WESSON – The board of aldermen on Tuesday overrode Mayor AltonShaw’s recent veto of an employee pay raise.

Last month, aldermen told Shaw they believed his veto of TownHall employee Ann James’ pay increase was improper because it didnot fall within the time limit set by state law.

Shaw showed aldermen an opinion from the attorney general’soffice that said his veto of James’ $4-per-hour raise was donewithin the time limit.

“I’m sorry the Attorney General’s office disagrees with you,”Shaw told Alderman Hollis Cowen.

Cowen responded that he was sorry, too, but had the right tovote to override Shaw’s veto.

Other aldermen said Tuesday they would agree to override theveto if Cowen would made a subsequent motion to reduce the payraise to $2 an hour. The override vote passed, and Cowen made amotion for James to earn $10 an hour retroactive to March 1.

Alderman David Douglas did not attend the meeting.

Alderwoman Lura Greer said James was not comfortable with beingpaid $12 an hour pay but would accept $10 an hour.

“You can probably expect a veto on that,” Shaw toldaldermen.

During debate over the veto, Cowen accused Shaw of having apersonal vendetta against him.

“You’re going around my ward right now in support of myopponent,” said Cowen. “You want me off this board.”

Cowen faces challengers Rhonello “R.G.” Dube and Bobby Britt incity elections June 7.

Shaw made no response and moved on to other business, includinga presentation by engineer Jeff Knight.

Knight said the plan to treat sewer water from Beauregard wasmoving forward. He said the agreement was still in the preliminarystages but Beauregard would likely receive a grant soon.

In other matters, Johnny Weeks approached the board about astreet that recently was opened on his mother’s property. He wasunhappy about the street opening but suggested a compromise he saidwould make him more comfortable about it.

“I just want to ask y’all to do the right thing,” Weeks said,mentioning that his family had taken care of the land for 65years.

Weeks said he would not object to the street if the town wouldplace a barricade at the end so that people would stop using thearea to dump trash and ride all-terrain vehicles.

“We’ll get started on that in the morning and we’ll get thestuff that’s been dumped and clean it up,” Shaw promised Weeks.

Before closing the meeting, Shaw reminded residents thatabsentee voting for the June 7 election will continue until June4.