The town of Maplesville hired a new police officer Tuesday night, after two full-time officers resigned in the last two weeks.

The two officers took jobs elsewhere, one with the Chilton County Sheriff’s Office and one with a family business, according to Police Chief Todd Ingram.

The council moved to hire Jerry Hood as a full-time officer. Hood started working part-time with the town a few weeks ago, given the extra manpower needed because of the resignations.

The council and Mayor Aubrey Latham discussed ways to keep officers employed with the town for longer periods of time, but took no formal action.

“It’s been a revolving door (lately),” Latham said.

In other police-related business, the council approved a police chief job description and discussed several complaints concerning stray dogs.

The council and town counsel Hollis Jackson discussed combining Maplesville’s two ordinances concerning animal control — one about strays and one about vicious animals — into one clearer ordinance. It was decided to bring up the issue again at a later work session.

The council also approved posting speed limit signs on Maple Drive and some stop signs, including one at the intersection of Loper Lane and Birch Street.

In fire department-related business, the council approved spending $630 for the fire department to buy 20 new batteries for its mobile radios and to make repairs on the new fire engine’s compression unit, which isn’t cooling properly. An estimate on the vehicle work was $340.

Several people have also expressed an interest in serving on the town’s park board. Town Clerk Sheila Haigler said people who might want to serve on the board should contact her soon because appointments would be made in the next few weeks. Haigler can be reached by calling the Maplesville Town Hall at (334) 366-4211. People who serve on the board must be Maplesville residents.

In other business, the following items were discussed:

•RDS, which handles the town’s sales tax collection and auditing, informed the city recently that Royster Sawmill incorrectly paid the town $8,211 in sales tax that should have been made to the city of Alabaster and Shelby County.

The mix-up occurred because products made in Maplesville were delivered and sold in Alabaster, from January 2006 to October 2009. The town will have to repay the money; an RDS representative told Haigler that she didn’t think the town would have more than a year to pay back the funds.

Attorney Jackson suggested, since the error was more on the collection company than anyone and given the amount of time it occurred over, that he would see nothing wrong with asking for more time to repay the money.

The council voted to ask for 24 months to repay the money, which the company will deduct from future tax payments to the city.

•Approved spending up to $4,000 from a special rehabilitation fund to fix erosion problems in the city’s park. Council members were afraid if action wasn’t taken soon the bridge on the walking trail could potentially be washed away.

•It was announced that bids for the ongoing sidewalk and street lighting grant project will be opened at 10 a.m. on April 25.