CHAMOIS —In a special meeting April 10, Chamois aldermen approved an ordinance establishing a curfew in a public place for any minors under age 17 not accompanied by their parents.

The new ordinance restricts minors from being unsupervised in a public place between 9 p.m. and 5 the following morning, Sunday through Thursday. Minors are restricted from being in public unsupervised on Friday and Saturday from 10:30 p.m. to 5 the following morning. The new rule does not apply to any minors who are accompanied by a parent, guardian or an adult who is responsible for the care and custody of that minor.

Parents or guardians who knowingly allow minors to be driving on a city street or in an unsupervised public place can receive a written warning. There is no fine set forth by the new ordinance. Minors who are in public during restricted hours who have an emergency, or legitimate business, are excused from the ordinance.

City Clerk Megan Birmingham researched through existing city ordinances and the only ordinance she found related to a curfew for minors was from 1931 and was outdated.

Alderman Cheyanna Wolfe asked what happens if a minor is working or coming home from a ball game and Mayor Marie Slusser answered that those would be legitimate reasons to be out during the restricted times.

The new ordinance will go into effect immediately.

Aldermen authorized Utilities Supervisor Mark Mehmert to order 12 water meters along with the parts and connectors that he felt were necessary to use as replacement parts — at a cost not to exceed $10,000. The amount will come out of the city’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds.

Mehmert will also buy various sizes of connectors since the city has various sizes that are used to connect the water meters.

Alderman Jim Wright noted that water meters haven’t been purchased in several years and were needed.

Unterrified Democrat Reporter Theresa Brandt asked if the water meters that were approved under the former utilities Supervisor had ever been bought.

Wright did not think they had ever been purchased.

Currently the city needs to put in two water meters and there are another couple that need to be repaired.

Mehmert explained that he had watched a YouTube video and it had said that old meters are likely to not record water if it is just a trickle while the new meters will catch everything. He theorized that maybe that was the reason the water loss was so high for the city.

The aldermen also approved $10,000 to come out of the ARPA fund for a Sensus AutoRead Touch Read pad ($7,500), Touch Gun ($2,000) to read the meters and the software support ($2,995) for the system for two years.

Mehmert estimated that only 50 to 60% of the water meters in the city currently had touch pads and could be read by the new system.

“As I get better at reading meters and better at the system, I’ll start adding touch pads to the ones that are a bear to get to,” Mehmert explained. “Those will be the ones to get the readers first in order to make the process quicker.”

The aldermen split the two purchases so that they did not have to get additional bids which is required for ARPA purchases over $20,000 according to Birmingham.

“It would be silly to take the money out of our funds when we can use the ARPA money and split it up,” City Treasurer Theresa Walter said.

“The money is there to do upgrades and that is what we are doing,” Slusser agreed.

Brandt pointed out that the engineer had originally suggested that the city hold onto the ARPA money for the water project for Well No. 2 because the city would be short of money for that project.

Aldermen approved the purchase of office furniture and electronics in the amount of $3,094.40. Initially Walter requested $3,304.40 but the aldermen took off folding chairs and a new folding table for City Hall.

The money will come out of the general fund although Walter initially requested the money to come out of the ARPA funds.

Part of the purchase would be five chrome books, one for each of the four aldermen and a 54-inch tv that could be mounted on the wall for residents to see the agenda and other paperwork when they attend a meeting. The City Clerk would not have to print out paper copies of the agenda and other paperwork that she now prints out for the meetings.

“With what we are spending on paper and ink to get ready for these meetings, it would pay for the Chrome Books,” Walter said.

Birmingham’s computer has not been updated for six years and is starting to have problems. The estimate includes two new computers, and Brandt questioned why two computers were needed.

“One is for me,” Walter said.

Brandt noted that the city had just purchased a laptop computer for Walter.

“That would be a lap top for me at home but if I’m working from the office, it would be here,” Walter said.

“I think it is a good idea and would be a lot easier to follow along,” Wolfe said.

Brandt said that when the city is talking nonstop about trying to save money and that funds are limited and then spend over $3,000 on office furniture and electronics that may not seem reasonable to city residents.

“People are going to throw a fit,” Wright agreed.

“The reason we need new desks and chairs is because it is so cramped in here,” Wolfe said.

“No one is going to understand that” Schaben said. “The people like me before I was an alderman probably will complain about it.”

Wolfe asked how much the city was spending on printer ink and paper to prepare for the meetings.

Neither Birmingham nor Walter had an estimate of that.

Walter explained that when she works at City Hall, she does not have a dedicated workspace and has to work at the table and shove her paperwork into a drawer at the end of the night.

Walter is also requesting an external hard drive so that she and Birmingham can back up the city’s information. Mehmert pointed out that while the external hard drive is an extra layer of protection, that the city should be backing up their information to the cloud.

Wolfe said that backing up the computers was very important and that they should look into a system that will serve as a back up for the city’s information immediately.

“I don’t have a problem with any of it,” Wolfe said. “Any choices we make, people are going to be pissed off and I definitely think we need to be more organized. We’re trying to do better for the city and all of that comes out of this office and we need things to be better.”

The aldermen adopted a new payment plan for the city’s water customers and amended the city’s water ordinance. Ordinance No. 2024-01 will replace the former two water ordinances, Ordinance No. 2015-02 and Ordinance No. 2020-02.

The only change to the ordinance is that if a resident needs to set up a payment plan, that request will need to be made at a Board of Aldermen meeting and not an agreement between the City Clerk and the customers. The contract for a city water payment plan has also been changed to say that payments will be set up at the discretion of the Board of Aldermen.

Originally the payment plan contract was set up to say that the past due balance would be divided by 12 but Alderman Cole Schaben was not comfortable with that since he wanted the aldermen to have the flexibility to spread the payments over a larger amount of time in the instance when the water bill is really big.

“The only thing I’m worried about is, I’m trying to be sympathetic towards the few people who have a really high bill,” Schaben said. “If anyone had to pay a $5,000 water bill over 12 months plus their current water bill, that would screw anyone up. Besides that, I’m totally for this.”

The aldermen agreed in most cases they would stick to a 12-month payment plan but leave the option open to make a different decision if the circumstance warranted it.

Aldermen tabled the proposal from General Code to codify all the city’s ordinances and make them available online for city residents. The cost for the initial process is $10,395 with an annual maintenance fee of $1,520.

“This will make it super easy to look at what ordinances we have,” Birmingham explained. “They also said we could split the cost over two budgets for planning purposes. This would help a great deal with ordinances and the public would have access to them.”

The initial cost would come out of ARPA money and Walter believed the city could absorb the annual fees within the budget.

Brandt again pointed out that the ARPA money had been set aside for the water project and asked if the aldermen wanted to look into that before the money was spent.

Wright agreed with Brandt that initially there was concern about being able to cover the water project and that the ARPA money was going to be used to cover shortfalls.

“If we don’t have enough money, I don’t know what happens then,” Wright said.

No one was aware of what the time frame was that the city had to use the ARPA funds before they would be taken back by the federal government.

Brimingham will check with Meramec Regional Planning Commission (MRPC) to see what the deadlines are and that may affect what the city spends the ARPA money.

Aldermen tabled having the city water tower inspected even though it has not been inspected since 2012.

Slusser noted that a recent storm had knocked the fire communications equipment off the tower and she doesn’t know if it is safe for worker to put it back up.

“I would like to have it inspected before anyone needs to be up there,” Slusser said.

Slusser has already talked to several places and has two proposals to have the inspection done by a drone so that the city does not have to issue a boil order or purchase extra chemicals to disinfect the interior of the water tower. The cost of using the drone for the inspection is about $4,000.

Slusser suggested that the aldermen use ARPA money to pay for the inspection and wondered why work on the water tower wasn’t originally included in the water project.

“It was,” Wright said. “There wasn’t enough money for everything and that was cut out.”

Wright suggested that they put the water tower inspection on hold.

“I don’t think we should put it on hold,” Slusser said. “It’s not been inspected since 2013.”

Wright is concerned that the water tower will not pass an inspection and if the city does not have the funds to make the needed repairs, he is not sure what would happen. The water tower has not had any repairs or maintenance done to it since it has been built, according to Wright.

Aldermen approved $550 in sand to be delivered by Deer Creek Trucking to the City Park Ball Fields. Slusser noted that the ball fields need attention and there is not much time for improvements before games start at the beginning of May.

Mehmert has been working dragging the fields, cutting weeds and grass, and filling in holes in the outfield but there is more that needs to be done. Slusser noted that the fence and the gates need attention.

Mehmert said that usually the Lions Club will help with maintenance issues at the park, and he will check with them and get back to the aldermen.

Aldermen approved putting an ad in the paper and on social media to hire part-time help for Mehmert at $12.30 per hour for 20 hours per week.

Mehmert said that he would really appreciate some help and would prefer someone with a little experience.

“I’m struggling to keep up,” Mehmert said. “It’s a lot. It’s not a glamorous job but it’s certainly something that is a public service and is needed.”

Aldermen also approved requesting bids for mowing and trimming 13 properties the city owns. All of the properties will need to have the grass mowed and trimmed with a weed eater except for inside the lagoon fence and that will remain a job for Mehmert.

The city will put out the information on social media and in the Unterrified Democrat.

City Marshal Riley Lewis will be available at City Hall on Saturday, April 20 to sell licenses for all terrain vehicles (ATV), utility vehicles (UTV) and golf carts. The fee for a city license is $15 and you will have to provide a valid driver’s license and current insurance.