Grant City is in the process of turning in paperwork to the Missouri DNR so that they can forward it to the National Park Service and recommend it for approval. If approved, the National Park Service grant will help construct a new bath house for the pool. The new bath house will replace the old one, which has been deteriorating and leaking. The city would get $75,000 cash from the Missouri DNR; the DNR would reimburse the city for expenses related to the project. The council voted to provide a cash match of $15,000; it will consist of $5,000 each from the general fund, the street light fund, and the park fund for their share of the cash match. The rest of the funds will come from in-kind donations; Mayor Debbie Roach and Janice Borey have lined up the labor for the project. Dick VanVactor will be working on the project; he is currently in the process of designing the floor plan for the new bath house.
The new building will consist of a metal roof and have a concrete block. It will be an estimated 24x40 feet. It will have an outdoor toilet, a storage area, dressing rooms, and a basket room which would double as a concession stand. The city could bid out the concession stand so that outside organizations could raise money. Gina McNeese will go and look at other facilities to get ideas for the project.
The pump at the lift station needed repair; it needs annual repair due to heavy use.
Annette Weeks of Northwest Missouri Enterprise Facilitation (NWMEF) did a presentation to the council. She said that they now have 65 board members; they are a free and confidential resource to businesses in the area. They have monthly brainstorming sessions between business people; they have a 94% success rate in Kansas, where it has been tried in six different regions. They help businesses develop realistic projections. They help both existing and startup businesses. They help with facilitation, introductions, networking, marketing, licenses, finances, and working through ideas. They help people work through ideas and prevent businesses from failing in the first place; Weeks said that sometimes, people realize that their idea is not feasible before they start their business as opposed to starting their business and realizing their idea is not feasible only after getting into mountains of debt.
Economic Developer Charity Austin reported that she sent out sponsorship letters to potential donors for the Worth County Fall Festival. There will be two sides of the square closed from Tuesday through Friday and all four sides will be closed on Saturday. The council voted to sponsor the event and give a $100 donation; events that are sponsored by a county or city are released from liability.
The city is sending out income surveys with their next monthly billing and is looking for an 80% response rate for their CDBG project for the 11-mile water line. The surveys are totally confidential and respondents do not have to put their names on the surveys. The cost of the proposed 11-mile water line will be an estimated $1 million. The maximum that the city can get from a CDBG grant will be $375,000, which means that they have to find other sources of funding; other possible sources of funding are a bond issue on next April's ballot as well as a USDA grant/loan program. The city can bond itself for up to 20% of its assessed valuation depending on the type of bond that is run. It would require a 4/7 majority if held during a primary, municipal, or general election and 2/3 majority if held during a special election. A general obligation bond would tax city property owners while a revenue bond would tax water revenues. The bonds could go through a local bank or they would be picked up by a bonding company.
The first hurdle for the 11-mile water line replacement would be the income surveys; the next hurdle would be getting a preliminary engineering report done. The council voted to bid that out and set a bidding deadline of October 15th.
The council took no action on joining the Northwest Wholesale Water Commission. If they were to join, the city would appoint a representative to attend the meetings. City Attorney David B. Parman said that the concept was good, but that he feared that the city might get stuck with having to raise rates or taxes to pay for everything. On the one hand, they would not have to worry about a treatment plant or buying needed chemicals. On the other hand, the city would have to tax issues that 20 other entities would have to and that it would be very difficult for the city to get out. But Parman said that the city might not have a choice, given that he said that the DNR was getting difficult to deal with due to increased regulations and given the fact that if they were to join down the road, they would have to play catch-up. Parman said that they were about 10-15 years from seeing any water out of the partnership and that some day, the country and world would be faced with a water shortage. The partnership would have to go through the Public Service Commission for any rate hikes like current utility companies do. The council took no action on the proposal and will revisit joining the commission at their September meeting.
There were two first notices sent by Code Enforcement Officer Patsy Worthington; there were three second notices and 15 verbal conversations. Once case was referred to Parman for prosecution.
Public Works Director Carl Staton reported that the city had dug a trench for the pipes for the new concession stand at the ball diamond. There was a four-inch main broken on 5th; a service line on Farwell was broken due to a lightning strike. There was a service line broken near the old K.E. Thompson residence. The city had gotten complaints about brown water; however, all of the samples that they sent in for testing showed that the magnesium, phosphate, and alkalinity levels were all within DNR regulations. Staton reported that he had completed his training for water and will now begin his training for sewer lines.
Staton reported that he had gotten a complaint about truck parking on north High Street on private property; council members said that the property owner should get a "No Parking -- Private Property" sign and should call law enforcement if the problem continues.
Councilwoman Cathy James reported that there was a light by the basketball courts that burned continuously. There were two requests for stop signs; one came from Superintendent Matt Robinson for a stop sign on the south end of East Avenue; another came from James for the High Street/Lovers Lane intersection which she said was an "accident waiting to happen." City Attorney David Parman said that motorists were required to stop at marked crosswalks if a pedestrian was about to cross it; councilwoman Linda Phipps said that she had observed a motorist drive through the school crosswalk without stopping. James asked about School Bus Road north of the School; Staton said that the city could patch it.
The Nature Trail has been marked off; the next task for the city is to line up volunteer labor to move the dirt. Mayor Debbie Roach and Councilwoman Cathy James will line up volunteer labor for the project while Clerk Ayvonne Morin will coordinate.
City Attorney David B. Parman reported on the progress of the city's efforts to collect franchise fees from phone companies. He said that Northwest Cellular had acknowledged receiving the letter regarding the city franchise fee while Grand River Mutual, Alltell, and Windstream were parties to a lawsuit involving the collection of franchise fees. Since the city has passed an initiative authorizing the city to collect the franchise fees, they are now a party to class action suits involving these three companies.
Fall cleanup day will be October 17th with brush cleanup day set for October 15th and 16th. All brush must be cut in four foot lengths and set beside the road or they will not be picked up.
The council voted to put in a bid to continue doing the Department of Revenue office; should the city not get the bid, the license office would have to move to some other location since Parman said that it would not be a good idea to have someone who is not a city employee have access to the computers.
The council voted to donate a $25 Dollar General Gift Card to the Head Start, which was seeking donations.
Public Works Director Carl Staton reported that a dozen signs were stolen and that it would cost around $200 to replace them. The council voted to commit $2,000 towards the completion of the street sign project, which is part of the Enhanced 911 service. Cities are responsible for signage within city limits while the Emergency Services Board is responsible for signage outside city limits.
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