Newly appointed Chamois Alderman William Dixon resigned after winning his seat in the April 6 election. Dixon cited health concerns in a letter of resignation that Mayor Elise Brochu discussed Thursday at the board’s meeting.

Brochu won reelection as the city mayor and Marty Gerloff was reelected to a two-year term. Matt Shockley was reelected to a one-year term as alderman. Since Dixon resigned after he won the election, his seat will be appointed by Brochu and approved by aldermen.

“If I could talk (Alderman ) Rob (Skaggs) into staying, I’d appoint him to William Dixon’s seat,” Brochu said.

“That ain’t gonna happen,” Skaggs replied.

“Well, then I guess we’ll have to figure things out,” Brochu said.

There is currently a four-way tie for the remaining one-year seat. Brochu has spoken to the City Attorney Amanda Grellner and they agreed to send a letter to the four individuals that received a vote to see if any of them would be interested in serving as an alderman.

“I don’t know what a runoff election will cost but I bet it costs a lot,” Brochu said. “It would be a real shame to have to do that for a four-way tie with everyone having one vote.”

Brochu hopes to find two individuals who would be willing to serve as aldermen.

Aldermen plan to approve Dixon’s resignation once new board members have been decided.

* Presiding Commissioner Darryl Griffin attended the meeting to congratulate the city on being awarded $69,807.12 in stimulus money. Griffin noted that at this point, there are not a lot of guidelines to how the funds must be spent. Griffin is hoping that the first batch of money will be released around May 10, 2021, with guidance.

“If there is anything I can ever do for you folks, just let me know,” Griffin said. “I don’t know what I can do to help but I’m willing to try.”

* Aldermen approved $1,295 for ESA, Inc., of Marthasville, to repair the Ultraviolet (UV) lights for the wastewater system, not including freight, or labor.

“We’ve had a bank of lights that has been tripping forever,” Brochu explained. “They finally figured out what the problem was and this is it.”

Brochu noted that the city is over budget this year on sewer repairs.

“We’ve had a lot of big repairs,” Brochu said. “There was a $5,000 muskrat and things like that but regardless this still needs to be fixed.”

As reported in January, muskrats got into two different pumps and chewed up the wires. Kirsch trapped the muskrats, had the pumps sent off to be rewired, and is built a screen to protect the pumps.

* The water project is stalled on the cultural resource survey.

Brochu is requesting an estimate for all the companies that were recommended to the city that were capable of doing the survey. Then aldermen can decide on which company with which they would like to work.

“We just have to get it done,” Gerloff said.

“Yeah,” Brochu agreed. “We have to do it and that’s the only hold up right now. Everything else is in place.”

* Maintenance Supervisor Danny Kirsch is having trouble getting cold patch to fix the city streets from his regular supplier. Griffin suggested several places from which Osage County gets cold patch.

“Has it gone up much?” Gerloff asked Griffin.

“Hasn’t everything?” Griffin replied with a laugh.

Aldermen also approved Kirsch contacting another company to mow and weed-eat the city’s cemetery. The city would like to look at additional bids and make a more permanent decision on who will do this work at next month’s meeting.

* Chuck Slusser purchased a property right outside the city limits and there is a road that goes to the property that is allegedly a city street.

“According to 911, it used to be the city’s road,” Brochu said. “At some point, the city had wanted to expand over there and they didn’t so we abandoned the road. (Slusser) wants to know if we want to pave it or should he do what he wants with it?

“The thing we haven’t clarified is, do we own that piece of property, or do we just have an easement?” Brochu continued. “If we own it, do we have to pave it, or do we want to pave it? If it is ours, and we don’t have to pave it, do we want to allow them to use it to access their property?”

The consensus of the board was to first find out who owns the property and what the city’s obligation is as to whether they have to pave the road.

Skaggs was clear that if the city owns the property, the board needs to be consistent in how they decide what is to happen.

“We need to do the same thing we did with that little sliver of ground at the rental building,” Skaggs said. “We didn’t offer to give that ground away.”

Brochu plans to report back to the board at next month’s meeting.

* Aldermen will consider drawing up an ordinance for the use of the campground at next month’s meeting. Currently, the city does not have an ordinance that outlines the rules and regulations of the campground.

“I think we need an ordinance that covers the campground as far as rental and safety, and there are additional items that need to be considered with the floodplain,” Brochu said.

“Are we having problems right now?” Gerloff asked.

“We’re having some problems with not knowing what people are down there and not knowing who is paying or have a way to contact people,” Brochu said. “We did have some vandalism but we have vandalism down there all the time.”

* Shockley suggested the city start charging for the use of the ballpark. Currently, the Chamois park is one of the only ballfields that does not charge for teams to use the field for either practice or games.

“It’s just extra revenue for the city,” Shockley said. “Usually, they pay $25 per game.”

City Clerk Michelle Stanley will investigate the cost of different fields in the area and report back to the board.

* Misty Slusser received the consent of all her neighbors to open her store on Missouri Ave.

“We had voted that if she did that it would be cool and so we don’t need any further action,” Brochu explained.

* Aldermen approved a trash-only deposit of $50 for a resident that has recently purchased a property and is trying to clean it up. Monthly fees for two trash cans are $20.75 per month, so the deposit will cover two months worth of trash pickup.

* Brochu noted that there is still additional paperwork that must be done before the city marshal can start.

* There will be no additional fees charged to area residents that want to have individual garage sales.

* Aldermen approved the unpaid bills for the month totaling $11,931.95.

* Chamois has an ending balance for their accounts as follows: cemetery ($10,173.17), city cemetery ($19,797.03), city park ($1,348.59), general fund ($47,155.97), meter deposits ($20,111.47), sewer ($44,463.13), sewer bond reserve ($26,567.40), sewer repair ($6,899.22), water ($141,594.70), and water repairs ($28,834.01).

* The city has five certificates of deposit totaling $12,066.90.

* The next meeting is scheduled for May 13 at 7 p.m.