ALDERMEN: City to replace one storm siren, add another

The board voted to spend $11,750 in insurance money on the replacement siren and $13,250 in budgeted funds on the new siren.

Police chief Keith Steelman, who also acts as emergency management director, showed the board siren locations on a city map and explained the status of each one. Knocked out by a storm was the siren on Washington Street. It will be replaced by one further north, possibly on a water tower near Highway 19 and Condray Street.

The new siren will be located in the vicinity of Dilworth and Franklin, near Al Brown Field, Steelman said. Another siren near Third and Grant functions but does not rotate. It will be pointed in a different direction to increase its effectiveness. Parts to replace the motor are no longer available, he said.

“They’re looking at taking that siren and facing it toward the East,” he said. “We’ve got some dead spots out there. This will pick up more audible sound toward the center part of downtown.”

In his report, city administrator Ray Walden praised the electric department for putting in long hours on Veterans Day to restore power to a section of Highway 19 after a pole was snapped off.

“We had a vehicle accident that took out one of our busy utility poles,” he said. “And in difficult weather conditions our electric guys were out much of that day restoring power. Several people have complimented them on their persistence addressing that issue.”

The accident, involving a Ford Edge that left the roadway about 7:30 a.m., knocked out power along Highway 19 from Moser Pharmacy north to a point near Casey’s General Store, said Mark Nash, public works director.

A city electric crew worked until 6 p.m. or 6:30 p.m. replacing the pole and restoring electricity to the area, battling snow, ice and frigid conditions.

“It was miserable weather to be working in,” Nash said. “They did a good job. They didn’t take off for lunch or anything. They stayed right after it.”

“We appreciate the patience of our customers while their power was restored,” Walden said, and he reminded utility customers to call 729-4242, the non-emergency number at the police station, to report outages after hours or on holidays.

“That’s where we coordinate our utility outage response,” he said.

West Ward alderman Kenneth Nash said the city needs to better publicize the 729-4242 number by having it published in the newspaper and other means.

“I got four calls at home,” he said. “Some of them must not know (that number) if they kept calling, trying to find out what’s going on.”

Walden said Mark Nash contacted affected businesses directly.

“We did what we could on Facebook and worked with the radio station. We’ll explore all means we can,” he said.

The city is still working on a new website.

“That’s definitely one of the items where we want better communication,” Walden said. “There are other mass alert options we can look at.”

He noted that R-80 schools use a different alert system that may be worth considering. There may also be an option within the utility billing system for notification, he said.

The installation of new AMI electric meters is underway, with crews attempting to notify residents when work is about to begin. Mark Nash said it only takes a few minutes to replace a meter. Some residents had contacted their alderman, concerned about being without heat or power.

“It takes about three minutes,” he said. “We try to knock on everybody’s door before we do that to make sure they’re available,” he said.

Anyone with questions or problems should contact the city utility office at 729-4117.

“As of now, we’re pretty well on schedule and we hope to have that project completed in the next couple months if everything goes as expected,” Nash said.

The board also heard comments from the public on short-term rental regulations under consideration by the city planning & zoning commission.

Mary Ann Williams, 309 Fourth St., said she has long-term guests, including nurses and other professionals, who stay at her house. Kathy Weldon, 903 Thomas, would like to put her basement bedroom up for rent on Airbnb, an online lodging rental service.

P&Z has met at least twice on the topic and recently polled its members on some possible restrictions on short-term rentals. The commission is still formulating its recommendations to aldermen.

Weldon objected to one proposed restriction that would make all rentals requiring a business license and regular inspections.

“If somebody wants to rent out a bedroom during the 100 Acre Wood Rally and only do it that one time a year, do they have to get a business license?” she asked. “And do they need to submit tourism tax forms every month for the remainder of the year just in order to rent out a room for a week?”

Later in the meeting, P&Z chairman Gary Brown said the business license and inspection requirement was one of the restrictions rejected in a poll of P&Z members.

Another possible restriction limited short-term rentals to 30 days or less. Economic development director Sally Burbridge told the board that restriction should not be enacted, calling it too prohibitive. She said it would drive potential lodgers out into the county.

She also pointed to the need for longer term lodging in Salem. Burbridge recalled her own experience of not knowing where she would stay when she first started her job with the city and was still in the process of moving here from New Mexico.

“I heard of another person in town who rents to physician specialists who come into the hospital for longer durations, so it’s more than a weekend or a week’s stay,” she said. “It’s several months at a time, and I think that’s a need in the community for those professionals.”

Companies like Doe Run also bring in executives for longer stays. Burbridge said she hopes P&Z takes these factors into consideration when writing restrictions.

Brown said P&Z is looking at ordinances from other cities, including Creve Coeur and Waco, Texas, in formulating its recommendations.

Once the recommendations are in writing, “then you can look at it as a board of aldermen and see what you want to do and how you want to address some of these issues,” he said. “There are certain things being questioned. One of them was all rentals being subject to licensing and inspections. That’s a thorn in several people’s sides.”

In other action, the board approved P&Z’s recommendation to issue a conditional use permit for a beauty salon in the basement of the Noah and Melissa Schlag residence at 1400 S. Mildred, located in an R-1 residential district. The one-chair salon has off-street parking for up to two vehicles.

P&Z looked at the proposal at its last meeting and voted to recommend approval of the permit, Brown said.

Aldermen also approved a resolution calling for a municipal election April 7, 2020, to elect a mayor and one alderman from each ward to two-year terms. Declarations of candidacy can be filed with the city clerk starting at 8 a.m. Dec. 17. Filing closes at 5 p.m. Jan. 21. Seats up for election are those held by mayor Brad Nash, East Ward alderman Kim Steelman and West Ward alderman Kenneth Nash.

The board delayed action on a resolution authorizing a new contract with Riverways Federal Credit Union pending a review by the city attorney. Had it been approved, the city would have provided $20,000 for a loan-loss reserve, allowing Riverways to leverage lending for affordable housing under its “Welcome Home” program.

The new agreement cleans up language in the old agreement that would have affected loans and also a establishes a board of directors for “Welcome Home.”

After a brief discussion, West Ward Alderman Kevin James voted no and Nash said he would like to have city attorney James Weber to look at the old and new contracts before voting on the issue. Weber said he would do so.