Aldermen Likely To Limit Holiday Meetings
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By MARK EVANS
STE. GENEVIEVE HERALD
Unless something big comes up, the Ste. Genevieve Board of Aldermen will meet only once in November and once in December.
The board voted during last Thursday night’s meeting that one meeting each month, during the holiday season, should suffice.
If an additional meeting would be needed in November (where the normal fourth Thursday meeting falls on Thanksgiving), a 6 p.m. meeting on Monday, Nov. 20 would be held.
City Administrator Happy Welch also reported that an open house of sorts would be held on Nov. 8, to view construction plans for the North Fourth Street asphalt overlays and stormwater improvements. Invitations to the 6 p.m. event at the temporary city hall (44 Plaza Drive) have been sent to affected homeowners.
Welch also said he would be meeting with Republic Services to gather information to preset to the board concerning the desire to limit trash trucks’ weight in the city. The board is considering either setting a weight limit for trash trucks, and/or contracting with one trash company for the entire city.
During his city administrator’s report, Welch also informed the board that progress was continuing on the city hall renovation. He said insulation had been sprayed into the outside walls and that door frames had arrived, along with drywall.
OTHER REPORTS
Police Chief Jasen Crump reported that one of the department’s new hires had already resigned, to take a dispatching position.
He said that BT Electric had fixed the lights in the police department lobby and that two bids had been received to fix a ventilation issue at the police department garage.
He also noted that part of the consent agenda was the purchase of two hand-held radios for $6,510.
“We thought that would put us with the grants that we’ve got word on that would put us 100% compliant digital,” Crump said. “We checked on the handhelds that we have, the 11 of them that we have been using, and they’re digital compliant but they’re going to need some software updating to them at a thousand dollars a piece, a little over a thousand dollars a piece. So there’ll be a $12,000 upgrade to those, but we won’t have to worry about that until the following budget year because that won’t take effect until 2025. So it’s something we have time to prepare for.”
Erica Bogenpohl, division manager for Alliance Water Resources, reported Jokerst, Inc. had completed the waterline project and that a walkthrough was scheduled for this week.
She also noted that Steve Wilson, local manager, had “successfully poached” two experienced water/sewer employees from the city of Cape Girardeau.
“I know he’s really excited about getting them,” she said. “One of them has a year and a half experience and the other has four years, so I can promise you’re getting some good employees here.”
Ward 4 Alderman Mike Raney asked Bogenpohl a paving question.
“We’ve got a number of concrete streets in town and when they become disrepair, potholes, what have you, they get patched with asphalt,” he said. “And it seems to be a very temporary, ineffective way to do that.
“I don’t know how everybody else feels but I’m curious about our capability on an ongoing basis to correctly patch concrete. Do we lack skill sets? Do we lack tooling? If we lack tooling, I would expect that come budget time, we would see some budget requests for the proper tools, or if we’re going to outsource that as a rule, maybe we won’t make the investment in tooling, but maybe we’ll just subcontract. What do you feel about that as far as an Alliance capability to do that properly?”
Bogenpohl said that might be a better question for Welch, but said Alliance is definitely capable of making permanent concrete repairs. She was not positive about tooling.
ORDINANCES PASSED
Two ordinances passed on second reading. One allowed the city administrator to sign documents to the release of easement and transfer of property to James T. Beckerman for the property where the old Blain Street water tank used to be. He other authorized the mayor to enter into an agreement with an SAAS Services Agreement with Genasys, Inc., for emergency texting services, for $6,885 over 36 months.
Under “New Business,” an ordinance creating a 111-foot “no parking” area along Jefferson Street by the Valle Desert, passed on first and second readings.
Notes
• Ward 3 Alderman Joe Steiger asked Welch about a situation in which residents had expressed outrage on Facebook that Alliance had torn out a flower garden done about 10 years ago as a Girl Scout project. Welch said he had talked to the individuals and said there might be some remuneration involved.
• In the consent agenda, street closures were approved for Oct. 28 (Jefferson from Main to Valle) for “Pumpkin Glow” at Main Street Park, and (Third from Market to Merchant) Nov. 11 for the dedication of a Daughters of the American Revolution monument by the courthouse.
• An ordinance setting Municipal elections for Tuesday, April 2, 2004 was passed on first reading.