Chamois aldermen suspend water shut offs for the next 30 days

By Theresa Brandt, Staff Writer
Posted 3/25/20

Chamois aldermen voted Thursday to suspend water shut offs for the next 30 days in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“While we have all of this coronavirus stuff going on people need to be …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Chamois aldermen suspend water shut offs for the next 30 days

Posted

Chamois aldermen voted Thursday to suspend water shut offs for the next 30 days in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“While we have all of this coronavirus stuff going on people need to be able to keep themselves clean and healthy and not infect their neighbors,”said Mayor Elise Brochu, noting that the neighboring city of Linn is suspending shut-offs for 30 to 60 days. “I would hate for someone to get sick because they don’t have water.”

The one resident that had their water turned off this month will have it turned back on. A separate resident has constructed a dog pen around the water meter, which means the city will not be able to turn the customer’s water back on until they move the pen. The city’s attorney, Amanda Grellner, sent a letter ordering the resident to remove the dog pen within 10 days or the city will be forced to seek legal action against them.

Customers who have had their water turned off a long time ago will not automatically have their water turned back on. Aldermen gave City Clerk Michelle Stanley the authority to set up payment plans directed by the city’s water ordinance for the next 30 days to get customer water turned back on quickly.

In other news related to the coronavirus, effective immediately, only trash that is in approved cans will be collected.

“If you have an extra bag or a box or anything like that other than what is in your trash can that they cannot pick up with their truck, they are not picking it up,” Brochu noted.

Second trash cans are available to residents for about $7 per month.

Also due to COVID-19 the election originally scheduled for April 7 will be pushed back to June 2.  Currently Warren Taylor is running unopposed for mayor.

Last month, it was believed that because Taylor doesn’t live in the city he wasn’t added to the ballot, but that is not the case.

“Warren doesn’t live in the city,” Brochu said. “He lives in the county. He does own a business in the city but he hasn’t owned that building for a year. So even if he lived in the building he hasn’t owned that building for a year so he cannot claim to have been a resident of the city for a year.”

“How is he still on the ballot?” Alderman Marty Gerloff asked.

“The only thing that can be done according to our attorney, is for me to personally sue him with my own money because I’m the current mayor,” Brochu explained. “I’m not going to sue him with my own money. What it is going to come down to is you guys are going to have to decide whether or not to swear him in if he wins the election.”

“Basically, that’s election fraud,” Alderman Debbie Huff said.

“No,” Brochu said. “Literally, truly it is election fraud but the law doesn’t let us do anything about it at this time.”

Alderman Matt Shockley is also on the ballot running unopposed for his seat.

Write-in’s are still open until March 27 and that date will not be extended despite the change in date for the election.

The board gave Stanley the authority to close city hall when she feels like her health is at risk. Stanley will put a sign on the door and residents will be able to reach her by phone and drop off their payments in the slot in the door.

Huff noted that if there is a case of COVID-19 reported in Osage County that Stanley should make sure to close City Hall, if she doesn’t do it before then.

Brochu noted that she has been in countless briefings about COVID-19 and Huff is posting this information to the city’s website. 

In other business, it was reported that the metal grate at the intersection of First Street and Main Street has been replaced. The city had hoped to repair the grate, but when Maintenance Supervisor Danny Kirsch pulled it up, he realized it was beyond repair.

“It cost $5,000 and that will be coming out of the street repair fund,” Brochu noted. “Danny said we can drive a tank over it now so hopefully it will last for a while.”

* The sewer pump also went out and will need to be replaced.

“We had a problem with it a couple of months ago and they managed to repair it and get it running,” Brochu said. “But it died again.”

The pump is on order and will cost $4,723. The money for the pump will come out of the sewer repair fund.

“With all of the rain and with everything else going on we can’t have a sewage backup too,” Brochu said.

* The 2017-18 audit for the city has been completed.

“We don’t have the final report yet, but it is complete,” Brochu said, adding the 2018-19 financial reports have been sent to the accountant.

* Last month the board voted to pursue legal action on a water account resident that had written a bad check to the city.

Grellner advised the board to not pursue legal action since they had paid the amount owed.

For future reference Grellner advised the city to send all bounced checks directly to her.

* After two months, no letters have been sent out to violators of the City’s Nuisance Ordinance.

“At this time, I don’t think this is our top priority,” Brochu said. “What we are doing isn’t working. Eventually this is something we will have to deal with.”

Aldermen agreed to suspend the temporary Nuisance Ordinance Officer for 30 days.

* The board approved outstanding bills for a total of $24,843.24.

* The ending balances for the City’s accounts are as follows:  General Fund ($85,400.37), Water Fund ($88,147.62), Sewer Fund ($19,197.76), Park Fund ($288.34), Water Deposits ($17,959.08). Cemetery Fund ($9,143.17), Sewer Repair Fund ($17,078.39), City Cemetery Fund ($19,526.34) Water Repair Fund ($32,811.17) and the Sewer Bond Reserve ($26,501.10). The two funds labeled as Two Year Funds have a combined ending balance of $6,606.75.

* The next meeting is scheduled at 7 p.m. April 15 .