying a stun gun probably wouldn’t be a good idea.