City of Fairfield will have three positions to fill in the water and wastewater departments, not to mention the still-pending economic development director post, with the retirement of Billy Chancellor effective the end of February, and the city council's recent termination of two long-time employees.

Scott Schick's city career ended last month, and Steve Rossiaky was let go at last week's meeting. Both were terminated for undisclosed reasons after lengthy executive sessions.

Public works director Billy Chancellor will retire next month after serving 17 years with the city.

At last week's meeting, council members approved advertising for the public works director position in the coming weeks. The job of his second in command, previ- ously served by Schick, will be filled after a new director is hired.

A timeline has not been released for filling Rossiaky's job, and the selection of the economic development director is still up in the air after the city narrowed it last month to three finalists: Joanna Fritz, Dawn Newman and Liz Thornton.

The council did, however, plan to meet on Wednesday this week to continue that selection process.

Employment issues could be discussed at a mayor/council out of town retreat approved by the council last week. A retreat offers the officials a chance to discuss city problems without much expected in the way of an audience. While the retreat would have to be open to the public to be in compliance with the State of Texas Open Meetings Laws, it would be reasonably expected that not many city residents would be able to attend, making the meeting legal, but not very "open".

A date and location for a retreat has not yet been named.

Also at last week's meeting, New Leash on Life president Cindy Phillips spoke to city officials at length about the animal shelter, its problems and its needs.

"We don't have enough money or enough volunteers," she said. "We will use up our funds by the end of February."

Mrs. Phillips pointed out that Freestone county has given the shelter $20,000 this year and last year, and that the funds have been greatly appreciated, however, "It costs us about $5,000 per month for food, litter, medicine, vet visits, maintenance and repairs of the kennels and part time help, and we are very frugal," she added.

Councilmen agreed to set a special meeting Feb. 9 at 5 p.m. to further discuss the animal shelter, and come to some kind of decision regarding its future.

New "welcome to Fairfield" signs are on the agenda for the city, beginning with the water tower on I-45. "To a city as nice as Fairfield, it's an eyesore," councilman Joe Kirgan said last week. "I'd like it to say something like `Fairfield, Home of the Eagles' meaning the Fairfield Eagles and the eagles at Fairfield Lake," he added.

Kirgan made the motion to look into costs of repainting the water tower and any other appropriate welcome signs in the city. The motion was seconded by Luke Ward, Jr. and unanimously approved.

In lieu of a fine issued by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the city will clean up unauthorized trash dumps around town.

"We have a huge problem (with illegal trash dumping)," city administrator Jeff Looney admitted. The TCEQ will allow the city to conduct the cleanup as a "special environmental project" instead of paying the $9,000 fine, which was issued for wastewater non-compliance issues.

Also at the meeting, councilmen approved a letter of agreement with Bojorquez law firm in Waco concerning future consultations as needed, approved a slight reroute of the WH Day #1 pipeline, and approved a permit for a standard archeological site survey at the location of a Walnut Creek plant radio tower.