Honor a Friend of the City

BUTLER, MO – During the Butler City Council meeting Tuesday evening, Mayor Don Malan brought a suggestion to the council regarding honor C.A. Moore, a true friend of the City of Butler. He suggested renaming one of the city parks as the C.A. Moore Memorial Park perhaps with a stone marker or a wooden plaque. Details still need to be worked out and the project will be discussed further at the next Council meeting.

The Park and Recreation Commission requested $2,000 to purchase dirt for the baseball field at the Fairgrounds and the request was granted. Any additional dirt left over will be used on the REA Field. Permission was also granted to begin construction at Sunset Park. The cost for this will be minimal since the play equipment has already been purchased. Sunset Park is located in the lot behind Don’s Tire on the west side of the street.

In old business regarding the Senior Taxi policy, it was decided to call a personnel meeting at 6:30 before the meeting on December 16th to look at the policy. This stems from a request made to the Council regarding making an exception on the age requirement eligible to ride in the taxi.

Acting City Administrator, Casey Koehn told Council the demo project is going slowly. Some progress has been made as deeds for 4 houses have been received from the Recorder of Deeds and have been forwarded to CDBG. Of the 11 houses that owe back property taxes, 2 have paid and other owners still owing taxes said they would come in and pay. One house is titled in a deceased man’s name and 2 houses have liens on them, with law firms as the lien holder. One firm agreed to send a letter which would allow the demo of the house and Casey is still negotiation with the second firm.

The subject of surety bond came up since the contract price for the removal of asbestos came in over $25,000 and CDBG requires a surety bond from ALM Environmental. Kaysinger is working on a change order to pay for the surety bond. Currently 17 houses are ready for asbestos removal and 5 houses are ready for demo.

Mike Taranto of Solar Shade USA met with Casey and Trent Diehl to tour the City Parks. The budget for shelters will be looked at and Solar Shade will bring designs and fabrics to choose from for the shelters. Along with providing shelter from the sun, the structures will be colorful and bring a distinct design element to the Butler City Parks.

The research into the high sewer rates continues and a clear concise history of the rates going back to 1999 and the EPA regulations placed on the city in the past and regulations that are to come. The council will be informed of the research as it continues.

An ad was placed in the newspaper requesting bids for one medium duty rescue truck for the Butler Fire Department; $140,000 was budged for this item. Once bids have been received Fire Chief Jim Henry will bring them to Council.

Trent Diehl, Director of Public Works told Council the Parks Department FY 2014-2015 budget includes $15,500 to purchase a new lawn mower. Scott Bitner, Parks and Recreation Superintendent, requested they not purchase a more expensive front mount deck mower but instead purchase two new Scag mowers due to electrical issues the department had with one of their newer Scag mowers from last year. The bid from Cross Roads Sales and Service came in at $14,650 and the council approved the request.

Casey brought to the Council’s attention a citizen had been given bad information regarding a permit for a trailer in Hooterville. The Planning Commission will work with the citizen regarding the permit and try to get it resolved.
Marla Kash, fm92news

Honor a Friend of the City