Willow Springs Works On Budget and Reads Ordinance Describing City Marshal Position

(Willow Springs, MO) — The Willow Springs City Council started early Thursday with a Budget Work Session at 4PM. Items discussed included adjusting the water and sewer rates to comply with DNR’s recommendation to improve funding status for system improvements. The council discussed the need to meet the DNR recommendations without shocking citizen’s bills. Administrator Beverly Hicks recommended doing small increases on a 3 year cycle so that the impact on the public would be minimal. Also recommended was an increase in green fees and cart rental at the city golf course to keep up with the increasing cost of maintenance at the course. City golf course personnel told council that they would be needing to look at buying a new greens mower as their current mower is nearly it’s end of usable life, having just barely held on through this season.

On the expense side of the budget, council discussed what to do with the roughly 1,000-gallons of AV fuel at the airport. The fuel had been sitting out there for several years and very seldom did any one at the airport purchase fuel from the city, the consensus of the alderman was to sell what was left, even at a loss to the city, and no longer provide fuel at the airport unless another group wanted to fund it. The recycling program was discussed, the alderman asked city staff how the program could be maintained with the lack of funding and support from the community. The last item discussed in the work session was replacing tires on the fire trucks and the fire departments need to retire and replace the rescue truck bed and lighting and both Engines 2 and 3 with a chassis truck and skid unit.

At about 5PM, the alderman took a brief break before jumping into regular session. After the announcement of quorum and approval of the agenda, the alderman approved the consent agenda with little discussion. The police chief made a couple of presentations before the city had the readings on a pair of council bills, setting the salary and duties of the city marshal position if one were to be elected.

Administrator Hicks updated council on the status of a building downtown that was having a problem with bricks falling off the front wall into the sidewalk. The owner of 104 East Main, Adam Howell was present and said that he desired to work with the city to resolve the situation. He said that he had contractors lined up to repair the front of his building but so far every contractor had backed out citing liability issues. It was the recommendation of Administrator Hicks and City Attorney Steve Privette that the city find an engineer to work with Howell to determine the best repair solution and contractor to make those repairs, at Howell’s expense. The city council then voted to enter closed session for legal, personnel and real estate before adjourning.

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