GARDEN CITY — The town of Garden City is ready to welcome the community out for a Freedom Celebration Sunday night, provided the weather cooperates.

The town’s Freedom Celebration will begin at 6 p.m. at the town park on Hwy. 31. Fireworks will begin after dark. Councilman Scott Arnold said the three churches in Garden City are involved in the event.

“Invite as many people as you can,” said Mayor Tim Eskew. “It’s a big deal for us.”

At Monday night’s meeting, the council approved a contract with St. John & Associates for engineering services as part of the town’s upgrading residential water meters. Garden City received a $195,250 loan through the Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund to install the new metering system. The town will be replacing approximately 275 water meters as part of its ongoing project to improve the technology of the water system.

Eskew said residents won’t see an increase in their water bill due to the new meters, but warned that eventually rates will have to go up on both water and sewer.

“That’s the evil of having to run things,” he said. “We have to make a little money to keep things going.”

The council also approved spending $1,000 on labor to divide a portion of the fire department out to create an air conditioned space for storing medical supplies. Currently, high temperatures in the summer are costing the town in ruined supplies.

“Once we get this air conditioned section up, it’s going to save us a lot of money in the long run,” said Fire Chief James Johnson.

The council went into executive session to discuss the old Garden City school. At last month’s meeting, Dan Willingham and Nolan Bradford said they would be interested in buying the school from the town. 

The school house was built in 1932 and closed in 2015. It has stood empty since then, and in 2020, it became the property of the town through an act of the legislature. Eskew said the town recently received the deed to the building.

Willingham and Bradford said they want to renovate the building to possibly use as an event space. 

Monday, Eskew said he’d received “a rough appraisal” on the value of the building, but wanted to discuss it with the council in a closed meeting. They came out of the closed session and did not take any action on the school building.

The council did approve a resolution allowing the mayor to sign for its newest fire truck, which should be arriving in three to four weeks, according to Eskew.