GRANITE QUARRY — The Granite Quarry Board of Aldermen voted during its meeting on Monday to change future regularly-scheduled meetings from the second Monday of every month to the second Thursday of every month.

The change was initiated at the request of the board of aldermen because Planning, Zoning and Subdivision Administrator Rick Flowe often had scheduling conflicts due to his work with other municipalities. Flowe, who is an outside contractor as the president and CEO of planning company N-Focus, had to split the second Mondays between Granite Quarry and Landis, which he also is contracted to work with.

When Flowe began to work with both of the towns, he was able to rotate his work between the two well, but a recent increase in applications and companies who wish to discuss joining both towns has made that difficult, Acting Town Manager Jason Hord said during the meeting.

“It’s a beautiful problem to have, but that’s where we’re running into the biggest problems is that it’s hard to try to rotate those around now because there are so many (planning items) coming through. And then we’ve had the land use deal with the sphere of influence, which is coming to the forefront with tire-kickers and stuff like that,” said Hord.

In a phone call on Wednesday, Hord said that changing the town’s meeting to allow for an increased availability from N-Focus could also makes the town look stronger to outside developers. He said that the change could decrease the time the town takes for the planning process, which provides a more appealing answer when companies that are considering moving to the area ask about the length of time until a decision is made.

The members of the board had floated other days of the week as well as Thursday, and each presented separate conflicts. Flowe was unable to commit to availability the second Tuesday of every month, and the members were worried about Wednesday conflicting with religious services within the community.

Alderman Rich Luhrs said that he may have scheduling conflicts for some of the rescheduled meetings, but that he would yield his concerns to the community’s religious services “in a heartbeat.”

They also considered holding separate, specially-called meetings during months where Flowe had something especially important or controversial to put before the board for consideration. However, that was turned down due to the extra burden that it may have had on staff and the uncertainty that could present for development applications.

At the end of the discussion, the aldermen voted unanimously to change the meeting schedule. The change was effective immediately, meaning that the July meeting is now on Thursday, July 11, instead of Monday, July 8. The meeting time will still be 6 p.m.