Updated Utility Policy Approved at Butler City Council

BUTLER, MO – The Butler City Council approved the updated utility policy at Tuesday Night’s Council meeting. Casey Koehn outlined the changes to the policy as follows:

“A written statement signed by a physician, physician’s assistant, or nurse practitioner is received by the utility office stating that it is medically necessary to sustain life for utility service to be continued for the premises: in which case the customer shall receive a courtesy written and verbal notice to discontinue service by the last day of the month providing that 50% of the bill is paid at the time the agreement is made between the City and the customer. Medical statements must be updated and given to the City Hall every two months.”

Second update will be: “The customer shall receive a one-time extension per year providing that a twelve month payment history is available. The extension shall be granted with payment due no later than the end of the month. An extension will not be granted without a 12-month payment history.”

Also the “City Administrator shall have the discretion to adjust sewer (not water) charges on utility accounts due to a leak if the water consumption for the bill in question shall have been a minimum of 3x’s the average consumption for the previous 12 months. If no usage is available then the last calendar year average monthly usage for residential customers may be used to determine the adjustment. Averages will run yearly.”

Other business of the evening, a public hearing was conducted to consider approval for a request to enlarge Hooterville Trailer Park. Ron Dunlap has purchased the lot on the south side of Hooterville and plans to add 6 trailers in line with the trailers already there. Council approved the request.

Casey Koehn reported a pre-bid meeting was held on Monday, February 2nd for a walk through of the properties to be demolished. Demo project bids are due back to the City by Friday, February 13th and will be opened at 9am in Council chambers.

MC Power was asked to do a feasibility study for the City of Butler facilities. The study looked at current electric consumption and priced solar panels for all buildings to see what savings would be if solar panels were installed for each facility. More information on the project will be presented at a later meeting but Council was told the utility savings at the water plant would be 46%; Waste Water Plant 48%; City Hall 79%; Police Department 52% and the Lake Pump station 86% with a total utility savings for all given properties approximately $928,000. Casey said she was looking into both grants and loans and would report back at next council meeting.

Emergency Management received permission for an outside warning siren at a cost of $10,854.12 of which $10,000 was already in the budget.

Final item was the approval of donating $100 to Butler Project Prom.

Updated Utility Policy Approved at Butler City Council