FREEBURG — Freeburg Mayor Darryl Haller reported at the Nov. 3 meeting that he had recently discovered that the village has not been receiving property taxes since the late 1970s to early 1980s. He was working with a local resident who was being charged the wrong rate by Three Rivers Electric Cooperative. After some investigation, Haller realized that the individual’s property was within the village limits, but his house was outside the village limits.

“It was an error that was made, and Three Rivers Electric will fix it,” Haller said.

He was then told that the Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping is not always correct. On further investigation, Haller realized that areas of the village that had been annexed decades ago were not updated in the GIS mapping system. That led the mayor to believe that Freeburg had lost out on a lot of property taxes over the years, but Osage County Assessor Tina Kammerich told him that the village does not receive property taxes.

“We all pay property taxes,” Haller explained. “We pay for the library, the school, and the county. We pay for all those things, and we get zero property taxes.”

Haller said there was a record of property taxes collected for the village in the late 1970s, and no one was sure why it had stopped.

“Everyone except us and Westphalia collects property taxes,” Haller said. “Last week, if someone had asked me, I thought we were collecting property taxes. I don’t think people in town know that they aren’t paying property taxes to Freeburg.”

Haller reviewed what other municipalities in Osage County were receiving in property taxes.

“No one wants to raise taxes, but we should at least get this out for people to vote on,” Haller continued. “We have to have money. Everything is going up. We need to be equal with other cities in the county at least.”

Trustee Scott Knoll asked what the village would do with the extra revenue.

“Our infrastructure,” Haller answered. “Nothing is cheap.”

Village Treasurer Danielle Holterman noted that for the last two years, the village has pulled money out of reserves to complete street projects.

“Last year we pulled $123,000 out of savings and this year $156,000,” Holterman said.

“We are going to have to have a balanced budget,” Haller said. “There are things we can do to save money. We can have a public meeting and explain that if we don’t get this, we may have to quit doing things. We can’t keep going over budget.”

Village Attorney Nathan Nickolaus will be at the December meeting with wording of what could be placed on the ballot for property taxes for the April election.

Haller also noted the village has had a 1% sales tax since 1979. The sales tax increased when City Hall was built and then returned to 1%.

“Other than when we built this building, we have never asked for an increase in the sales tax,” Haller said.

At this point, there was no discussion about increases in Freeburg’s sales tax.

• Trustees noted the apartment building owned by Jacques Wieberg would have the water shut off on Nov. 11 if the overdue balance of $1,991.58 was not paid by that date.

Village Water Clerk City Struemph sent Wieberg an overdue notice, and Utilities Supervisor Doug Hamacher will post a notice on the building. Haller also took a picture of the notice and sent it to him as a reminder.

“He has no intention of paying the bill,” Haller said. “I called him and asked him what was going on, and he said he is not going to pay us. He believes that if he pays us, he agrees to the water rate increase. He’s got a lawyer hired. I told him I need to know something because we are scheduled to shut off the water, and he told me, ‘It is what it is.’”

Haller added that he invited Wieberg to come to the meeting. “I thought we had reached an agreement,” Haller said, referring to the discussion at the October meeting in which the trustees agreed to allow each apartment to have a minimum of 2,000 gallons of water regardless of whether there was a meter for each apartment.

“When he left after the meeting, he acted like he was okay with everything,” Trustee Brad Wieberg said.

Struemph reported that all the other businesses and individuals have paid their bills.

“Well, it looks like the apartments will be out of water,” Haller said.

“You would think he would have some very angry tenants,” said Trustee Jamie Kaesik.

“I understand his point, that if he pays, he is conceding, and he doesn’t agree with us,” Haller said. “He said that is what his lawyer said to do. I told him his lawyer needs to talk to us. We have to abide by our ordinance.”

The current ordinance has a $125 deposit for property owner and charges $50 for a reconnection fee. Customers receive a 10-day notice after the bill goes unpaid for 60 days.

“I just want them to pay their bill,” Haller said. “If he had a problem, he should have let us know. He let this go on for a full month. We can’t let people go without paying their bill.”

Update: Wieberg paid the bill on Friday under protest.

• Trustees approved a raise of $25 per month for Holterman, making her salary $750 per month, effective immediately.

“When you hire someone new, you expect certain things and you hope it will be good,” Haller said. “I’m happy with the progress we’ve seen. She is doing an awesome job.”

“She is going above and beyond for this job,” Trustee Glenn Haller added.

Holterman thanked trustees for the raise.

• Trustees agreed to pay for half of the cost (up to $650) to add a culvert to the ditch for Allen Gradel. The village will be billed separately for the work.

• Bartlett & West Project Manager Kyle Landwehr was at the meeting to assure the trustees that the wastewater project was on schedule and, more importantly, on budget.

“I know it feels like the bills are stacking up, but I looked at where we were at for the total contract, and we are pretty much right on,” Landwehr said. “The good news is we are done with the plans and specs and moving forward. There shouldn’t be anything substantial to worry about.”

Landwehr presented trustees with a full set of plans and specifications for the wastewater project.

“The design is done, and I think it is a really good plan,” Landwehr said. “The next step is having the plans reviewed by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR). That will take four to six months.”

Trustee Haller asked if the new facility would be maintenance-free.

“No, but with this system, there is not a lot that can go wrong,” Landwehr said. “As long as we keep the blower running, it will work. We will need routine oil changes every six months to a year.”

Landwehr explained that the ultraviolet lights (UV) were also low-maintenance. Landwehr explained that the village could sign up for a maintenance package if it did not feel comfortable with the routine management.

“The total contract with us was approximately $500,000, from the start to the end of the project,” Landwehr explained. “That is the maximum amount we will bill you.

“I know it’s a lot of money, but we’re hoping to come in under budget,” Landwehr continued. “Ultimately, the loan has to be paid off, and that comes from your sewer rates.”

“We will get it paid off as soon as we can,” Haller said. “This project wasn’t an option; we had to do this.”

Landwehr added that the village’s sewer revenue bond question was overwhelmingly approved by the voters two years ago.

“You are going to have nay-sayers, but at the end of the day, you communicated everything well,” Landwehr said. “It was clear the project was going to be required, regardless. DNR was going to force your hand. It was voted on and approved. We are only doing what we said we were going to do.”

“We’ll try to do our best to get the most bang for our buck,” Haller said. “People have to pay for this, and we have a lot of people on fixed incomes. I’m sure that everyone is doing their best.”

Haller and Hamacher plan to tour the recently completed wastewater facility at Rosebud with Landwehr in the near future.

• Property owners whose houses were not analyzed for the Lead Line Survey will receive letters asking if they are planning to have their houses tested.

“They didn’t test all of the houses because the grant didn’t pay to have them all tested,” Haller said. “It only paid to do so many.”

The village will have to send out a letter annually to each untested house unless they receive a notice that those houses would like to be tested, or are not interested in being tested, or will have their houses tested themselves.

“They don’t have to do anything,” Haller said.

Struemph noted that Holterman would have to continue to send the letters out annually unless she hears from the property owners.

“I wish we could word the letters differently,” Hamacher said. “I think they are confusing.”

Haller noted that the village must copy the letters exactly and send them to the property owners.

• The village received Radio Wire’s annual payment of $3,000.

• The pickleball court at the park has been very popular. The village will look at adding a second court next year. Hamacher will also remove the tape and paint the court lines when he has a chance.

“It’s nice that we can add some life back into the park,” Knoll said.

• Trustees approved the following outstanding bills for October: general ($39,621.92), sewer ($471.17), and water ($949.67).

• Freeburg had the following ending account balances: purchasing ($403.42), sewer checking ($8,283.16) general revenue checking ($3,994.71), sewer money market ($404,071.01), general revenue money market ($492,199.25), wastewater and sewer project ($67,970.08), water ($11,222.87), water replacement ($245.97), and water money market ($1,031,755.73).

• Freeburg had a 3% water loss in September. The village pumped a total of 1,556,371 gallons of water and billed 1,464,900 gallons of water.

• The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 2, at 6:30 p.m.