City Council - Regular Meeting

There's not much on the agenda.

It doesn't describe it. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, so I'd like to welcome everybody. You know, I always thought Becky hits that way too hard, and here I am. It's just that's what it does. The universe, 2026, meaning of the Camerons,

City Council, and we'd like to start by standing and saying the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Becky Curtis, John Feigert, Mark Barr, Ross Worth, Penny Gantz.

Okay, so we're excusing Becky, who's in Ireland, and John is on the computer. So they will be here in spirit, and John will be here on the computer.

John's still acting pro-tan.

I'm officially here. He's here. Yeah, I can testify. He's the pro-tan.

But it's hard to run a meeting through a video screen.

Hard to run a meeting.

So I'll be taking everything for signature to John after the meeting.

So now we've got public participation. If anybody would like to contribute anything, you have five minutes. Come up to the podium and sign in. Seeing none, we'll continue on to the consent agenda. So Are there any requests for new items from the Consent Agenda to the Regular Agenda for discussion? Okay, no. I'll read the Consent Agenda.

Item A, motion to approve the minutes of the May 18, 2026 work session. Item B, motion to approve the minutes of the May 18, 2026 regular session. Item C, motion to approve the annual liquor license renewals for the Cameron Market, Shell Food Mart, Love's Travel Stop number 837, Nell's Country Restaurant, and Jones Travel Plaza.

I'll entertain a motion to pass the consent agenda. Do I have a motion to move? Second. All those in favor?

Aye.

All those opposed? The consent agenda passes with a vote of four to zero in favor. So next on the agenda is appointments.

We reviewed the reappointment applications of Cass Atkins and Christopher Hurst at the last meeting. There were no objections, so tonight we are ready to appoint them.

All right. For Park Board appointments, I, Mayor Pro Tem John Feiger, do hereby reappoint Cass Atkinson and Christopher Hurst to the Park Board. And in favor, please say aye. Hi. Hi. Hi. Thank you.

That's all the appointments we have. Thank you.

State manager's report. Scott. Oh, thanks, sir. Um, so I would like to recognize, uh, staff and other entities that helped us put together the Safe Streets for All Roads, uh, grant for Amadini Highway Bridge. This is a A supplemental funding for $15 million, which has an 80-20 split that potentially would use, we would like to see MoDOT funds used, but it would possibly use TDD funds from the city of up to 20% on the match. Banking specifically, Kathy Hahn and Jenna Sanders, the MoCan staff helped put together. Lance Raines led the effort and worked with several entities. Our legislators also provided several resources Letters and references and it feels like it has a lot of support. This may change if it's funded through the federal transportation allocation, which would be a direct funding, but they're trying to look at ways to get that into the community. City Hall repair, we don't have estimates yet. They should have the samples that you discussed at the last meeting sometime this week. We'll bring those in and have those available for you. Our BP Highway sewer project update is on Wednesday. I haven't seen a lot of activity right now because they're still mobilizing and getting some of the pipe, but that was really ahead of schedule. And I think with the recent rains, it's been a little bit of a challenge getting to the creek. I'm not sure on that, but I'll let you know an update on that when we have it after Wednesday. Staff is still doing a lot of software demos, trying to figure out the financial software for our moving goal with that. The pool has been at high capacity. Days like today, obviously, they've been reaching capacity and limiting access to the account that's allowed. And then this Saturday, across the street here, we'll have the large household trash that's open from 8 to noon. So they don't want to see, I don't think they take computers, but they don't want to see hazmat materials. That's a different location. You can research our website and see what those items are. I do want to try to get the council to get a date for our strategic planning pre-budget kickoff. I don't know if that's something we can do later. But we do need to do that here in the next week or two. And then there were some things today that were kind of interesting. The North Casey's is closed because of an auto issue running into the building. So their structural engineer is going to come look at that. It's not currently open. So that's all I have to update you on if you have any items or questions.

All in favor. The city hall repair, why is it taking so long to get samples? They had two weeks.

Yeah, they ordered those samples in that were discussed at the meeting, and they were going to have their staff member bring them up this week. So we didn't have them tonight, but they should be here when he comes up either tomorrow or Wednesday.

I'm sorry, my computer glitched there for a second. What did you say?

So they ordered those samples that everyone discussed, and then they're going to have one of their staff members bring it up this week. So when I get those, I might send an email so you can come by and look at them, if that suits everybody.

Okay, I didn't realize they were bringing it. Okay, yeah, sounds good. And did you say an automobile ran in this office? Casey's. The North Casey's.

North Casey's.

Oh, okay. I thought he was talking about City Hall. We couldn't be so lucky. Right, exactly. How long will it be for them to open up again, North Casey's? I think if they get somebody up here, it might be quickly. It's

You know, the structural, we have to go over those windows. I don't know how that affects the brick in the structure.

Yeah.

The stuff inside the store, a lot of alcohol bottles broke. The wall flexed and caused... It didn't come down, but it's hard to let people in that building not know if it's safe. Was there a cause for the accident? Was there? I drive right here, I guess.

laughter laughter

I've had a lot of citizens and patrons that just drive into restaurants, the front end of buildings.

It's happened several times. Oh, thanks. Okay, anything else? Any other questions? No, I'm good. So we're down to unfinished business. We have a second final reading for bill number 2026-13. Sheldon.

Bill 2026-13. An ordinance for the city of Sanford, Missouri authorizing the conditional use permit for Matthew and Ryetta Musser. Is that right? To operate a short-term rental business in an R2 two-family residential district at 1013 South Chestnut Street. I'm sorry.

So is there any discussion?

Motion seconded.

Do I have a motion to pass this bill? Second. Any discussion? I think we're about topped out on that. Sorry. Go ahead and vote.

John Fiker. Mark Carr.

Yes.

Ross Worth.

Yes.

Penny Gans. Yes.

Thank you. Motion carried. 4 in favor, 0 opposed. We'll go on to our next second final reading for bill number 2026-14. Bill 2026-14, an ordinance for the City of Cameron, Missouri

authorizing an amendment to the Cameron Zoning Ordinance by creating Article 17A, C1A, Downtown Commercial District.

I'm going to pass that out. Do I have a motion to pass this bill on the second reading? So moved. Do I have a second?

Second.

Motion carried.

Discussion.

So I do have some points I wanted to bring out. And I was looking through this today. And I wish John had that with him. But I'm going to just read through it, John. That some concerns I had.

Yeah.

So some concern I had is it allows for a 60-foot tall building, which is quite a bit. That's huge. Yeah, in the downtown area. Three stories of residential potentially on those buildings in downtown. I have concerns about fire, fire escapes, and then there's something called an urban canyon effect where you get buildings close together that are really tall. It's probably not a problem in Cameron, but the other issue is they're 40 foot tall with no residential in it. But that's a huge building too. Roger McCoy's building is that size. There in the old hotel. Occupancy concerns me a bit. It only allows for five employees per shift for the businesses that are there. Now one concern I have is just like my dental office is in that area and we always had more than five employees. So I guess you get a conditional use permit to have more employees, Lance?

Well, actually, that's under dressmaking, tailoring, shoe repairing, repairing household appliances and bicycles, dry cleaning and pressing, catering and bakery with sale of bakery products on the premises, and other uses of similar character. Provides that no use permitted in this paragraph shall employ more than five persons is where you're getting at. But that's only dealing with dressmaking, tailoring, shoe repair. That's the only thing it deals with.

Right there. But there's no allowance for health care offices like doctor's offices and dental offices, optometrists.

This is based off the C-1. We're not changing anything on the C-1 other than we took off telegraphs and other definitions of those businesses. And on the height of the buildings? That was all there before. That's communicating with the C1.

Well, I understand. But still, if you're ever going to change anything, now's the time to do it. So where is it that health care facilities are allowed there?

Well, that would go underneath offices and office buildings could be part of it. Pharmacies are allowed.

We already have a dental office and an optometrist in that area. Is this just 3rd Street?

No.

But it's the downtown zoning.

But it's not all of the C1 district.

It's not all of C1. It's from 3rd Street. It's only half. It goes to the out.

Okay. Upper level apartments on the four-story building or on a forestry building is a concern, especially in the downtown area.

Which is exactly the way it was in the C1. Yeah. And honestly, when it comes down to this, that has to go through planning and zoning. And planning and zoning made the recommendation to make these things. That should have been talked about at the public hearing that we held about changing this stuff.

I know, but please don't. shut us off as a council because it is our job to talk about it now. Well, then, you know, we need to go ahead and just...

If you have an issue, and you can back this up, if you have issues, get it down and shove it back to PNC. Yeah. Because that was a public hearing. So you would vote no on that? Public hearing was what we heard.

So you don't want to hear any discussion about things?

No, I didn't say that. I said if you have questions or comments, then write it down and we'll open the public hearing back up again and go back through it.

Because we can't change the bench now and go on the second reading. We're going to have to pop it back to PNZ period.

Under Chapter 89, all ordinances dealing with land use are required to first go to the Planning Commission for their recommendation and approval. There's a thought that if that ordinance is substantially revised when it gets to the Council, that means that the Planning Commission did not recommend, did not provide the necessary recommendation or public hearing for members of the public to address any concerns. And so then that ordinance as amended by the city council substantially would not be valid under Missouri zone. So essentially what I do believe Mike and Lance are getting to is that if the council does not approve of the ordinance as presented, it would work best for the council to note its objections and then refer it back to the Claiming and Zoning Commission as amended for that necessary public hearing. Is it inappropriate for me to state what it is? No. Because obviously they would need to know what the issues were. I do have it written out for them. So I think that would be the... best route would be for if the city council does not think that the ordinance that's currently drafted is appropriate to vote down the ordinance on a second reading and then recommend that the planning commission do a further study of the ordinance as amended by the city council.

So you think- Chief O'Donnell, I'm perfectly fine with the amendment, but I do have a question that Dr. Carr brought up was just the six-story. The reason why we got the fire engine, one of them, I remember in the past, was so that we would be able to reach higher levels or further out. Am I correct?

Yeah, the ladder truck that we have is a 78 foot, so it'll reach up over the top of that. Perfectly fine with that then. Okay, thank you.

Yeah, I'm good with this. Another thing I wanted to bring up was this does allow for a mini apartment of 450 square feet on the bottom floor. And I don't think that's very consistent with the downtown business area, having apartments on the bottom floor. No, no, no, no, no, no, they're not. They can't be in the front. They're not. They can't be in the front, and it has to be an owner. I know. That owns it. And it has to be on the back side. I know. With an outside entrance on the back. I know. Which is what was on C1.

Didn't we vote on this?

Yes.

Yeah. We used the second room. Yeah. But... Yeah, that's what I thought. That's why I was reading it, just making sure I was reading the second reading right.

That particular issue... was voted on and passed by the city council back some time ago because we had residents that was living in the bottom floors in the, in basically in the business areas. So planning and zoning went back and re-identified and came up with what you're reading there now. So we allowed those businesses that want business owners that want to have a residence in the back side, allow them to do that, but they are not allowed to have a residence in the front side. And council actually, that came through council through a public hearing and was approved by council. So that part's been done by council in a previous state. I'm not saying it can't be changed. I'm just saying it was done.

So in addition, some of the approved uses of these buildings could have hundreds of occupants, like an event center, like a church. Those are approved for this area. And along with that comes parking needs for that. And I understand they have to provide their own parking, but you have to have parking available to do that so we can approve it and then later on, say you have to figure out where you park we already have it you can't live in the bottom floor but we've got somebody here recently that was living in the bottom floor of the of their business um we've got daycares approved at schools and um and that could have quite a few people there plus the safety concerns with kids running around on the streets so i you know I kind of feel like me bringing this up has offended some people but I really think it's my job to do that. And I know you've talked about it but this is the last chance to talk about it. And I went through a lot of time in writing this up and I really feel kind of offended that that hasn't been respected. So we'll go ahead and vote on it but That's something to think about in the future. Can I make a comment?

Sure. If we go back on what you're talking about in this particular ordinance, in the C1A, if that stands to be what you're asking for, I'm just saying, if it does, then we need to go back into the C1 only, too, because all the rules and regulations of parking and all that is going to be the same. Right. Is that where I'm going there?

Can I ask a question?

Sure.

Isn't it our responsibility to go to a planning and zoning public hearing to hear all of this and bring our concerns then? Or even at the first reading?

It's our job to talk about it when it comes to council. We can go to that.

I would note, if a quorum of you are going to go to council, please alert Shelly so she can post a notice of attendance. D&D. D&D, sorry.

Or any meeting for that matter. Do I hear a motion to pass?

No, you did that.

Oh.

So we're registering the vote.

Okay. No more discussion?

Mark Farr.

Yes.

Rossworth.

Yes.

Penny Gans. Yes. Becky Curtis. John Feigert.

Yes. The vote is five in favor, zero opposed. So that passes. Four. Oh, four. So we have any new business? No new business. Public participation, if anybody would like to come to the podium and speak. questions, thoughts. Miss Laney's comments from staff.

Nothing. Nothing of a big consequence. I've started doing some review of the security tool sets used by the city as well. So talking with some vendors to try to work some of those things in to see if there's things we need to improve. A few things to help people work a little bit more efficiently and started a nice review of the city zoning maps to see if we can get those up to snuff where we need them to be at and get them published about account on our websites more properly than our archaic ones that we have currently and then i've also played around with getting the chime system back in place so you might start hearing some bells in town again uh this week i had it going today i didn't hear it at six o'clock but we were in here so okay cool wonderful thank you So we've got that going in as well, and we'll see where that works for me. That's pretty much what I've got right on hand.

Thank you. As Scott brought up, we spent a lot of time on the Safe Streets for All grant. Hopefully we can get that one. That would be a great one because that would be a wonderful way to get that bridge replaced. Then we're going on the budgets, P&Z, lots of P&Z, lots of P&Z. Board of Adjustment variances, we're getting quite a few of those in now. We've had various records requests that I've been running through with the Great Northwest Wholesale Water Protection and a bunch of other stuff like that. Dealing with the property sales and then we also had our first Cameron IDA meeting in, well, there was one in July of 2024 and we had one on Saturday morning at 8 o'clock. They've got those people ready to bring in their paperwork so they can be appointed again to the Cameron IDA. So that's what we've been doing.

Anything from the police department?

We just finished up some of the hot air affair preparations. It is summer. A lot of kids out. The pool is a specialty area. Safety. A lot of construction also, have patience with people driving and slow down a little bit.

Thank you. Mike? Fire department is the same as usual. Just to note that 36 and Bobette Griffin is under construction. I know there's a lot of traffic out there. It backs up a lot, but everybody be patient because October hits and hopefully everything will be done and there will be a whole new approved intersection. That's the total plan. And there will be some changes along the thoroughfare because most of all the right of way pretty much through that corridor.

How's police and fire doing with I-35? I know you've had all kinds of calls.

We've had several calls down here, luckily. Yes, people's got hurt. Yes, things have got tore up. And yes, the back of the traffic has been unbelievable. But everybody's working together and we've dealt with it between police, fire, EMS. County Highway Patrol were able to manage that so far and do it the best we can, as fast as we can, and as easy on us and the motoring public as it could be. Is there a projected finish date on that? Was that just weather related? I think it was supposed to be this fall, but they are moving along. really well. Like they're pouring concrete down there in part of it. So they're moving along. The rain is going to back them up a little bit of course. But they are moving along pretty quickly. Thank you.

So, water? We're selling water. I can go on cameras picking water every day. Carry out. four months, so about May, so we're in June now.

Things working good? People still ask you if we're getting water for the pipeline? Yes, they do.

Some of them don't even know it, but some of them do. Just making that announcement for the City of Cameron, I'll reintroduce a familiar face down there. Joe's been promoted to local manager, so Joe Whitaker will be the local manager for the Cameron Division for Alliance and Joe's been on the job now for almost about two weeks. So we're releasing this new new role. So again, he'll kind of be the point of contact for the for the city with Alliance and getting him up to speed and I think things are going good. Do you have anything else you want to add?

No, just trying to get the guys and get both entities acclimated to working together and making sure we're we're doing what we're we're supposed to be doing for the city and hopefully get good feedback from them.

So

Is that going well?

Yeah, so far. It's a little smothering, let me tell you that.

I'm sure it is. It's a huge job, and it's been in the making for so long. That's right. And nobody can predict what the hang-ups could be. No. Carmen.

As I mentioned, the budget worksheets were distributed to department heads and I have a few that's been collected and so I appreciate the department heads looking at it and giving prompt return. So hopefully when we have our meeting, we'll have some very rough preliminary numbers kind of assembled for some of the funds and things.

Want to get on? Very good. Thank you. That's it, Brian. Yeah, I know Shelly. I didn't want to jump to Shelly because she's right here. I didn't want to miss anybody out here. Shelly, you need to say something. Just tell a joke or a funny story.

I wish the mayor happy travels on the way home and happy travels on the way to the beach.

But when I retired, I got COVID, and that was not fun. Only time I ever got it was just on the plane trip. And that was with Margie Zeber, and it was a great ball of fun. Okay, so then council members. Who wants to start things?

Sure. Just want to let everyone know I went to the Memorial Day event that Cameron had. It was my first time at Cameron's. I'm going to go to DeKalb County. Very nice. Larry Workman does an amazing job out there keeping the grounds beautiful. It was very nice and good to hear our city leaders speak. It was very nice. I do have a question for police. Someone asked applications. Is that posted on the city website?

For which one?

Dispatch or police. Are those applications?

I know we have them here. We have them here also. They can stop by and pick them up. Or they can email us and we can send them to them.

Okay, but it's not listed on the city as positions have been... I don't know that they're on our website at the moment.

Would they go to the police department or a police department? Who do you have?

Who's interested?

I'm asking. Just trying to cover the faces here. A nice dinner.

website but then that expires so we just have to make sure that you know okay job um well first of all i'd like to congratulate joe uh great job back there i know he's been with the city doing water for a lot of years so i'm not surprised to hear that he got that position And then other than that, just, you know, good Memorial Day. I want to say for all involved, when we are asking questions as a council, please don't get offended. And also, council, we can't get offended either. I mean, it's got to be a good debate or questioning. But I think that that's something that I noticed tonight. uh by being out here listening i i heard someone spoke away so uh i think we can do a better job working together um and that's the only way we're going to make camera better so anyway ross on to you bud uh yeah memorial day was good it was nice to see town uh looking the best it could scott's

Remarks went well. Congratulations, Joe, on the promotion. And then also with summer kicking off, you know, there's a lot of different organizations that have worked really hard on some really cool events that are coming up. I know the Chamber of Commerce has put in a lot of work on that Kicking It with Cameron campaign. Heard it on several Kansas City radio stations today, actually, about it. And then also, I think Saturday was the... opening of the farmer's market uptown. The square was packed. There were a lot of people up there too. And then this weekend is our hot air balloon hot air fair. So keep your eyes peeled to the sky for hot air balloons. I'm personally on a crew from Albuquerque. They're coming clear from Albuquerque to Cameron. Lady Pilot, she's competing for the world ballooning event that is this year in Saudi Arabia. So they are coming clear to Cameron, actually on their way. Flying or driving? Driving. I don't think the prevailing winds are going through paper. So anyway, you know, it's a local event. It may not seem like that much. I think there's over 30 balloons that are supposed to be here from and clear from Albuquerque. There may be some that are farther than that. But anyway, so.

Did you say you're going to be working on that crew?

I will be on that crew. Yep. Are you the ballast head? No.

I forgot to mention all that, and I'm glad you brought that up, Ross. I know that they're working really hard on that to make a lot of events free, but they're still needing sponsors, the last I read. So if anybody was planning on donating and hadn't got to it yet, definitely get with Sue.

Yeah, I mean, sponsors still and volunteers. You know, a lot of these crews, last year I crewed for a guy from Texas. He ended up finishing fourth in the world last year. And he's a one-man crew. And to run these hot air balloons, it's at least five or six people. So they rely, some of them rely pretty heavily on the local people to try to help them be a success. So like I said, this crew from Albuquerque, I've got about three of my friends that are going to help too. So it's early mornings and late nights, but it's a lot of fun. That's all I have.

I guess that's down to me. One thing I want to mention is I really want to thank Ira Sloan for getting the pool opened up. And they have had so much attendance. It's huge. It was packed. I guess somebody was saying they had to wait to get in until some people came out. So it was that busy. So that's fantastic. Last year it was quite a struggle and it was down to the wire. This year we didn't hear anything about it. It was well done. So I think Ira needs to pat on the back for that because he did a great job. That's all I had. Great point, great point. Do I have a motion to adjourn and move into executive session?

Second.

Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye.

We could have been out of here at 6.15.

Yeah. Yeah. That's always my goal.

So didn't you say we could be at 6.30? Yeah. Oh, it's everything. I have 8.30. I have to meet you at the dental office. I may be early, I may be late, but it may not be at all.