CITY OF PUXICO

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

The City of Puxico will hold a public hearing on at 5:30 p.m. prior to regular Board of Aldermen meeting on July 20, 2023.at Puxico City Hall, located at 281 E Owen Ave, City of Puxico, Missouri, to discuss the City’s Community Development Block Grant, Project 2020-BB-CV01 in the amount of $748,400.  This project’s goal was to provide approximately 430 homes within the city limits of Puxico with access to high-speed, reliable internet.  When construction bids for this project were to be opened, no bids were given. 

The City has determined that the expense of this project to build a fiber optic broadband system within the City of Puxico far exceeds the grant amount and wishes to deobligate the grant. 

A local company has offered to install the necessary lines within the City at its own expense and would offer the service to the community.  The City feels that this is its best option to provide reliable internet services to the community.  All interested citizens and groups are encouraged to attend the scheduled hearing.

For more information on the proposed project contact Alice Patrick at 573-222-3162 or by email at puxicocityclerk@sbcglobal.net.  If you need special accommodations for the public hearing including LEP (Limited English Proficiency) assistance, please contact Alice Patrick by 4:30 p.m. July 18, 2023.  The meeting will be held at an accessible location and the City will make every effort to provide reasonable accommodations.

The Stoddard County Commission opened with the Pledge of Alliegence and a prayer by Commissioner C.D. Stewart.  Presiding Commissioner Greg Mathis was not in attendance for today's meeting.

Dave Wyman, City Administrator for Dexter - Update on Hotel Project

The Stoddard County Commission agreed to fund the city of Dexter with $800,000 in ARPA funds to help facilitate a new hotel.  The Hampton Hotel is coming to Dexter.  Funding for the project has been established with $300,000 from the city of Dexter and the Industrial Development Association is funding $750,000 from tipping fees.

Mr. Dave Wyman, City Administrator at Dexter brought in design drawings of the new hotel and discussed the cost of the Arvin Road Water/Sewer Hotel Project with the Commission.  He said the total contractor cost is $410,950. The city paid $105,217.25 on April 13, 2023. The city will make another payment of $272,854.25 on July 3rd.

Jim Grebing, Bootheel Regional Planning Commission Director - ARPA Update

Mr. Grebing still did not have an updated ARPA spreadsheet as requested at previous meetings by Presiding Commissioner Greg Mathis.  "We will have an updated spreadsheet possibly next week,"  stated Grebing.  He said they will get that up-to-date once Katelyn Lambert returns to work on July 3, 2023.  She has been on leave of absence.

"We have received some bills from water districts and will get those finalized," commented Greging.  Some water districts and townships have been waiting more than 3-5 weeks for their reimbursements.

"I am waiting on the Commission's decision as to re-bid the broadband project and possibly scope it back to include LMI and I have done some research on that," continued Grebing.  "We are on stand by until you (the Commission) made that decision."

"I can draft an agreement where it would be fairly seamless for the five years of ownership by the county," continued Grebing.

Dee Loflin, ShowMe Times, asked had he not heard that the Commission voted not to accept the bid and would not entertain being owners of a broadband network for five years.  She also asked about the enormous bill of more than $100,000 the city of Puxico received for not accepting the CDGB Grant.  She also asked if the County would receive a bill for engineering fees on the broadband project from Conexon LLC.

Commissioner Stewart asked if the County had a contract with the engineer.  Grebing said he did not know if a contract was done.  it was determined later in the meeting that there is no contract and that Bootheel Regional Planning Commission had not received a bill yet from Conexon for either the County or the city of Puxico.

Commissioner Jarrell said she was not aware of any type of agreement that would make the County liable for the fees should the project be rejected.

Furthermore the question is why is Bootheel Regional Planning Commission sending a bill for engineering fees when they have not received an invoice of any kind from Conexon?  And how does BRPC calculate administration fees on a grant project for a city that is a member that did not have a bidder at all in the case of the city of Puxico?  Lots of questions still looming without definative answers. 

In terms of engineering costs Conexon and not just done a PER they have done work on bid documents, incurred some costs and construction documents.  If the grant is viable the total engineering is $357,000; however since the bid was rejected BRPC is unsure if they will receive a bill or not for the County or the city of Puxico.

Loyd Rice, GoSEMO Fiber and Broadband Update

Rice had a conference call about the BEAD Grant on Thursday and it now looks as if they too will have prevailing wages attached to the grant making the project more than double in cost.  The bidder would also have to do a 25% match.  If the Commission commits the $1 million in ARPA funds previously allocated by the previous Commission in 2021 GoSEMO Fiber could build 40 miles of broadband in the rural Puxico area.  They are already (without any grant money) putting in fiber in the city limits of Puxico.  Rice said if this $1 million was committed then the GoSEMO board would see this as legitimate "skin" in the game.  He thought the board would approve the build of the additional 33 miles of rural Puxico.  The Commission asked for this agreement in writing and Rice said this could be done.

Dave Cooper - Water District #5 and ARPA Funds

Cooper stated that the Commission approved ARPA funds for Water District #5 to purchase a new vehicle.  The company in St. Louis they want to purchase from is needing a check or the vehicle will be sent somewhere else.  Cooper said the proper paperwork has been submitted and has been waiting a few weeks.  Commissioner Stewart said that Grebing, BRPC Director, was just here, but left the meeting and that is who he needed to contact to speed the process up.  It should not take this long!

Blair Moran, President of the Bloomfield Assistance League along with Jerry Buttry, Gary Deardorft, Ed Gargas, and Mike Conway, board members for the Bloomfield Assistance League.

Moran said that they would like the Commission to donate 40 acres of ground to the north of the Missouri Veterans Cemetery for a period of five years and then the Bloomfield Assistance League will donate it to the Cemetery.  The cemetery will need more space by then and this will negate a lot of red tape by giving the land to them instead of directory from the County to the Cemetery which can't honestly be done because a state cannot receive a donation from a county.  The Assistance League raises funds to help maintain the cemetery is a non-profit organization.

The Commission thanked them for their continued work at the cemetery and honoring area veterans.  "I appreciate who you all do to honor the veterans," commented Commissioner Jarrell. "The cemetery is well maintained and a beautiful burial place for our veterans."

The Commission is on board with this but wanted to wait for Presiding Commissioner Greg Mathis for a final vote from all three members. The Assistance League said this was good and thanked the Commission. 

Other Business:

Motion to accept the minutes for June 20, 2023 meeting made by Commissioner Stewart.  Seconded by Commissioner Jarrell.  Both voted yes and motion passed.

Motion to accept the closed session minutes for June 20, 20923 made by Commissioner Jarrell.  Seconded by Stewart.  Both voted yes and motion passed.

Motion to go into closed session made by Commissioner Stewart at 10:57 a.m.  Seconded by Commissioner Jarrell.  Both voted yes and motion passed.     

Puxico City Council Meeting - June 22, 2023 - 6 p.m.

Meeting opened with a call to order, roll call, invocation and Pledge of Allegiance.

Present were Patti McLean, Alderwoman, Travis Stafford, Alderman, Peter Coutavas, Alderman, Candy Williams, Alderwoman, and Mayor Rick McLean.

Mr. Coutavas announced that he found out about a program to help low income people pay for their internet.  He will get more information.

Agenda was approved and accepted with the modification to address the additional guests who have attended the meeting.

Motion made to approve the May 18, 2023 minutes by Alderman Peter Coutavas, seconded by Alderman Travis Stafford.  Motion passed.

Motion made to approve the Special Meeting held on June 1, 2023 by Alderman Coutavas, seconded by Alderwoman Candy Williams. Motion passed.

Motion to approve the payment of bills made by Alderman Coutavas, seconded by Alderman Stafford.  Motion passed.

Henson Trash - Trash Service Contract

The new contract $13.80 plus .50 is total charged to customers in the city of Puxico for trash service.  It is a 5 year contract with a $1.00 increase each year.

City Wide Clean-up provides for two receptacles for each household.  This would be the same for the next five years.  There are several free receptacles that the city receives for free. 

Motion to accept the 5-year contract with Henson Trash made by Alderman Coutavas, seconded by Alderwoman McLean.

Loyd Rice - GoSEMO Fiber/ Internet

He was in attendance to update the Council on the continuing project on the fiber installation in the Puxico city limits area.  Rice presented a map of the layout of the fiber and how it will be covered throughout the city streets.  Around August they hope to have a presence in Puxico to help people sign-up for internet.  They will also have a booth at Homecoming.  Internet is coming to Puxico!

Jim Grebing, Bootheel Regional Planning Commission Director

Grebing explained that a bill sent to the city of Puxico included engineering and administration fees to the tune of around $114,000 was what the city owed for accepting the CDGB grant for broadband.  

“Tiffany is out of the office, but she has been working on this,” stated Grebing.  “I believe but am not sure that is about the “preliminary” vs the “actual work done.  I will have to check on this.

The total amount of the grant was for $748,000 and the city was going to contribute another $75,000; however due to the fact the city would own the fiber for five years and the work to be done had to be at prevailing wages ($60-$70 per hour) they are discussing not accepting the work.  The city also did not receive any bids during the bid process.  The city would have to scale back the project as well as try to get an internet provider to bid.  GoSEMO Fiber has opted to come into the city without any additional resources such as the CDGB grant.  It is likely the city will not utilize the grant and just let GoSEMO continue their project with out grant monies.

The question now is since the city is a member of the Planning Commission and pays yearly dues how much are they going to owe Bootheel Regional Planning for their administration fees.

Grebing stated that bill came to $37,000, but he is not sure if that is the total with the grant in place or not.

The Planning Commissioner’s role is to procure engineering services for a grant.  They bid this out and Conexon entered into a contract with the Bootheel Regional to perform work once the grant was accepted.  They only did a preliminary report.

Bootheel did extend $9,600 to the city of Puxico during the process and if they choose not to accept the grant that will be paid back to Bootheel Regional Planning Commission.

There will have to be a formal close-out on the grant if the city so chooses not to accept the terms of the grant.  With no one bidding on the broadband installation it seems reasonable that the grant is not going to take place.  

Grebing offered another option to reduce the scope of the project and then go after another bid; however due to prevailing wages the bids would come in so high that there would not be enough grant money to cover the expenses.  This is what happened at the County level with Ozark Medical group who bid on the rural Puxico area.  They were $900,000 over what grant monies were available.

“I could say for sure that there is not any additional money available to build the initial project,” commented Grebing.  “However there is BEAD (Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program) money possibly available in the 4th quarter of 2024 and could be distributed in 2025 to help with broadband projects.”

“We are still having discussion with the County on scoping the project back,” stated Grebing. 

However during a recent Commission meeting, according to the Stoddard County Presiding Commissioner Greg Mathis, “The County isn’t interested in being an owner of the fiber for five years and also bidding out to a lease purchase agreement to an internet service provider.”

I will get a letter about the close-out on the CDGB Grant is de-obligated,”  

“I will need to have a vote on the resolution from the city council indicating that you are not interested in the grant at this time due to the fact of pre-vailing wages and owning the fiber for five years. I will also get a letter about the close-out on the CDGB grant as a de-obligation,” Grebing stated.

Jean & Company - Review/Approve FY2023 

Motion to approve the FY2023 made by Alderman Coutavas and seconded by Adlerman Stafford.  All voted yes and motion passed.

Jean & Company - Amended Budget & FY2024 Budget

Motion to accept the Amended Budget and FY2024 Budget made by Alderman Coutavas and seconded by Alderwoman McLean.  All voted yes and motion passed.

Department and Board Reports

A. Maintenance

1. Basketball goal has been ordered for Houck park.

B. Police

1.  City is seeking a reserve officer.  Alderman Stafford made a motion to accept the applicant and seconded by Alderman Coutavas.  All voted yes and motion passed.

2. Had one dog in the pound that had to be on hold and observed due to the fact it bit a child and was not vaccinated for rabies.

3.  One animal theft reported

4.  9 times out to Mingo Residential

5.  Crown Vic had some repairs 

6. Put new tires on the Explorer 

C. Animal Control

1. Have three dogs in the pound currently

2. One dog had bit a child so they are keeping in quarantine.

There was a question about the cat population in town.  The city of Puxico is not set up to maintain a building to take in cats.  

D. Fire

1.  Tanker truck has a crack in it and needs a new pump.  Cost would be $1,000 plus freight. 

Motion to repair the tanker truck made by Alderman Stafford and seconded by Alderman Coutavas.  All voted yes and motion passed.

2.  Had one fire call and four medical calls since last meeting.

3.  It was asked if John 3:16 people could come in and perform volunteer work on the fire station.  

Motion to allow John 3:16 people to help with work on the fire station made by Alderman Stafford and seconded by Alderwoman Williams.  All voted yes and motion passed.

4. Application received to add a volunteer fireman.

Motion to accept the applicant as a volunteer fireman made by Alderman Coutavas and seconded by Alderwoman McLean. 

5. Motion made by Alderman Stafford and seconded by Alderwoman Williams to appoint Larry Doublin at permanent Fire Chief.

E. Library - Elevator Repair

The quote on the repair of the elevator of the library decreased because they are coordinating the travel with having another repair in the area.  Also they have the hydraulic fuel already purchased in storage.  Table the elevator decision until the next meeting.  Alice Patrick will check on the warranty and more details of the contract.  

F. Historical Museum

The museum are wanting to purchase a computer.  The cost is over $300 so they need city council to approve the purchase.  The request was approved to purchase a desktop computer.

CDGB Grant for Fiber Optic Grant

Tabled until the next meeting.  Alice Patrick will contact CDGB for further information on the fees associated with the grant. Also waiting for Jim Grebing to produce the correct bill as well as a letter to de-obligate the city from the grant.

New Business

Repair of Community Room Ceiling/Roof Quotes

Sheetrock issues is buckling and splitting.  To fix it correctly would be to in support boards the full length of the conference room.  

Table it for the moment and look at it again in the early fall.

Motion to adjourn at 8:33 made by Alderman Coutavas and seconded by Alderman Stafford.

The Dexter Elks Lodge is having a Meat Smoke Sale on June 29, 2023; however you need to get your orders in by Friday, June 23rd.

Boston Butts are $30 and ribs are $15.

This is a fundraiser to be used to repair the Elks Lodge.

Contact the Elks Lodge at (573) 624-2450 or any Elks Lodge Member.

The Elks Lodge is located at 325 N 2 Mile Rd, Dexter.

The Stoddard County Commission opened the meeting with The Pledge and a prayer.

Presiding Commissioner Greg Mathis stated that no one from Bootheel Regional Planning Commission would be here today to update us on the ARPA funds.  He did drop off the documents left by Terry Bates, New Lisbon Township.  Someone would take a look at them this week.  Bates had requested ARPA Funds to repair bridges he discussed at a previous meeting.

Puxico Broadband - Chad Payne with the Puxico School District

He was present representing the Puxico School Board.  He felt the million dollars could be better spent on other projects than giving to GoSEMO Fiber for the rural broadband.  The Commissioners are considering overturning the previous commissioners vote to give GoSEMO Fiber 1 million dollars for broadband expansion in the rural areas of Puxico School District.  

One project the Puxico School is looking at is on the south end of the parking lot as they are seeking monies to put in a crosswalk.  They could use ARPA monies to complete that project.  About 10 - 12 students cross Highway 51 twice a day. They have contacted MoDOT about getting a crosswalk; but the school needs to connect to sidewalks on either side and then connect to the school district before MoDOT will complete the crosswalk.

SB40 Board Update

Motion to appoint Don Abner from Bell City to the SB40 Board made by Commissioner C.D.Stewart.  Seconded by Commissioner Carol Jarrell.  All three voted yes and motion passed.

Josh Spearman, Stoddard County Collector

Stronghold Data would be available to do cyber security training on Monday, June 26, 2023 at 1:30 p.m.  Any office holder can attend the training. 

County Health Insurance Issue Update

An employee turned in a bill for lab work last week.  Mr. Mathis received a call from John McCarty during the Commissioners Meeting.  The bill will be resent via email and Mr. McCarty will take a look at it  Depending on what type of lab work the employee received and how it was coded will determine how much of the cost is covered.

It was also mentioned that the Commissioners signed a one-year contract for health insurance and it was time to start looking at 2024 health insurance as it takes a few months to get a contract together.

Closure of County Road 527A Update

Donnie Foster is wanting to put a gate on the east side of the bridge and close the road.  Castor Township was going to perform some addition work to the bridge. Mr. Huel Benton is also a property owner in the area and submitted a letter to the Commission that he has no objection to the Stoddard County Commission closing a portion of that road that intersects with property owned by Donnie Foster.  He understands that he has no obligation for maintenance of any type on the county road including gravel, ditching, or bridges that are on said road.

Motion to close a portion of County Road 527A east of the bridge that goes into the property owned by Donnie Foster made by Commissioner Stewart.  Seconded by Commissioner Jarrell.  All three voted yes and the motion passed.

Other Business

Mathis will not be here on Monday, July 26, 2023 for the Stoddard County Commission meeting.

Motion to accept the regular meeting minutes from June 12, 2023 made by Commissioner Jarrell.  Seconded by Commissioner Stewart. All three voted yes and motion passed.

Motion to accept the closed meeting minutes from June 12, 2023 made by Commissioner Stewart. Seconded by Commissioner Jarrell.  All three voted yes and motion passed.

Motion to go into closed session at 11:11 a.m. made by Commissioner Jarrell.  Seconded by Commissioner Stewart.  All three voted yes and motion passed.