Election and COVID News from Fayetteville

Rarely has a cancelled meeting included so much news.

The Fayetteville city council was set to have a special meeting Tuesday but the gathering was called off because of a coronavirus concern and because the big reason for calling the meeting resolved itself beforehand. First about the coronavirus.

First about the coronavirus.

Fayetteville Mayor Carl Marino said a city maintenance employee was suffering from a number of coronavirus-like symptoms and was scheduled to be tested Tuesday. Consequently, the Fayetteville city office was going to be closed all week as a precaution. Both Marino and the city secretary (and their spouses) were asked to quarantine pending the results of the test. Wednesday it was confirmed that the test was positive and the patient was taken to a hospital in Austin. Now other city staff are going to be tested, but Marino said the employee did not have a lot of contact with many people in town over the last few weeks.

Now to the initial reason for calling Tuesday’s meeting anyway. There had been some ques

There had been some questions about the eligibility of Scott Marshall to continue holding the Place I city council seat in Fayetteville, after he moved out of the city limits.

Tuesday’s meeting agenda even included an item that said “Declare City Council Place I vacant.”

Marino said that earlier this year Marshall was living in a rent house in Fayetteville but the owner sold it. Marshall moved into a place just outside the city limits, “but so close he could probably touch the city limits.” Marino added that Marshall had proof of his intentions to move back into the city limits as soon as possible.

After consulting with County Judge Joe Weber And County Elections administrator Terri Steinhauser Hefner, and pouring over a lot of election legal documents, they agreed Marshall could continue to hold his council place.

The reason Marshall’s status was so important was clear later in Tuesday’s meeting agenda which include the line “discuss and recognize invalid vote at Special Meeting held on May 26.”

That was the vote on whether or not to allow select baseball tournaments to continue in Fayetteville this summer amidst the coronavirus pandemic. Those tournaments are bringing a lot of players and parents to the city from metro areas around the state. The tournaments were allowed to continue by a 3-2 council vote, with Marshall’s vote essentially being the tiebreaker.

Some in Fayetteville have expressed a fear the tournaments will spread the coronavirus around town, even prompting one anonymous person to distribute flyers on doorsteps around town earlier this week titled “Urgent Life or Death Message to the People of Fayetteville” urging people to try to get the council to change their decision. But with Marshall’s spot on the council upheld, there is no basis for a re-vote on the summer baseball.

But now in the aftermath of Wednesday’s positive coronavirus test, Marino called the select baseball organizers and cancelled this weekend’s tournament games in Fayetteville (though games that were part of that tournament will go on in other areas like Weimar and La Grange).

Marino said the fate of future games in Fayetteville this summer will be left up to the city council.