The Trenton City Council approved five ordinances and discussed several items during a meeting on Monday night at city hall.
Four of the five ordinances received unanimous approval while a fifth was approved on a split vote. That ordinance involved an amendment of a contract with Burns and McDonnell engineering firm for additional work the company will be doing involving water tower and fuel storage tank maintenance. According to City Administrator Ron Urton, the engineers will be updating the city project to include work on both the Iowa Boulevard and Princeton Road water towers, including preparation of all bidding documents associated with the project as well as assisting with other phases of the bidding process. The city would pay an additional $13,000-plus for this work.
Councilman Brad Chumbley, who along with Larry Porter voted against the ordinance, said he believed the city had already paid for that work when the engineering firm began the process and determined that both water towers needed to be painted. Because of the cost, the city had decided to do the Iowa Boulevard tower this year and the Princeton Road tower next year. But because the tower work could not be done within the time frame requested, the city had then decided to advertise to have both towers done next year. Urton said as a result, the bid documents would need to be updated to include both towers.
Voting in favor of the ordinance were Glen Briggs, Allan Quilty, Travis Elbert, David Mlika, Larry Crawford and Jennifer Hottes Urich.
The other four ordinances voted on received votes of 8-0. They included two ordinances updating the city’s code and allowing for archery shooting to be done at the trap and skeet range (which is now in the city limits and would have been prohibited under the former ordinance and allowing certain events inside the city limits when approved by the council. This would include atlatl competition, which is held during the Missouri Day and Gooseberry festivals, as well as shooting sports competitions held by organizations such as 4-H.
Also approved were an ordinance setting the curfew at the city reservoir for midnight to 5:30 a.m., with certain exceptions, and an ordinance no longer requiring the park superintendent to attend council meetings. He is to submit a written report monthly to the council as is required by other department heads.
The council approved Fire Chief Brandon Gibler as the city’s emergency management director. An award was also presented to the city by the American Public Power organization, recognizing Trenton Municipal Utilities with a Electric Reliability Award. Trenton is one of seven cities in the state and one of 121 cities in the nation to receive the award, which recognizes utilities for their reliability in providing electric services to its customers.
In other business:
• Mayor Dr. Nick McHargue appointed Briggs to head up a group to do long-range planning for the city. Elbert and Chumbley volunteered to serve on that group as representatives of the council. He also noted that a copy of the Ady Report is available at city hall for members of the council to read and that he reviewed the last two years of checks issued by the Plaza Apartments as well as returned audits of the apartments to the Green Hills Regional Planning Commission.
• Gibler said a report has still not been received from the state fire marshal regarding the fire in May at the Lakeview Restaurant. He said he believed information from the insurance company was keeping the report from being completed. In a meeting prior to the council meeting, the city’s Building and Nuisance Board officially began the process to have the structure declared a nuisance.
• Urton reported that the 17th Street Bridge project agreement with the Missouri Department of Transportation is anticipated to be received by the city within the next seven days. He said the agreement will then be reviewed by the Union Pacific Railroad. He also reported that the street department has completed work for the city of Lawson which, he said, added streets to the project over a 10-day period. Lawson had contracted with the city of Trenton for the work.
• City Clerk Cindy Simpson said she has received the LAGERS report from 2015-16 and anticipates getting the 2016-17 report this fall. LAGERS is the retirement system used by the city.