The City of Salem Board of Aldermen met for its regular meeting and a public hearing on storm siren improvements Tuesday, Jan. 14. Prior to the meeting beginning, a public hearing was held regarding the city’s submission of the Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG) application for a mitigation grant to the Missouri Department of Economic Development—the grant would be for a new storm warning siren system.
Meanwhile, Scott Radford, owner of Radford Carwashes, approached the board to discuss a utility billing issue that had recently been discovered.
In attendance included mayor Greg Parker, aldermen Shawn Bolerjack, Rick Letchworth, Catherine Dent, and John Whelan. Other present city staff included city administrator Sally Burbridge, city clerk Tammy Koller, city attorney James Weber, finance director Stacey Houston, and public works director Steve Paine.
Kelly Sink of MRPC approached the podium and shared that a public hearing is necessary in order for the city to turn in its CDBG application. The mitigation grant being applied for would be in the amount of $100,000 for the purpose of replacing the old storm warning system. MRPC would also be offering funds and in-kind services to help decommission old sirens and install the new sirens. The grant is competitive, which means the city isn’t guaranteed to receive it. Burbridge received a list of questions in advance of the public hearing regarding the proposed project and prepared answers, accordingly. Police Chief Joe Chase also fielded several questions on the storm sirens from members of the audience.
Scott Radford discussed with the board a recent issue brought to light regarding utility rates and his business.
Burbridge explained that staff have been reviewing the city’s utility system and systematically checking to ensure multipliers for meters, particularly commercial meters, are set correctly. With Neptune meters and the AMI system, both settings need to be in alignment. Radford had come into the administration office as a correction had been made on one of his car washes, resulting in a significant increase in what’s showing on the water usage. Since the installation of the meters in the AMI system, Radford had been underbilled, it was discovered. After the correction was done, his water usage increased by a factor of 10.
Burbridge and Radford sat down and went through the billing history and usage of his business since 2015, even before the AMI system had been implemented. Burbridge explained that mechanical meters slow down over time due to mineral buildup. That progressive slowdown was clear in the usage history.
When the new system was implemented, Radford’s meters first read was in line with the previous 12 months and wasn’t looked at again, as it had been assumed to be correct, hypothesized Burbridge.
Burbridge acknowledged that the westside car wash with seven bays had been billed less than the eastside location with fewer bays, highlighting the inconsistency. In years past, Radford shared that he had thought the inconsistency was odd and brought attention to it before with no answer given.
With the new monthly utility bill totaling over $4,500, Radford said it wasn’t affordable.
“I mean, it can’t happen. The only solution with utility bills like that would be to close (the carwash) and convert the property to other uses,” said Radford. “Which would be a shame for a town the size of Salem to not have, you know, that business and that service available anywhere in Dent County.”
“I just wanted to make you guys aware that this was an issue,” said Radford.
Radford encouraged the board and city staff to think of possible solutions.
The aldermen unanimously approved the mayor and city administrator to seek funding through the CDBG program. Further, the Meramec Regional Planning Commission (MRPC) was unanimously approved to administer the program on behalf of the city, should the city be awarded grant funds—which, again, is competitive and not guaranteed. Administration fees will be paid to MRPC from the CDBG grant in the amount of $10,000.
Meanwhile, a change order was approved between Gray Construction LLC, the city, and James Headrick of property 102 South Washington, as part of a Welcome Home 2021 project. The change order will not change the value but only the scope of work.
Committee appointments were made by Parker and approved by the board of Kala Sisco and Lauren Toman to serve on the finance committee.
Reports of City Officials
Mayor Greg Parker
Parker thanked all city staff for assisting with the winter weather events—keeping the roads clean and protected, while keeping the lights on and the water working.
“Thank you guys so much,” commended Parker. “You guys make the city work.”
The Salem MO Fireworks Committee is having a trivia night 6 p.m., Feb. 7 at the Salem Community Center @ the Armory. For a table of six, the cost is $100 and $25 for each additional person. There will also be a table decorating contest. For more information, call or text 573-247-7847. All funds raised will go toward Salem’s fireworks event.
City Administrator Sally Burbridge
Burbridge, Paine, and Melissa DuBois attended a meeting with FEMA regarding the flooding event that occurred in November, for damages to both the Wastewater Treatment Plant and the city park. The briefing went over the official disaster declaration that released funding Jan. 1. The city has until Feb. 1 to sign up to get on the list for potential reimbursement of costs incurred and will incur as it works to repair. It went over how the city might get registered, what expenses are allowable, and how to move forward through the process. Plenty of city and county officials made an appearance at the briefing, including county commissioners and Derrick Marfitt, emergency management coordinator.
Steve Paine, Public Works Director
Paine thanked Parker for acknowledging the crews who worked hard throughout the recent winter weather. There were 15 callouts the day of the storm relating to outages, one of which put about 15 to 18 customers out of power—a truck had slid off the road near Young Street and struck a guidewire holding a pole, snapping the upper portion of the pole off. It knocked out the power but was back online in a couple of hours.
Streets department
Crew members worked on putting down product and clearing roads as soon as the ice storm subsided. After clearing the main streets and secondary streets, they worked on clearing the downtown area around the courthouse. Multiple pavement patches were worked on throughout town before the storm hit. Paine informed that many patches are still needing completed, but snow routes were prioritized.
Paine reminded the public to remove trash cans out of roadways for snow removal.
Wastewater Treatment Plant
Crews are repairing systems from the flood damage and documenting it for FEMA reimbursement. Crew members are working diligently to clear tree roots out of main sewer lines. The old lines are susceptible to tree root infiltration which further makes it susceptible to items introduced by the public that shouldn’t be in the sewer lines, such as non-flushable toiletries—Paine encouraged the public to not flush non-flushable items. Daily testing continues.
Water, electric, and street crews are all working well together and worked to aid the fire department with the Scenic Rivers Industries fire. All crew members attempted to assist as much as they could, said Paine.
Water department
Crew members continue to work on service lines across town. Two main repairs were completed. They cleaned and painted the well houses and installed new eyewash stations. A leaking hydrant was replaced next to H&R Block, as well as a hydrant on South Orchard Street. Once the weather warms and clears up, more fire hydrants are planned to be rebuilt.
Fire hydrant maintenance crew returned to finish painting hydrants—72 hydrants remain to be painted and will be finished in the spring.
Electric department
Crew members removed the 95 snowflakes from city poles following the end of holidays and prior to the winter storm. Electric crew members are continuing to assist WWTP crew members with repairs. They are conducting streetlight repairs, as they have time. Crew members are continuing to monitor the contractor working on the feeder line clearing project. Paine thanked the contractor Forester for its hard work and indicated that the winter weather may have caused worse outages without the board approving and funding the feeder line clearance. Paine also praised the two electric crew members working on smaller projects clearing the lines.
Paine informed the public that if trees take out a resident’s service line, public works can come assist—but if trees take out service lines, removing it completely from ones’ home, it must be repaired by the homeowner before public works can assist any further.
Construction department
The construction crew is dividing time between two drywall projects. A drywall project in the pilot lounge at the airport is being finalized, while improvements are being made at the dog shelter. Drywall projects take time and patience.
The mechanic assisted at WWTP worked on several city equipment and vehicles, and prepared Purple Wave auction vehicles for an upcoming sale.
Cemetery crew members set up for funerals.
Bolerjack praised the street department for its hard work in managing the winter weather. Due to the winter weather, he asked both Burbridge and Paine if there would be a day that could be scheduled for yard waste pickup. Burbridge and the board agreed and will be looking to pick a day soon.
Burbridge informed that the Downtown Project’s contractor Maggi Construction indicated two to three days of thawing temperatures will be needed to continue the project. Light poles are scheduled to be in at the last half of February. Paine added that upset citizens have approached stating that the timing was wrong for the Downtown Project to kickoff. As the project has been in discussion for approximately 10 years, when the contractor indicated it was ready for the project, staff were ready, as well.
