By ALEXANDER SIMONE

Staff writer

Peabody council on Monday approved a plan to have Whitney Enterprises replace the door and any rotting wood at Peabody City Park’s round house.

The full project was estimated at $2,950, but replacing only the door would cost $1,198.

“It doesn’t make any sense, really, to just do the doors and not the base,” councilman Travis Wilson said. “Those are starting to rot out too, that’s just my thought.”

Approving the project now will allow owner Mark Whitney time to make any plans he needs, councilman Rick Reynolds said.

“We should probably act on it because he’s a couple months out before he can start working on it regardless,” he said. “That way he can start getting all the supplies and get a good game plan.”

Before any further plans are made, the city needs to be sure Whitney has his contractor’s license on file at the city office, Wilson said.

Former Peabody property owner Lance Carter was denied a request for his 2019 unpaid mowing invoices to be waived.

Carter claimed to have mowed the property and cleared it of tree limbs, police chief Bruce Burke said, but city employees did have to mow the property on one occasion, which Carter was being charged for.

“I cannot just forgive a bill,” Burke said. “That would have to come from the city council, and I’d be opposed to that because we mowed it in good faith.”