LINN — Osage County Sheriff Michael Bonham and Presiding County Commissioner Darryl Griffin visited Linn aldermen at their March 25 meeting. Bonham indicated how much he appreciated the great working relationship between his office and the Linn Police Department.

“Sheriff Bonham has worked very hard to work with our police department,” Mayor Dwight Massey said. “I’m very pleased.”

Bonham said that since the fatality last fall with the State Tech student, both departments, along with the Missouri Highway Patrol, have been focusing on stopping people from driving while under the influence of alcohol.

“We’ve issued several DWIs recently,” Bonham said. “We’re trying to curb drinking and driving. I understand people want to blow off steam, but when they put themselves and others in danger, we’ve got to draw the line.”

Bonham also said that his office would continue to investigate stores that sell alcohol to minors.

“We’re going to continue to put the pressure on,” Bonham said. “We don’t want anyone to destroy their lives or other people’s lives.”

Bonham also reported that the county is seeing a lot of thefts of county and state road signs. Police Chief Sam Ford noted that while the city of Linn is not having a big problem with the theft of city signs, he and his officers have found a dump site for county and state signs off of Twin Ridge near a low-water crossing. He planned to collect them as soon as the weather was favorable.

Bonham reported that Osage County is enjoying historically low numbers of thefts and drug arrests. However, he is concerned about the rise in assault and domestic assault cases in the past couple of years. Bonham reported that domestic assaults have increased by 120%.

Griffin told aldermen that the county is working on three new bridges. The bridge on CR 625 near Rich Fountain and the bridge on CR 522 by Meta are being replaced. Griffin also noted the county is working on securing easements for the Pentecostal Bridge near Westphalia.

“That’s been a four-year project, and hopefully, we’ll get it done,” Griffin said.

The county is hoping to put the plans out for bid soon.

Griffin encouraged everyone to contact their senator about a proposed bill that hopes to eliminate the taxes for food and diapers.

“If that bill would pass, it would cost our county $325,000,” Griffin said. “We would lose all that revenue. I spoke with our senator, and he doesn’t think it will pass, but you never know.”

Griffin also invited anyone interested to come to the commissioner’s room at 9 a.m. on April 7. Meramec Regional Planning Committee (MRPC) representatives will be answering questions on how to write grants.

Massey thanked both men for coming to the meeting and expressed his appreciation for them working with the city of Linn as a team.

“One of the things that folks hear me talk about is our community,” Massey said. “This city doesn’t exist without the region around us, and I look at Osage County and this whole area as our community because we don’t stand alone.”

“The economic driver for our county is Linn; there is no doubt about it,” Bonham said. “We want our citizens to feel safe, and I think the majority do.”

“This is a community, not just a town,” Massey said. “It’s hard to draw borders. Everyone lives together and works together. Everybody knows this is our community.”

“Many hands, one mission,” Ford said.

“We’re all on the same team,” Bonham agreed, “It’s all about communication.”

In other business, aldermen approved Bill #2005-003, which is a change order with All Clear Pumping and Sewer regarding the Lead Service Line Inventory. The approved change order will leave the total amount for the project at $67,242.50 but change the amounts of the work order items. The in-field verification by excavation was decreased by $1,651 for an updated cost of $36,449; in-field verification by visual inspection was reduced by $6,427.85 for an updated cost of $314.65; and administrative services increased by $8,078.85 for a new total of $30,478.85.

City Clerk Carrie Grellner reported that the project is completed except for filling in the remaining holes made for excavations.

• Utilities Supervisor Aleks Rowinski reported that there was a catastrophic failure of one of the Variable Frequency Drives (VFD) at Well #4.

“It is manual only at this point,” Rowinski said. “We can still use it, but it is not automated.”

Rowinski said that he is waiting for additional quotes for the replacement VFD, but a preliminary quote from Jeffries Electrical Services Inc. was $14,500. Rowinski will report back when he gets all of the estimates.

Massey thought that the city would need to buy one new VFD and that Aldermen would have to decide if the city wanted to keep a spare on hand for emergencies.

Rowinski said that he was told that the city needs to step up from a half-inch to a three-quarter-inch jetter. He is gathering quotes to present at the city’s budget meeting.

Rowinski and his crew recently had a demonstration of the three-quarter-inch jetter and were impressed.

“We let the three-quarter-inch jetter finish the job that we had been working on with the half-inch jetter,” he said. “It did the job in 10 minutes that would have taken us an hour and a half.”

Rowinski reported the stop signs are up on Jefferson Street. The city had to replace four stop signs damaged in recent storms.

He had to repair the street sweeper and is concerned that the machine seems to need constant repairs.

The Utilities Department and the Linn Police Department worked together to deal with the roof that was blown off a commercial building onto Hwy. 50.

“I was out of town and notified of a possible traffic hazard,” Massey said. “I called Sam (Ford), and his officers were on-site in minutes. They were able to get things under control and keep everyone safe. Both departments responded extremely well.”

• Chief Ford reported that his department was having trouble with one of the vehicles. However, the transmission was repaired while still under the extended warranty he had transferred from the Missouri Highway Patrol.

Ford also reported that the Linn R-2 School district has had the police department out to investigate a gun threat on the school’s campus. Ford said they will address assigning a school resource officer to the school soon.

Alderman Steve Boeckmann asked if the school district would cover part of the cost of having a school resource officer.

“That’s a great question,” Ford answered. “To be honest, we haven’t gotten that far yet. We do have someone who is trained, and now both schools, Linn R-2 and State Tech, are within the city limits.”

Ford said he is concerned with the rise in domestic assaults in the city limits.

“Our response times are such that we can usually respond before it becomes a full-blown assault,” Ford explained. “We don’t want anyone in our community afraid to walk across their living room.”

Ford added that several people reported that they were possibly suicidal. “There have been two or three veterans within the last four to five months with real issues,” he said. “A lot of these people just need someone to talk to, someone to listen, and to sit down with them and make them feel like a person again.”

Ford also said the police force is working on old cases that may not have been followed up on.

“Those are the things I like to sink my teeth into, and people are immensely grateful that they have not been forgotten,” Ford said. “We’re going to keep striving to do better. We’ve had some success, and we are making headway.”

• Ford noted that police fielded several complaints about wood-burning furnaces within the city limits.

“We have an ordinance on outside burning, but there are several outdoor furnaces within the city limits,” he said. “We need to revisit that ordinance.”

“The problem becomes they can smoke up a whole valley,” Massey said. “When you see people in a community who suffer from allergies, what do you do? Who do you vote for?”

Aldermen discussed that the ordinance restricts burning trash and tree branches but doesn’t discuss wood-burning stoves or fireplaces.

The board agreed to look at the ordinance in the future.

• The All-Inclusive Playground construction is stalled as the surface will need to be above 40 degrees with no rain for seven days.

Construction should start on the new bathroom at the City Park soon. Alderman Bill Turner plans to work on laying out the trails around the park. Aldermen plan to do the minimum on paved trails to get the All-Inclusive Playground open and then look at paving additional trails in the future.

Turner also wants to look at repairing or replacing the concrete in the main pavilion. He will have the project estimated for both options and report back to the board.

• Bartlett & West reported that manholes have been staked in the field for the Lemar Hills Regionalization Project. Property owners have yet to walk through and make any suggestions for changes.

State Tech will work with the city of Linn to provide an alternative entrance to one of the city’s lift stations. The Missouri Department of Transportation is working to build a new turn lane for the college, which will make the current entrance to the city’s lift station virtually unusable.

“They are more than happy to work with us on that,” Massey said.

• Recent storms have damaged the City Hall roof, which has been patched while the city is waiting on quotes for replacement. Grellner learned when talking to contractors that there is also some substructure damage and plywood that will need to be replaced.

“It will be a more extensive fix than just replacing the shingles,” Grellner said.

• Aldermen approved outstanding bills totaling $207,567.47.

• Linn had the following ending balances in their governmental fund accounts: general ($595,288.35), pool (-$41,292.55), park ($105,487.11), police training ($620.66), general fund-improvement and equipment (-$819.28), park-improvement and equipment (-$405,442.59), and pool-improvement and equipment ($1,948.24).

• The city had the following ending balances in their business-type accounts: water ($507,466.77), water replacement ($119,348.36), sewer ($467,120.52), sewer replacement ($60,454.81), and grants (-$127,389.11).

• Linn holds nine certificates of deposit totaling $1,263,831.36.

• The city will hold a budget workshop on April 8 at 5 p.m., and the next regular meeting will be held on April 22 at 5 p.m.