Linn is still trying to acquire easements from property owners for the Jaegers Wastewater Regionalization Project. Currently, there is only one property owner that does not want to sign the easements.
Alderman Bill Turner at the board’s May 18 meeting asked Bartlett & West Engineer Gary Davis if it would be possible to bypass the property, which is owned by Tom Kuster.
“I would have rather just gone straight across Highway 100 and not ever gotten on the Kuster property but there is no way to work with that slope,” Davis said. “It is just so steep.”
Davis explained that they are also trying to stay the required 10 feet away from a water line which also pushes them into needing the easement on the Kuster property.
“I would say that it is an advantage to Kuster,” Davis said. "If I lived there and I was him the treatment plant behind my house would go away."
“That was presented,” Turner said. “It just wasn’t acceptable.”
Mayor Dwight Massey noted that they plan on talking to Kuster again, noting the easements need to be signed by Aug. 1.
The construction process is estimated to take 90 days and Bartlett & West hopes to have bidding open in September and the contract awarded in late fall. The project must be completed by April 30, 2022.
Davis noted that MoDOT is willing to grant the necessary easements as soon as final plans are submitted.
Bartlett & West plan to start writing up easements for all the properties except Kuster’s at this time. Davis also plans to submit the finalized plans to the Department of Natural Resources for approval.
* Osage County Presiding Commissioner Darryl Griffin provided aldermen an update on projects that are progressing. Griffin discussed the Highway 63 Commission that is trying to unite the counties along Highway 63 to widen the roadway to four lanes from Arkansas through Cole County.
Griffin also noted that MoDOT has moved up the study to discuss the problems with the Hwy. 50 and Rt. CC intersection. Originally, commissioners were told that MoDOT would not be able to look at the problem for five to seven years.
“It’s a real danger to our citizens,” Griffin said. “That’s really good news. Hopefully, we’ll get something accomplished.”
Griffin also noted that they have been having problems with people parking illegally in the handicap spaces at the courthouse. The county owns the parking lot but they are asking that the Linn Police Department issue tickets to people parked there illegally.
“I was on a knee cart myself for 14 weeks and I had to park on the other side of the building and I’d see a motorcycle parked in the handicap parking spot and it was frustrating,” Griffin explained.
Police Chief Mike Bickell had no problem with enforcing the handicap parking spots but asked the commissioners to report illegally parked vehicles to help his officers.
Griffin also discussed the money that the city and county have received from the American Rescue Plan.
“We are getting 2.6 million dollars and our goal is not to give any of it back to the government,” Griffin said. “We want to use it for our community.”
Griffin is hoping that everyone will receive additional guidelines on how the money can be spent soon.
“We got a 251-page report the other day that we are supposed to read through,” Griffin said.
He invited aldermen and the mayor to join a ZOOM call that is being coordinated with Meramec Regional Planning Commission (MRPC) to go over the guidelines on how to use the money in their communities.
Massey pointed out that the money for the county is coming directly from the federal government while the money for the city is coming from the state.
“Is the state of Missouri going to put additional stipulations on the money?” Massey asked.
“That is something we will have to figure out,” said Griffin, who acknowledged it was pretty easy working with the state on the last round of funding.
Griffin noted that he considered Linn an important part of the community and that he and the other commissioners were always available if there was anything the city needed.
* Turner asked Utilities Superintendent Larry Fredrich if he had any progress in locating the leak that Linn resident David Kilgore had warned the aldermen about at the April Meeting.
“I looked and I still haven’t found it,” Fredrich said. “We have a leak at the Jefferson City Medical Group building but we can’t shut them off because they are a medical facility. We called in One Call and if it hadn’t started raining, we would have located it already. “(Kilgore), I did not find any leaks in that area.”
“When things start drying up, we have a better chance,” Massey added.
“We’ve been over there multiple and there is a 10-inch main,” Fredrich said. “If there was a leak over there, we would know about it.”
“But where the heck would the chlorine be coming from?” Niewald asked. “That’s the weird thing. He said there was chlorine in the water.”
“I want to know how he tested for chlorine,” Fredrich replied. “If you use a pool sample chlorine kit, I can get that to show up on about any sample around.”
“Is that something we should do?” Turner said. “Take a sample ourselves? If we can say it doesn’t have chlorine, then that’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?”
“We could do that,” Fredrich said.
* Turner also asked Fredrich what was going on with the city’s sign coming into town.
“The wind took the top off of the thing,” Fredrich said. “But you can’t get plywood right now so I can’t put a new one back up.”
Aldermen discussed different ideas in putting up a new sign. Niewald suggested a contest in conjunction with the Unterrified Democrat to replace the “Walking into the Future” slogan that was on the existing sign.
* Audrey Williams is back as the pool manager this summer along with a staff that has all worked for the Linn City Pool in years past. They are starting lifeguard training. Williams has purchased a new freezer off Facebook Marketplace for $300 to replace the old unit.
* Pool Passes are available for purchase.
* The beams for the new scoreboard are up at Linn City Park.
* Wet weather has postponed several baseball and soccer games.
Park Board member Skylar Miller has resigned. Massey will need to appoint another individual to the board and that appointment will need to be approved by aldermen.
Massey requested that the alderman make suggestions for potential appointees. He and board members will meet with potential park board members between now and the June meeting.
* Fredrich reported that he and his crew have been staying busy.
“We’ve been filling potholes and running between the raindrops trying to get things done,” Fredrich said. “The grass is going to get away from us because of the rain this week but we’ll catch up.”
Fredrich noted that two UV lights will need to be replaced at the treatment plant at a cost of $650 each but Fredrich can handle the installation.
“We’ve been informed that they are only supposed to last eight to 10 years and we got 12 years out of them,” Fredrich said. “The E. coli level is up but we’re still within compliance. It’s just not where I’d like to see things.”
* Fredrich has just gotten the “No Parking” signs in and will install them as soon as he gets a chance. He has also gotten in the new signs that will enforce the noise ordinance. Fredrich is waiting on MoDOT to get confirmation on where to install them.