Your World Today

The City of Salem Board of Aldermen met Tuesday evening at the City Hall Council Chambers. At the meeting, City Administrator Ray Walden presented a request from Randy League to approve the closure of streets around the courthouse square on Saturday, September 11th for the Current River Blue Oval Rally. The request was approved by the board. Juliana Bermudez spoke with the board last year about a high water bill that occurred at her home from January of 2020 when she was actually out of the area. Public Works Director Mark Nash said he just received the test results on the meter that was dated July 23, 2020. He said the city will determine what her normal bill would be from the latest readings taken over the last year with the new meter, then make the adjustment to that bill from January of 2020 based on that adjusted usage. If she was overbilled, she would receive a credit on her bill. Four others on the agenda who were scheduled to speak to the city council about utilities were not in attendance. That included Jack Stallings, Chris Hartinger, Teresa Crider and Bill Parsons. Sara Barton spoke to the board about high water usage at a vacant house. She was to get with Mark Nash to review the bills and usage to determine what is going on there. After the consent agenda was approved, the board discussed repairing the current John Deere Crawler or lease a different one that is used about 30 to 40 hours a year. After a long discussion, the board agreed not to fix the current machine for almost $27,000 and recommended having a committee review options, then bring a recommendation back to the board. The board approved Resolution #19-2021 that authorizes the mayor to sign an agreement between the city and the Meramec Regional Planning Commission to provide technical assistance on floodplain management to the city and to the residents of Salem. This service would be on as needed basis and would not exceed $4,000 that would cover about 70 hours of staff time. The board then heard Resolution #20-2021 that would authorize the mayor to sign an agreement between the City of Salem and Energy Solutions Professionals, LLC for the HVAC and maintenance projects for a number of city buildings that would save energy costs. Alderman Steelman made a motion, but the Resolution died to a lack of a second. Resolution #21-2021 was contingent on the board passing the previous Resolution. It was read by temporary City Clerk Koller, but there was no motion made. Mayor Nash then re-appointed Gary Brown to serve on the Salem Housing Authority Board of Commissioners for another term of four years that becomes effective September 20th, 2021. The board reviewed two trailer court applications that were due on June 30th, but only one was approved and that was the Central Missouri Investment Trailer Court at 703 South Pershing. The Finest Place Trailer Court on Truman was improving, but did not pass their inspection, and the Sapaugh Trailer Court has not yet submitted an application to be inspected. The board approved the purchase of a UTV from Stahlman Power Sports for $19,319 for the Park and Recreation Department with Mayor Brad Nash casting the deciding yes vote. Bethany Taft from People Centric gave an update on their work for the city as they are looking at the interior structure and workload of the workers, creating clear job descriptions and indentifying individuals for training which will be scheduled soon. City Administrator Ray Walden said the utility bills for May 15th to June 15th have been mailed and residents should have them by Friday. He said 1,300 of the 2,807 utility customers paid their three-month bill in full and will get the 5% rebate. He said 237 people have created new payment plans and another 59 have not made a payment in over a year. If bills are not paid or a payment plan has not been created, citizens will be disconnected on July 15th if they are behind in their account. Walden said the six-month financials of the City of Salem have been sent to the Salem News for publication for January 1st, 2021 to June 30th, 2021. Walden said a test run of the airport courtesy car was used by representatives of US Food and went well. Clerk Tammy Koller said two hangers are available and there are seven people on the hanger waiting list. She will e-mail the first two people on the list and they will have 14 days to respond. The board approved the rezoning of six addresses on South Babb Lane from Commercial to Industrial, but wanted to review two other properties that Economic Development Director Sally Burbridge did not recommend rezoning do to the creation of “spot zoning.” The board then went into closed session.