Board of Aldermen - Regular Meeting

call tonight's meeting to order. I think you'll be okay. If you would please stand and join me in the pledge. 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. For all. Pam, would you do a roll call, please? Mayor Time here. Alderwoman Dobs here. Alderman Fagy here. Alderman Donovan here. Alderman Huy here. Alderman Eidman here. Alderman Stiger here. Alderman Prince here. Alderman Ross here. Mayor, we have a quorum. Thank you very much. At this time, I will look for approval of tonight's agenda.

Motion to approve. Second. Okay. I have a motion in a second. All in favor? I.

Any opposed? All right. Thank you very much. Uh first up tonight we have our second uh our presentation of our second mayoral merit award. We're honored to have Herb Fowler here to accept that award. Herb, I got a proclamation to read to you. It's quite lengthy. The print small, so bear with me. Okay. All right. Whereas the city of St. Genevieve takes great pride in recognizing individuals whose dedication, service, and leadership strengthen the community and exemplify the highest ideals of civic responsibility. Local son Herb Fowler has spent much of his life serving St. Genevie and giving back to his community. Herb served as an accountant and manager for the Missouri Farmers Association for 25 years from 1957 to 1982, operating the St. Genevieve Co-op from 1967 to 1982. Herb and his wife Norma operated the Philips Inn in St. Genevieve from 1964 to 1966. The Hotel St. Genevie and the Cafe St. Genevieve in the heart of historic downtown from 1983 to 1991 and Ottabons from 2016 to 2024. Herb and Norma owned and operated the Show Me Shop from 1998 to 2010 and were recognized with the St. St. Genevieve Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the Year Award in 2010. Herb served as state representative for St. Genevie and Perry counties for 12 years from 1982 to 1994. Herb was a tourism leader in the state of Missouri and sponsored the 1991 legislation that authorized riverboat casinos, creating substantial new public revenues, and sponsored the 1993 legislation that increased the state's tourism budget to allow for equitable tourism and promotion around the state. Her was elected to the Missouri Tourism Hall of Fame in 2007. Herb was chairman of the House Tourism,

Recreational, and Cultural Affairs Committee from 1989 to 1994, deputy director of the Missouri Division of Tourism from 1997 to 1999, and Missouri's representative on the National Conference of Travel and Tourism in Washington DC. Herb worked with the National Federation of Historic Preservation based in Washington and Chicago after the 1993 flood to survey and study the needs of the St. Genevieve historic district and secured state grants for repair and restoration. Herb served on the Missouri River Parkway Commission advocating for the building of the Great River Road and served on the Mississippi River Country USA's mission to Japan to encourage international travel to the Mississippi River Basin following the 1993 flood. Herb also supported legislation for, advocated for, and ultimately helped establish the Missouri Arts Council Trust Fund, which generates funding for Missouri arts programs across the state. Herb received the first ever Missouri Trailblazer Award, as well as the Missouri Citizens for the Arts Advocacy Award in 1994 and also received the Mississippi River Parkway Commission Outstanding Achievement Award in 1996. Herb has served his hometown community as president of the St. Genevieve Chamber of Commerce, member of the Industrial Development Corporation, the Missouri Farm Bureau Federation, the Missouri Farmers Association, the St. Genevie County Pork Producers, the St. Genevie Foundation for Historic Preservation, the St. Genevie High School Vocational Ad Advisory Committee, the St. Genevie Elks Lodge, the St. Genevie Lions Club, the St. Genevie Tourism Board, the St. and Genevieve Lev levy district 2 and the joint levy district board here.

Herb served on the board of directors for Citizens Electric Corporation from 1990 to 2013 and received the Franklin R. Stock award in 2013 in recognition of his many contributions to the organization in the state of Missouri. Herb served on the city of St. Genevie Board of Alderman from 2001 to 2005. Herb was honored by the St. Genevieve Chamber of Commerce in 2006, receiving the presidential award for his service to the St. Genevieve community. Herb was recognized with the distinguished service award from the St. Genevie 4 age clubs and this and the distinguished service award from the St. Genevie JC's. Herb exemplifies leadership, dedication, determination, and commitment to serving the needs and the people of Missouri and the city of St. Genevie. Now therefore be it resolved that the mayor and board of alderman of the city of St. Genevie, Missouri, does hereby confer upon Herb Fowler the mayoral merit award in recognition of his outstanding service, dedication and contributions to our community and be it further resolved that this resolution become official record of the city of St. Genevie and that a copy be presented to Herb Fowler as a symbol of the city's sincere appreciation and gratitude on this 9th day of April 2026. Harvey, you step forward.

J, could you look over here? Mayor, look right over here, guys. Yeah, very good. Very good. THANK YOU. ALL RIGHT. UH, WE DO HAVE A PERSONAL appearance tonight. We have Chief Stagger with the St. Genevie Fire District here to give a quarterly report.

Good evening, everyone. Uh I'm here to help keep my promise of trying to keep you guys up to speed on what's going on with the district. Uh I have been having or going to the department head meetings when I'm available, keeping in touch and I've also been down city hall talking to the building department. Matter of fact, I came down today and signed off on a special use. So trying to keep that relationship between the city and the district going. Uh so far this year we are at 67 calls which is down 14 from last year. As far as personnel I have one open slot. So, we have 28 of the 29 slots filled right now. We have two people currently in firefighter 1 and two. And when they complete that class in April, 23 of our 28 people will be state certified firefighters. Uh trucks and equipment, everything's going pretty good. We've been, knock on wood, lucky with no major repairs. Uh we're still working on getting all the decaling figured out and switched over. It's going to cost us about $6 or $7,000 to get all the names switched and everything, and we're working on that. uh had new license plates made so we can have the right numbers on the trucks and they came in and they were wrong. So I sent them back and I got an another set today and guess what? They're wrong again. So we're working on things. Uh building to keep our promise with some of the money that you guys gave us to get started. We did fix the concrete sidewalks around the firehouse this month. So all our sidewalks are up to speed like they should be. Uh the radio upgrades, we've been talking about that for several months. Right now, they're scheduled to go through and start the switch over around the 11th of May. Uh they're doing the radio testing now, seeing make sure that they got all the connections and everything. We're in the process of getting everything uh programmed. Now, uh when they go to the switch over, EMS, PD, and sheriff are going to go to what they call digital. The am the fire department is going to stay analog for a while. Uh when we go digital, a lot of our radios because they're older will not work. But we have some donations that are being worked on from other county departments where I used to work at is going to probably

donate 15 of them to us. So we're working on getting all that through donations. Uh haven't been able to write any grants which is kind of unusual for me. Uh a lot of the grants that we were writing require an audit obviously because we're so new we don't have an audit to to base that on. Uh one other donation that we're working on uh the place I used to be employed at has a live burn trailer. It's a tractor trailer set up to do actual fire live fire burns in and they're going to be building a training facility and they are probably going to be donating that trailer to us. So we'll be able to do live fire trainings here. Trailer's about 20 years old, needs some work, but we can handle that out of our budget and when they bought that trailer, that was a$4 million trailer. So to buy it now, it's probably a half million dollars or more and we'll be getting it donated the way it sounds. So we're making progress in different places and under the budget. Uh we had the board approved a $550,000 budget last year which included $150,000 for putting aside for big truck and 50,000 for small trucks. Also included hiring me full-time. I'm out there 40 hours a week now unless I'm running errands or getting supplies. And for the total collection so far from what we got for this year was $700,000. So we had $150,000 in reserves that we could use for other things. Uh future goals, like I've said before, is eventually we'd like to get to the point where we actually hire another firefighter or two, but we'll have to see how things go. And all that is obviously at the board's discretion, whatever they think's appropriate. I'd be open to any questions. Then if not, I'm going to ask the board's assistance in something. I'm going to pass these around. We're having an issue at our local tree land.

And I made packets up for each one of you. Almost walk right by you. And in these packets, I've got the dates of all of our responses down there. We have responded 23 times to that limb dump since it's been open as both the city fire department and as the fire district. Okay. Uh, let me kind of read a little bit of my notes that I put down so I make sure I get everything. Bringing the board's attention. The concern from the fire district, the city limb disposal site. Got the packet here. Got one for everybody. I've discussed this with the two prior board or city administrators and I always got it. Well, it's a city benefit and because you're part of the city, you just have to deal with it. Now, we are a fire district and every time we respond down there, it costs the district money. Uh so, we're hoping that we can come up with some kind of solution. Uh every time we respond down there, it cost the district money and potentially has some of our people having to leave their full-time jobs to fill in. Back in January, uh let me look at my dates here. actually February 13th when we went down there, it took three trucks and 10 men and it burned over an acre of your tree fl down there, whatever you want to call it, of wildlife area. It jumped over the ditch and got away from them. Uh then also on March 22nd, I received a phone call at 3:00 in the morning from a local patrol officer asking if I was aware it was burning. and I said, "It's always burning, but if it's a concern, I will go down there myself and put it out, but I'm not going to wake my guys up in the middle of the night and most of them have to go to work the next day." And then on the 23rd, we also went back down there. And the reason I'm here tonight is because on the 23rd when we got called back down there, we were already

stretched to the max with a house fire in the city limits. And luckily we were to the point where the fire was pretty much out and I was able to break a truck free, but they dispatched out a brush fire at the airport. And I can't not go thinking it's a city dump. We have to send somebody. So luckily we were able to break a truck from the mutual aid company loose and it was right around 3:00. So I was able to get a couple guys that just got off work to grab another truck and go down there. Get down there not knowing what it is and find out it is a limb dump. They did dump 4,000 gallons of water on that fire and it still didn't go out. Uh when you uh look at it, we were lucky that we had some trucks that we could break free. My first alarm assignment, which brings in house for house fires, brings in the two next closest trucks. So that means if we wouldn't have been able to break a truck free, it was going to be 20 minutes till we can get another truck in here from Ozora or Bloomsdale or Wine Garden or one of them other ones. So, we we think we have an issue here and we we'd like to see it addressed and I once worked for a fire chief that said bring me solutions, not problems. So, the last page of your packet, I have some suggestions. Number one, obviously wouldn't be popular and I'm not asking you to do that is shut it down. I know the need and we're not going to say don't don't have it cuz quite honestly, I've used it before, too. Uh some things that we would like to see maybe reduce the size of the chunks that are allowed down there. What ends up happening is those big chunks get piled up and then you get a fire underneath them and they burn for days and then we get a big wind and it blows those embers. That's what happened on the one on the 13th. It blew out of the pile across the ditch and into your grasslands. Uh if they whatever size chunks you guys allow, have them dump them in a separate place, not on the same pile with the smaller stuff. the smaller stuff gets kindled up and then it gets the bigger stuff burning and continues to burn.

Number four wouldn't be popular with some of the commercial people, but I would like to see maybe the commercial tree trimmers banned from dumping down there. These people are being paid to trim trees and haul the stuff off. Now they're hauling it down, dropping it off at the city limb dump and becomes a city issue and a fire district problem. They're getting paid to do the service. I'd like to see them dispose of it another way. uh talked to Dave a little bit and I've talked to the chief a little bit on it too. I was talking to Dave the other day and he was saying that you guys are considering maybe making a bigger burm. A burm would help, but if you get a windy day, it's still a chance of burn throwing those embers out and across. Uh, another suggestion would be maybe having the public works burn it more often so the piles aren't as big and maybe it would burn through a little bit more. And then definitely number eight, post the dump rules and enforce using cameras like we used to do. Uh, so we know that it's yours and it's a city benefit. We're not asking you to get rid of the benefit, but we need to do something different because it's costing the district money now. And it's also having some white people have to leave their full-time jobs for something because it's a city benefit. It's not a district benefit. It's a city. We're going to continue to respond. We're not going to say we're not going, but we'd like to see something done about this. And we know it's not going to happen overnight. That'd be something you guys can discuss. Uh, is there any questions about any of the pictures or anything that's in that?

That first picture? Yeah. Um, is the area there that we have designated not big enough or is it I think it's a combination of it's kind of small and there's so much buildup in there that hasn't been hauled off for years that it's in a more confined space. And then when it gets deepseated fires like that, some of those pictures, some of those logs down there were 36 in and bigger. And those aren't coming down there in somebody's pickup truck, right? And they get deepseated. And we used to have cameras down there and I guess they got taken down and never put back and stuff, but what was our policy before as far as commercial dumpers? I don't know that we've ever had a policy on commercial dumpers. If we did, it predates me.

There was a sign down there. There was a sign down there. It didn't ban commercial. Some of the things I can remember the sign saying was it couldn't be any bigger than 24 in. Uh you couldn't throw any trash down there. Uh couldn't be landscaping timbers or anything like that. It had to be strictly limbs or leaves and grass clippings. They wouldn't even allow wood chips from a chipper down there. But I don't remember all the wording on how it was all working.

So prior to the March 22nd, 23rd fire, Chief Siger, myself, Cory, uh even some previous city employees have been trying to find out what happened to the sign, what happened to these cameras, what did the sign say? Uh no one can tell me. So, uh, I've asked for three quotes on this sign to get it posted. This would be 4 foot by 3 foot. It does not limit, it does not ban commercial cuz that is not in our ordinance. Um, so this sign will be created and posted down there. I can pass it around if you want. And then we're going to purchase two game cameras and put down there also. And then we're going to work with Chief on some more patrol down there because as Chief Stiger stated, uh, we do need to clean it up. and I'm working with Corey on getting that done in the fall. Um, but the problem isn't really the burn site in my opinion and everyone that I've talked to appreciates that service and being able to take advantage of it. The problem is trash, trunk, tree trunks, 20-in limbs, and so on and so forth that when we light the fire just continue to burn and burn and burn and burn. and then we get a windy day and you get what happened on the 22nd or 23rd. So, uh we had been in the process of kind of tackling this um issue and uh once we get the sign posted down there, more patrol, game cameras, you know, unfortunately may have to issue a few citations, I think we'll see uh better care taken of the dump site. We're not trying to be un ungrateful, but we need something done because it's costing us money and it takes people away from their job because of that. It's not a district benefits a city and we want to work with you.

Yeah. But these fires that are happening, they're not remnants or leftover from official city burning down there. That's people lighting it on fire themselves, isn't it? I think it's a combination of the two.

Combination. Yeah. I think sometimes we go down there and Kenny, please help me if you have anything to add, but um if you haven't been down there, we're down there every day. Right now, that place fills up every day. Um and so we have to push it. That stirs it up. The embers come up and then if you get a windy day, and I think if you go back to March 22nd, it was a very windy day. The embers will blow across the field. Yeah. One of the things also that Cory and I have talked about, I don't think he's sitting back there anywhere. um is once we get it cleaned up this fall, whether that be October or November, we'll take some millings. We have 24 dump truck loads of asphalt millings from the this past summer and create a new burm. Um and that should help a lot of it. Could they still potentially blow? Absolutely. But I think it'll be a big help. When you talk about commercial dumping down there, what are you I mean, are you talking about a commercial tree trimmer

dumping stuff they've cut in town here? Yeah. I know in the past they've caught some people down there that were bringing it in from outside areas, that's a whole different ball game. But I mean, if if these people are getting paid to dispose of this, why should it be the city's issue to let them do it for nothing? and they're just going to tack it on to the homeowner's fee that they're charging. You know, because if if we start charging commercial people, and I'm not saying not to do that, but if we start charging commercial people to dump their city residents yard waste down there, they're going to tack it onto the bill to the city residents. So, they're they're not going to absorb that cause. Not ever had that done. They're already doing that. They're already charging the people all the stuff.

Yes, they are. And they're not, you know, right? I mean, now that they're going to get another fee, they're going to if they're charging 300 bucks now, they're going to charge 400 bucks if they're going to get hit a bill with. Now, I'm not saying we shouldn't do it, but they are going to raise that rates. Yeah, I think that's an assumption, but I don't uh we can certainly work session this if you want. I just wanted to add that we are trying to uh tackle the problem.

Yeah, we're we're not as a district saying you got to solve something tonight, but we need to bring it to your attention because like I said, it's costing the district money. is having my guys have to leave their jobs and we want to be a good neighbor and with me being a 40hour a week guy now if the city wants to burn it and they want me to bring a truck and sit there and watch it with them I'd be more than happy to do it so we want to do our part too but we need to work together and do something about this would you attend a work session with us uh in the near future just give me a call I'll be there we want to keep working together so yeah any other questions okay thank you thank you chief Thanksgiving.

Next up tonight, we have our city administrator report. Good evening, everyone. You have an updated report at your seat. I want to talk about a few things on there tonight. Number three, um we budgeted for uh in last year or this year's budget, I'm sorry, for a tanker chassis for the water department. Um and we have found one that we're interested in. Uh probably something similar to this was sitting at your seat tonight. Uh gives a brief description of the truck that we found. It is in Kansas City at uh I keep saying truck transport, but it's transport truck. Uh we budgeted 75,000. Uh this 2007 MAC is listed for 38,000. Cory called and talked to him today. Uh he's um in favor of it. Uh they actually came down to 37,000. They'll hold it for us. Um, but they take 2 weeks to go through it. Um, make sure um that it's okay. Uh, they put, you know, they change the oil, they change the filters. Um, so we can pick it up in a couple weeks. If you all are okay with it, I think, uh, we talked to Alder Huey about it and, uh, he was on board with that. Um but um if you would approve it tonight, we would probably make the purchase and then we'd bring a post uh purchase ordinance back to you for approval.

Dave, if they're going to if they're going to service that truck out, obviously they have a qualified repair facility. As we talked about earlier about the main bearings that engine, I would ask them if they would say for a few put send that to us with new new bearings in that engine. They knocked a,000 off. We would be better off to give them a thousand, put the bearings in it and have them stand behind that bearing job. Drop the pan and do that in chassis and stuff pretty easy. But it's pretty simple. We can give them a call. Absolutely. Have them do it while they're doing the preup. They're taking the pan. They're servicing it anyway. Okay. So, they're just out of gasket and a set of bearings. Do they do that oil uh analysis too or not?

I doubt if they've had a history on that. Maybe. I doubt it. We had good luck with the dump trucks. that we've been watching on. Is that purple wave or We've been watching for a while. I mean, this obviously this we nearly have all our capital purchased except for this one. Um and just couldn't find one. Uh he found another one that was 80,000. That's over our budget, but this one's 38. You can see that it's aged a little bit. It's got 269,000 uh but only 12,000 hours. um he believes it's a good a good truck for what you know we're going to put our water tank on it. So,

you know, looking at those lower the two pictures to the far right, that's an awful long chassis. Uh do we need that long of a chassis for our tank or He says this is what will work for the purpose that we need it for. Yeah, that's pretty much my just shortening that. As long as you don't have to roll those axles, you're fine. And I think that truck's got a heavy enough steering axle. Those tandemss were all the way in the back. That truck will never break that chassis down even if it's stretched out.

Yeah, it's probably a double frame. Yeah, it is. I talked with Cory about it and I told him to make sure on these max they like that crossmember we talked about where the torque bars go in there. They get rust, they get weak there and they crack. He was going to look at that spot there and that's other than that. That's that and the bearings on the max. That's the only thing I see. I think he plans he I probably giving too much information. He's going to go see his son this weekend. He goes to school in Kansas City. He's going to go take a look at it. But I wanted to run it by you so that we can call them tomorrow and tell them to hold it for us. He'll take a look at it. If he confirms it, we'll go ahead and make the purchase and then bring a post purchase ordinance back to you. It's already It's already in the budget.

It's all based off of his inspection, though. Yes. Continue. Right. Everybody okay with that? Mhm. Need a motion on that or not? Um, yeah, that would be great. move to uh approve the purchase after inspection by Alliance. Second. Okay. So, I have a motion and a second. Um all in favor? Any opposed?

Okay. Thank you. Uh number four, just want to point out that the gravel race uh is Saturday, April 18th at 8 a.m. 8:00 a.m. That um will involve a street closure of North Main from Merchant to Washington from 4:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Um so we they start off lining up there and then a police escort up to the gravel road that goes out to the burn site and then they're basically on gravel roads until they come back and the finish line is also there. but it should be all complete by 2 p.m. On to number five. Uh so we had a meeting with Sonus. That's uh who helped us negotiate our health insurance. Uh they negotiated from a 765 down to a 5.37% increase for the same two plans we currently have. Uh dental has a 4% increase. No increase for vision. Uh so based on the current uh census and the plans selected by our folks, that's approximately a $14,000 increase. Uh met with the health care committee

Monday.

Monday. Thank you, Jeff. The healthcare committee agreed to continue with these plans and keep the employee portion of that at a max of $300. Any questions on the selection of the healthcare for next year? Okay. Uh on number six, uh the county transient tax passed 55% to 45% on Tuesday. Uh it's set to take effect in July. So the county will not begin collecting any tax revenue until most likely August or October. A lot of what we collect is paid quarterly. Uh so probably more so October. The city county uh intergovernmental agreement um that we have worked with the county on is on their agenda for this coming Monday, April 13th. If they agree to it, their initial payments to the city would probably begin mostly, it says in September, November, but mostly in November. So, they would get their payments in October and then cut us um 75% if that's what they agreed to, which is what we've talked about in November. Any questions on that? That's my report. Thank you very much, Dave. Move along to staff reports tonight. Uh just have one on the agenda and that's our community development officer, uh Robert Sullivan. Good evening, mayor, alderwoman, and alderman. Uh in your packet tonight is my staff report uh dated um March 7th to April 3rd. Uh I won't go through every line item here. Um but I'll hit some highlights. Starting with the Historic Preservation and Heritage Commission. We did meet uh actually my first day on the job um March the 16th. Uh we did several administrative approvals there. Um we also at that meeting um the statistical

research incorporated was there and gave a brief update on the project for the mobile walking app. And then uh they also had a public meeting. We're at that public meeting on 319 which we had very excellent attendance at and uh good feedback from the people that were there. Uh and that project is continuing. So we look forward to uh seeing how that moves forward. Our next meeting is uh April 20th. So it's coming up. Uh we're going to have several administrative approvals again and maybe a couple cases for them to review and uh make decisions on. Uh from the building department, code enforcement side of things, uh it's that time of year. You're probably going to hear me say that three or four times in this um things are increasing. This time of year, people are building things. So, uh the building inspections and permits are going to go up. Um that's that's good uh good for our community. Uh more occupancy inspections are being done. So, that means more people are moving into our community. um comprehensive plan meeting. We held uh that on the 25th of March. Um we had a general discussion of land use items uh which includes everything from future development and annexation. Uh just a general discussion uh topics. Uh that committee is going to meet again here in April uh probably late April. Planning and zoning. Uh we had no meeting in April. Uh I wasn't here for the meeting in March. So, that's not not listed there. Uh, our next scheduled meeting is the 7th of May. Uh, on that particular meeting, as of right now, we're going to have a special use permit request and a what I'm going to call a boundary adjustment or a subdivisional request for them to review. And then that'll be coming after that uh to you all here. Um, nothing on board of adjustment. Again, here we go. It's that time of year. Uh we could or could not get rain depending on what happens daytoday. Uh

you can see the forecast uh for flooding there. Um pretty low forecast at this point. Uh action stage for the river is set at 25 ft where minor flooding is 27. We're not going to hit uh closest we get 24.44 expected uh actually on the 8th. So uh we're we're good there. And the ferry is open. With that in mind, we did send out uh flood preparation letters to everybody that's in the flood zone area. Um so those that are new would be getting it, but also it's a reminder for those that are there. Um sometimes people just forget that they need need to take when they hear flooding is going to happen, they do need we do have a levy, but they need to take precautions and prepare for that. So we send out a letter just as a reminder uh to those folks. property maintenance. We just recently, like recently as in this week, uh been working with the police department in switching some of the property maintenance, especially nuisance uh items over to the police department. Uh we're going to continue to work hand inand in doing that uh with with the police chief and and his folks. Um and we've already started some of that. Uh we're we're working diligent with that. Uh just keep in mind everybody to if you have any issues, you can just always call city hall here or me uh directly and we'll get those items uh to the police chief. You can also go on our website and fill out a uh complaint or an issue there and we will uh address that and forward that to the proper uh department. Uh some additional items, uh several meetings going on. Um as always, attending meetings. Uh couple items I want to really hit there. Uh, I've been working with Corey from Alliance um on our water backflow testing program. So, water backflows are are supposed to be at for Missouri Department of Natural Resources at every

commercial building to prevent water or prevent materials coming back into our city's water system. So, if someone is out fighting a fire and we lose pressure and somebody has a hose stuck in u a chemical for some reason and we lose that pressure and that chemical sucked into our water system, we're we're in trouble. So, the backflow devices are there to protect from that, they're required to be tested once a year um every year and those tests get sent into us and we keep those and then report all that to uh the Department of Natural Resources. So, um, worked with Cory and, um, all those are getting sent to me and I'm cataloging those, keeping those on record so that when he sends in his, uh, report to the Department of Natural Resources, we'll have all that information. We're also going to be sending out letters to all the commercial property owners and anybody that we know has a lawn irrigation system as far as the residential side cuz they're required to be inspected also. So, we know some of the the places don't have backflows. We're not going to be going out there and making people put backflows in unless they're doing a project that's permitted that would require us then to have them do that. Um, another thing I'm working on is getting the city a tree city designation. Uh, now what is that? Well, we can take that from one degree to the other. Um, I'm looking at just dealing with our city trees, not trying to tell somebody how and what to do with their own tree, but um, doing this and getting designated as a tree city will help us get, uh, grant projects. We'll get points on grant projects because we're a tree city. So,

isn't that Tree City USA, isn't it? Yes, it's Tree City USA. We we are currently not listed on on their list. So, um, I I did check that before I started. So, um, we're not listed on it. We may have been at one time cuz you got to re-up this every year. So, that that may be an issue that that has happened. Um, I think we were on the deforestation list. Oh, wrong.

Gotcha. So, we we we get to that and and we're going to form a committee. It's pretty easy to to get there. We're doing a lot of the things already. We just have to document that we're doing that. So, uh, we get to that point, uh, that'll be a good honor for the city. Um, anything else? Anybody has any questions for me, I'll be glad to answer. Um, maybe at your next report, um, can you go over the new changes to uh, nuisance uh, and um, property maintenance procedures, how we're having our uh, police department do a little bit more. Can you maybe just so the residents kind of know what the changes are going to be maybe in this next couple weeks as you guys work this out and how it's going to look?

100%. Yep. Um, Robert, since I worked with you last many years ago and stuff like that, um, how, uh, experienced are you as far as project uh, inspections and ongoing projects and stuff, uh, paving, street overlays, those type of things? I mean, so so just in in general as far as development type areas

um well I've done several um full developments that includes everything from all the infrastructure like you said streets, water, sewer, storm water. Uh I'm I'm a certified flood plane manager and that that deals with storm water as well. Uh, I've done inspections for I'm LPA certified, so I've been the guy out there in the hard hat standing there all day doing inspections, uh, for when they're laying the pipe, bringing in rock, um, doing all those kinds of aspects. Um, and that's just the development side of things. That doesn't even count the building side. So, but yeah, I'm I'm I feel I'm well versed in that as far as being able to do those type of inspections even if you know like our new development that we're that we're doing. So, I'll be out there in in conjunction with Kore working working on that project. I don't mean to be kicking the same subject up, but we spent a lot of money last year paying an engineering fee on one particular project, and I don't agree at all with the outcome of that and stuff, but uh hopefully in the future, maybe we can work towards doing some of that in-house. Uh cuz we spent 500,000

over the course of asphalt, concrete. Yes. Engineering and construction engineering. Yes. Right. Yes. Some of that um and and I don't know all the particulars about that particular item, but some of that requires physical testing of of stuff that we don't have the equipment to do. Um so that would still have to be subbed out. Uh but there are a lot of things that is incorporated into that that I can most certainly do and and cut those costs down on those projects. Right. Cuz we can take those concrete cylinders and send them out. test. Yep. Yep.

Uh Robert, I did have a quick question for you. Uh could you maybe expand on your item here regarding the storm water meeting you had in the 741 Center Drive area the 741? Yeah, we met we met with MDOT. Yeah. Okay. Water issue there. Yeah. So, if any of you had seen us out seen Mo DOT's guys out there and and ladies um so there around around the um uh Butterfield uh development and the funeral home there, Bosler Funeral Home. Uh there was probably Dave, what do you say? Maybe 12 of those folks. Dozen.

Yeah. So, there's probably 12 of those folks out there in high viz gear and people are probably wondering what in the world's going on cuz they're out there walking in the field looking at stuff. Uh Dave and I went down there and met with them. Um so what they're what they're looking at is um the water uh getting into uh one of the properties there and going up into their property into their building and they're going to be doing work there on the highway area. So they're trying to determine what they may need to do on their side to maybe help alleviate some of that problem. So, we met them down there and then I came back to the office and and pulled plans that we had on both of those developments uh to try and save them time on calculations on storm water controls. So, uh we we did find some things that that probably do need to be addressed. Um some we can't really do anything about at this point uh as far as controlling that collection of storm water. uh other things we can do and and we're going to uh have the folks do and it's kind of brought up something that we need to go uh throughout town and Dave's going to help me with that cuz I don't know where all the detention basins are in in the community but uh we've got some that are that are silted up. So when it gets silt up the water goes up above and out and it's going to go where it wants to go and unfortunately that means it's going to not be released slowly like it's supposed to be and it's going to go into somebody's building. So that's that's kind of why we were there. We're to assist them and on what they need and uh we've gotten that to them so they can do their analysis and they're going to get back to me whenever they come up with a solution there.

Was there any discussion about the covert that goes underneath center drive right there? Not really. Okay. To to us at that point, but I know they were looking at that because that's some of the that's a pain point, right? It makes that it makes two 90° makes a hard turn there. Yeah. And so that's what they were kind of looking at to be able to gauge how much water is actually going to be coming into there. Mhm. And all of those calculations for those two developments will help them determine that. Great.

Yeah. I don't know how Matt if you've ever been out there when that happens that culver pipe is the problem. It's simply not big enough and the turn slows water down. It just backs up so badly there. And I I just think that there's more water going quicker to that area than what there was anticipated to be. And I I'm I'm guessing that's what the report's going to come back to us as. But until we see that our attention though many times and stuff, I just hope they don't kick the can down the road and say it's not the colored box there and stuff.

No, I I think they know that there's some issue there. It's just what are they going to have to do to address that? And that's why they need to know how much water is going to really be coming there through the hydraulic measurement that they'll do. So, that's that's great news though that they're taking an interest in that area cuz I know that the property owners around there will be excited to hear that. Anything. Any other questions for for Robert regarding his report? Okay.

All right. Thank you guys. Uh at this time we will open up the floor to public comment. Uh just a quick reminder, please state your name for the minutes and try to keep your comments uh to 5 minutes or less if possible.

Good evening everyone. My name is Heidi Walker. I live here in St. Genevie. Um I know that tourism has been a hot topic this this week. So, I wanted to speak about tourism and how the city and countyy's involvement with ICE and DHS reflect on our community as a tourist destination. Um, this week a measure passed to increase the lodging tax for tourists. These funds will be used to increase St. Genevie social media presence and hopefully increase tourism revenue. I'm a short-term rental owner, so we rely on tourism, but it's um from my perspective, uh the local police receiving kickbacks from I simply is not a message that we should be projecting. And again, I ask, how does this fit into the story of St. Genevieve? Um we are getting lots of free publicity for our town. So, I'd like to make you all aware of the news stories that have highlighted St. Jen's relationship with ICE in the past year. In June 2025, the Missouri Colombian published a story about Phelps and St. Genevie County counties being the two facilities in Missouri housing ICE detainees. In July 2025, uh, National Public Radio did a story on St. Genevie's detainees and the efforts being made to help them here in our community. In September 2025, there was a story on St. Louis NPR um STL PR again about St. Genevieve detainees and the struggles they're facing and then of course as we all know the publicity around uh Leo Cruz Silva who committed suicide inside the detention center this was covered by all the major local news stations and then um NPR nationally covered the story of Leo Cruz Silva. Then in November 2026, KRCU featured St. Genevieve in their podcast, which then

went national when it was picked up by National Public Radio um regarding our detention center here. Um the St. Louis Review in March 2026 covered the story of the prayer vigil that took place in St. Genevie. Um the prayer vigil was located across from the detention center. Yesterday, St. Just yesterday, St. Jen was featured in a story in the St. Louis Post Dispatch. I don't know if any of you read that. Um, it's about the increase in pregnant and nursing women who have no criminal record and are being held in St. Genevieve. Um, the story featured a pregnant mother currently being detained in St. Genevieve. And from this uh the story states, Jurgen Kayaks from Colombia, her biggest daily struggle is over food. It's hard enough being in prison for the first time in her life, but she's navigating that reality while pregnant and having specific dietary needs in a facility with notoriously bad food and worse healthcare. Those are not my words. Those are the words published in the St. Louis Post Dispatch yesterday. She quote she is quoted as saying, "I have lost weight. I was taken to a medical appointment where I was prescribed a nutritional shake, but I've not yet received it." She also asked for a bottle of water and did not receive it. So St. Genevie is definitely getting a lot of publicity even on a national level. So I ask that we think about this logically since we are focused on tourism. Logic would tell us that public perception of St. Genevieve at the local, state and national level is being transformed and projected through these news stories. Our quaint tourist town known for historic houses, shops, and festivals is now by a large group of people known for these recurring stories of innocent people being detained and even dying. What is the effect on tourism? As approval ratings for ISIS actions and policies fall below 40% nationwide,

logic would also tell us that this is not a direction we should be pursuing as tourist town. This is a path we do not want to continue down. As we watch the Trump administration's policies fail again and again, the border wall, the tariffs, lowering inflation, now the war in Iran, logic should tell us that this situation is not going to get better. I foresee it getting much worse and it will ultimately fail. Perhaps we would consider an exit ramp or we can do nothing. But if something goes wrong, it will be our legacy. Something already has gone wrong when someone committed suicide. But there didn't seem to be any discussion of that. I mean, I I heard very little discussion of that. And um I just hope that we can make a choice to do something before before something else happens. I want you to consider that when we think about tourism and the perception of St. Genevieve. Thank you. Hello, I am Ginger Olman. Um, I'm a registered voter and I spend my money in St. Genevieve. Uh, there is a quiet, steady removal of good, hardworking, noncriminal men and women that is happening in the state of Missouri and nationwide, but I'm focusing on Missouri while our eyes are being diverted to Israel and Iran and Epstein. But it's happening and we're not making a lot of noise for fear of drawing attention to them. But it does

pop up on social media and we can see a distinct difference in the comments that are being posted online. Those are who are concerned about these people's well-being. Also knowing it's probably wrong if not illegal and those expressing hate and anger which is stoked if not created by our administration. They repeat untruths about them getting free social services such as health care through Medicaid or food assistance through SNAP or we're paying for their educations or we're they're stealing our jobs. None of which is true, but is further stoked by our representatives and repeated over and over again by our administration. And most of them are certainly not criminals. A recent article showed that 82% of them were detained through traffic stops. It also implied high incident of racial profiling. Meanwhile, the federal government has filed fired over a 100 immigration judges since 2025. Judges we didn't have enough of to begin with. And there is a stoppage of flights out of the country due to lack of funding for DHS. So the men and the women are piling up. The process is slow. It is painful and it is difficult. And it is mostly wrong. Most don't know why they're there. They've committed no criminal offense. And what's astonishing is they love this country. They absolutely love this country and they want to be here. Not because of the lies about free healthcare and being added to the voter roles so they can vote for the blue politician or the lies about free food, healthcare, and housing. No, it's because their country is much worse. Many are fearful to return to their

countries knowing that they might be killed in their own by their own government. In a free America, we find that difficult to understand and believe. But now, even in our own country, we've seen it happen. Not only to Renee Good and Alex Prody, just to name a few, have made national news. But many others. I wish they'd stop telling us that they need to leave and come back and do it the right way, the legal way. This administration has closed the pipeline to the legal way to citizenship in this country. And I hate to use an example of one who's committed a horrible criminal offense and apply it to all of them. It's just not right. The crime rate for those who've um been American citizens who've committed uh crimes is much higher than those undocumented immigrants. So I'm just asking that you consider again to end the contract for 287g. Uh I implore our leaders. I know you have good morals and good standing. I respect you all, but I just feel that uh greed has taken over and um it shows how strong it can be. We've asked our city and county leaders who's involved in making the decision to sign the 287g contracts. We continue to be told that there was never discussion about it. No budget discussion, no input, no involvement, no knowledge. Not from our alderman, not from our commissioners, and certainly not from the citizens. It's all on the sheriff and the chief of police. Nobody knew a thing. And the contracts were signed. But I can guarantee when the money starts filtering in, every one of you is going to have something to do with it. And every one of you is going to get a cut. And you're going to have your input on how it's spent and where it's spent. But nobody had any input on how it got here. that's known as blood

money for trafficking human beings. Just a side note, um I've been here about nine years. I used to work for a global company. I'm now retired. I have established longlasting friendships across the world. I have friends in Germany, the Netherlands, China, Canada, Mexico, and India. My friends in Germany come every two years. This year, they let me know they're not coming. My job also resulted in long-term relationships with people across the United States. I have friends in Arkansas, Tennessee, South Carolina, Texas, New Mexico, Florida, Pennsylvania, and California. We go on vacation every year together. And guess who came to St. Genevieve last year? They loved it here. I loved showing it to them. I will no longer recommend St. Genevieve to my traveling friends. I personally will not spend my money here either. I know you don't need my money. You're getting hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars for housing innocent men and women, pregnant mothers, asylum seekers, green card holders, and those who have temporary protective status. I cannot contribute to your economy. You have the power to end this. I'm asking you to end it. Thank you. GOOD EVENING. Thank you to everybody here tonight. My name is Asa Lemons and I'm a taxpaying resident of St. Genevieve. I'm again deeply disappointed to see that the 287g contract was not on today's agenda. So, I'm here once again to respectfully implore our board of aldermen to resin the 287g contract immediately.

I talk a lot up here about various concepts regarding the effect of this contract. I touched on the jarring lack of transparency towards the citizens of St. Jen, the in my opinion blatant unconstitutionality of the utilization of administrative warrants in lie of judicial warrants to identify people. the heinous alleged human rights violations ICE perpetuates on a day-to-day basis and how you don't have to oppose the base concept of immigration enforcement to oppose ISIS's behavior and practices and our voluntary collaboration with them despite this fact. But today, let's switch it up a bit. Let's talk instead about how this 287g contract affects people living in St. Genevieve as we speak. But first, let me lay some groundwork to talk about these people. As delineated by federal law, you can be an undocumented immigrant in the United States, and be following the legal processes towards citizenship or maintaining a green card. There are work visas, asylum seekers, spouses of citizens, special pathways for victims of certain crimes, and a few more in a very complicated system that takes a tremendous amount of time to do research on. These legal pathways have existed for ages with reliability and consistency for those doing it the right way. That was, of course, up until I started literally picking people up outside courouses for their scheduled appearances before a judge. But I digress. What I mean to say is most of these undocumented immigrants pay taxes and work jobs to make money for their families just as we do. Oftent times jobs much more grueling or unsavory than anything we'd yearn to do. And if it even needed to be said at this point, numerous peer-reviewed studies have found that undocumented immigrants statistically commit fewer crimes than citizens. And that's an empirical fact of reality. Now that the groundwork has been laid out, let's talk about the undocumented immigrants and human beings

living in the city of St. Genevieve. As it stands right now, in practicality, it is reasonable to assume that as an undocumented immigrant residing in St. Genevieve that has either witnessed or been victim of a crime. Thanks to the 287g contract, now they can no longer safely and assuredly report and give statements for a crime, whether that be assault, harassment, stalking, domestic violence, robbery, sexual assault, or even a witness to a murder or any other crime to our city police department without potentially risking detention by ICE. I make this statement even acknowledging the fact that there are no perperson incentive structures built into the specific contract that the city signed. As Mayor Kim was quoted on February 12th, 2026 at a passport of alderman meeting during the course of their regular police work, they would be able to issue a warrant to detain somebody if they are not able to identify themselves. End quote. Incentive structures and police officer ambitions are immaterial to this argument. Through the mere authority to do such a thing, you have effectively barred your undocumented population from confidently being able to engage with local law enforcement, effectively making them our neighbors without direct police protection. I don't know about you guys, but putting myself in their shoes, that's a terrifying concept to imagine for what is seemingly an indefinite time period. This risk of hypothetical detention of for ICE oftentimes will lead to being stripped from their family for months upon months of indefinite holding, oftentimes without any criminal charges. And at any point they can be transferred on a whim to any ICE detention facility around the nation. Numerous of whom were under endless lawsuits of abuse, neglect, procedural violations, and unsafe conditions despite the millions of dollars the municipalities rake in off their indefinite detention. And in

the end, these immigrants are soon to be deported from the home in which many of them have worked and raised families here for years or even decades and for some most of their entire adult lives. This speech has been an appeal to our humanity because I don't know what further beyond that there is to appeal to. I again respectfully request that the board of aldermen vote to resin the 287g contract immediately. THANK YOU. HELLO, I'M DARWIN MUZZI, PRESIDENT of St. Genevieve. And just a couple things. Um, one thing I'd like to uh express my appreciation that you have not put up big signs directing traffic to the ice facility. It uh it's rather depressing when you see that kind of signage up. And I know when I drive through communities like Bontter and uh Chester, these large green or brown signs that direct traffic to those kind of incarceration uh facilities, uh it's a very depressing feeling and and I'm glad that we don't have that depressing signage in our community. We have our little secret kind of hidden off to the corner. You just have to know the directions to how to get there. But it's another thing uh addressing um type of people that we are locking up. Uh a few months ago we rented a car in Minneapolis and the u tenant who was in the uh rental agency. He was Somalian struck up a conversation with him mentioned that our son is in the military. and he took his foot and he

put it up on the desk and he had his army boots on from when he served in the Iraq war. He enlisted, his father immigrated with his family many years ago and this young man enlisted in the Iraq war to serve our country. And I don't know what his political or what his citizenship standing is at this time or was, but he he felt proud to be to pay back our our country for him to have the the ability to live in our country. And to me that really it was it was a very inspiring this young man. I you know many of us have grandkids and children that who are not going to be in the military because it's a stupid thing to do, right? Isn't that what our leaders are telling people on the side? But my son is serving and that young man served and I'm we're proud of them and um this facility I think does not help that kind of inspiration from our people from all different countries. Thank you. Any other public comment at this time? Okay, thank you very much. At this time, we will move along to tonight's consent agenda.

Motion to approve. Second. Okay, I have a motion and a second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay, thank you very much. Uh we'll take us to some old business tonight. First up, we have a second reading of bill number 4713. This is an ordinance of the city of St. Genevie, Missouri, vacating and discontinuing a portion of an unimproved alley on Maple Drive. Motion motion to approve. Second, second sort through that, ma'am. Got it. All right. I do have a motion and a second. Would you do a roll call, please? Alderman Styer.

Yes. Alderman Prince. Yes. Alderman Ross. Yes. Alderman. Yes. Alderman Huy. Yes. Alderman Donovan. Yes. Alderman Fehey. Yes. Alderwoman Dos. Yes. Eight. Yes. Zero nos. Bill number 4713. Now becomes ordinance 4635. Thank you very much. Uh next up we have a second reading of bill number 4715. This is an ordinance of the city of St. Genevieve authorizing the mayor to enter into an agreement with Burn Bowman Contracting Company of St. Genevie, Missouri for the citywide asphalt overlay project in an amount of 1,420,316.37. Motion to approve.

Second. Okay. Have a motion and a second. Pam, would you do a roll call, please? Alderwoman Dobs. Yes. Alderman Fehey? Yes. Alderman Donovan? Yes. Alderman Huey? Yes. Alderman? Yes. Alderman Ross. Yes. Alderman Prince. Yes. Alderman Stiger. Yes. Eight. Yes. Zero nos. Bill number 4715 now becomes ordinance 4636. Thank you very much. Next up is the second reading of bill number 4716. This is an ordinance of the city of St. Genevie authorizing the mayor to enter into an agreement with Joker Incorporated of St. Genevie, Missouri for the concrete street and waterline improvements project in an amount of $795,666.35.

Option to approve. Second. Okay. I have a motion and a second. Pam, would you do a roll call, please? Alderman Haley, yes. Alderman Magnan, yes. Alderman Ross, yes. Alderman Prince, yes. Alderman Stiger, yes. Alderman Donovan, yes. Alderman Bey, yes. Alderman Doss, yes. Eight yes, zero nos. Bill number 4716 now becomes ordinance 4637. Thank you very much.

And then last up in old business tonight, we have a second reading of bill number 4717. This is an ordinance approving the property transfer of a 2003 John Deere model 6605 tractor and tiger boom mower from the special roads district A to the city of St. Genevie. Motion to approve. Second. Okay, I have a motion and a second. Pam, would you roll call, please? Alderman Ross, yes. Alderman, yes. Alderman Prince, yes. Alderman Stiger, yes. Alderwoman Dabs, yes. Alderman Fehee, yes. Alderman Donovan, yes. Alderman Huie, yes.

Eight yes, zero nos. Bill number 4717 now becomes ordinance 4638. to add a footnote to that. I don't know if anybody is aware, but we have a very uh bad problem along our creek banks and stuff and I've been on it and uh Cory and them have done a better job, but we have a very poison weed growing along our creeks and stuff and this will help and we don't have to use herbicides and stuff. It's called poison hemlock. Uh it's deadly. Uh but anyhow uh and it's all over the state in a lot of areas and stuff but I really hope they concentrate use of this you know along those creeks and stuff to get rid of that problem.

I think he indicated that they were going to make that more of a priority to use it in that regard. Right. How is it deadly in uh anybody if you I mean you can rub the plant once it gets to a certain maturity. It grows very fast. It has a hollow tube. It grows six or seven feet tall, has a little white flower on it. U I mean, you have to consume it, but you can actually just by touching the plant, you can there could be some pretty bad reactions to it. And it's all out the creek grow. It's everywhere. I'm going to see it. There's a lot of Dave. Yes, sir.

Were you out when we started this amount of 25,000? Yes, sir. Uh 2013. And I have spoken with one of the special road. Hang on. I've spoken with one of the special road commissioners. They are going to bring it up at their meeting next week. And what I've asked for is what has been the increase in tax revenue for special road district and could we ask for that similar increase in our payment? Great. Thank you. You're welcome. Hey, thank you.

Okay. Thank you for that footnote, Alderman Donovan. Thank you for that, Alderman Stiger. Um, and then moving on to some new business tonight. Uh, we just have one item. Uh, this is a first reading of bill number 4718. This is an ordinance of the city of St. Genevie, Missouri, authorizing the city administrator to execute a contract for auditing services with BYC HRO and Stroer LLC certified public accountants. Motion to approve. Second. Okay. I I do have a motion and a second. Any discussion on that?

Um I had asked for a footnote and I admit I haven't read this contract and stuff about uh prior to this contract expiring that they help us with a a reminder so we don't get caught like we did last time. Uh it expired and we had to jump in. And I certainly don't want to defend them. I don't know that it's their job to remind us. It's our job and I have to put a reminder in my calendar to make sure it doesn't happen again. We can ask anything in the contract. You certainly can. Right. I just don't want to get caught at the last minute and we're scrambling around. I apologize for that. Yes, sir. No problem. Okay. I believe we do have a motion in a second.

Any other discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. Thank you very much. That'll conclude the old new business for tonight. Um, anything else to discuss before we get to our last agenda item? Any other nothing? Good news, bad news. When are the roads supposed to start being done again? Well, you passed the contracts tonight. So, we'll have pre-con meetings next week and I will have a construction schedule I can share out with you. What's your what's your rough idea of

I think the water line and concrete folks are going to want to start nearly immediately and the asphalt will probably hold off until school lets out or work around the school areas before they come close to that. But that's just my thought. The uh fine for uh non-compliance and stuff, did we reduce that from 750 to 500 a day? It varies contract to contract. So this one I believe is 500. Yes. So did we set that or did we set it in in coordination with Cochran? I don't I don't anticipate having to worry about it. I hope not. Okay.

One for sure we won't have to worry about the other one to be determined. All right. Um so we'll move along to our our last item tonight. Uh there is an executive close session on the agenda to um discuss litigation matters. I'll entertain a motion. Motion to go into close session for Okay. I have a motion and a second to move into close session. Pam, would you do a roll call, please? Alderwoman Dos. Yes. Alderman Fehey. Yes. Alderman Donovan? Yes. Alderman Huy? Yes. Alderman Ivan. Alderman Ross.

Yes. Alderman France. Yes. Alderman Spiger. Yes. Motion carries. 710. Any other matters to discuss at this time? Nope. If not, then we will adjourn. Thank you all. Thank you everybody. See you.