Chamois aldermen last Friday night voted to hire Riley Lewis as the City’s Marshal for a trial period of one year. Lewis will work about 20 hours per month and receive $18 per hour. The insurance for a city marshal will cost the city $1,800 per year.
“We have to have someone to enforce the ordinances,” Alderman Marty Gerloff said. “We’re going to have to pay someone to do it eventually; otherwise we don’t have a leg to stand on. If we have the money, I’m okay with doing it.”
“I’m not for it,” Alderman Matt Shockley said. “That’s just my opinion but we’ve tried it before and it hasn’t worked.”
“What we are doing now isn’t working either,” Mayor Elise Brochu countered.
“We are sitting here with four books full of ordinances and we can’t enforce them so there is really no reason to have them,” Alderman Rob Skaggs said.
“We’ve sat here for two-and-a-half years and have not figured out a way to enforce things since we put an end to that position,” Brochu said. “I don’t have a better solution and if anyone has a better solution, they haven’t brought it up to me.”
“It’s obvious it has worked in the town he’s been working in,” Gerloff said.
“Everyone seems happy with what he’s been doing in Gasconade,” Brochu agreed.
“That town went from this (pointing to outside of City Hall) to what it is now,” Gerloff said. “It’s totally different than it was 15 years ago.”
Brochu had talked to the Osage County Sheriff’s Office before the meeting and thought it was a good idea and had no problems working with Lewis as the town marshal.
The city currently has $12,000 in the budget for salaries that are not city employees. Brochu estimates that $6,000 will be needed for cutting the grass and that the remaining $6,000 would cover Riley for 20 hours per month plus the insurance. Aldermen had planned on using that money to hire someone to do the weekend well testing and water reading but Brochu offered to continue to do that job for no extra money until April when her term will be up, or until the water project is completed. Once the water project is complete, well testing and water reading will be automatic and will not require additional labor.
In other business, aldermen voted to amend an ordinance related to unpaid utility bills.
The amended ordinance made all utility payments due to the city office by the fifth day of the following month. It also adds an automatic 10% late fee on the sixth of the month. If the bills are not paid by the second Tuesday of the month, when the bill is due, water and trash service will be disconnected.
The other change made to the ordinance was that “if water service is found to have been turned on by anyone other than a city employee, a $1,000 fine will be applied to the account and the water meter will be removed. The meter will not be reinstalled and no service re-established until the account has been paid in full.”
“If the water is turned back on and we don’t know who it was and it’s a rental property does that $1,000 (fine) go to the landlord?” Gerloff asked.
“We’ve talked about this before and this verbiage is the same in section two as it always has been,” Brochu said, reading from the ordinance: “Landlords will be notified when a renter has not paid by the 15th of the month and again on the following month when services are suspended. The landlord will then become liable for the delinquent amount and any further charges.”
“So, according to this, as soon as they hit 60 days and they don’t pay, it goes to the landlord,” Brochu said.
“I think this is a good improvement,” Gerloff said.
* Aldermen also approved Ordinance #2020-01 relating to the keeping of dogs within the city limits.
The changes made to this ordinance referred to the wording of the ordinance to make the ordinance clearer. In Section B the change was made to give dog owners 14 days after receiving a citation to get their dog proper inoculations and to receive a city license for their pet. A violation not resolved in 14 days would result in a $25 fine, with the fine increasing by $25 per week until the situation is resolved.
Fines not be paid within 30 days will result in prosecution by the Osage County Prosecuting Attorney.
“This all looks pretty clear to me,” Gerloff said.
“This failed when we tried it the first time,” Shockley said. “Why are we trying it again?”
“We have to do something about the loose dogs and the tag thing is already a part of the ordinance,” Brochu explained.
Dog owners within the city limits will have until Jan. 1, 2021, to get shots up-to-date.
* The city has been approached by an individual who bought the property at 321 North Missouri Avenue in Chamois at a tax auction. The individual is no longer interested in the property and would like to donate it to the City of Chamois. The property has a dilapidated building and is within the floodplain.
“If we have an opportunity to get rid of an eyesore for free, we better do it,” Gerloff said.
Brochu will contact the property owner to accept the donation. The city will tear down the existing structure and either leave the area as a green space or as a possible site for one of the new city wells.
* A local property owner was having their land surveyed with the intent to sell the property when they learned that the commercial building on the site was partially on land owned by the city of Chamois.
“One end of it is six inches on city property and the other end is three-and-a-half inches on city property,” Brochu explained.
The mayor contacted City Attorney Amanda Grellner, who instructed that the small area owned by the city would have to be surveyed out separately so that a quit-claim deed could be made. She suggested that the cost of the survey and the deed should be the responsibility of the property owner and not the city.
“It’s not their fault and it’s not our fault,” Brochu said. “But I don’t like to set a precedent that if you build something on city property, we’ll give it to you. We shouldn’t have to bear any expense for it even if we’re giving them the property.”
Aldermen voted to have the property owner arrange and pay for the survey and the quit-claim deed than they can bring that information before the board and they will make a decision on assessing a cost for the property.
* Brochu asked that the board consider amendments to two ordinances at their December meeting.
The ordinance dealing with city business licenses has not been updated in several years and although the cost of the business licenses has been changed, the ordinance itself does not reflect those changes.
Ordinance #657, which deals with the floodplain, needs to be updated to reflect new federal regulations.
* There have been several complaints to the city about the condition of Cherry Street.
“They dumped creek gravel on the street and now they want me to repair it somehow,” Maintenance Supervisor Danny Kirsch said. “It needs to be completely redone.”
Aldermen agreed that the street was a mess.
“We can’t get it repaired this time of the year and we can’t do it until the water project is completed,” Kirsch said.
The board agreed to discuss street repair at the next meeting.
* Aldermen approved a business license for Misty Slusser. The business will start as an online presence and is named “Best Budz Emporium,” which sells items made from hemp.
“I think that hemp has really given us an opportunity,” Slusser said. “There is so much you can do with it.”
Slusser hopes to someday have a storefront on Main Street but for now, is working on a website and vendor events where she can showcase items that are made of hemp. Some of the items are handmade by Slusser herself and others are things she buys that are handmade in other areas of the world. Slusser showed the board several handbags that she imports from Nepal.
She is open to different ideas of things that are made of hemp that her shop could sell and bring some attention to the city of Chamois.
“I want to bring back bell-bottom pants and tie-dye, and everything that belongs in a little town by the river,” Slusser said.
She hopes to bring tourists into the town, where they will spend some money at the local stores and bars, not just with the items she is selling.
“Hopefully, we can bring Chamois back to life with positivity instead of the craziness we’ve got,” Slusser said.
* Aldermen voted to put a Christmas ad in the Unterrified Democrat again this year. The cost of the ad will be $45. There was some spirited discussion by aldermen about who would wear a Santa suit and be photographed for the ad, with no one volunteering to do so.
* Kirsch has been working for the city for 10 years, and the board voted to run an ad in the UD thanking him for his years of service.
* Aldermen approved outstanding bills totaling $3,727.65.
* The city has the following balances in their accounts: cemetery ($9,673.17), city cemetery ($19,787.08), city park ($1,318.59), cemetery fund ($5,884.54), meter deposits ($19,594.84), sewer ($47,922.17), sewer bond reserve ($26,550.72), sewer repair ($17,103.97), water ($129,311.42) and water repair ($32,872.61).
Chamois has several certificates of deposit totaling $120,669.
* The next meeting is scheduled for Dec. 17 at 7 p.m.