Council - Regular Meeting

To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. El here. Crocker here. Here. Here. Roseman here. Here. Agenda approval. Motion. Second. All those in favor? All those opposed.

Mayor, I believe we had a change to the I do. I have a sorry I have a a late change to the agenda approval. Um we have an emergency hire uh due to uh a labor quitting uh resigning at the water department for the city of Cuba. So we need to do an emergency hire application process for a water department operator. with the

motion. Yeah. Motion to amen the agenda. Make a motion a second. Second. All those in favor. All those opposed. So the line entry is the emer request to emergency hire order department labor operator to advertise and high motion

yes yes Yes. Cracker. Yes. Yes. Motion passes. We are now ready for citizen participation. Laura Wallace food trucks.

Next. Clean Margaret 42. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Congratulations on your election and I expect great things for this city in the coming two years. With that said, I regret my first appearance at citizen participation during your administration will be to ask for consideration for an action he took last week at the last meeting. Although the mouse was not particularly circumspect with his opinion of your choice of alderwoman Hartzel for the police commission, I think he had a good point and I asked you to carefully consider it. I would like to talk about the day Hartzel v. Eden was heard at the Crawford County Court. That is a case in which the older woman failed to obtain an order of protection against Mr. Edson. My reasons for talking about this case will become clear very shortly. Most of the people of the court that day were witnesses and were removed from the courtroom before testimony began. I was not a witness, so I was one of the few people from Cuba who watched and heard the entire proceeding. During the case, the judge commented that to obtain an order of protection, a reasonable person in the same circumstances would be fearful. He clearly did not consider Miss Hartzel claim of fear to be reasonable. He was so unimpressed with her case that he ruled against her after she and her three witnesses testified. Mr. Edson did not even have to call his own witnesses, although there were many outside the courtroom ready, willing and able and eager to testify on his behalf. The judge refused to grant Miss Hartzil's request for an order of protection despite testimony from three city officials in including Chief of Police Doug Shelton. I think you should reconsider appointing Alderwoman Hartzel to the police committee because of Chief Shelton's role in her order of

protection case. That is not to suggest he did anything wrong by testifying. In fact, he had no choice. He had been subpoenaed. But I think some in the community may believe Miss Hartzel called the chief as a witness because she thought she could rely on him to give testimony favorable to her. People may believe the older woman might now show favoritism to the police department and try to give it more give it more than its fair share of Cuba's financial cost. As lay on between the police board and the board alderman, she is perfectly situated to do just that. I can't think of a worse time for the community to perceive that an elected official is playing favors. A time when we all know money is tight. So tight that just a year ago, we couldn't afford to hire two part-time minimum wage people to help with the summer mowing. So tight that less than a month ago, our controller urged we take advantage of recent retirements to reduce the number of city employees through attrition. For these reasons, I am asking you to reconsider the appointment of Alderwoman Hartwell for the police committee. Thank you. Anybody else?

Yeah. For the record, Dan Edson, 505 Kidwell Drive, Cuba. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Thank you for allowing me to speak. Want to take a moment to congratulate those who won this recent election. I recognize that there are a few of you who are not privy to what I'm about to talk about. Uh but we'll we'll make documents available to you. Come before you this evening with two documents that involve older personel and myself. The first is an embellished police report taken by Cuba PD that encompasses two dates, 102125 and 11125. One could say that she lied on these statements in order to get the complaint in front of a judge asking for an order of protection that was a thinly veiled attempt to keep me from attending city council meetings. This documentation is refuted by witnesses in attendance at both meetings with one being an audio recording. The second is a court transcript that clearly calls into question the validity of her complaint. Of the four witnesses that testified on her behalf, there are four different versions of what I supposedly said. the closest to the truth being Chief Shelton's testimony. One witness claims that in sworn testimony that that I never said quote if you want to play games end quote. Another witness claims she quote believes she heard if you want to play games along with an embellishment.

And yet another witness claims he heard clearly what was said by me above the murmur of 8 to 10 people taking talking after a city council meeting but required several questions repeated from her lawyer in a quiet courtroom. In a recent meeting on 416 all the person Hartzel was questioned how her witnesses worked out for her during that hearing. She responded, quote, "Well, one of them didn't, that's for sure." End quote. Referring to Chief Shelton's testimony. My question is this. Can we believe the sworn testimony of an elected city marshal or not? Because if we can, that is further evidence the truth escapes all the person partial. And I have to call into question her ability to serve the public as an elected official. Remember there were 109 votes in favor of change when she won by 58. I believe these documents will support the need to impeach older person Joyce Hartzel. I will happily make these documentation these documents available to any of you that want to read them. Uh get a hold of me either by phone or by message. I'll make arrangements to meet with you and let you review these documents. They will not leave my possession. So if you want to meet for coffee or something, that's fine. But uh thank you for your time.

Anybody else?

Good afternoon. Know the majority of you on here. Some of you don't. I Cindy Mercer, I too am going to state after Dan and um it's it's it's very concerning that you have an older person sitting on this board that lied about a citizen. Um I read through them and and even my name's mentioned in there and a couple of the questionings of the events that happened and that's also not true. I was there for both encounters and at no time did Dana ever threaten Joyce. You guys have to sit back and understand whether you have um a good relationship with Dan or not. He's still a citizen and we cannot have elected officials lying about citizens. It will break the rapport and the trust of your citizens with counsel. It is illegal to make a false police report and is perjury of the constitutional rights when you are square under oath and you lie on your testimony. It is important that this is really looked at and not just bypassed. It's important that your citizens regain Christ's trust in the council and that the right thing is done. I too motion and hope that you guys support the impeachment of Alderwoman this Um, Miss Wallace, are you here?

Hi. Come on, please.

Sorry. I don't know if you called me earlier or not. I'm Laura Wallace. I'm the owner for Maker and Belly. I have some information. I got one. You're welcome. Okay. Um, the reason why I asked to come talk to you guys today was um, we are um, as you know, most of you probably know, we we ended up pulling our hours back. Um, We were running six days a week and now we're running four. Um, and that was just out of a preservation move for us. Um, but before I had to make that move, I was um doing some I was trying to figure out why. Um, given that location that we're at, such a high traffic capacity that it has, we're not able to grow beyond It's it's just it's it's a stagnant spot that we're in. I mean, it's just not growing. So, um I was doing some research and and came across quite a bit of information

and that's what this is, uh with a little bit of backup to it. Um we are grossly oversaturated in the foods market segment in the city. Um and I'm not I'm not trying eliminate competition. I think competition is a great thing. It keeps all on our toes. Um, helps us to to actually put out good product. Um, and it basically the the ones that can't make it. I'm not talking about eliminating competition. I'm talking about making it sustainable for um, anybody that comes into this market. And what we have right now is not sustainable. We have 29 food establishments. We have a permanent residency of 3,200 people. If you count in tourism, which I'm estimating at about 1,500 people a month on tourism, and that's an annualized tourism, and then factor in any of the factories, and most of those factory members are duplicated because a lot of them do live in town that work in our factories. um you're still looking at way under what the SBA is sustainable for any rural area. We should have minimum 500 people per restaurant and we are well below that. What I'm asking are two things. I'm asking for a market study done by this council and action based on what you guys find out of that market study around planning and zoning.

So I'm asking the council to do its own market research. You guys go do your own market study. There's a document on the very the very last document I think it is it's a proposal sustainability study. So basically using this guideline um I've talked to Gordon out of the Missouri Department of Economic Development. Um she would be a good resource um for the city um maybe be able to provide guidance on who to do this. But

in your study, did you find out what food service market capacities? I did not, but the Missouri Department of Economic Development has actual free resources. So, I don't know. TA may be able to direct you to some resources that would actually do that without costing the city. So you I noticed this one document is section 605200 concerning food trucks. Yes. So that's you mentioned you mentioned 29 restaurants. So do you want us are we looking to see how food trucks are hurting our market or what?

So that's actually a separate a separate issue. It all it all weighs on this the sustainability issue, but food trucks specifically that are coming into town, they're just setting up randomly in different places, mostly at Maces. Um they're basically taking the revenue out of the city. And not only that, but they're hurting those of us who have this brick and mortars to try to sustain. Many of those food trucks are actually based right here in town outside.

I understand that. I understand that those owners may live here in town. Um, but they're not paying the property taxes that those brick and mortars are paying. They're not paying the utilities on the buildings that those brick and mortars are sustaining basically and they're not they're not employing the pe the number of people that we have to employ to sustain. So I mean there's there's several factors that they're drawing away from our ability to sustain on an already saturated market.

So are you saying we should not have food trucks? I am saying we should not have food trucks. There's a caveat. So what I what I sent you or what I provided in this ordinance, this is actually an ordinance from the city of Missouri. They got ahead of it. They realized what was happening and they put an ordinance in place to protect their food establishments. Um, so they have a caveat that it these there's an exception for any uh events like city permitted events that are happening. There's a permit for the one day of that event for food trucks to be in the city. But after that event is over, they're done.

It is my understanding with they have to have a county license. They also have to have a city license for operation and they do have to pass annual health department inspection. They do. And then do you pay taxes? I'm not talking about sales tax. I'm talking about the property taxes on brick and mortar. So like An own building would have property taxes that the city benefits from.

In the sense the county the county does but the county do you guys not we have not since 80. Sorry my mistake.

Yes ma'am. You said this uh this section 605200 handout that's the city of Owensvilles questions basically in a sense it would be punishing for somebody for having a different business model I'm not.

It's not punishment. I have that business model. I also have a food truck. But I also have an understanding that if I'm going into another city uninvited or without an event being there that I'm taking away from the other business businesses in that town. I'm taking away from their brick and mortar and their employees that are in that town. In other words, you don't want it permanent. truck to be permanent be a fixture actually park some place and stay there.

No, I'm not I mean that's not that's not exactly what I'm I'm getting at. Um when when they come in, they're basically getting whatever revenue would have gone to the brick and mortars and they're leaving. Great. So I may ask another question then. So you're looking at food trucks only being available for events. Yeah. That week. So if there's no events going on, no food trucks. Is that correct?

I have heard other businesses express concerns about it as well. Do you mind sharing who are

I think that as well.

Anybody want to volunteer?

No. two volunteers this morning.

Can we will you we give us till the next city council? We don't want to dismiss it. So we want to address it. At the same time, if you could have other businesses that might be affected and feel like they're affected reach out to us, it would help with one business. I have talked to I have talked to others. Um I didn't just come to you before. I had talked to others to make sure that I wasn't alone. Are there any other municipalities that have adopted this besides Owensville that you know of

I haven't looked past um but I would be happy to do that research for you guys if you wanted others if you wanted to know about others because I to follow up and we will readress this.

Thank you. You're welcome. Thanks for listening. Appreciate it. Thank you. Anybody else? Regular meeting minutes of April 9, 2026. Motion second. All those in favor? All those opposed approve the special meeting minutes of April 16th, 2026. Second. All in favor?

All opposed. Next item on the agenda is bills to be paid. Have I had a chance to review? Anybody have any comments? Seems we have a lot of charter spectrum from different location.

You want to address that? Um, so we have to put everything in um by each fund. So um that's why there's several charters. So every um city building has a charter account. So you'll see a number more than once. It's not that we have more than one charter, you know, on so many times, but every all of our internet is through charter. Now I have a question. Um is our phone land our landline is that also charter then?

No. Um so when it says um internet and phone through charter it's because sever some of the locations have have um a specific type of phone for facts or the airport has one for their fuel line but our phone is turning so this is one of For the first time in a long time we've had a state verifying that we had money in the bank to pay the bill. Normally we just say we're going to pay the bills and we pay them without any verification. I really appreciate that. It shows that we are actually able are capable of pay our bills. Not not enough. I appreciate that very very much. Need a second.

Yeah. All those in favor. All those opposed McBride develop update status engineer.

Mayor I think I've had a chance to meet or introduce myself to all of you. But I'm Cambridge Schwiss with our trail engineering. Um we have the pleasure of serving as your city engineer for for all things uh city infrastructure. So mayor invited you down to give a quick update on phase one of the silo ridge development pride. Sent out an email this morning. You might have that in your packet, but I can kind of briefly summarize what's going on out there right now. So um as you all recall, phase one of that development, the flat and the infrastructure plans were approved several months back. Contractor proceeded with that work. Um, as of today, um, the underground water and sewer veins are installed by the developer at the developer's cost. Um, the storm water piping structures have been installed. That was a developer's cost. Um, as far as the city's responsibilities, um, Andy Simpson and his crews have installed all of the primary electric road crossings. Um, they've installed several of the like big junction cabins. You might have noticed at the intersections. They installed most of the conduit for all the primary electric that serves those 36 first 36 lots in that development. And as of today, they started pulling wire through those conduits. So, a little bit of coordination that's been going on between us and um and crew. Um as you know, there was some pretty rough grading out there and obviously construction in the spring can get kind of kind of difficult for digging. Um our crews staked out all that underground primary including the road crossings. uh you know there were some dirt piles and things in the way as Andy was digging and a lot of those rows are on the radius. So as he installed that our crews came back behind him and actually as built the locations of all of his trenches and we've overlay that now on McBride's development plan just to make sure there's no conflict with easements. So, had several coordination calls with with McBride engineers the last few weeks just trying to make sure um if if any new easements come up in front of city council for approval that they they

document well where all that city infrastructure has been put in the ground so that 20 years from now we don't all scratch our heads and wonder why we we drove you know I drove a playground post through a grand bank or something like that. So all that seems to be going pretty well. Andy was a little happy today.

Yeah. Yeah, I think so. So he was a little nervous I think but he veered but where he veered he veered them in the right direction. So I think all of that's going along well. Um the actual water and sewer service connections will be completed by McBride's plumber not their site utility contractor at a later date. So all the roads have been sleeved for those future water connections. Um those locations where the ends of those sleeves are kind of marked with pipe out ground right now. But there will be um a fair amount of work with Glenn and his crews when when they start fine grading those lots and get started on foundations and want to start picking up water that will tie up some city resources just to make sure that you know that meters are being placed in the correct location. There'll be a hand off of some materials. Quite a bit of coordination that needs to happen at that time. But for the most part things seem to be going well. Um road construction is in progress out there. We had a call with them yesterday and and today uh they had submitted a final development plan uh to the city for consideration. Um that is so that is a little bit peculiar. Um typically that would come with a flat and a set of infrastructure plans with it. And so as we talked through that, I think the the main thing McBride wanted to convey is their intent to kind of lock in on total number of lots, sizes of lots, nature of lots because at the end of uh the preliminary planning phase, there was still a little bit of question about what that total development might look like and a little bit of question as to how many lots and what the minimum lot sizes would be, you know, for the overall development. So, um, you know, I think it's probably a city attorney question as to whether the council needs to take any formal action on that, whether any public hearings are required. But the message that I was asked to convey is, um, you know, through their engineer is they they want to make sure the city knows here's where we believe we're headed over a number of phases, uh, and just make sure that that

kind of, you know, the the the development plan originally kind of it laid the groundwork or the foundation for all things that would happen after that. This is kind of the next step where they're saying, "Okay, now we know here here's the total number of lots that we want to build, but just try to get some kind of mutual understanding of the city that that's where it's headed in phases just so that they don't have to retrace their steps. So, um, it sounds like they've began working on engineering for phase 2. Obviously, we're not working on that work. That's through a different consultant. Um, but it does sound like they've they've at least directed their consultant to start working on some preliminary engineering for phase 2. I think the earliest we would see that for council action sounds like it would be like the fourth quarter of this year or maybe first quarter of next year based on my discussions with them. So we're still a little ways out. Um but it seems like things are going well. They they expect the development to be successful in continuing basis. So that might inform some of our other discussions in the next few months about um you know with the municipal advisor about financing some infrastructure projects and continuing on with some of those capital improvements that we talked about the last several months. I know I just covered covered a lot of time. Any questions for me or anything I can I can do to help move things forward from the city side? You said that um are they changing the number of houses in the bill?

Uh I don't remember what that total number was on that plan. Yeah. So it's reduced from that. I think the last version that I saw was in the 530s. This this latest version in front of you I think 525.

So you know that had some uh obviously there's a fair amount of green spaces there and there's some easements for drainage and things that had to be accounted for. I think as they worked through their final engineering, they probably just had to sacrifice a few lots on corners and things that didn't quite meet the minimum lot standard. So, u it's and and of course they can come and advocate for their plan when the time comes, but um it's my understanding they're kind of coming to you with that plan saying here's here's what it's going to look like. Do you guys have any issues with this? Are there any are there any outstanding questions? And then if if that is adopted in any in any formal way for approval by the city, then you would hold them to that standard unless they would formally request an amendment to that later on. So it is a little once again if you read through your ordinance normally you would have to have in order to really approve that you have to have a plat and a set of infrastructure plans to go with it. So that's if that's not how it's been submitted. I don't know that you're required here to take any action. And just ultimately be, you know, what's it going to take to make sure that both sides are working working well together?

It's informationational I think. So I do have a question. U do we have these plans digitally where we can actually read them? Yes sir. Absolutely. And I think there's a full size set here in city hall somewhere. But absolutely I can make sure I can make sure you all have access to those. Number of houses sold so far. I don't know. I have not heard. I think I know I thought I saw plans for something like that. Um I noticed what went over there the other day they already poured the roads.

When will acceptance be to that? How will that be handled? Because what if anything when do we formally take over that versus if they damage it while we're building?

Right. So, I think you you do not have to accept those improvements until um all the infrastructure has been put in place. Um and I think that there are some temporary access um the turnarounds and things like that that have to be in place before you would would have to accept that road. So, they're responsible for it till they turn it over to you. Um they're also, you know, as we work through coordination, they're responsible for turning over test reports and all those things for the concrete and everything quality control related. And then obviously each department have the ability um and I could come along with that too to do kind of a final punch list on any outstanding items or quality assurance concerns that would need to be addressed before you accept it. So they've not asked or requested any of that yet. I would assume that that's probably um you know after they start selling houses because ultimately I don't think you can grant certificate of occupancy until those sections of streets are dedicated.

Who will run those tests? Will they run those tests? for all the third party testing. And then, you know, during those coordination meetings we had at pre-construction, of course, Bill's retired now, but he was going to run on a lot of those proof rail inspections and things like that. So, we'll just need to get all the documentation from from the development before you guys could feel compelled to accept the street. So, I've not today I've not seen any of that any of those test reports.

So, I apologize because I'm new to the board, new to all this here. So, you were the engineer for phase one. I an engineer for the city of Cuba. So, our team has reviewed, you know, all of the infrastructure plans and the plaques and all the things that have come in front of the city for approval. Our team has reviewed those based on your code and provided recommendations for either items that needed to be addressed or recommended recommendations for approval. I understand. Thank you. Y Thank you.

Mary, you are up for airport construction t hanger building project bid recommendation.

Good evening. Uh my name is Gary Souls. I'm with Hansen Professional Services, St. Charles, Missouri. Um we are the uh city's uh engineering consultant for the airport for everything um development related out there. Um we were hired uh under contract about a year ago to do design on a uh a new hanger project we have worked to replace the uh hanger which has been needed repair for some time. Um so that is intended to be funded through uh mod using FAA airport improvement grant and uh this is uh through a combination of different funds. This is the um period of time right now that we're in that has the the most uh highest amount of funding through the FA for hangers. There's very specific effects of funds that can only use on hanger projects. So, um, last week we had a, uh, a bid opening, um, based on our design for, uh, the new hanger project and that included, uh, demolition of the old hanger, construction of the new hanger. And then we had, uh, alternates for for different other pieces uh, including new pavement to access the hanger where we were tearing up some old pavement. So, um we had a uh we had four bids that were submitted uh last week. Uh we evaluated with the city the um the best scope to award for the project. Uh was determined that replacing the the current hanger which is 10 units with a new 10 unit hanger

um as well as demolition of the existing to access uh the all 10 units. Um so through a u evaluating the bids and looking at funding that was available the combination of those items uh resulted in the um the the low bidder of CSSE Enterprises overall. um they were actually the the only uh bidder that fit within the available funding that we will not have for those for that combination of of items to be awarded. So um we wrote a recommendation letter to to award project to uh CSC and that would be the the base which was the hanger and then added one which add three is the papers. Um so the the funding uh we sent a a funding breakdown with the recommendation letter last week. Since then uh we've coordinated with MODOT and found some additional funding that was left over uh remainder from the previous project. So, um the information we provided last week actually got better um this week. It's not it's not uh enough to award more pieces of the project, but is enough to bring the uh the city's share significantly lower. Um so, the uh the bid the combined bid from CSC is is over $1.2 million. uh the federal money uh I let me be more specific $1,288,91

that would be the combined bid uh from from the low bidder the federal money that's available uh as of today uh for the for the for the duration of the project we calculated 1.2 million 1,213,324 options. So that means the uh the city share of this project of the $2.2 million project is 75,577. So that's about uh 5.86% of construction would be the city share. So that's about that's about as good of a deal as we're going to get from the FA and the city. the normal um kind of the normal project local share the city share is 10%. And so we're down to we're down to 5.86 on this particular project at this time. So um what was the number again? The city share the city share uh 75,577 and that's for the construction portion our design u design and construction administration fees were under a separate plan last year. So that's already been accounted for. But just for the

um so that is that's the quick summary of the of the numbers. Um essentially what we would be looking for is authorization to apply for the grant to mod on his behalf. Um and then once mod will uh send the grant. It's going to probably take a few months for the FA to get their money to mod. Mod will then make the grant to the city. Um at that point you would hopefully accept the grant and award the construction contract. uh or exc construction contract. So um so at a minimum we would ask for authorization to apply for the grant and then however you want to handle the the actual execution of the grant and the construction contract either now contingent on rece.

So you're asking for uh recommendation tonight based on the agend discussion. I just want to make sure I understand. So the base bid was the 109. That was the bottom base. You said total project was 1.2. Where's that difference coming from? Yeah. So there is a do you have what's in you?

Okay. There's a there's a couple pages. So there's two pages of the letter and there's two pages behind that that are the calculated. So uh so that number comes from on that on this first kind of spreadsheet page kind of gray white page uh the 1 million 96,866 that is the base bid as you can see that's for the new the new building then on the next page uh is a little crowded but added alternate one is demolition of the existing uh the CSC price there is 51,700 and then additive alternate number three which is uh goes up this line starts at line 20 there's a total there under CSC of $140,335 that would be work so you add those three numbers together hopefully I did my math budgeted for last year, right?

Um, yeah, we had there was a motion made, I can't remember exactly when, and I go back to the minutes, but where I had asked council to when this was asked to go out a long time ago believe it by Debbie Martin and I don't remember who made the second council approved we used capital improvement funding for the project and believe it was back then we did 5% of the total project and it was was well over 100,000 so we're well under budget which is 75 any other questions yes cracker Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Thank you. Thank you. Can I just clarify? We voted to approve the recommendation that you get correct. So do we now need to approve authorization to apply for the additional grant or is that all together? Well, that was the recommendation that we ask. Is that all included in that this recommendation? We'll do whatever you want. I'm asking to make sure I have it correct. Yeah, based on based on your approval recommendation, our next step would be that

I don't know exactly how she has it right now exactly what the motion is, but have we the motion as we were accepting the recommendation that you presented with her? So, we were to apply for the grant. Have you also accepted though the the only bid that he said that the That's what I'm trying to clarify. I think you need to do that. That's where I'm So, do we need another motion to We need a We need a motion to accept the bid. CS.

Well, I just said it was cse. Yeah, that's roll call. So, we only got one dude. No, we got four. The other ones were two.

Yes. Yes.

Yes. Okay. Update on natural gas department action being taken. Um, as you know, we have our our supervisor for natural gas stepped down. We have since hired a supervisor who would start on April 27th. We got notified um our natural gas supervisor left in March. We got notified by NPSC that our required annual report was well overdue. It was due in January of 2026. Um we returned the call. They sent down two people to discuss and point us in the right direction to resolve the problem. I want to thank Isaiah Woodson and Jessica Telete for getting all the information needed to complete the annual report that was overdue since January of this year. It has been turned into the M that report has now been turned into NPSC. I validated that with Jason the other day at NPSC. They will return after their visit. They found uh some report discrepancies and things that we need to do a little better. They will return in around three months to do their annual audit which they come every year and do an annual audit. Then they will return in six months to check for progress. NPUA is also helping and is a valuable source of knowledge when needed. Currently we have two natural gas employees. One of them will be leaving us u on May 4th. Um he has accepted a job at Sullivan uh in Sullivan, Missouri. The new supervisor will start April 27th and we're running ads for another natural gas employee as we speak. We have two other natural gas trained personnel uh personnel in the city's employee capable of helping with

all the call duties. I want to thank Mike McGomery and David Manardi for volunteering their time and expertise in assisting the natural gas department. Greatly appreciate it. Um I talked with city administrator at St. James Public Works today. uh they are currently working on a municipal support agreement for all areas um in the future so that we can work together should we have an emergency or we have an emergency need. They have been out already to help. We had a large commercial leak. I gave the public works director a call there and they immediately came up and helped us uh resolve the leak situation. We also working to approve and set up with USDI a provider of natural gas training tracking for repairs and services as well as required reports of all levels. NPUA is in approval is in for approval to provide evaluations for the certifications. We will be covering those tonight on the agenda. Thanks to Tyler Sharpenberg, I always get your name wrong, Tyler, for taking a lot of calls so that others will not have to. He's been a tremendous help in that area. Thanks to Jerry McGomery for stepping in as a temporary supervisor as well. And we now have two alderman appointed as natural gas committee members which include Russ Crocker and Ray Mo from the National Gas Department. And that concludes my update. Any questions from council? discussion and approved public work supervisor job descriptions. You have before you two job descriptions. You have the public work supervisor job description and then the new city of Cuba public works director the uh approved lawyer approved on 417 2026. Um the public works supervisor job

description is the one that's currently posted at the public works facility. That is what the person will be hired to do. It will come in at level 24 that uh that fits our budget. Um that was approved by our controller Jennifer. Um so we need to and then the city of Cuba public works director job description. That is what they're working toward. Bob has told us that he's probably going to stay with us for another year to help train our public works supervisor into a public works director. And that will be the goal that we shoot for to have him train in a year. Jeff had requested us to have longer approved so this week have long people. So I don't want to rush.

So we've got advertisements right now for public works supervisor put up the job description. Correct. And then I got an email here for the city of Cuba public works director. Now that is what we're the goal for training is to for this position. We we we're hiring for this position as a supervisor. They're not going to be supervising other public works supervisors. They will be trained. This is what their functions are going to be. And Bob, who is now who is currently working part time with us as a public works manager, will be training them to learn this. So, you're going to learn this and this and hopefully within a year's time frame. So, it'll be basically one person, two job descriptions.

Well, he'll have one job description. We're at this progression. Okay. Okay. Just like our crew position back in your practice. Is it the supervisor that's going to be a 24 or the director that would be a 24? No, your supervisor will be a 24 and when they reach the director level that will have 24 council. currently into 27 the director. Yeah. Yeah. So they'll move to a 27. You're welcome.

So two weeks ago we couldn't hire anyone because we didn't have the money. But we're going to have money for this. You're going to have to do some things work. So we probably ain't going to have money for this this year. That's not this year. That won't be That'll be in this budget. That's coming up budget. We're talking a year down the road. So So we're not going to hire until next year.

Yeah. It takes a year. Bob's going to give us a year to train. We want to make sure they can do that function. So, how much how much money are we talking to? 28.84 for a public work supervisor. 28.884 20 28.884

and that's in house only. You're not going out for hire. That was approved by the council to go in house. And depending on where that person will come from will affect how we hire the person who they come from. It's 28,000. 28 an hour.

But now generally I mean we're doing this in house. So if we we promote somebody to this in house, we have to replace that position. So we're still going to create a position. The position already exists. It don't at the moment.

Well, Bob's time employee. Bob wants to retire in a year. If we do not train somebody to do our our code inspections, our building inspections and our permits and be the layers on between the the projects and everything else we're going on. We had to function as a government body. I mean, our our public works has to be able to function.

Depending on who you hire in the position doesn't necessarily mean that you have to rehire the position. That's basically what I can say. You can not necessarily rehire that position depending on who that person is. When you promote from within, you don't always have to rehire a position just because you lose it. And that'll be at the council's discretion. I have a question here. Public work supervisor job description. This says job description on the sheet. Job description, pending attorney, and council approval. Hire date will be after council approval. Job description. You said that you've already reviewed it and approved it at the attorney level. We review the public works director. Yeah. Oh, but not the supervisor.

Supervisor. I'm sorry. We didn't have a director. We we had a director but it had a whole bunch of but my sheet just says pending attorney attorney and counsel. Oh attorney and council but the attorney's already approved. So now it's up to the council approved the supervisor description. The supervisor position was already the one that we was approved by the lawyer was the new Okay. It it was just this was just put on the front sheet since it was two.

Okay. Salary depend on who get job. It might be a little bit more. No. Um this the supervisor position will pay a level 24 starting out. the person that leaves. It depends on which work center they come from how we fill that position. What are you making now? Yeah.

What do you need? I need a motion to approve the job titles public works supervisor and city public works programs and the end of day. Are we approving this description? Yeah.

Yes. This description.

Yes. Yes. No. discussion and approval of 50 fiscal year 26 budget revision as of 33126.

Good evening. We are going to revise um this year's budget. I'm not sure what it looks like in your packet, but on mine it looks like this. I think this might be the first sheet on your packet. So, if you'll turn to this sheet and we'll get started. So, um I'm asking for an approval for the attached budget revisions as of uh 33126 and we're going to adjust um revenue to account for various small revenue increases. We have a transfer um explanation on page three um as well as transfer out increased gas tax and vehicle revenue addition and donation money to the parks for pickle ball as well as added increase um for pickle ball court expenses and increase in natural gas charges for services. We're going to adjust expenditures to account for various small expenditures. Workman's comp increase in overtime in the following departments. Admin, police, water, treatment plant, and natural gas. It's just basically that time of year when um we start um looking in this at the time of year when everybody's using more. Added salary for public works supervisor including expenses for the overtime, social security, and loggers. Added salary for the increase in pay for the tax 2 pay for the natural gas employee and the new natural gas supervisor. Added the transfer of parks fund to the general fund for the 50,000 salary. Increase for the inventory supplies and repairs in the following departments and water works. Increase for inventory for repairs and natural gas. Increase in

salaries in the street department due to departmental retirement and hiring changes. Increase in small tools in natural gas. Increase in training in natural gas. Decrease in repairs um in transportation trust by 10,000. Increase in construction in transportation trust by 10,000. Um I do have some notes. This is our third revision of the fiscal year 2026 budget. While the overall budget numbers are staying on the positive side, I have some points that I would like to point out regarding this revision. Our revenues were revised to $479,500 and our expenses were revised to $44 $40,00059. Therefore, our estimated net income went from an estimated $290,11 we were looking at to end the year fiscal year back in the second quarter to now estimated $329,552. This is an increase of $39,441, which is better than the last increase of $221. However, I would like to note that without the estimated increase at this time at interference, our re our revenues would not be quite this quite as high as they were currently for the third quarter. We always like to see estimate estimates rising. However, I'm still seeing expenditures and I'm currently revising in the expense area. From my perspective, this is not always a good outlook we would like to see. In many funds, the same expenses from the previous two quarters are being revised for various reasons. But I encourage you to look at the report and see for which um expenditure is causing your budget to be revised each quarter. Finally, for a small reason, I expect to revise some accounts within each fund that

are over a certain point each quarter. This this point for the third quarter is 75% allocated amount for each account number. If an account number is not below that target amount, we expect that they will be over by June 30th, 2026. I would like to point out that without revising the CH charges for gas services by $300,000, which made a substantial impact on this revision. If this revision did not take place, our third quarter revision would be in the negative by 6 260,5 um $59. Instead, we revised to $39,441. Striving to have a balanced budget is hard task that makes on takes on many people working together. We must look at aspects of the city's funds, including inter fund transfers to cover the cost of spending. Amendments to the budget should not only be made um if there's something that cannot wait until the next fiscal year. I have stressed to the council that utilizer reserves is not a good practice. We only have a couple funds that are continually using those reserves to achieve a balanced budget. While we're still practicing utilizing reserves in many departments, it is a practice that is getting better. In coming months, as the end of the fiscal year ends, we need to focus on less spending and more saving for the future of the city of Cuba. In closing, please remember that a budget is nothing more than a management tool to act as a guide. Very much like the quote from Apollo 13. It's one of my favorites that I like to use when talking about a budget. Ken, you're not telling me you're telling me what you need and I'm telling you what we have to work with. This is the quote that sums up what a budget process is all about. It is all about what we need and what we must work with at the time of the incident. I ask each community department and employee to please keep this in mind when they're

working with your department. Um thanks again um working through your meet. I have a few things I would like to um clarify. Um on the next page is the third the third quarter um transfer explanations that will kind of go through and explain what the transfers from each inner fund is. Um I will I can go through the numbers with you or if you want me to first.

Okay. So on transfer ends um the general fund we made $89,745 transfer 50,000 came from the park fund. $39,745 came from natural gas. In the electric fund we had a transfer in of $269,486 and that came from capital improvement. In the waterworks fund, we had a transfer in of 13,2778 and that also came from capital improvement. And the streets fund we made we're we're budgeting a transfer in of $28,818 from the transportation trust fund. On the transfer outside on the parks fund, we're having a $50,000. We're showing a $50,000 transfer to the general fund. On the transportation trust side, we're having a $27,818 to the street fund. On the capital improvement side, we're showing $282,764. $269,486 is going to the electric fund. $13,278 is going to the waterworks. on the natural gas fund, $39,745 is going to the general fund. So, you can see if you add all those numbers up, everything will balance out to zero. Any questions about that? On the next page is your capital improvement schedule. Um, I'd like to point out in the orange, hopefully yours is orange. Mine is. Is yours orange? No,

gray. No, there's still

Okay, gray. Sorry. um where it says electric and reclosures and then further down it says reclosure coordination study. Um on the following page I have some explanations um there that explain that on the last revision or vision number two um there was a miscommunication between the um electric supervisor and myself and um the wording and what got revised on this sheet and what he asked for a revision on was wrong. And so I just wanted to point out on this sheet that we want to revise the actual closures. We want to revise the boss circuit and not the reclosure coordination study. So we're just changing the two. Um he did not want to take out the reclosure um study. So we're just fixing the report to be correct. And then um at the bottom in the yellow is the u clarifier repairs. Um, and the hydrants. Dave submitted an actual request and he would like he had 17,000 originally budgeted and he's requesting that um he takes 10,000 out of the clarifier repair and um for updating his water hydrants and only leaves 7,000 for clarifier repairs. And then on the back you can see your additions. On the next page you'll see the McBride capital project um for the electric and then the clarifier repairs in the water haven. So the new things that we're adding to the report and then the next page is also the explanation that I just described for um

the closure. And then the next page is the actual budget revision report. I can go through that if you like. First one. Yeah. So um

it's still it's a gray area. It's a gray area. So each gray area is the items that I'm actually re um I'm budgeting. Um you want me to go line by item by line item or just the highlights.

So um but each one of those items are the ones that I've highlighted. And so those are items that I've highlighted and I've asked you guys for this quarter. But if not, you can see in the 93025, the 123125, and then this is the 33126 revision, and each one of those columns are the things that have been revised. So if something's in each one of those columns, those are things that are probably need to be looked at and addressed because they're being revised consistently. And then the back page in the very back just shows the last bar here kind of shows the overall budget and that's where I get my bottom numbers from Do you have any questions for me

regarding that report? So is the ending amount that's unexpended is that 13,6137. That's a fun balance. Um, so yeah, that's where it's right now. What was that question?

On the back page, the very last number on the bottom row, I said, is that the amount that's unexpended? So, 13 million question. Those are estimated amounts because fund balances don't get updated until the end of the fiscal year. So I guess the discussion and approval of this is just that budget summary and transfers page one two approval to 33126.

We have a motion to approve.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Review and approval for USDI track and training programs and software for the natural gas department. when the um during the process of our natural gas uh the people that came down both EUA uh MVSC and also working with the St. James uh people when they came up and did municipal support, they all seem to mention the USDI and they also mentioned EWM. So, and a couple others for the drug testing stuff. So, we went out and got proposals from all these organizations to provide the the training because the the hands-on training now they want you to do it computerized so it can be tracked. All the all the reports can be generated via the computer. When you put the information in, it will generate the reports for you at the end of the year. Um, you no longer have to do all the paperwork, then turn around, do all the paperwork, then get all the numbers and then put those in manually. It'll be done as you do the support, as you lay the lines. It you'll put that stuff into the computer, and then in the year they'll generate your report for you. The only company that would do that was the ones that everybody else is kind of using, and that's called USDI. Um, they also track your training as you're training on your task. You can now do it on the computer versus the old manuals that we used to have. Well, we found the manuals that were in the work center were dated, I think one was like 2016, one was 2022 or something like that. And then they brought us when the guys, they brought us a new one. And it turns out we did have one of those as well in the work service. And now we have two. Um, that process will now be computerized. So you'll go in, the technician will go in. Of course, he'll still have his OJT, his on the job training for welding, the the uh the PE and all that kind of stuff. But as far

as the training, certification, everything, it'll all be done done on the computer. They will track it all. And then your certification, once you reach cert certification level, MPUA, we'll also be discussing them next. MPVA will come down from the Columbia area uh Keith Carter and actually do our evals here and they're they're quite a bit cheaper to do the evals than the USDI people and they will accept the certifications from NPUA. the the service rates are on the second page of the USDI. Do we have a

sheet off everything? You need to go read these out. I'm sure you guys. So, what we're asking for is approval to go into contract with USBI to provide the computer training and the tracking software and reporting um software so that we can train our our technicians. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. All those in favor?

All those opposed. Next one is review and approval um of the NPUA evaluation for N natural gas train uh training. Um every time you do a a survey task, what we do is we'll put together if there's two technicians doing it or three technicians doing it, we will they will do their their task, all their um computer training and their their hands-on training and then Keith from MPUA will come down and they will uh evaluate them all at one time so that we don't have to come we don't have to bring them down for one task or two task u so we can streamline our training and our evaluation process is considerably cheaper than USDI on their evaluation um processes so I'm asking for approval to go into contract with NPUA evaluations.

Motion to approve that. Second. Motion to approve that. Second. All those in favor?

I appro contract for the airport industrial treatment plant. Um before you are the the hay cutting agreement that was proposed the three areas where they normally hay. We do not have a current contract for that. Um so Jerry we're having to maintain it. So we went out on a no cost basis. Um we only have one person bid. Um and it basically is to do the scope of work. Description of services contractor agrees to perform the following services on the land. Cut, bell, or remove hay from the designated areas of land as specified in exhibit A. Provide all necessary equipment, tools, and labor to complete services. Inform the services in accordance with the industry standards and practices. Complete the services within the time frame specified in section 3.2 and 3.2 duration of agreement. This agreement shall commence on January the 1st, 2026, and shall continue until December 31st, 2026, unless terminated earlier pursuant to the terms of this agreement. The contractor shall complete all services within this time frame, whether conditions permit. We're asking for approval uh to go into contract this hand cutting agreement. So, this hand cutting agreement is something brand new. We've never had

No, we've had them before. Okay. And you said we have one bid. We have one bid. And has this person ever submitted a bid in the past? Not to us. I don't think so. Not to not to my knowledge. No. Okay. And I don't think this is Charles. It's Charles. Okay. So, only one day. Correct. And he did also provide insurance information. I make that motion. Well, we got through the second then we'll discuss second. Yeah. Discuss it.

Yeah. The only thing I noted on here is we don't have any requirements for many by just thinking about the past couple years fields caught on fire. Well, this is this is a hay contract. He's not mowing the the normal grass things. That's still maintained by the grounds committee. This is strictly for the hay. Yeah. around here. Yeah. Um we allow the hay to he has between those ages dates to basically whenever the hay is ready and the weather permits to cut the hay. Yeah, that's January to December. Depending on rain, it could be up to three times a year.

Usually June and October is usually they get two times out of it. usually June and then a late one in October depending whether it was cut or not. No, I agree. I just we're hoping we're hoping he'll the last time, just to be honest, the last time we decided uh to do a hay contract, I think they tried to do, if you remember correctly, they tried to do a pay so much for the bail and they took the hay and no paid for the bail. So that didn't work out. We did in March.

Yeah. Actually, I think we have a question also now that he mentioned uh January to uh December 2026. That's this does not follow our fiscal year. No, just this is calendar year, right? So, we have a first and a second. Any other discussion? Are we just approving this new application? In other words, we have him for a year to do the hay this year. And so, we're approving to hire him. Yes, sir. Okay. Isn't this a new application that we just came out with?

This is what he This is what he submitted. These were the terms of his contract 62 left blank. He did he did submit his insurance information. So we have to fill in I I believe it was a million dollar policy. How do you know it?

I have seen his million policy.

We can request in our motion if you want to be a million dollar.

Yeah. So, we have a first and a second. Can we have those removed so that I can redo the comments? No.

So, approval of the annual H contract for the airport Barnett Barnett industrial and treatment plan pending the verification is $1 million. I I'll make that motion. All those in favor?

All those opposed. Park and recreation recommendations. Parks and Recreation Board appointments. I'm gonna appoint gonna appoint Ashley Wells and Rosalin Liner Reneer sorry to the park and recreation board. Okay. And the next one, hiring pool employees. Oh, sorry. Motion

motion for Ashley Wells and Rose to be appointed to the partial recation board. So, we're going to take it persons and recreation boards of Ashley Wells. First,

I'll second. All those in favor? I. All those opposed?

No. Hold true to my we had a parkour question employees. So, per the recommendation of the the park and recreation board last night's meeting, they recommended the hire for the pool um manager Cadence Silva, certified lifeguards, Michael Balmer, Kayn Wilkerson, Shannon Black, Marissa Foster, front desk, concessions, and lifeguard if courses are completed. Jaylen Weber, front desk and concessions Michaela Wells, Gunner Weber, and concessions Aiden Rice and Owen Shelton. Those were the recommendations from last night.

Motion. All those in favor. Sports field agreement approval from the Cuba soccer association. Did you agree or all good? Yeah.

You have those documents in front of you. contract for the Cuba Soccer Association or CSA. I need a motion. This is motion to accept. All those in favor motion for both. Do you want to check for that? one or two probably soccer.

Okay, second for soccer. Okay, all those in favor. All those opposed. Now motion for ball. Uh sports field agreement approval for the Cuba ball program. Second.

All those in favor? I and next is police chief report nuisance report. Uh just a couple things uh on the nuisance. Um, some of you know the we're getting into the tall grass season. More nuisances pop up. Uh, with a new almond. We don't have a nuisance officer. Uh, we, um, delegate any nuisances that come in to the officers to try to handle and keep up with best they can. So, if you see anything, uh, notify city hall, they'll send out the notice to to me for our officers to care. So, are you a little bit lenient because my uh my yard is a swamp still probably next day. So, when we get lots and lots of rain, we do get all right.

So, I'm hoping to get in trouble. I guess I better keep it. Um the other thing I just wanted to give a real quick update on our officer that we did sponsor for the academy. Um he's passed his post license. Got a couple days left of the academy and graduates this Friday. So then he'll be working on field training and FQO for the next three months. That's right. Graduations this is Friday. What's his first day on the street?

Uh actually Sunday would be his first but that's skill training. So yeah and that's just in order to get us into so that's what it'll be. Um we have a road closure for southwest Maine um just in front of Riviera um May 8th and 9th from 5.5 to close I believe that they're that they're waiting it forgot that my notes here I think I left that note actually they close it over here they do uh I forgot that thought I had it here and I did not an annual thing then.

Oh yeah, it is. I have my It's 5:00 p.m. to close. Okay. Uh both 8 and the 9th. We have a motion in a second.

All those in favor? Any oppose?

And the last thing I have is a discussion of our hiring an officer. Um as you know, we have that open position. Um, and we went out, put that out in paper to hire. I had a couple applications. I have one that was mostly qualified to suit our department. Um, the only issue we have at this point is her graduation from the academy in Phelps County is in July. Um, I don't know that we want to make a commitment just yet. Um if you wish I can we can hold this off till the next meeting where um we can see if we get any more applicants that come in. Well, we have to anyway because we only put on an agenda for discussion just

Right. You're correct. Um that is discussion. Um so basically what I'm asking for is um open mind for for that. You know it it would be a fresh new officer if we did decide to do that. Um and we can train that officer as as we need. Um right now we have not been getting the applications that we truly wish we could get. So you want to bring this up for discussion the next meeting? No next meeting. We don't have any closing date for the application.

No, I left it open.

Okay. Um, and something else to keep in mind, if we wait too long, then that person who may be graduating, if we wait till she graduates, may have already secured a place somewhere else. And we're still in the same boat. My my people right now, my people I I recommend it's just a uh right now just discussion. I recommend that this is just information for you guys to process. Um, I I want you to know that right now with with that person being short on that squad, actually both my squads with the one in the academy is going to fill a position on one squad. They're both my squads right now are running advance short and you know this day and age they're working by themselves through the evening and day. We're moving our officers around the best we can. especially with vacations and things like that, it is hard to cover 24/7 um for the for citizens of Cuba, you know, and keep our citizens protected. So So that's just the discussions. Any questions on that's all I have, you know, we always have to ask when we're talking about I'm gonna say what I've said for a while now is and I think I put it in your packets um to think about for next year's budget, but it's also something we probably should think about for the remainder of this year's budget is no placement of employees unless they are in the supervisor position is downsized to attrition. something to think about because and um this wages are our largest expenditure. Um

so it's something that you need to think about. It's not my job to manage every supervisor's department. It's their job. So um they need to figure out how to deal with manpower. Um not that's not my I am telling them how much money they have to spend. I am telling you that when it comes to figuring out how to make the numbers work at the end of the fiscal year in the general fund, I'm not sure that we are going to be able to make it work and keep us out of the red. So, you're going we're going to have to figure something out and figure it out quickly because June 30th is happening and it's going to happen fast. So, with that being said, we're going to have to figure something out. So with with with with that being said and I understand her position why why she needs to say that we do have this position um that's it's already budgeted for that's not being used right now. If we don't get if we don't fill this position, we're going to end up losing more officers. And with the number of applications that we have coming in,

we're never going to fill positions. And if we don't fill positions, then you're going to be thinking real fast how we're going to have our police protection to cover the city. Thank you. Thanks. Appreciate

see old, unfinished, and new business. Executive session closing the public pursuant to RSMO610.021 section one legal advice two real estate and three personnel. So we're going to need a motion to go in. Motion motion to go in motion to go into executive session. I'm sorry.

Yes.

I'd like to speak if it's okay. Well, we had citizen participation. I I just got here after the citizen participation. It's actually pertaining to the um person that came in talked about food trucks. I'd like to to offer some insight. We're going to be coming back into recordation. Yeah. Um we're going to come back. We got to adjourn and we got to do our executive session and then we're going to come back into regular session. You're welcome to hang around if you like. Thank you. Okay. So, executive session close the public motion. We have second Roll call.

Oh, you start with me this time. No, I'm just continuing with you. Oh, okay. I Okay. Yes, I agree.

Recess for five minutes.