WESTPHALIA —  Westphalia Mayor Pro Tem Delbert Wieberg told aldermen meeting on Tuesday, July 29, that he had spoken with the new Fatima Superintendent John Kitchens about student drivers. Wieberg said that several residents had expressed concerns about students speeding on the city streets once school is out for the day.

“(Kitchens) suggested that we contact the Osage County Sheriff’s Department,” Wieberg said. “I asked him if he thought that the sheriff’s office is readily available to patrol in Westphalia every day after school. One or two days out of the month isn’t going to stop them.”

Wieberg added that he had talked to residents of other municipalities in Missouri, and the only thing that they had found to deter the students from speeding was speed bumps. However, Wieberg said they are aggravating in the winter when snow needs to be plowed, but that he has looked into removable speed bumps.

“I would like to know how people feel about speed bumps,” Wieberg said. “Those kids go flying out on all the roads. Someone told me that they have a teacher out there flagging them on like it’s NASCAR — like they need to get the hell out of there.”

Wieberg checked on a camera that the city could install to automatically issue speeding tickets, but the cost is prohibitive, running from $60,000 to $80,000 per camera.

“I think the only way to control it is through speed bumps or hit them in the pocketbooks with tickets; otherwise, they are going to continue to speed,” Wieberg said.

Alderman Jake Plassmeyer jokingly suggested that the city could leave potholes in the road to slow down speeders.

More seriously, Alderman Stanley Heckman asked what would stop students from speeding after they get past the speed bump.

“I think you would have to put speed bumps through the whole town,” Wieberg said.

Wieberg said that after talking to Kitchens, he does not believe that the school is going to be decreasing the number of students driving to school.

“Back when I went to high school, you weren’t allowed to drive to school unless you had an after-school activity,” Wieberg said. “It’s wide open now. I can’t believe how people drop off their kids for school. Does anyone ride the bus anymore? The issue is not going to get better.”

Wieberg noted the school was working on adding parking, which should get vehicles off the city streets, which is another big complaint from residents.

“A lot of older people complain about when there are cars parked on both sides of the street,” Wieberg said. “When they meet oncoming traffic, they don’t feel safe navigating around them.”

“(Kitchens) couldn’t make it to the meeting, so I don’t know if he came up with something better, but I don’t think he will,” Wieberg said. “I don’t feel from the conversation that I had with him that they were going to do anything to limit the number of kids driving to school.”

Wieberg admitted that he had not met with Kitchens in person and would like him to attend a city meeting to address aldermen’s concerns.

Wieberg repeated that he would like to hear what residents think about adding speed bumps around the city to deter speeding.

In other business, aldermen approved donating the Old Fire House, used to store salt, back to Anne Steele, whose mother, Patricia Hilkemeyer, had originally donated the property at the corner of East Main Street and Bridge Avenue to the city.

“We no longer have a use for it,” Wieberg said. “I don’t see why we have to keep that building. It’s one less building for us to maintain.”

The building is currently storing about half a load of salt, and as part of the arrangement, the new owner would have to let the city access and use the remaining salt this winter.

• Aldermen agreed to get estimates for repairs to the city’s maintenance building used for storage. The building is situated on the corner of West Main Street and North Maries Avenue. Wieberg showed pictures of at least five places where water is leaking through the roof.

“Some of the wood purlins will have to be replaced,” Wieberg said. “I’m afraid they are rotten.”

Wieberg proposed fixing the roof, repairing and painting the sheet rock, and replacing wood as needed.

“The building is well insulated,” Wieberg said. “I don’t know if we’d ever do much with it, but we can’t just let it go to (crap).”

“It’s past time to make the repairs,” City Clerk Tammy Massman agreed.

• Steve Berhorst contacted the city about low-hanging branches on Linn Street.

“I went down there; I wouldn’t take my truck down there,” Wieberg said. “It’s low enough now that they hit the top of the grain truck, not just their combine. There are about 40 limbs that need to be cut off.”

Aldermen agreed they did not think that the limbs were the responsibility of the city. Massman noted that some of the property being discussed was outside of the city limits.

Wieberg suggested that perhaps the city wait until work starts on the Pentecostal Bridge.

“There’s a lot of big equipment that will be coming down through there,” Wieberg said. “They’ll have to trim them when they work on the bridge.”

Wieberg said that he would reach out to Osage County commissioners.

• Wieberg said that he had recently been to Nevada, Mo., for work and saw a lot of abandoned and rental houses. “I asked why there were so many vacant houses, and I was told that younger kids don’t want to live there anymore, so once the parents pass away, they rent out the houses and don’t put any money into them until they are so far gone, they abandon them,” Wieberg said. “They have a couple of developers who buy up the properties and build duplexes and other rental properties. I don’t want to see this town full of rental property.

“If people would just take care of what is in front of their own houses, it would be a minimal amount of work for everyone, and we could keep the town looking good and keep attracting people to be a part of the community,” Wieberg continued. “That’s what I want to see. I don’t want to see abandoned houses. That will drive down the value of our properties, and if the value of our homes is driven down, guess what you are going to get here? A bunch of druggies. A bunch of tweakers and a crack house. We want to keep the town nice and take pride in it.”

Wieberg added that when residents were pushing back against the zoning ordinances, they might not have understood that those rules were put in place to keep the town a nice place to live.

“We can’t control who sells to who, but if we keep the value of our houses up, that will keep the people we don’t want out of here,” Wieberg said. “Druggies don’t buy expensive houses.”

• Wieberg wanted to thank everyone who helped him repaint the school crossing and clean out the gutters on the streets. Wieberg noted that several of the individuals did not live within the city limits.

“It was kinda funny when one of the boys asked their dad why they were helping to clean up the city, and his dad said because it was the right thing to do, and it should make you feel good,” Wieberg said.

He added that within a couple of days following clean-up, people were blowing grass back into the city’s gutters. Wieberg suggested residents blow clippings back into their yard.

• Wieberg reported that he had worked with an individual who completed several projects around the city for community service, including patching asphalt, cleaning up the firehouse, moving desks into City Hall, helping remove rock from ditches, and painting the gas tank.

• The city may not be able to get any street work done this summer, but will look at some options for the fall.

• Westphalia was asked by the owner of a food truck to set up within the city limits, but noted they hadn’t picked out a location where they could set up to sell since they called.

“I talked to the guy, and he hadn’t picked out a destination,” Wieberg said. “He wasn’t familiar with the town at all. They had also applied to Meta and Freeburg. I told him he had to have the permission of the property owners to park somewhere, and that he needed a city license.”

Massman said that she had sent the owner a list of everything they would need to obtain a city license, along with the application, which has not been submitted.

• The city has purchased a flag of the German Sister City, Westphalia, the Missouri state flag, and the United States of America flag to decorate City Hall.

• Wieberg thanked resident Mary Neuner for donating several framed pictures to decorate City Hall and hanging them up on the walls.

• Plassmeyer noted that he has heard complaints about a truck that has been parked on a city street. Massman said that anyone can report abandoned vehicles to the Osage County Sheriff’s Office.

• Aaron Lachowicz from Mid Mo Operations reported that a return line plugged up at the wastewater plant had to be augured out.  “It took about 30 minutes, and it was back up and running fine,” he said.

Lachowicz noted that third-quarter samples have been collected, and they are working to get all of the information correct on the Dig Rite maps. He thought they would be done within a week or so.

• Westphalia has several vacant seats on the Board of Adjustment and the Planning and Zoning Committee. Interested residents should contact the Board of Aldermen or the City Clerk.

• The city had the following receipts: city ($11,436), sewer ($9,243.52), and special road district ($6,525.17).

• Aldermen approved the following outstanding expenses: city ($2,950.83), sewer ($9,844.90), and special road district ($413.40).

• The city had the following account balances: city checking ($148,414.55), sewer system checking ($74,887.42), special road district checking ($83,698.72), and special road district savings ($5,131.22).

• Westphalia holds the following certificates of deposit: city ($461,427.72), sewer system ($545,175.41), and special road district ($549,807.35).

• A public hearing to discuss the tax levy will begin at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 26, followed by the regular meeting.