Lake Bridge Project Delayed Due to Lack of Bids

By Editor | February 21, 2024

By Mark Requet

The Shelbina City Council met in regular session on Tuesday, February 13, 2024, at City Hall.

Citizen Participation:

Richard Golay addressed the council concerning his past due utility payment agreement. He indicated he would not be able fulfill his agreement with the city. There was a long discussion about what he could pay. He also asked why the city could not take the card he had presented to the city for payment on his utility bill. City Clerk Janice Magruder explained the city would take the card, but the issue is with the credit card company and the card issuer. The city does not absorb the cost of the credit/debit card transactions. The fee to use a credit/debit card is passed along to the customer. Golay’s card issuer declined the transaction due to the fee the city’s credit card company is charging the card. Therefore, Golay’s card was declined, and payment was not received. There is nothing the city can do to make the transaction complete until the card issuer accepts the fee for the transaction.

Mayor Al Dimmitt asked Golay if he would agree to keeping his current bill paid for February and March and the payment agreement would be reinforced the second week of April. Golay agreed to that. A motion was seconded and approved by the council to allow the Golays to only pay the current bill and nothing on the past due amount until second week of April.

Unfinished Business:

Devon McClain with McClain Consulting presented the council with information about cyber security and migrating to the .gov internet domain. With what the city has in place now they are open to attacks and unprotected. There are grants he can help the city get to improve their cyber security. For now, he recommends the city start being proactive and a good place to start would be signing up for the free domain with the government. A motion was seconded and approved to proceed with a letter and application to obtain a .gov domain.

Magruder let the council know the auditors have all requested information and are now preparing the final reports for the fiscal year 2022-2023 audit. They think they will be able to present the final audit to the council in March.

The final payment from Enbridge was received on February 7, 2024. Magruder recorded the deed on February 7, 2024, as well. A motion was seconded and approved to move the Enbridge payment to the new account. The council wanted an ad in the newspaper about where citizens could put limbs now that they no longer own the previous location.

New Business:

Dennis Klusmeyer gave an update on power plant 3 status. It is back up and running. The new transformer is set, and they are waiting for the DOC testing that should happen next week. MOPEP is predicting a shortage by fiscal year 2027. Dennis and MOPEP are looking into adding bays at power plant 3 in an attempt to get capacity shortage taken care of. If this were to happen then they could control the generation of power from Columbia and the city would receive credits on invoices for purchased power. For now, they can generate, and they are just awaiting the next step which is the DOC testing.

A motion was seconded and approved to surplus the 2012 F-350 power stroke.

A motion was seconded and approved to advertise for summer help including street, lifeguards, and clubhouse.

A motion was seconded and approved to advertise for bids on mowing the city office and aquatic facility.

The council agreed and Dimmitt signed a letter stating the city has no objection to the retail consumption of alcohol at a wedding event happening March 16, at the golf course clubhouse.

A motion was seconded and approved to allow any child that signs up for the library’s reading program on May 30 from 3:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m., to enter the City of Shelbina’s Aquatic Center for free until pool closes that same day.

Department Reports:

Assistant Superintendent Brian Fifer addressed the council and updated them on what city crews have been working on. He stated that they were doing job orders, street repairs, setting poles and that the new hire had started.

Fifer stated the Golf Board will meet the first Wednesday of every month and the Golf “new member” drive will be held March 3.

The crews have been cleaning up the brush and the siding is up at the clubhouse.

The SE rotor is online now at the sewer plant.

A motion was seconded and approved to hire Johnnie Presson at $75.00/hour to clean up the brush at the lake.

The council asked about dust control at the lake and the city will do that when they have dust control on the outer roads. Fifer is going to start working on getting the old campsite signs and boards replaced.

Representing the Economic Development, Dimmitt announced that the annual meeting for Shelby County Economic Development would be held on Thursday, February 15. The employees from Shelby County Cares will also be in attendance.

City Attorney Jim McConnell has been working on tickets and everyday issues. Dimmitt asked if he could pick up where they left off on the occupancy permitting. McConnell said there was a potential lawsuit issue that came up, but he is confident that the city will not be involved in it, and if the individual wanted to talk to any of them, the council should tell the individual all communications will be handled through their attorney.

City Marshal Chief Jeff Brown indicated to the council that tickets were low in volume due to weather conditions. He has solved several cases, and he had an officer assaulted. Councilman Alan Denham asked about shooter training. Brown explained they have ongoing training with MIRMA and the training is a pass or fail training. All his officers passed. They are trained heavily on de-escalation.

During her City Clerk’s report, Magruder said Court Clerk Michaela Christoffer has indicated the final date for the county to take over municipal court will be April 1.

The city office staff completed two disconnect lists since the last meeting. The steps out front have been torn out and they recently poured the new concrete.

Magruder added new accounts to the general ledger to account for the fees on the taxes. Checks for the new account have not come in yet so, she asked to transfer money from the new account back to the old account to cover payroll. A motion was seconded and approved to move $56,000.00 from one account to the other to cover payroll.

City Superintendent Dennis Klusmeyer told the council he has been speaking with DNR on the wastewater project. DNR is still unsure about disinfectant rules for the new reclamation and reuse system that would be going in. The disinfectant part is what the city is trying to avoid. DNR says if the water is used by the city for irrigation, it will not have to be disinfected but if we are going to let others use it for irrigation or animal watering then it will have to be disinfected. Klusmeyer is still waiting for DNR to clarify the disinfectant rule.

Klusmeyer updated the council on the lake bridge project. The bid opening was supposed to happen already, but no one bid on the job. Now the city will have to restart the process over again and take out some of the time frame requirements and make a few more adjustments and then re-advertise the project. It will be mid-March before they have the next bid process completed.

Other News

During closed session, a motion was seconded and approved to hire Jake Martin at $22 per hour and give Bobby Adkisson a raise to make his pay $22 per hour.

A motion to exit closed session was made at 6:49 p.m. by Curt Hines, seconded by Chad Wharton.

The tentative agenda, consent agenda, bills to be paid, and payroll were approved.
In closed session, a motion was seconded and approved to hire Adam Wharton full time at $18/hour, with Chad Wharton abstaining.

A motion was seconded and approved to hire Johnnie Presson part time as the chemical applicator at $1,750.00 per month from March to November, and paying him the $250.00 in December, which was approved earlier in the meeting.

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