Board of Aldermen - Regular Meeting

Hey, hey, hey.

At 6:00, I'd like to call this meeting to order and ask everyone to please rise for pledge of allegiance and prayer. I pledge algiance 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 lead us in a prayer, please. Sure. Heavenly Father, we come to you this evening, Lord, and as always, we thank you. We thank you for your love and mercy. We thank you for your son and his work on the cross. I just ask that everything we say and do we bring honor and glory to you tonight. And it's in Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Get the chair before you sit down. All right. Next I have roll call. I am present. Alderwoman Dent present. Alderman Kinsey here. Alderman Whan present. Alderman Lechworth present. City administrator Bbridgeidge present. City clerk caller present. City Attorney Weber is absent. Public works director Payne. Chief of Police Chase. Finance Director Houston. Economic development director Sutterfield.

And another city staff we have is Miss Melissa Deoce. Hi, Melissa. [snorts] Next up is approval of tonight's agenda. [sighs] Do I have a motion? I'll make a motion to approve tonight's agenda. And do I have a second? I'll second. This time I'll call for the vote. Alderman Whan, yes. Alderman Kinsey, yes. Alderman Ledworth, yes. Went, yes. Next up, [snorts] approval of the consent agenda. Do I have a motion for the consent agenda? [snorts] I move that we approve the consent agenda. Do I have a second? [clears throat]

I'll second the motion. [snorts] This time I'll call for the vote. Alderwoman Dent, yes. Alderman Whan, yes. Alderman Kenzie, yes. And Alderman Lechworth, yes. [snorts] See, we have nobody for public comment tonight, so we'll keep moving right along. Have a request for street closure from Tim Dodson. Come on up.

Why not? [snorts] My name is Barbara Newell and I'm the vice president of the Salem chapter of the Christian Motorcycle Association and we wish to have a bike show on August 29th up on the square and we're asking for the street to be closed from 9 to 2 on the east, west, and the south ends around the courthouse. Uh around the courthouse. I assume that's a Saturday. Yes, I'm sorry. Okay. No, that's all right. Yeah. I don't see any problem.

We had one there last year at that same time. Yeah. For street closure and we'll have a bike show and we're hoping to get a few vendors, craft vendors only and we may have a bake sale with our CMA members. Okay. Okay. [cough] So, just so I you're wanting the street closed on all four sides around three sides. Okay. Make sure I understood that correctly. Okay. Uh, August 29th. I'm sorry. August 29th. Yes. From 9 to 2 on August 29th. [cough] [snorts] All right. This time, do I have a motion?

I'll make a motion to approve the street closure on August 29th for the CMA chapter. Do I have a second? I'll second. This time there's no further discussion, I will call for the vote. Alderman Lechworth, yes. Alderman Kenzie, yes. Alderman Whan, yes. Alderwoman Dent, yes. Thank you. Thank you. I know. I Yeah, it depends on their [cough] Are you okay? She's Are you okay?

Yeah. Okay. All right. Next item up is uh board and committee appointments. We have a recommendation for a new part board member, Mr. James Taylor.

I [snorts] know that there's two vacant seats on there. I think three maybe now. Yes. Yes. And I think it was a majority vote by the park board to for the recommendation of James Taylor to serve on their board. Need a motion? Yes. Yes. I make a motion based on the recommendation from the park board to approve the nomination James Taylor. Do I have a second? I second the motion. [snorts] There's no further discussion. I'll call for the vote. Alderman Whan, yes. Alderwoman Dent, yes. Alderman Lechworth, yes. And Alderman Kinsey, yes.

All right. Next item up for new and miscellaneous business. We have resolution number 3-2026. Resolution number 3-2026, a resolution of the city of Salem, Missouri, authorizing the mayor to execute an aquatic care pool opening and winterizing agreement with Landmark Aquatic. Thank you. This time I'll open it up for discussion. No discussion. I don't have any questions. Do I have a motion? All right, Melissa, do you want to come up here and talk about it real quick before I let them make a motion? Like rip rar to go.

Yeah. Um, this is something that we normally do every year, but it was brought to my attention that the mayor needs to start signing these contracts. So, I wanted to make sure it came before the board. You're making me feel important. Yes. Shucks. But it is something that we do annually. They come down and um dewinterize and winterize for us and take all the kitty feature stuff off and kind of scan everything for us. [clears throat] Good. [snorts] All right. Anybody got any questions? Nope. Think you're good on that one? I'll just [snorts] stay here. Okay. So, at this time, do I have a motion for resolution 3-2026?

I'll make a motion to approve 3-2026 resolution. Do I have a second? I'll second the motion. This time I'll call for the vote. Alderman McKenzie, yes. Alderman Whan, yes. Woman Dent, yes. And Alderman Lechworth, yes. Moving right along. Next up is for the budget adjustment for the playground fencing. This is Billy's playground, correct?

Correct. I don't know if you guys are able to look at your packet or not, but it's been a process since the flooding. We initially reached out to the um people that installed the playground to begin with. Um they couldn't get a hold of the contractors cuz they had retired. Then they try to get a hold of the manufacturer issues. Um we contacted a local contractor, they couldn't get a hold of them. Um in the packet, you'll see that we have letters from three businesses that try to get a hold of that um the fence that we already have, right? Um, then it was recommended by the local contractor that we upgrade it to steel fencing so that we can have replacement parts and it can easily be fixed and it's actually a sturdier fence because it's along the creek. Okay.

So, I brought it before the park board. Um, [clears throat] brought the same information to them and they also voted to go ahead and upgrade the fencing. Um, we hope that it would be covered during the uh mitigation portion, but we won't know. Um, but they're willing to go ahead and move forward with that if the board would be okay with that. All right. At this time, John, I'll open it up. Board has any questions? I have none. I have none. I have none. All right. Do I have a motion? [clears throat] I make a motion to approve the budget adjustment in the approximate amount of $10,750. Do

I have a second? I'll second the motion. There's no further discussion. I'll call for the vote. Aler McKenzie, yes. Alderman Whan, yes. Alderman Lechworth, yes. And Alderwoman Dent, yes. Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you.

Next up, we got the first and second readings of bills. And we'll start with bill number 3699. Bill number 3699, an ordinance authorizing the mayor to enter into a master agreement for engineering services between the city of Salem, Missouri and to Associates Incorporated and authorizing the execution of all documents necessary to implement said agreement. Permission to read second reading by caption.

Yes, please. Bill number 36.99, an ordinance authorizing the mayor to enter into a master agreement for engineering services between the city of Salem, Missouri, and to Associates Incorporated, and authorizing the execution of all documents necessary to implement said agreement. Thank you. I'll open it up if there's any discussion. No, nothing for me. All right. Do I have a motion? I'll make a motion to approve I bill 36.99. Is that correct? Yes. Contract agreement. Do I have a second? I'll second that motion.

No further [snorts] discussion. I'll call for the vote. Alderman Whan, yes. Alderman Led, yes. Alderwoman Dent, yes. And Alderman McKenzie, yes. Next item up we have is bill number 3701. Bill number 3701 an ordinance authorizing the mayor of the city of Salem, Missouri to execute an aviation project project consultant agreement with HW Lochner Incorporated for professional services at Salem Memorial Airport K33 MODOT project number 26-066A-1. permission to read bill number 3701 only for the second time.

Yes, please. Bill number 3701, an ordinance authorizing the mayor of the city of Salem, Missouri to execute an aviation project consultant agreement with HW Lochner Incorporated for professional services at Salem Memorial Airport K33 MODOT project number 26-066A-1. Thank you. This time I'll open it up for discussion. Okay.

So, this is the, you know, we completed the six TH hanger project. Um, and of course, you'll have an an item to finalize that later in this agenda, but this is the next big project for the airport. Um, they are trying to get this in motion to be able to utilize some of the BIL funding that was available for airports before it expires. So this project is for box hangers, talking roughly 40 by 40 in size, at least one, and then there are additional options for a second hanger and then potentially a third hanger depending on how far the funding goes. So [clears throat] um so this is the agreement with Lochner themselves to provide the engineering and construction oversight as that project begins to move forward. So I believe at our last meeting, um you all approved the application of the grant um the submission. There's no discussion. Do we have a motion?

I'll make a motion to approve the contract with H&W Lochner for professional services. Do I have a second? I'll second the motion. [snorts] There's no further discussion. I will call for the vote. Alderman Kenzie, yes. Alderwoman Dent, yes. Alderman Lechworth, yes. and Alderman Whan. Yes. Next up, bill number 3702.

Bill number 30. Bill number 3702, an ordinance authorizing the submission of request for reimbursement number five for the K33 hanger project MODOT block grant project number 23-066A-1 and authorizing the mayor or authorized representative to execute all documents necessary for said reimbursement. Permission to read bill number 3702, second reading by caption only.

Yes, please. Bill number 3702, an ordinance authorizing the submission of request for reimbursement number five for the K33 hangar project MODOT block grant project number 23-066A-1 and authorizing the mayor or authorized representative to execute all documents necessary for said reimbursement.

Thank you. So, as I mentioned earlier, this is the final request for reimbursement for the 6T hanger project at the airport. Um, yeah, roughly what the total is 3,900. So, just under 4,000. Um, about 35 3,600 of that is reimburseable. So, it's a 90% grant is what it was. So, this is the final reimbursement request. Any discussion? No. All right, Kathy. Do I have a motion? [clears throat] I make a motion to approve. Was it 3702? Yes.

Yes. I make a motion to approve number 3702. Do I have a second? I'll second. There's no further discussion. I will call for the vote. Alderman Lechworth, yes. Alderman Kenzie, yes. Alderman Whan, yes. And Alderwoman Dent, yes. And now we have the just the first reading for bill number 3700.

Bill number 3700, an ordinance authorizing the mayor of the city of Salem, Missouri to accept and ex and execute an access agreement from HM Properties LLC for permanent access and utility purposes. Okay. So, this has been in process for some time. Um, the access easement is for to grant the city permanent access to what's been called the former pre-treatment building out at the industrial park, formerly used by H Heartland Metals. It's not used for any water pre-treatment at this time. Um, it is sitting vacant. When I spoke with staff about do we have a use for this building, pretty much resoundingly the answer was no. It's it's not close to any other facilities that the city operates or has shops at. Um it would be difficult for us to keep an eye on anything that was there at that building, any equipment or keep an eye on what was going on. So when uh David and Hannah from DNK Fencing approached the city about potentially leasing and so the lease is in your packet. It's not for you all to be voting on tonight. Um but it's there for additional information. We asked them would you consider granting us an easement because we've not had that all this time.

That way in the future we would have access legal access to that building. So they were amendable to that. Um, like I said, first reading tonight is specific to the easement itself. The map is in the packet. I can pull it up if you want me to on the screen. That's kind of up to you all. Uh, but it is in the packet and there are actually two easements because it crosses their property kind of in two different segments. So, so like I said, tonight's reading is first reading for that access easement. Um, next meeting you'll have the second reading for the access easement and then the resolution for the lease agreement.

Okay. Okay. There's no questions. I'll move further on to our reports for city officials, boards, and committees. Sally, I'll start with you first.

Um, so my apologies. I meant to have a written report to you all. Um, I will make sure I have that at the next meeting. Uh, I did attend an MPUA board meeting a week, two weeks ago. Um, I did take Brandon Schmidt, our new electric superintendent, with me. Um, just to kind of introduce him to folks there, get him a little more familiar with it. Um, I'm trying to think if there was there wasn't anything that directly impacts us here in Salem right now at the meeting. There was some discussion about their service line crew. So MPUA has their own line crew, electric line crew, and the intent was that they could come and assist cities. If there was a project that was a little more complicated than what your city staff could handle, you could hire their line crew to come down and either do it or assist your crew with doing it. Um, so there was quite a bit of conversation about that line crew and what the future of that might be. Um, they had started it several years prior to my involvement with NPUA. um and it hasn't panned out like they had intended and so they're really discussing, you know, what the future of that line crew looks like. Like I said, right now it's kind of meant to be a a resource for members, but it just isn't being utilized in the way that they thought that it might be. So, like I said, quite a bit of discussion about that. that was kind of like I said ongoing discussions about um projects for power generation that were just various stages of moving forward and updates on that but I said nothing specific of any real significance for us. sound.

Okay. Well, I'll do a short report myself. Uh we've kind of set a date so far. Everybody's been asking me about spring cleanup. GFL is going to do their annual spring cleanup. And we got two weeks of it. So, we've got it scheduled for for May the 4th through the 8th and the week of May the 11th through the 15th, which these two weeks will follow the annual citywide yard sale, which probably should take place Saturday, May the 2nd. So just look for that advertisement and um a way for it'll have contact information about people generally have questions or you're more than feel free to reach out to me and I can tell you what's prohibited and what's not. Um other than that I move right along to our staff. Miss Carrie from economic development come on up.

Excuse me. Good evening.

Um, you'll find in your packet that you have the report and I don't it's pretty self-explanatory, but I'll just add just a couple of things. Um, the two projects that show that they're new um with the DNR, that means did not respond for whatever reason. um either they needed a building specifically or they needed um that we didn't have the square foot avail square footage available or they needed more acreage than what we have all in one track or they need rail or they need water or they need interstate or so whatever. So DNR is do not resuscitate but in in our case it's did not respond. Okay.

Um and then the ongoing ones, we have project Elizabeth and project spring that are still very much active and we're still in ongoing discussions about those. Um you all may remember project shadow was on the reports um a couple of months ago. That is not forever gone, but for right now it's tabled until the prospective owner can get some things lined out. Okay. That's not that's not uh on the table right now. Okay.

Um you'll underneath the U partner outreach you'll see the email blast. What I do is I have um our civic leaders and our community members that are business owners or leaders or whatever. I send them helpful emails that could um for funding opportunities or um maybe help them in their backend for their their back office um type scenarios. So um I have uh sent those out like um the bridge closures that we just had on B highway. I sent that out so that they would understand that that could

mean a difference in their logistics or their transportation or whatever that could mean. Um, going further down the under the buy the numbers just to give you a a uh some insight on who we are being grouped with or compared to or what have you. Um, we are considered the central district. So they have Southwest, they have Ozark, they have northeast, they all of those things, but we're considered central. So, we are um grouped in like with Audrey County and um uh with with towns like um Booneville and Lebanon and uh Vanelia and Vienna, those those towns and then there are some bigger ones such as Jeff City, Columbia and Raleigh, but we'll consider the central. So that's kind of that's kind of where they pull the data from. The census um the US census does they pull that data from this central location and they categorize us as central. So um I didn't mark it here but the minimum wage in our region the the going minimum wage is 1375. So, um [clears throat] that is that's a kind of look and then on the daily and then looking ahead and just some things that um kind of show you my proactive engagement building relationships and building our community. And uh the very last point there is to continue executing and tracking the key initiatives that align with what the plan is for the city going forward. So, kind of what I do on a regular

and mayor if I may. Um, and I don't know that Carrie and I have either one mentioned this. Um, when Carrie came on board, she kind of reviewed the economic development strategic plan that I had put together back when I was doing economic development and just kind of looked at it and of course after that plan was adopted, you know, CO hit in the middle of it and and so so many things were put on hold that when she looked at it with fresh eyes, she's like, "Oh, no, this is still viable. this is still and so she's still working off many of the initiatives that had been identified in that strategic plan. So I just wanted to point that out. Sometimes when she refers to some things some of those are referring back to that strategic plan.

Sure. So and that is on the available on the website on the economic development pages. So all right. Anybody have anything for Gary? Thank you Gary. Thank you. Thank you, Stacy. You did your financials last week, so I don't think you have anything tonight. Correct. Just checking. All right, Mr. Steve Pay from public works. Come on up here and your turn to shine.

Good evening. Good evening, Alderman. Mayor, good evening.

Uh, let's see. I'm going to run through this pretty quick. your wastewater treatment plant, cruise control, phase 2's continuing on. Well, the water department, uh, several water service line repairs were conducted, business as usual. The electric departments continue to replace poles across town. Uh, they received their new truck and put it to work immediately, loaded it up, make sure it's, uh, give it a test run and make sure things are good to go. It's a huge help. So, I think it popped up in Charlie Sue's photo that she posted about the electric crew helping out over there. Uh, construction crew is continuing to work on the Salem uh T-ball parking lot. That's turning out pretty nice. Um,

yeah, and at a cost savings that's helping us out. So, streets continue to run the street sweeper. They cleaned up for the 100 acre wood around the courthouse and stuff. They're always kind of watching out for those events to make sure things look nice. Uh, that went well. I went down there. I don't know how many folks went down. Check that out. It was a good time. Uh the assist streets assisted the street trim or the tree trimming crew on large projects. Uh continuing to clean out ditches and dropins across town after a rainstorms. Mechanics doing business as usual. Lots of lube and maintenance jobs on vehicles across town. Uh cemetery crew dug a grave and help prep for funerals. Things are um business as usual. So,

good deal. I wish I had something exciting to report, but uh that's it. Uh I just want to say thank you [clears throat] to our to the tree trimmer crew for the cleanups and stuff like that and for our other ones cleaning up around or cutting and trimming around our power lines and stuff for their responses to their current cleanup issues and stuff, you know, taking care of that. I really appreciate that. You taking care of that, Steve. Thanks. Thanks. The the crews are uh really making gains on that. So when we had the wind storms, our um power outage Yeah, power outages were less than what they normally would have been, I think. So good stuff. All right. Thank you, Steve. Thanks, Steve. You

Oh, Melissa, come on up. We haven't seen you in a while. I know. Sports price, right? Come on up instead of come on down. Um just a few things really quickly. I I do want to thank the construction crew. I'm so glad we have them do it and um it I mean a cost savings, a giant cost savings and they're doing a really good job like it looks really nice and it's going to like brighten it up. But also I saw they were um we have the new steps that come down from the road to the community center. Yes. And they were installing the railing today also. So that spiffed up too and

I was excited to see that. Um, we have I soccer starts, the games start first weekend of April. So, we're getting ready to do that. Um, nothing like going to the concession stand and finding out that my deep freeze is shot that I bought two years ago. Good news. All the stuff in it gone. But anyway, we'll work with that. Um, moving on. Next is yesterday I opened the U registration for summer ball. So, anybody looking to register to play summer ball, so that's T-ball, softball, baseball, ages 3 to 14, we have a place for you. And we are always looking for coaches. Hint hint. [laughter]

No pressure, board. No pressure. But we have that open. It's on Facebook right now. And I'll start pushing that a little bit harder. Um, so the dates are 23rd through the 9th. It's regular registration. Then we will have a late fee starting the 10th through the 16th and that's a $10 additional fee for that just to kind of motivate people to be a little faster. All right. Yeah. My grandson loves it. So, anybody have any questions for me? No question. Are you coaching this year? I am. I do. But you got the boy you got the boys involved too? Um, no. [laughter] All right.

All right. Thank you, Melissa. All right. Move on right along to the board reports. Alderwoman Dent. West Ward had a really nice party. Lots of people there. Lots of good food. We had a good time. And I want to thank the people of the West Ward for being supportive and attending. Alderman Whan. No report. Alman, I have no report. Al McKenzie.

So, I want to take the appreciation everybody that came out to the rally event, seeing the community out there, the local businesses setting up. Um, you know, it just shows everybody from other communities that, hey, we're here. Come visit. You know, it was really nice event. A lot of people showed up. I just want to thank everybody that had the opportunity to show up and the businesses that were involved in it. I went to the dinner. Yeah. We had some people come out from out of town. I encourage to come and show up to it. It's always a great event. All right, Daddy. When they're done whispering over here, I'll ask for a motion to adjourn.

Ouch. Close. Do I have a motion to adjourn? I'll make a motion to adjourn. I second the motion. And I will call for the vote. Alder A alderman Kinsey, yes. Alderwoman Dent, yes. Ouch. Alderman Whan, yes. And Alderman Lechedward, yes. Thank you all for attending.