Board of Aldermen - Regular Meeting

I'm going offline. See you tonight.

6 o'clock, I'd like to call this public hearing for the tax rate levy first to order and ask if there is anybody here to speak on behalf of the current tax levy that's being proposed for the 2026, I believe it is. Anyone? All right. There is no one here to speak. We'll continue, and I'll call tonight's meeting to order and ask everyone to please rise for Pledge of Allegiance and Prayer. 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. John, if you'd lead us in a prayer, please. Sure.

Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you tonight, Lord. We thank you for your grace and your mercy. We thank you for the opportunity to serve you. We thank you for the opportunity to serve the city. We just ask that everything that we say and do, we bring honor and glory to you. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

All right, next up, roll call. I am present. Alderwoman Dent.

Present.

Alderman Kinsey.

Present.

Alderman Whalen. Present. Alderman Letchworth. Present. City Administrator Burbridge.

Present.

City Clerk Kohler.

Present.

City Attorney Weber is absent. Public Works Director Payne is out for medical. Chief of Police Chase. Present. Finance Director Stacey Huston. Present. Economic Development Director Sutterfield.

Present.

And the other city staff is we have our new assistant city clerk in training, Mandy. All right. Moving right along. Next item up is the approval of tonight's agenda.

I make a motion to approve the agenda.

And do I have a second? I'll second the motion. This time I'll call for the vote. Alderman Kinsey. Yes. Alderman Whalen. Yes. Alderman Womondent.

Yes.

And Alderman Letworth. Yes. Next item up, consent agenda.

I have a question about the consent agenda. Yes. of the June 9th, 2026 Alderman meeting minutes where it talks about Alderman Lessworth doing a suture, S-U-T-U-R-E. I'm not sure that's the correct word for that situation.

It was a typo.

It was a typo. It's corrected now?

No, we can correct it. OK. And you can approve the consent agenda minus the report? As amended. Yeah, as amended.

Do you want me to go to it or not?

I move that we approve the consent agenda with an amendment to the June 9, 2026 Alderman meeting minutes.

Do I have a second? I'll second. At this time, I'll call for the vote. Alderman Dent. Yes. Alderman Kinsey. Yes. Alderman Ledgworth. Yes. And Alderman Whalen. Yes. We don't have anybody tonight for public comment. So, moving right along. I have a request for street closure from Randy Lee for the Current Rivers Car Club.

We would like to request the closure of the streets around the courthouse square on September 19th so we can do a car show to raise some money for cancer. It would be from early in the morning until roughly 3.30, 4 o'clock in the afternoon. All right.

Do you have a time?

It would start, the show itself will start somewhere around 9 or 10. We need to have streets closed earlier so we can do setup. And if people pull in early in the day and park and go somewhere else, it messes everything up. Sure. So we need to close them as early as possible. So what time would that be? 7 o'clock.

Okay. And this is a Saturday?

It's a Saturday. Okay. All right.

You need it to what, 4.30, 5 o'clock?

Roughly 3.30 to 4.

3.30 to 4? Okay.

The show itself will be over around 2.30 to 3. It takes everybody a little time to get packed up and get out. Okay.

At this time, I just need a motion. I'm making a motion to approve the request by the Current River Car Club for the closure on 9-19-26. Okay. Do I have a second?

I'll second.

If there's no further discussion, I will call for the vote. Alderman Whalen? Yes. Alderman McKenzie? Yes. Alderman Letchworth? Yes. And Alderman Dent? Yes. Thank you, Randy.

Thank you. Now that the board has approved the closure, I would love to ask the city to furnish us some traffic cones to block the intersections. We will not be blocking 19 Highway or Main Street. I think that can be arranged.

I think we normally provide.

Yeah, it's just I wanted to make it official. Gotcha. Got it. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you.

All right. Moving right along, we've got new miscellaneous business. First up, we have resolution number 18-2026.

Resolution number 18-2026, a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute an agreement between the city of Salem, Missouri and the Merrimack Regional Planning Commission for membership services.

So Mayor and Board, this is an agreement that we do every year as members of MRPC. They do grant writing for us. They're actually the ones who put together the Delta Regional Grant that you all approved the application for last time. And so this is just their annual contract, no real changes. Do you have anything else to add, Stacy? No? Okay.

Okay. Okay.

You know, they sent me an email. It had, like, different types of plans and memberships. And just to clarify, this is just our basic membership.

I'm sorry, what was that?

They sent me an email in regards to what types of memberships that they have. And this is just as a reminder, this is just the basic.

Right.

This is just the basic one.

Correct. I mean, there are other options if the board wanted to consider those. Like I said, at this time, staff recommends just the basic membership.

Some of the other services I don't think we'll use.

And we can, as part of the contract, if we need additional hours for grant writing or administration, we can purchase at an hourly rate additional hours.

All right.

At this time, do I have a motion? I'll make a motion to approve. Move to approve annual MRPC basic membership and technical assistance contract. Do I have a second? I'll second the motion.

There's no further discussion. I will call for the vote. Alderman Letchworth? Yes. Alderman Whalen? Yes. Alderman Dent? Yes. Alderman Kinsey? Yes. Next up is resolution 19-2026.

Resolution number 19-2026, a resolution of the Board of Aldermen of the City of Salem, Missouri, approving a ground and hangar lease agreement with Richard Bell for the development, construction, and lease of hangar facilities at the Salem Memorial Airport and authorizing an authorized representative of the city to execute the agreement.

Thank you.

So this is coming before you. Normally, our hanger leases I would sign. But this being the first of its kind, the grounds lease, where the pilot is agreeing to build a hanger. He's demolishing two of the pre-existing hangers and then building a larger one. Part of this lease is he would have 15 years of no lease fees because he's footing the cost of that demolition and construction of the new hanger. So since this being the first of its kind that we've done, We wanted to put it before you all, make sure you were good with it. And then, like I said, we'll move forward from there. So Mr. Bell has seen it. James has seen the contract. He's good with it. The airport board has also seen it and is good with the agreement.

Is this going to be an enclosed hangar?

Yes. It will be a large box hangar, I believe a 50 by 50.

Okay.

So it would house multiple planes.

Okay. I have no more questions. No questions.

Kevin. At this time, do I have a motion?

I'll make a motion to approve the Salem Airport grounds lease with Richard Bell.

Do I have a second? I'll second the motion. If there's no further discussion, I will call for the vote. Alderman Kinsey? Yes. Alderman Whalen? Yes. Alderman Lettsworth? Yes. Alderman Wendent?

Yes.

Next up is the amendments to the employee manual.

OK. So the amendments to the employee manual, obviously the pages that have the actual amendments are laid out here. Basically, this amends the manual to allow for flexibility in scheduling on crews, to allow for four 10s instead of just five 8s. It's worded in such a way that in order to accommodate that, we have to make sure that There's coverage at times when normal working hours and that efficiencies don't lag, that our crews are covering all the things they need to cover. In the policy, it also stipulates that any crew who wanted to try it, they've got to run that by me. And then we'll do it on a trial basis for about six months, make sure that it's working out. And then if it's not, then I have the option to terminate that schedule. The other thing, so all of those pages that it lists there, 18, 19, 23, 24, 25, 26, and 36, all deal with modifying the language to accommodate that flexible scheduling. And then also on page 35, there is a section about how benefits and leave are treated when an employee is out on workers' comp. So it's a situation we've had come up in the past year. And our policy really didn't address it previously. So this kind of cleans that up. James has reviewed these, and he is good with the amendments as noted.

OK. I was going to ask.

One minor note. The front page of the policy or employee manual says April 26. That needs to be August 26. OK. And I would stand for any questions.

Anything from the board? I have a motion.

I'll make a motion to approve the August 2026 employee manual. Do I have a second?

I'll second.

If there's no further discussion, I'll call for the vote. Alderman Letchworth? Yes. Alderman Kinsey? Yes. Alderman Dent? Yes. Alderman Whalen? Yes. All right, next up we've got bids. We'll start with the tuck pointing for Craig Plaza.

OK, so the wall Craig Plaza that is shared with VIP properties, it's actually a double wall most of the way. So it's the interior of what used to be the building there. So that's part of the city's property. So it is in pretty deteriorated shape. We're needing to address it before we start having bricks falling off and it compromising. The two walls are tied together. When you look at it closely, every so often there's a brick that goes crossways that physically ties the two walls together. And so we had had a quote previously. And so we budgeted based on that. And then when we put this out for actual bid, we had one bid that we received. And so we included the work on Craig Plaza, as well as some finish up of brickwork at the admin building and the drive-through. When that was remodeled and redone, there was some brickwork that wasn't sealed up. So we included that. So that was 3,000. The Craig Plaza was 62, sorry, 300. For a total, both bid 65,300. We had budgeted 70,000 for that. So we have plenty to cover that work. And staff recommended motion is to approve the bid from Dunlap Masonry.

All right. Open it up for discussion. Do I have a motion?

I make a motion to recommend the approval of the Dunlap Masonry construction bid in the amount of $65,300. And do I have a second?

I'll second the motion.

There is no further discussion. I will call for the vote. Alderman McKenzie. Yes. Alderman Whalen. Yes. Alderman Letchworth. Yes. Alderman Dent.

Yes.

Next up, we've got the concrete bid.

Okay.

Okay.

OK, apologies for there not being a staff summary here. So we did our, let me back up. Our construction crew, as you all are aware, does sidewalk work where we need to repair sidewalk. They do approaches where there isn't one existing or needs replaced throughout the city. And so this bid is to get a bulk pricing for that concrete instead of bidding it each individual project. So we received the two bids as listed here from Kinstra and Rolla Ready Mix. Yeah, 30-day bid at, so you can see the pricing here, $165.50, that's from Kinstra, and 30-day bid at $168 from Rolla Ready Mix. Now, our, so we didn't include a staff summary. I know in talking with our crew, apologies, I'm going to come back to that main bid tabulation sheet. In talking with our crew, Did you talk with them, Tammy, or did you, Stacy? Okay. Do you remember which their preference was? That's what I thought. It was Kinstra. Okay. And they are the lowest bidder. Kinstra is preferred. They're a little more timely on their deliveries than Roller Ready Mix. So that was their preferred bid.

All right. It's time to open it up to the board. I have no questions.

And the bid packets did ask for this cost for six months.

OK. OK. I was going to ask if it was for our budget year, so.

For six months, yeah. Since we were already partway through the budget year, we decided let's do for six months, and then we'll see how much funding remains at that point.

OK. Well, at this time, do I have a motion?

Make a motion to approve the concrete bid.

I'll need you to specify which company.

The Kessner 44 LLC. Do I have a second?

I'll second.

There's no further discussion. I will call for the vote. Alderman Whalen. Yes. Alderman McKenzie.

Yes.

Alderman Letchworth. Yes. And Alderman Dent.

Yes. All right.

Next up, we have our solid waste pickup and disposal contract. At this time, I will step out due to the conflict of interest in discussion of this. And Alderman Letchworth will take over.

So I am also going to recuse myself, and I'm going to let Stacey Houston present on this item.

OK, so this request for bids was sent out, and we received two bids, one from Family Trash and the other from WCA Corporation, which is also known as GFL. GFL did come in with the lowest cost, so staff is recommending approval of the bid with WCA Corporation. And I know we have someone here to speak on their behalf. If you have questions. Their bids did come in less than what we are actually paying now, so their costs will actually go down.

I have had constituents talk to me about conflict of interest with the mayor being an employee of GFL.

It would be a conflict. Well, I mean, obviously I'm not an attorney. The fact that he left the room and isn't part of the conversation that addresses that concern. So it's up to you all to make that determination.

I'm good with it.

Do we have any further questions or discussions?

Not for me.

Do I have a motion?

I make a motion to approve the solid waste pickup and disposal bid to GFL based off those superior pricing.

Okay.

Do I have a second?

I'll second. All right.

Put up for a vote. Alderman Whalen. Yes. Alderman Kinsey. Yes. Alderman Dent.

Yes.

Myself, yes. The prices are way better. I can't believe the prices are the same.

Yeah, it's next. It's the orange that's next.

Apologies. So the ordinance?

The ordinance is next. So you have to approve which company you're going to go with. And then now we have a contract. The contract is an ordinance. So then you have to approve that ordinance.

Does that make sense? OK. I got you. That's bill 3733? Yes.

Most bids that you approve, there's not a contract that goes with it.

Does he have to stay out for that?

Are you ready for me to read it? Absolutely.

Bill number 3733, an ordinance authorizing the mayor or authorized representative of the city of Salem, Missouri, to execute a contract between the city of Salem, Missouri, and WCA Waste Corporation of Missouri, LLC, doing business as GFL Environmental for exclusive residential solid waste collection, hauling, disposal, and related services. Permission to read second reading by caption only?

Yes.

Bill number 3733, an ordinance authorizing the mayor or authorized representative of the City of Salem, Missouri to execute a contract between the City of Salem, Missouri and WCA Waste Corporation of Missouri, LLC, doing business as GFL Environmental for the exclusive residential solid waste collection, hauling, disposal, and related services.

Do I have any discussion or questions?

I have none at this time. I have none.

Do I have a motion?

I'll make a motion to approve bill number 3733. Do I have a second?

I'll second the motion to approve bill number 3733. I'm up for a vote.

Alderman Kinsey? Yes. Alderman Whalen? Yes. Alderman Dent?

Yes.

And myself, yes.

I'd like 27 instead of 18.

The weather was cool. It's been so hot. That's been really nice. Today was hot. Yeah, like I played the first night. Okay. The second night was pretty good. You want to play another game?

Yeah, let's eat lunch.

There's limits to 68. We'll swing it as hard as you can. If I swing more, I can probably play more. It's not a riff. Oh, yeah. Let it go. Grip it, riff it.

Bill 3734. All right. Continuing on to Bill number 3734.

Bill number 3734, an ordinance of the city of Salem, Missouri, approving amendment number one to task order number 18 with CM Archer Group PC for professional engineering services related to the lead service line inventory project, authorizing the mayor to execute said amendment and authorizing certain action incidental thereto. Permission to read second reading by caption only?

Yes, please.

Bill number 3734, an ordinance of the city of Salem, Missouri, approving amendment number one to task order number 18 with CM Archer Group PC for professional engineering services related to the lead service line inventory project, authorizing the mayor to execute said amendment and authorizing certain action incidental thereto.

OK. So this amendment. So we have remaining funds on the grant that we had for the lead service line investigations. This is where we had the Hydrovac truck with the contractor come and punch holes in the yards to determine what type of service lines were on both sides of the water meters. So there's funding remaining. I believe we did a timeline extension not long ago on this. This is a change to the scope of services to allow for Archer Elgin and the subcontractor who would be doing the actual investigation to go door to door to notify neighborhoods. as they were coming through. We opted to do that instead of having our crews, because right now we're short-handed still on our water crew. And so water crew and wastewater crew. So we opted to have them go door-to-door. So it doesn't change the amount of money. The amount of money stays the same. Unfortunately, what it does is by allowing to pay for them doing door-to-door, we will have fewer investigations actually done. So again, this has been approved, this work, by DNR. OK. And this is an ARPA fund grant. And so there is a deadline to get that completed.

This time, open it up for discussion.

I have nothing at this time.

Me neither. I have none.

All right. Do I have a motion? Make a motion to approve bill number 3734. Do I have a second?

I'll second the motion to approve bill number 3734.

There is no further discussion. I'll call for the vote. Alderman Letchworth. Yes. Alderman Whalen. Yes. Alderman Dent. Yes. And Alderman Kinsey. Yes. Next up is bill number 3735.

Bill number 3735, an ordinance levying for the year 2026 a tax of 67.95 cents upon each and every $100 assessed valuation of real estate and personal property within the corporate limits of the city of Salem, Missouri for general revenue purposes. Permission to read second reading by caption only?

Yes, please.

Bill number 3735, an ordinance levying for the year 2026 a tax of 67.95 cents upon each and every $100 assessed valuation of real estate and personal property within the corporate limits of the city of Salem, Missouri for general revenue purposes.

Thank you. At this time, I'll open it up for discussion from the board.

I have none.

Anything? I have nothing. Me either. All right. This time, do I have a motion for bill number 3735?

I'll make a motion to approve bill number 3735.

Do I have a second?

I'll second that motion.

If there's no further discussion, I will call for the vote. Alderman Kinsey? Yes. Alderman Letchworth? Yes. Alderman Dent? Yes. And Alderman Letchworth. Whalen. Or Whalen, sorry. Which is it? I'm confused. You're the new Letchworth? Yes. I'm not used to you being here. You're going to get a lot more used to it. Next item up is bill number 3736.

Bill number 3736, an ordinance establishing an administrative fee for residential solid waste collection services provided through the City of Salem, Missouri. Permission to read second reading by caption only?

Yes, please.

Bill number 3736, an ordinance establishing an administrative fee for residential solid waste collection services provided through the City of Salem, Missouri.

OK. Open it up for discussion. Any discussion? I have no discussion. Do I have a motion?

What was the bill number?

3736. Make a motion to approve bill number 3736.

Do I have a second?

I'll make a second to that. 3736. As Whalen or as Letchworth? Either one. Okay. All right.

If there's no further discussion, I will call for the vote. Alderman Letchworth? Yes. Alderman Whalen?

Yes.

Alderman Wendat? Yes. And Alderman Kinsey? Yes. Last but not least, bill number 3737.

Bill number 3737, an ordinance authorizing an authorized representative of the city of Salem, Missouri to execute change order number two to the contract with BuildTech Construction LLC for the water system improvement contract A project. Permission to read by second reading by caption only?

Yes, please.

Bill number 3737, an ordinance authorizing an authorized representative of the city of Salem, Missouri to execute change order number two to the contract with Viltek Construction LLC for the water system improvement contract A project.

Okay.

So this change order number two, this is an additional almost $3,000. Unfortunately, change order number one pretty much used up the last of the grant funding on this, and we chose to do fire hydrants. So this was something we weren't anticipating at the time. This is, like I said, approximately $3,000 one-time cost. It will come out of the water fund. But it offsets approximately $5,000 additionally annually. What was proposed, the chemical analyzer that was proposed, or chlorine analyzer, excuse me, for the new well is a different type of equipment than what we have on our other existing wells. And as we got to looking into it and saw it was going to be additional cost, It would need to be disposed of, like after it's been analyzed, the remaining fluids would have to be disposed of down a sewer drain. We don't have sewer drains at all of our well sites, and so it was determined to stick with what we had at our other wells. You may recall we had 15,000 a year in our capital improvement plan for well equipment upgrades, and it was for this kind of stuff. to replace the chlorine analyzers. And so even though what's on our old well still needs updated because it's old, we'll move forward with that, but we'll be going back with the same type of system instead of upgrading to what was proposed on this one.

Okay. This time I open it up for discussion. All right, this time do I have a motion?

I make a motion to approve Bill 3737. And do I have a second?

I'll second.

If there's no further discussion, I will call for the vote. Alderman Whalen? Yes. Alderman McKenzie? Yes. Alderman Letchworth? Yes. And Alderman Dent?

Yes.

All right. On to reports. We'll start with you first, Sally.

No report this evening, Mayor.

Tammy, do you have anything? I do not. Okay, just checking. Stacey, do you have anything? Anything from economic development? I notice it's all in the packet.

I absolutely need to check on something real quick, ma'am.

Okay. I'm getting there, Carrie. Give me a second. Is there anything specific you want pulled up? The second page, please.

It's clear that my fingers tripped over each other on the second page underneath the business buzz, where I listed food and drink vendors at four, but I actually listed five businesses. The listed five are correct. And so those numbers can change fairly quickly, because we do get papers submitted regularly, which is not a bad thing. That's exciting. But my counting fingers, they were obviously still asleep that day so i apologize for for that error i don't think that you all normally see the eez board activity however you will notice that it's in your packet and so here since we're here we might as well touch on it and the facts are is nothing changed the chairperson is still dean jones and the memberships are still the same I WOULD LIKE TO INVITE YOU ALL TO BUSINESS AT THE TABLE TOMORROW. I'M SORRY, I BEG PARDON, IT'S NOT TOMORROW, IT'S FRIDAY. FRIDAY, AUGUST 8, FROM NOON TO 1, BUSINESS AT THE TABLE. THE MISSOURI DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT WILL BE HERE. And they will be covering some resources and incentives that are available at the state level. So again, invite you all to come. But if you do, then email me so that we can make sure that we have the support materials and the resources available for you to be able to follow along in class. OK. That's all I've got this evening.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. I'm going to roll on to my report. Just a reminder, they're having the 12th annual Tiger Kickoff Parade. It'll start this Friday, September the 4th at 5.45 p.m. The lineup starts at 5.30 on East Salem Hill. The parade route goes from the courthouse to the high school. Also, the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce Rodeo is coming up for September the 5th and 6th at the Dent County Commons. The gates open at 5.30. Also, we have Healthy Dent County is having Girls Night Out at Salem Community Center in the Armory Thursday, September the 10th from 4.30 to 7.30 p.m. And last but not least, just as a reminder, the new school season is starting up tomorrow. I'd encourage all the public to start taking it easy, drive a little more cautiously with everyone's children being out, especially trying to drop and pick their children up from school. So that's all I have for tonight. I'm moving right along to the board reports. We'll start with you, Alderman Kinsey.

So on September 14th, the Sleep in Heavenly Peace is trying to set up an event at the local fire department. It's a good program if you're interested in it. Keep your eyes look out for that. As of right now, it's looking like a start time of 0800. More information to come as it comes out.

Alderman Letchworth? No report. Alderman Whalen? No report. All that time off and no report. All right. All right.

All the women down. Community Thanksgiving service is tentatively set with several ministers and the community choir on board. And Advocates for Animals continues to do well. They recently had a paint and sip party and got a lot of money out of that. And then they got a very, very large private donation. And I think that's – I think it's awesome for what they're doing for the cat population. They've got a long way to go, though.

All right. Thank you. Last item up, we have closed session for real estate and litigation.

I move that we go to closed session for property and litigation.

And do I have a second? I'll second.

Excuse me. I'm sorry. Point of order. It's real estate and personnel.

Personnel? Okay. I've got a serious litigation on my outline.

Yeah, on our agenda, it's real estate and personnel.

Okay. So do I have a motion to go into closed session for real estate and personnel?

I move that we do so.

All right. Second? I'll second. At this time, I will call for the vote. Alderman Dent?

Yes.

Alderman Kinsey? Yes. Alderman Whalen? Yes. And Alderman Letchworth? Yes. All right. Thank you all for attending tonight.