Linn Board of Aldermen changed the city’s seat belt ordinance at their meeting last Tuesday night. Bill #2021-014 allows city police officers to pull over a vehicle if the driver or the front seat passenger are not wearing a seat belt.  The old ordinance aligned with Missouri State Law which does not allow a seat belt violation to be the primary reason why a vehicle is pulled over. Chief of Police Michael Bickell noted that there are several cities in the state that are moving towards a primary seat belt ordinance to prevent accidents and fatalities.

“I do want to say that the fine is still $10 and it is almost identical to the state ordinance,” Bickell explained. “The only real difference is we (the police department) can stop solely for seatbelt violations.”

The new ordinance holds exempt postal workers who are performing their duties, agricultural vehicles, motorcycles, recreational vehicles (RV), trucks with a licensed gross weight of over 12,000 pounds, public carriers, or school buses. The ordinance will go into effect immediately.

*Bartlett and West are working on a proposal for upcoming street repairs for late summer for the city.

“We had proposed and have been looking at whether to go around the Court House, Second Street and tie into First Street and bring it down onto Jefferson,” Mayor Dwight Massey said. “Since we are working around the bank (Legends Bank) anyway what was the likelihood of getting the alleyway along Court Street done as well.”

Massey noted that Utilities Supervisor Larry Fredrich had spoken to Legends Bank and they believed they would be ready for an overlay on the alley in late August or early September. 

“They are going to assume the expense but they want us to do the design on it because they are going to have the buildings down by then and have what work they are going to be doing out of the way by then,” Massey explained.

“Does this incorporate some of the changes made to the building too?” Alderman Bill Turner asked.

“Those building are going away,” Massey said, referring to the older building directly behind Legends Bank. “I think almost all of them will be turned into parking spaces.”

“That’s good,” Alderman Rick Niewald said. “That will clean all of that up.”

Niewald expressed support in doing all the street repairs at the same time. 

“It just makes sense to do everything together,” Niewald said.

The aldermen agreed that they did not have a preference as to which streets be first to get repaired but just to get things moving as fast as possible.

“We’re probably looking at a proposal late next week or early the following week,” Bartlett and West Engineer Hope Drennan said. 

Drennan also had updates on the Jaegers Wastewater Regionalization Project. Drennan presented the plans and specifications for review by the City of Linn. Drennan requested that any changes or questions be addressed to her office as soon as possible since they plan to submit the plans to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) early next week. The Environmental Information Document (EID) for the project has been approved by DNR and the city is required to hold a public hearing on the environmental impact of the project.  The notice of public hearing will need to be posted 30 days before the meeting at City Hall and in the newspaper. Drennan had hoped to have the EID hearing meeting before the Board of Aldermen meeting in July. Representatives from Bartlett and West will hold the hearing and answer any questions the public might have. 

Drennan noted that there has been a change in the timeline for the project. At the last meeting, Bartlett and West had specified that the project had to be completed by April of 2022. 

“We found this document that stated that as long as construction begins by April 2022 you have a full year to complete construction,” Drennan said. “That helps out a lot with pushing forward.”

Bartlett and West did discuss this with representatives for DNR and they agree with the new timeline.

The engineering company has also submitted construction permits for the project and are drafting the property easements and will have them sent to the city when they are completed.

*The University of Missouri Extension office has a new face at the Linn office who is hoping to bring back the Taste of Osage County. Elizabeth Anderson introduced herself to the board of aldermen and asked if the city would be interested in using one of the city parks for the event. Anderson is working with the Meramec Regional Planning Commission to bring back the event.

“We’re super excited about it and hoping to expand it beyond just producers,” Anderson said. “We want people to come and see Osage County.”

Anderson said that they have considered using the Lion’s Club Fairgrounds, McGuire Park and Linn City Park.

“The Taste of Osage County has always been held at the City Park and we had pretty good success with it,” Massey said. “I think there is plenty of room here (City Park) until it grows a lot more and then maybe you would want to do a shift to McGuire Park. But we have all of the older trees and its more shaded.”

Massey added that finding the space to have the event was going to be the easiest part of planning the event.

Anderson noted that the current plan is to have the event in September or early October but she did want to look at the schedules of local parishes so as not to conflict with fall festivals.

“Now that we are on the downhill slope of COVID, I think people really want to get together and feel like a community,” Anderson said.

Anderson noted that the MU Extension office offers a lot of services to the community and that she would be happy to help facilitate linking people up with different faculty and programs that may be of help in their farms, business, communities, and even personal lives. She encouraged members of the board and the community to reach out to her if there was anything that might be of interest or benefit.

“A lot of people just know us because of 4-H or soil testing but we can do so much more,” Anderson said.

*Board of Aldermen agreed to temporarily close a portion of Lee Street in front of Sweet Bee’s Shaved Iced on Saturday night around dark. Owner, Christina Laughlin made the request so that she could show a movie on the side of the building in front of her business. For right now the event is invitation only so that Laughlin can do a trial run to see how everything would work. 

“I think it would be a good idea,” Chief Bickell said. “Honestly, there is a low-speed limit through there already. Anything to help local businesses after this COVID stuff.”

Anderson had already checked with the Park Board and there are no ball games scheduled for that evening.

“Is this going to be a regular thing?” Alderman Mike Montgomery asked.

“She doesn’t know yet,” City Clerk Carrie Grellner said. “She wants to see how it works first.”

Mayor Massey asked Chief Bickell to help with the safety of the event by putting up barricades and signs.

*Bill #2021-013, an ordinance amending the city code pertaining to violations and penalties, was on the agenda for consideration by the Board of Aldermen. City attorney Kent Brown requested that the aldermen hold off on voting on this ordinance while he investigated any legal issues that may be of concern. The Aldermen tabled the bill until a later meeting.

*The city is hoping to discuss the new city sign and logo with the State Technical College of Missouri Graphic Design department. It was suggested that they may want to tackle the project and help share the time and expense with the city.

Massey noted that the Graphic Design Department would not be back in session until the end of August but that he would ask them if they were interested in designing the sign.

*Long time Linn resident Gary Huckstep has been talking to Alderman Bill Turner about the best way to fix the ditch in front of his house. 

“He asked what it would take to rock it so it’s more manageable,” Turner said. “He’s getting to an age he can’t take care of it.”

“He’ll have to keep it sprayed and cleaned out,” Massey warned. 

Utilities Supervisor Larry Fredrich plans on discussing the options for the ditch with Huckstep.

Huckstep also made a formal complaint about his neighbor’s yard to Turner.

“He’s pretty particular but if that was throughout the town 90% of the people wouldn’t want to look at it," Turner said.

"There is code and language in the code we can use but I think the first thing I would do is just go to talk to them,” Massey said.

Chief Bickell agreed to go speak with both parties and see exactly what the issues are.

*The Board of Aldermen approved outstanding bills for $213,584.92.

*The City of Linn has the following ending balances in their government fund accounts general ($318,617.41), pool (-$4,145.51), park ($71,036.15), police training ($1,228.18), general fund- improvements and equipment ($107,398.59), park improvement and equipment ($28,410.50), and pool improvement and equipment ($13,985.14).

The city has the following ending balances in their business-type funds: water ($411,020.14), water replacement ($88,267.17), sewer ($317,353.48), sewer replacement ($59,985.30) and grants (-$66,147.99).

The city has nine certificates of deposit totaling $1,085,781.87.

*Board of Aldermen agreed to let City Clerk Carrie Grellner approve requests for reduction in the sewer rates for city residents that are filling up their pools. Grellner noted that she always runs the requests by Fredrich to make sure they seem reasonable and that any unusual requests she will bring to the Board of Aldermen.

*The Linn City Pool has had to replace an exhaust fan which cost $300. Grellner is also looking at replacing umbrellas for the pool picnic tables.  Grellner has found that the umbrellas are expensive and is looking for other options to provide shade to pool goers.

*Utilities Supervisor Larry Fredrich has kept himself and his crew busy flushing fire hydrants, filling potholes, putting up the new no parking sings and the noise ordinance signs.

*Chief Mike Bickell is still seeing a higher-than-normal number of calls. He attributes the high number to the pandemic and quarantine. 

*The Board agreed to take out an ad in the Unterrified Democrat for the week of the Osage County Fair.

*The Linn License Fee Office will be closed on Saturday, June 19 and on July 5.

*The Linn City office will be closed on July 5 in honor of Independence Day.

*The next regular meeting is July 20, 2021 at 5 p.m.