Board of Aldermen - Regular Meeting

Do we roll call on Dean? Do we absent? All in freeze? Here. On Turner? Here. On Bill? Aye. On Lewis? Here. Can I get a motion to approve August 18th, 2026 meeting minutes, please? Second. Can I have a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Can I get a motion for tonight's approval agenda? So moved. Can I have a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Moving on to special items, we have none. Affirmations and boards and commissions, none. Scheduled public comments, we have Becky Brewer, candidate, Missouri House, District 44. Just a reminder that all public comments may be in to the city clerk before Wednesday of the meeting. Becky, you wanna approach the podium and state your name and address, please.

My name is Becky Brewer. My address is 14905 Larry Lane, Altsville, Missouri. And so, yeah, I'm Becky Brewer. I'm running for House District 44, which is here in Boone County. It's here in Ashland. It actually runs from Centralia down to Hallsville and kind of wraps around Columbia. It's really like devil's icebox in South. So all the way down to the river and then McBain and South as well. I am a Hallsville girl, so don't hold that against me, Ashland people. I still live there. I graduated from there. I still live there with my wife and my Youngest who just became a junior at Hallsville. Then I have three older kids. My oldest is a Marine. He's stationed in North Carolina, but he's actually home on leave this week. So that has been fantastic. I have a daughter in Macon, and then I have a son and three grandkids that live in Columbia. I spent 25 years working in manufacturing and safety, so like risk management. So my job was to make sure that the people that worked for the company that I worked for were not put at risk. You know, we were designing things, protecting our people, making sure that they had a voice. And that is kind of how I got into where I'm at now. Seeing the people that live in those small towns like I do not being represented. Having the majority of our votes overturned on two previous ballot measures. There's a fear that I have that our current state rep, if elected, will just continue that pattern. It's happened twice. And so that's literally why I'm running, is because I think I deserve representation too. But I also believe that when the majority of voters go to the ballot box and they make their choice, knowing that that should be respected. Even if we don't all agree on reproductive freedom or paid sick leave, the majority of us voted. Even in, again, Oldsville, Central Ashland, we made our voices heard, and that should be respected. And then I guess just maybe to share some other things about me that are really important to me, public schools, and I know that is a priority for people here in Ashland. I attend Hallsville, or my kids attend Hallsville. We are at a four-day school week. I know you guys battled, or not battled, but you had some discussions at the school board meetings about that. My son also goes to Moberly in the morning for EMT classes. That's a five-day school week. So he's got back and forth between two different districts, which is just further complicating his education process, right? So public education is important to me. The funding, I'm disappointed that schools are having to have these discussions and struggling to how we're going to pay our teachers and improve our facilities while we still give big tax breaks to corporations. which feels really icky to me. So yeah, public schools, I know in my school in Hallsville, our current state rep showed up at two meetings and was not only threatening the funding for our school, but ended up, we lost two staff members over it. Those staff members, some of them received death threats, some of them have not entered back into the education field, some of them have moved hours away because of the repercussion that nobody else would hire them because their reputation was damaged through just this accusation process. So free speech is important and general just representation and making sure that our votes count. I'm not sure how much time I had, but that is probably all I will take. BeckyBrewer.com if you are interested in learning more about me. Thank you.

We have none. Inductions are first written. Council Rule Number 2026-33, an ordinance of the City of Aspen, Missouri amending the city code regarding hemp, kratom, and other substance. Staff report, please.

Sure. So we've kind of talked about this some in the past and make some changes. It makes sense you've seen it last. There's basically three drugs that we're relating. regulating here. The first is Kratom, which is often known as gas station heroin. The federal drug agency has said that it is more addictive than meth, and it is freely available. It has not been regulated by the feds, it has not been regulated by the state at this point. And so it's kind of up to the city of Ashland to take care of that problem. And so this would ban all sales of Kratom. Kratom itself, the term that you hear most often, is a plant that grows only on one island in Malaysia. And so what you really are seeing is not real Kratom. It's an artificial substance called OH7. OH7 is a manufactured drug very similar to back in the day when we had the marijuana supplement things, which were sold as bath salts, but really they were marijuana and killed a lot of people. Kratom actually has killed a lot of people. In small doses, natural kratom is okay. That's what you hear a lot. But the OH7, which is the fake kratom, which is really what's on the market here, is very, very dangerous. The second one is psilocybin, which is mushrooms. And mushrooms are actually already illegal. these type of psychedelic mushrooms are actually already illegal in Missouri. The problem we're seeing in Ashland and other places is there are states in the country that have decriminalized psilocybin. And because of that, there is sort of a myth going around that they are legal everywhere. I think they're only legal in one or two states. They're certainly illegal in Missouri, always have been, no change on that. It's kind of important to put that in the ordinance just kind of as a way of reminding people you can't be selling those kinds of products in action. And they are being sold in action. And the last is hemp. And of course, those of you who have been with us for a while, we had quite the long hearing on the sale of hemp. And the issue, I think, was pretty clear from that hearing is that hemp, over time, migrates into becoming marijuana. So we had a company here in Ashland that was selling what they believed to be hemp, but in fact all of our tests were showing that it was marijuana. They are essentially the same plant, it's really the matter of how much of the psychoactive component is in it, and that again, you know, increases over time. So hemp was originally illegal in Missouri and the rest of the country was deregulated by the federal government several years ago. And Missouri actually passed a law allowing the sale of what they called industrial hemp. And industrial hemp is used in products like clothes and clothes, of course. Just as a side note, hemp was one of the biggest products that Missouri exported back in the day. And so when you hear about slaves in Missouri, particularly along the Missouri River, up and down the Missouri River is where most of the slaves in Missouri were. They were not growing cotton, they were growing hemp, cuz it was a big export product. Anyway, the big beautiful bill, we criminalized hemp in all forms. And that led to our legislature passing a law saying that effective in November, I'm sorry, yeah, effective in November, we would criminalize hemp in all forms in Missouri. So this ordinance follows that. Now, I did look at the comments that you guys made about the latest short term spending bill pushing that federal deadline back. The Missouri deadline has not been moved back, but the federal deadline that was passed today, and as far as I know, that regulation is still in there. So that would make the date of this fall back another 30 days. So instead of being November 2nd, I think it is, or something like that, it would go back to December sometime when it came into effect. And I think we can handle that by just not making our bill go into effect on that subject quite as early. As it's written now, those portions of the bill don't kick in until November, which is what the state said it did. So I think we should be good on that.

How many other cities are doing this and what's the trend to be the bars?

Is that how they're doing it? Yeah. It's hard to say because unfortunately it's something that the state legislature really should have done. Normally what we do is the state legislature passes a bill criminalizing something and the city's just adopted that language. Since they didn't and the cities are doing it all hodgepodge, it's kind of hard to track. But I know of at least a half dozen cities that I've worked with that have passed something on kratom and or psilocybin. That's all pretty much universally, because they're just not going to think that. The hemp is more controversial. Rolla just addressed that. And they addressed it before the legislature enacted. So their ban on hemp was more narrow than what the legislature actually ended up coming up with. Because the legislature ended up coming up with all forms of hemp are now illegal. So anything essentially that you can buy that says it's hemp is gonna be prohibited.

Even the liquid?

Even the liquid and probably CBD. Of course, you see CBD for sale everywhere. But CBD is really just an abbreviation for the active ingredient in both hemp and marijuana.

Does the rescheduling of 70H to schedule one temporarily, do we need to address that in the ordinance, you think? No. Schedule one makes it illegal, and we're making it illegal. Should we put that maybe in the whereas section, though, just saying whereas? You certainly could. Whereas they have done this, we believe, as a reasoning for why we're doing it. Yeah, I mean, you certainly can. I don't think you need that. Well, my only concern is there's a whereas that says creative is not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, and the FDA and DEA moving it up to the feds, possibly.

Okay. Any other questions for Stratton?

There's nothing in here that goes above and beyond what the state passed.

No, the hemp language is all copied straight out of the state's . But what about freedom? There's not a state statute. They had some legislation last year, but it didn't pass.

We just received, I mean, I don't say we, I think everybody on the board was copied about four or five emails in the last two days from people that are hoping to keep Kratom.

Kratom legal?

Well, you're mayor, you got that. I didn't get that many. Just about keeping Kratom legal for- The city can do it.

I mean, it's already been listed as a schedule for drugs.

Okay, well, as long as we're following along with- We're not over our skis here. I can't take another four-hour hearing is what I'm saying. I can't take another four-hour hearing. Fair.

And all of the emails that I received, I did try and shoot back a message asking if they were Ashland residents. No, no. I'm sure they got three responses.

AI-generated type of thing from back in Georgia.

Yeah, I asked them.

Yeah, and a few of them have the same languages. They have the same subject lines and everything. It was definitely like you punch in to a website and it seems like you need all four of them.

I know the beverage portion of that is active in the Western District Court right now. It is. If something were to come out of that in their favor, would we have to come back and intervene differently with ours?

We would have to. Okay. So it didn't get copied into your ordinance. But if they do, change that. And I would say on the hymn, if I had to guess where the future of that's going, I think that it's too broad right now. I'm really surprised that you're getting messages on Kratom rather than on hymn. Hymn is pretty widely used. And hymn, we're talking that in its bad form, as it were. It's just marijuana, right? So marijuana is largely accepted. Kratom is just bad stuff. It's like getting emails from people saying, hey, you ought to be legalizing meth. So I don't know why anybody would be supporting that. I understand why people might support a more lenient view on him. Really, your guys' hands are tied. I mean, it's gonna be illegal. The problem is, what we've had in Ashland is, it's pretty widespread in the gas stations in Ashland. And all, well, I don't know about suicide, but the hemp and the kratom, and nobody's really doing anything. So we need to be able to enable our officers to control that and get it out of the stores.

From what I've read, Let's see what the House has passed, but continuing with the 30 day delay. And for what it's worth, the White House supposedly is for carve out for the beverage side of things. That's what I have heard.

As I was driving up here, they were announcing the Senate has also passed. Okay. But I haven't read what the final bill is. And of course, things come in and go out.

I think what I read was that They just gave them more time to kind of decide if they wanted to do a workaround or not, as opposed to the White House wanting some workaround for, you know.

Well, the initial ban on all forms of hemp that came out of the big field of the bill was really a surprise to everybody. It's such a big bill that most people didn't even realize that it was in there. And I started telling people right after it passed, hey, you know, this is a section we're going to need to start looking at. People say, I don't know what you're talking about. That's a financial bill. Well, yeah, it is, but it's got this language in there about the .

Thank you. All right. Questions? All right, can I get a motion approving council bill number 2026-33 in ordinance of the city of Aspen, Missouri, amending the city code regarding kink, kratom, and other substances.

So moved.

Can I get a second? Second. On the freeze? Aye. On the bill? Aye. On the move? Aye. On the turn? Aye. Moving on to the old business, we have none. Moving on to the new business. 2026-08, resolution authorizing the Rectal Act of paid compensation for police officers. Staff report, please.

What I'm asking you to do tonight is fix an oversight that I contributed to. Basically what happened, we increased our starting police officer pay a year or two ago when we did the pay study. And we had one officer that was in a very unique position that kind of got caught. So officers that are junior to that officer were making more than that one officer. In other words, when we pumped that starting pay, we should have adjusted that pay scale upward, and we didn't. And so it's an easy and right now it's certainly an affordable fix. As you said, they would increase this officer's pay from $23.24 an hour to $24.75 an hour, and we just make that retroactive to May 1 for this fiscal year. And since we were budgeted for two more full-time positions than we have, or than we filled, easily fits in this year's budget, and we'll make that small adjustment for next year's budget. It really won't be an impact to anybody's fields. And City Treasurer reviewed and And this is the only officer. We don't have anyone else that got caught in this position.

Do you still have job offers out?

We've got, we've, as of, I thought we had them all filled. One of them never was vaporized. One has absolutely followed through and will be starting. In fact, I think we're doing some stuff on him tomorrow. But he'll actually be starting on the 14th of September, and he's already got a peace officer's license. So he'll be productive quickly. The other one that we were gonna send to the academy, apparently he's decided to do something else. So we had him talk to us. So we're back on the recruiting trail. We do have one opening. If you know any good people that are interested, we're certainly glad to talk to them. All right, thank you, sir.

Thank you.

All right, can I get a motion approving 2026- Wait a minute. The word retroactive. is not legal in Missouri, right?

You can't pay employees for work that's already been done. So what we have to do is frame it as a bonus. Okay. Do you have any idea what the amount is? Yep.

The bonus portion, well, we'll have to recalculate it. But as of August 17, it was $288. And of course, it would be a little bit higher than that when we calculate that on the next paycheck. And I'm not smart enough to do that math right here.

Well, I'll be smart enough. I don't have the data to do that.

That's not part of it.

But I don't have the info to do that here right off the top of my head. What's the amount now, 288? 288 now. Can we just think it will exceed 325, 350?

Sure love 2350.

So, that's good. So, what I've proposed is an amendment deleting the words retroactive to May 1st, 2026. And then I'll hand you my notes. In addition, in the new paragraph, in addition, the city agrees to pay a bonus to the officer in exchange for his agreement to continue his employment, not to exceed $350.

So, Council Bill 2026-38, the resolution authorizing the bonus up to $350 for the ex-officer for compensation. Yeah, not an X. Not an X, all right. Well, I meant X as far as . All right, can I get a motion for this? I have a second. All right. All in favor? Aye. All in favor? Aye. All in bill? Aye. All in favor? Aye. Resolution 2026-38, a resolution extending the interim management agreement with interim solutions LLC. Staff report, please. Mark, you want to do it?

I can't, I don't know much about it.

It's a month in the house. Huh? It's basically a month in the house.

Yeah, it's extended by an additional two months.

No.

Any questions on this as far as why or anything? That would be good.

Why?

Yeah, why? Marty, reasoning was because of scheduling. I'm sorry? The reasoning of extending it was the scheduling part of it.

The original contract had four months, and we are already at the four months.

Thank you.

So we need to have an additional two months to follow through.

That's 12,000 a month.

That would be the same contract. It's either 11 or 11,500. We're just extending it. We're extending the same contract. No new contract.

We just got lunch together that morning. I didn't have to vote no. That's okay. It's your choice.

I get a motion to approve 2026-38, a resolution extending the Interim Management Agreement with Interim Solutions, LLC. So moved.

I have a second. It's a correction. It's 39, isn't it? Yes, 39. I'm sorry, I got that clearer.

I'll second. Seconded by Mr. Alderman Bill. Alderman Bill? Aye. Alderman Lewis? Aye. please resolution 2 0 2 6 dash 4 0 the resolution authorizing the mayor to renew a janitorial service agreement with the first class window clean staff report please really don't have a staff report on that that is just a renewal of the yearly contract to have the City Hall cleaned with the addition of the

where we're gonna move the city hall at, and then that'll change the rate. The rate stayed the same for this portion, we just added that portion on.

And the rate stayed the same? Uh-huh. Okay, thank you. Marty, can we get you to clean the windows for the $11,000 we're paying? No problem.

All right, can I get a motion to approve in 2026-40 resolution authorizing the mayor to enter to renew janitorial service agreement with first class window service. I'll second.

All right.

Alderman Freese? Aye. Alderman Turner? Aye. Alderman Bill? Aye. Alderman Lewis? Aye. Moving on. Resolution 2026-401, a resolution for the Board of Aldermen of Ashton, Missouri, authorizing the mayor to execute a contract documents with Drinker Construction LLC with the Liberty Lane and Sidewalk Fat Grant. Staff report?

Here it is, folks, Liberty TAP. Liberty, Liberty. This is the proposed resolution for the award, to award the bid to Drinkard Construction LLC for the Liberty Lane Sidewalk Improvement Project in the amount of $308,415.41. A bid package was prepared and let out for the construction of the Transportation Alternatives Program, or TAP. Liberty Lane sidewalk improvement in conjunction with MoDOT. If you remember, it's a program on which it's an 80-20 split grant awarded to non-motorized transportation projects. Five bids were received. Those bids are all in your handout. Trinker Construction being the winning bid. Construction services for the project were previously awarded to Great River Engineering and Brian Boyes and John Stott are with us today if you have any pointy questions about the project. But essentially, construction is expected to take less than 90 days, assuming it's approved tonight. And we'll begin approximately October, first week of October, of course. The middle to end of October. No, no, no, pre-construction meeting on first week of October. And once that kicks off, approximately or less than 90 days to complete. Is there any questions about this project?

So there's explanations that it's done end of the year-ish? By the end of the year?

Yeah, by the end of the year. Provided we don't run into a lot of weather days or something like that, yes. Rain. We don't get bad weather around here.

Never. So the short-term impact, again, is $308,415.41. There's no long-term financial impact, and staff definitely recommends the resolution.

Thank you. Any questions for staff? Can I get a motion to approve Council Bill 2026-401, a resolution of the Board of Aldermen of Ashland, Missouri, authorizing the Mayor to execute the contract document with Drinker Construction LLC for the Liberty Landing TAC grant. Do I have a second? Checked. All in turn? Aye. All in bill? Aye. All in Lewis? Aye. All in Green? Aye. Council Bill number 2026-42, a resolution of the Board of Alderman National Missouri authorizing the Mayor to execute a contract documents with Simcoe Construction Group, LLC, for the wastewater treatment plant hard works project install.

Thank you, Mayor. This proposed resolution is for the acceptance of the lowest qualified bid for the install of the wastewater treatment plant headworks improvement project. The bid package was prepared and led up by Bartlett and West Engineering for installation services for the previously board approved wastewater treatment plant headworks improvement project. Four bids were returned. City staff and Bartlett and West recommends the approval of the lowest bid from SMICO contracting of Odessa, Missouri in the amount of $168,000 $168,041.00 including a materials change deduct in the amount of $38,940.00. SMICO was lower even before the materials deduct, which we are accepting that deduct. SMICO is a great firm. They've done a lot of work throughout Missouri. Bid tabulation is in your binder. Again, no Long-term impact, short-term impact, again, is $168,041.00. Any questions on this award?

So I guess this wasn't originally, like, so this wasn't part of the Bartlett and West, like, contract.

Correct, yeah. If you remember the Archimedes screw pumps, the spiral screws, this is the final. We previously approved the purchase for the materials, the pumps and the panels and the equipment. And this is the awarding of the install of that equipment. Not part of the original plan project, for sure.

Any more questions? Can I get a motion approving Council Bill number 2026-42, a resolution by the Board of Aldermen of Ashland, Missouri, authorizing the Mayor to execute a contract documents with Contracting Group LLC for the Wastewater Treatment Plant Hard Works Project Installment. So moved. Second. Second. Alderman Friess. Aye. Alderman Biddle. Aye. Alderman Lewis.

Aye.

Alderman Turner. Aye. Council Bill 2026-43, a resolution authorizing the purchase of a tilt bed trailer for the street department.

Thank you, Mayor. This resolution, again, for the purchase of a new tilt bed trailer from Kauffman Trailers LLC. The existing trailer the streets department uses to transport the mini excavator to job sites is rated at 14,000 pounds. The excavator weighs 13,653 pounds, so we had a lighter mini excavator. Mini excavators are getting not so many anymore, and we do the bulk of our work with a mini excavator. So any additional attachments or materials placed on the trailer, put that trailer trailer overweight for DOT regulations. It's just too light of a trailer, bottom line. The new proposed trailer has a capacity of 23,000 pounds, which can easily transport the current equipment and even future equipment and attachments. The existing streets trailer that we have now will then be transferred to the sewer department to be used as their skid steer trailer because they don't have a trailer at all. They have to borrow another trailer to do that. That will be transferred to the sewer department. The bids are listed, coffin trailers, again, LLC at $14,405. This was a capital expense that was budgeted for FY27 and the projects and goals and spoken about at the budget workshop last year.

No long-term financial impact and staff recommends purchase. I mean, if you're going to transfer it to the sewer department, are they not going to overload it? Are all their equipment light enough to work with it?

Yeah, the skid steer, no problem. No problem with the skidder, even the skidder and attachments, but the mini, that's quite a bit heavier. Yeah, no problem at all as a skid steer trailer.

I don't know, trailers couldn't be overloaded. Oh, yeah. I should say, like, I think... Obviously, I mean, I'm supporting this tonight. I kind of go back to the Kubota side-by-side that we bought. That was $46,000. You know, if we would have looked at a, you know, like my Can-Am, for example, that's heat and air and has a snow plow attachment, it was $25,000. This would pay for our tilt trailer. I know it's budgeted. I'm just trying to think how we can, you know, save tax dollars when we can. I mean, Like I said, I support this right now. I'm just trying to, in the future, if we can save money, be great. You're doing your best.

Good try. Can I get a motion approving 2026-43, a resolution authorizing the purchase of a tilt bed trailer for the student department? So moved. And a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. All in favor? Aye. All in favor? Aye. All in favor? Aye. All in favor? Aye. All in favor? Aye. All in favor? Aye.

The existing walk-behind concrete saw inventory has a 25 horsepower gas engine and is extremely underpowered for cutting concrete streets and is not capable of cutting through curb and gutter, which is typically 12 to 16 inches deep. The manual controls make it very difficult to raise the blade when the machine begins to bind or is starting to cut into rebar. The saw's blade can and will become pinched and the material requirement disconnecting from the saw, leaving the blade in the street, and then putting another blade on the saw, and then trying to cut out the other blade that stuck. You can imagine if those two blades come into contact with one another, that's really bad. Essentially, that machine is a good patio and sidewalk machine. It's not rated for streets, concrete streets and curb and gutter, bottom line. The proposed upgraded saw has twice the horsepower as diesel, and provides four times the torque. It really, that's the magic, is the torque. It can't be slowed down. It's also equipped with the modern hydraulic raise and lower controls instead of the wheels on gears, making it a lot more easy to operate. Saw is capable of accepting larger diameter blades, which allows us to cut through street and thicker areas and approaches like curbs and gutters. This is a budgeted purchase funded from the Streets Department Capital Fund. The lowest bid was, and these are all the same machines, from Patriot Contractors Equipment and Sales and Supply for $39,475. And I recommend the purchase. Any questions? So this one will get us through.

for any future road purposes? Anything, yeah.

Moda uses the same saw. It's a legacy item. It's diesel, but a lot of me and probably everybody else on staff. It's a high quality saw. There's no other saw the city would ever need, realistically ever. What's the life expanse on it? About 20 years to 25 years, unless somebody hits it. on the street, that'd be about the only thing that could slow it down. It's a good saw for sure. It's again, one that should have been probably purchased back in the day, but they are spending, to be honest, they're expensive. But to do the work we're trying to do, cutting on street concrete, curb and gutter, it's what's required.

Again, motion to approve and council bill 2026-44, a resolution authorizing the purchase of a self-propelled concrete saw for the street part. So, do you have a second? Second. All in turn? Aye. All in bill? Aye. All in freeze? Aye. Aye. Remarks, reports? I just had a few things. Calvins rodeo was last weekend. It was a great weekend. So if you missed it, I'm sorry to hear that, but it was a fun time. Then the Fall Fest is coming up on September 12th. Make sure you plan to be in town for that. And then we do have openings on the park board and PNZs. So if you know anybody that lives within the city limits and would like to serve or to begin to serve on the board, bring them to the board meeting, introduce them. That's my report, city administrator report.

You've got my report in front of you. I think at some point we need to determine if you want to discuss number two as a council. Maybe we just want to lay it aside. At some point, there needs to be discussion if there's interest in that item or not.

Does that need to be timed with the beginning of the budget year? What? Does it need to be timed with the beginning of the budget year because we normally reset our development fees at that time?

Theoretically, the answer to that question is yes. And there needs to be a lot more discussion, but that obviously is something that I wanted to make sure the council was comfortable discussing.

This is mostly stemmed from the sewer and water inspections and stuff like that, correct? This is to hire professional inspectors. For mostly for sewer water and all, Because we've done it in the past, we've done it for past free, and we've just got way too much going on to continue to do it in the form of airway from each side of the fence.

I mean, yeah, it definitely eats up time. I mean, just like Kevin could tell you, he was in a subdivision for three days.

Three and a half.

Three and a half. So, I mean, that's him by himself for three and a half days just doing Sewer inspection. And that's just one of the three parts of it. I mean, I'll be honest, on the waterside, I mean, within a day I can do the inspection. But, I mean, it gets timely and can buckle down or hurt a department by having multiple people out there for days in a row when there is plenty of other things that you know still has to be done i guess i'm confused on the difference between this and what darren does i gotta move closer i'm sorry i can't hear no one's got a microphone i'm just wondering like

What does Darren do compared to what- Great question.

So Darren, he wears a lot of hats. And that was one that was kind of forced upon him when he got here for lack of no one else doing it, right? He's not a utility guy. He was never trained in that. Let me take a step back. The city of Ashland in general, it's been a real disservice that we haven't had professional inspection for new infrastructure. Um, and I can tell you right now on Renee, um, is a great example, because in my board report, I talked about, we were going to dive in and probably just kind of thought I was going to tell you that it was going to be done by now. What we learned is, is that, uh, it wasn't constructed properly again, and that's an issue with storm over and over and over here. Um, so back to your question, I guess, Darren was never a new infrastructure inspector. He was, you know, code enforcement. He was never an infrastructure inspector. So what I'd like to do is bring in a consulting service on call to do water, sewer, storm, and street inspections. It's not enough. We don't have enough of that work to hire a full-time staff. Typically a city even if 10, 12,000 will have an engineering tech, it's called on staff to do that kind of work, work with the contractors, let them know what the expectations are, go out and view the compaction, view the, you know, the services, make sure that it's materials that are approved. None of that honestly has ever happened within the city of Ashland ever till now, literally till this year, give it January of this year. And it's been a detriment. It costs us pennies up front, and it costs us thousands of dollars on the back end. And in fact, now that a lot of our infrastructure is over 20 years old, now those chickens are coming home to roost big time. There was just no oversight. And what we're trying to do is get oversight. And we can do it again. We don't have enough of it yet to have a full-time person on staff. So what I'm trying to do is contractually draw up an agreement between one or three different inspectors, the GRE, or whoever is local, whoever's close by, they can come with a somewhat short notice. I don't mean like an hour, I mean like a day or two, to go out and professionally inspect all these, all this infrastructure. Because it's brought up before, I can't go off time for most of the week. I can't. I'll probably email sitting in my inbox from some of you folks, and they're still there. Not for me. Very good, Mike. But that's the intent. That's the goal here. That's what we're trying to do. It's just really make sure that we're getting good infrastructure that is put in right, most importantly. It's put in correctly. It's being documented. Because I can take, if anybody wants to come on with me, we can do a quick tour. We don't have to drive far. I can go down the street showing you deficiencies, insufficiencies, It was planned, the plans were great, but they don't build it like the plan shows they do shortcuts they do this, they do field engineering don't call it. And and literally right now the job, I was referencing on renee turned in from a city jobs like we can get on their day or two to I have to go for it's probably in the $40,000 range why because it wasn't ever expected. It's a theme, it's a common theme here that has to stop. It's really, it's the biggest disservice I've ever seen. And that's what we're trying to avoid in the future with new developments.

One of the things, if you think about it, if you don't do it right now with new construction, you're gonna pay down the road 5, 10, 50, 20 years down the road at a much higher cost than what it cost you to have the thing. properly inspected.

I'm not saying we don't need it. I was just wanting an explanation.

I just wanted to make the point.

I really am because it's the biggest issue in Ashland. You can see it in our streets. Why are they cracked? Because they don't have road base. They were laid on clay or just maybe a two inch. It should be 12 to 18 inches of road base compacted in a certain way. That has to be tested before you put the concrete on it. There's reasons for what we see here. There's reasons for, ah, that's not quite right. That doesn't look good. It's failing. Why? There's always a reason.

Well, I mean, if we just think recently, the stormwater detention pond that the storage units didn't have the right size.

Like the plan said, one culvert coming out, and then there was a different culvert that... That's a little different because that's a private storm detention feature that...

So would this mean that you inspect those, though, to make sure they're up? Because, I mean, I guess, right, some of our subdivisions are private, too, until they finish pouring everything and open them up.

Yeah, so when they're drawn, they will know ahead of time if their goal is to turn it over to the city, and that is a different category. So being that it's private, that would not be inspected on our dime, and it would be known that we're not going to inspect it. We're not going to accept it because it Up front, we know that. And so no, because it is on private property, and there are ones like that. Martin Builders has private store detention in town, in neighborhoods, and those aren't going to be inspected by city at our behest.

I guess my next question on that then, sorry, kind of going down a rabbit hole here then, can we require those things to be inspected to actually meet the plans that we approve when we're rezoning and doing all this stuff to allow people to build what they want to build? They give us a plan saying this is what we're going to do if you do it. And then they pull it fast enough.

For sure. So we'll have city standards and we have them. It's a sticky thing because we have standards. So you go in and we have design guidelines for sewer, water, and storm. And you're supposed to follow the plan. Are we inspecting that they follow the plan? Yes and no. so they're booked at but not with the same kind of detail they're supposed to be to our standards to be in the city yes and we inspect them to make sure they're up to the like that's a good question okay that yes you can and most cities do and most cities require the developer to pay for that awful big government coming One more thought on that is, since it was brought up, there is code, there is an ordinance that allows us to back charge the developer for said construction, for said inspection. To my knowledge, that's never been exercised, but that's something I do believe in. I think we should not incur the cost. we should not incur that cost. That should be back charged, although that's something I need to bring up to you as a separate item, whether it be a resolution or whatever, because that, again, never been exercised. It's on the books, never been done. And I think that lands specifically at the developer. It shouldn't be cost, we shouldn't have to, City of Ashland shouldn't have to spend money so a developer can make money. And they certainly can if they do it properly. Everybody can win. And just an issue for a further discussion. Back charting.

Thanks, sir. With that, when another third party would do that inspection, they would have to turn that information over to us. Correct. So that then we could review it to make sure that everything is up to par. Rather than them just doing the inspection and saying it's good to go. we'll be able to review it so that we know for sure it meets the design standards and the current inspection.

Sorry, one more question, going back to my earlier one about the roads and subdivisions. So I know you mentioned they kind of give us heads up, like they're going to turn the streets over to us and all, but that's kind of us saying, oh, we're going to trust you to tell us this, right? They could theoretically say, oh, well, we don't have any plan to, and then come back after they've, you know, built the roads on the cheap and say, okay, well, here you are after all.

Well, yeah, it would have to be an HOA situation. There would have to be something in place. And you know about, we would know about that. It's not really, I've never heard of a bait and switch quite like that. It'd have to have some authority in place to maintain it or be gathering dues, whether it be, you know, driveways or common areas or whatever. That would be a tough, tough thing to pull off, I don't think. All right. That could happen.

To kind of piggyback off of that, it's actually a really good idea to get that third party a little bit of history when Ash Street project was, that grant was to rebuild all those sidewalks and all that. The plans were excellent. We hired a very reputable contractor to do it. But we also got a third party retired engineer to oversee them. And he caught a lot of shortcuts. So saved ourselves a bunch of money by not having to redo things five or ten years later.

Do you want to say attorney's report? Attorney's report. All right, public works directors, welcome.

Thank you, Mayor. Public Works Department, in the streets and parks maintenance section, an Eagle Scout project was completed at City Park with the assistance from the streets department. A concrete pad and bench was purchased with private funds by Eagle Scout candidate Lex Long. So hats off to Lex. This will be completion of his Eagle Scout project. It's kind of a big deal because only 5% of scouts. achieve that. The bench, he's purchasing the bench, we purchased it, but he's going to reimburse the city for the funds for the purchase of the bench. I believe that's going to be installed, is it 11th or 12th? 11th. They're unveiling? Yep. Street Mains' two-position candidate is being vetted in the hiring pipeline, so to speak. Here we go. So referencing this, a large stormwater repair is being performed on Renee Drive. No, it's not. It's actually not. We're gonna have to go up for bid for that one. A troublesome and difficult to detect water leak was found on Oak Street by our water department. It frees away for a planned mill and overlay, which will happen later this month. The reason why that was so troublesome is it was city water and it was storm water. We had both of those things mixing together and that's what made it all the more fun. But that street is dry, if you've noticed. I guess it's been wet for 10 years or better. I've heard different numbers, but it's always been wet. Fixed. And several asphalt patches are being lined up for repair also in September. About eight, eight of the worst ones. That's forthcoming also in September. Under stormwater, a firm was selected for the stormwater mapping GIS inventory project, which is a kind of a precursor to the stormwater master plan. That's going to be all state consultants of Columbia. Contract and scope of services discussions are underway for that currently. A city park stormwater project was scheduled for discussion at the August 31st park board meeting. However, there was no forum, so we're going to discuss that at a later date. Under the wastewater treatment plant sewer department, just an advisory here, the sewer jetter trailer, which we have a sewer jetter trailer, it can't back the material out of the lines, but it can jet, has failed. So it's a 26-year-old trailer. It has a controller on it, which basically controls the throttle and the choke and tries to organize those two and keep them from choking out. That controller is bad. there's no work around we brought in to a couple different, including the dealer and they can't source that anymore so as a result. city staff is researching with contracted cleaning services services for ashland's gravity sewer mains still getting numbers on that trump to decide. How to scope that and what I can afford when I can't afford the right now we're not and we have not been cleaning gravity sewer. for some time, and we need to, we obviously need to maintain that, so more to follow on that.

Any questions for Stan? Have you started any curb and gunner repairs yet?

We have, yeah, there's a curb, so Schooler has a annual contract for specifically for curb, unless it's like an adjoining path as well. We do panels. Schooler is usually the hot ticket for curb and curb repairs. They have an annual contract and they're organized that list above this time, which we've already got. What we're going to do this year, the short answer is Mustang. If you remember, we left Mustang drive out of the mill and overlay because the curb throughout was too rotten to even bother with the mill and overlay. Most of those bonds, most of that attention is going to be on Mustang. And then we'll follow up with Mill and Overlay for next year afterwards. So the curb and gutter list is going to be short, although it's all going to Mustang pretty much. That's kind of what was decided last year.

There's a smaller tier needed on Dogwood that's been on the list for several years.

Yes, sir. It's a long list. You mentioned the asphalt patches. What about the concrete on the larger potholes that you've temporarily filled with asphalt earlier this summer? Is that still scheduled to do work at some point?

Yeah. So the streets department is kind of doggy pedaling right now. They are down one. We're bringing on, we believe we're bringing on a guy that's done a lot of concrete flat work. He's going to be a great help. We have a good staff, don't get me wrong, but the two employees that are not the supervisor are not good. They're not experienced concrete finishers, and with the addition of this individual I would believe we're hiring here next week, he's gonna get us an hire here for sure.

So that work's still scheduled to be done?

Correct, it's just a matter of where we end up applying that labor. But yes, we haven't done a lot of work for that reason. for looking to get back in that game.

Okay, thank you.

My report's in your packet. Anyone have any questions? Man, Jeff. I feel like we should ask him some questions.

I mean, go for it. He's left out. Go for it if you want. What's the manicular, or, I don't know, I'm trying to think of a fancy word.

Usually around 5%, give or take. I mean, it obviously varies. How many water meters do we have in Ashland? Bryce, I can't give you the exact number, but it's a lot. 4,554. That sounds right.

It does change. Thank you, sir. Moving on to the Board of Alderman report on the freeze.

So thanks first, thanks to Shelly for putting together that park board report that he didn't have last night. I thought that was a good report. I do take a difference on point 10 about the pond being permanent. I thought after our last convo meeting that there was a pretty general consensus that the pond was supposed to be a permanent. So I hope the park board goes with that. But all the other Suggestions and steps I think look absolutely great and I think that's a good thing. Also, kudos to Kevin and Public Works for getting that oak strip repair fixed. It is dry, so good job there. Park bathrooms, I'm sure we all saw pictures on Facebook of bathrooms not being very clean and out of toilet paper. So what is our, do we have a cleaning program for the bathrooms at all?

Yeah, we have a program. We had a part-timer. He was a 25-hour employee. He did move on, so we're juggling again. We had him three days a week doing that work in the morning, and it's not about being shorthand again. We're picking that up. We saw those photos too, so we're going to pay attention to that as much as we possibly can and get out there and As I said, we've got a lot of balls in the air. I'm not making excuses. We're going to get it done. But the services are going to be quite the same with less personnel. But that job is back out. That position is back.

I was going to say, is it too late in the year? No, not at all. That's a full-time position.

It's just a limited-hour position. Yeah, it's a great opportunity for a retired guy like myself. I might retire and do that job. But yeah, it is back posted again, we want to replace that to take some of the some of that parks work off of the streets department for sure ultimately it needs to be a full time position right, it needs to be a full time position. And that's we're only talking about what park really the facilities and all the other what we call green spaces right now the you know underutilized park properties that we own there's really not a lot of infrastructure there so. Ultimately, it's a full-time position, but right now we are trying to get that part-timer back in. But in the meantime, we're gonna do our level best to get that thing back in shape.

All right, sounds good. Do we have a update on our sidewalk closing issue on Broadway?

Mark?

No, we don't. Okay, all right. So how long does that property owner have to respond? We sent the email last week to coordinators about the wall. Last week, yes. Yeah. So 30 days or a different time period be reasonable to expect for it?

I would expect a response within 30 days. I know he's talking to his legal, so. Okay. All right.

And then lastly, Sam and I have been dealing with a spillage issue out of the trash truck in South Lynn. And Wesley gave us a little bit of update yesterday that they're kind of revisiting, correct? So it's nasty. I don't know how, you know, my ring camera shows, you know, a clean batch of concrete as the truck pulls up to it, as it picked up the next, my neighbor's trash can, and it pulls away, there's liquid came out of the back end of it, and now that it's just gotten bigger and bigger, We have trails along probably 10 to 12 blocks of it, and it looks bad. I've reached out to someone I know in Columbia with decades of experience, and it's not hydraulic. It's truly garbage ooze, or garbage juice, I believe is the term you use. It might be S-O-L, but I don't know. Just want to bring it to the attention of everybody. It's kind of a nasty looking, We could stop right now. Don't you guys use proposal?

Yeah. It's in the contract that they're not supposed to do that sort of thing. Well, I don't think they know exactly what it is. Is that correct?

I think maybe someone dumped something in their commercial container whenever it compacted. And it just leaked out. It just leaked. Not only is there- It wasn't from their truck, because they said that they would have to have serviced it when they were at the shops.

I mean, it definitely came out of their truck. There's drifts in between stops where there are stops. There's a pile or a pooling that could be anywhere from three feet by two feet in oblong diameter. And like I said, it just got worse as the days went by.

You're saying that it wasn't. What they're saying, it wasn't hydraulic. They're trucking mechanically. Wasn't hydraulic. Yes.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, they broke one of them hydraulic lines a few times.

Yeah, so I guess one of our neighbors really threw out a bunch of stuff. Because like I said, it's over the course of 10, 12 blocks worth of streets. Did they send us the power washer like they said they were going to? They supposedly came out, but nobody's. Well, they forgot the power washer and all they have are the water hoses. Nobody's aware of. Just plain water hoses? No, I'm joking. Nobody I'm aware of picked anything up on their cameras. And I'm probably three or four houses down from the person that originally made the complaint to the city. Which also leads me to my next question, which will be the last one. Do we record our phone calls at all? No?

Okay.

Because what's happening is this resident is telling Sam and I the exact opposite of what's being told by staff, so I don't know if we can solely respond by email with copying multiple people just to make sure that you know there isn't a he said she said it's clearly what we said or if we want to look into the future about recording calls so we all know cameras make everyone behave better right yep so he's going to be greatly disappointed when i don't kiss his ass like he's requested anyway all right thank you uh i'll turn okay

A couple things. I was brought to my attention on, like, in between the post office and Renz, I know it's on our highway, but can we let MoDOT know that there's a dip on, it'd be the eastbound lane on the south side of the road. Apparently, like, it's where we're still at.

So, I've been in discussions with MoDOT about that, and the bottom line is, we're having a disagreement about maintenance. So I'm being told currently by the district engineer that they maintain the roadways, but not the storm system underneath it. I'm like, that is an interesting perspective because they've done project on sidewalks that's well past the storm system. So trying to get an effort here to And there probably isn't one. And they've asked basically, well, if there's other agreements that have been drafted in the past, we'd like to see what those agreements are. Well, there aren't any, I don't think. And that's reached out to staff to see historically exactly what agreements were made for West Broadway. But specifically that storm culvert you're speaking about, there's a storm culvert underneath there that crosses. That structure there is completely torn up. The culvert itself is rotted out. I've told MoDOT staff, made them aware of it. He goes, yeah, I'm aware of it. Yep, yep. And kind of hope it fails. So then they have to come out and fix it. But in a larger sense, we need to maybe, with city staff in the future, sit down with MoDOT and try to make a clear, get clear guidance on exactly what it is they're maintaining and where those boundaries are. I have asked. Specifically, do you have a map that shows where your boundaries begin and end? That's all I'm asking. No, we don't really have that. We don't have that. So clearly, we need to come to some kind of understanding, especially on West Broadway and other infrastructure, exactly who does what. But at this time, I haven't been able to achieve that. So more to come on that. is, that's the driver. That pothole you're speaking of, it's being created by a culvert that's under the road.

Speaking of Modot, it's been brought to my attention by a couple different people, my mother included, so I had to listen to this one. The overgrowth on the exit ramps is awful. Particularly the one when you're going North on 63, between that and the road that leads you to Mosier's. We got full blown trees in there. I ain't saying that we need to cut down trees. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that the overgrowth is really bad, and it's the first thing people see when they come into the city of Ashland. I agree with you.

And in the past, about two years ago, that was a priority. to maintain those at a higher level than what MoDOT is going to do. Unfortunately, at the time, we had one person in the streets department, and that was still going on. And so the park wasn't getting mowed, so we could go mow the roundabouts. So we had to switch gears from that, obviously. That doesn't make any sense for the city. But in general, MoDOT is a sort of a hands-off as far as mowing. They view it as ecological. And it's the same if you Ours is bad, but Columbia's not much better if you look around. I drive along because I'm in, the kid's in baseball, travel ball, and I look at Kansas and I pay attention to these things, right? Columbia, Kansas City, St. Louis. They're kind of bad everywhere. We could maintain those a little better. I would like to see those trees removed, those trees by the overpass on Rob White. To even do that, I've got to get permission. It's not on my property. I can do that, but we do have a lot. A lot of other things to do. So right now, because of our staffing levels, I can't be expeditionary about start maintaining properties in ours. At least in my opinion, I can be told to do so. But at this point, it doesn't make sense. In my view for the city to do that. I am totally in agreement with you. I'd like to put my best foot forward. I'd like to, you know, that grown about to be a showpiece. It's a. It's a, it's a struggle. I wish we could do more, but we're just kind of scraping by within the city itself.

But it's difficult too, because it's slow. I don't know. I mean, maybe a skid steer with a brush hog attachment might be your best bet, but you couldn't take a lawnmower on that thing.

Yeah, there are remote controlled mowers on rubber tracks that MoDOT has for that. So they don't endanger those grades. Those four to one slopes are really tough. They're dangerous. Any rain at all, you can't even touch it. You can't go in there and do that. They are dangerous. I'm glad you brought that up. It's not just like mowing a car. There's a lot to it. You have to have the right mower. And you have to use common sense because it is dangerous. But I'm with you on the overpasses all day long. I wish we could do more with those. But it's a lot of acreage. There's a lot there. And I wish I had a better answer than that. But that's what I know.

Well, I've got two issues with Modon. Have we reached out to our state rep at all to help push some of this?

Maybe not ready to push that button, but we may have to. I think we should reach out with city manager's help and potentially with a consulting engineer as well and get our stories straight and try to get them to get their stories straight. It's exactly what they're maintaining here because it's inconsistent, let's just say, to be generous.

what they will and what they will not contain. I'm not saying John can do anything, I don't know that, but I'm just saying if we're having problems with state agencies, that's the only way I know to get them to move forward.

Point taken. Yeah. Well, if the problem continues, let me know as well, because I'm meeting with the Director of NODOT and the Chairman of the Highway Board on Wednesday, no, Thursday.

Fix our overpasses and our streets.

I want to say thank you for following up on the car wash. I got that paved. That's nice. What about subway? I saw a comment on subway, and I agree. The subway, like when you exit, would be the west side. Is that their problem? It's private. And for $18 a six-inch sub, you'd think they could fix their concrete. That's all I got.

I had a new baby two weeks ago, so Ashland, we can tick one more to the population. So I am contributing to the economic development of our future.

No report. Thank you. All right. Any comments from the public? I hear none. Can I get a motion to adjourn? Second? Second. All in favor? Aye.