Caruthersville Council hires code enforcement officer

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

The Caruthersville City Council met in regular session May 15. During the meeting, the Mayor gave his report stating the airport courtesy car has a bad transmission. The council will have to decide whether to repair or buy another car. Mayor McGraw, Counselor Dorroh and Jeff Montgomery had a meeting May 2, and there is a potential business in the works. Dorroh is exploring different incentives for encouragement of new business for development of retail in the community. The economic team will be meeting soon to discuss plans for the old Exchange building.  The land appraisal for the city property that a business is interested in will cost $1,000, which will be done by mid-June.  

McGraw went on to say Ameren has completed work on the street lights on West 13th and West 15th at Laurant, Walker between East 5th and 7th St., and West 8th and Ferguson.  The lights are LED which are energy efficient and brighter. “If you have a light, don’t hesitate to call Ameren. The city pays whether the light is working or not,” said McGraw. The storm took out some lights and citizens were concerned when they will be replaced.  The Mayor stated that he would call to see about the status.  

Republic Service will not be picking up trash Memorial Day, May 29. Trash will be picked up the following day of their normal pick up.  

MODOT is contracting to replace existing sidewalks on Truman from 13th to Locust to make them ADA compliant.  

The city is looking at pursuing a use tax for out of state purchases online. Citizens will pay either a sales tax or use tax, there’s no double tax.  

Chief Tony Jones reported that curfew will still be enforced even though school is out, and the large gatherings of youth that has been causing disturbances will be dealt with.  Councilperson Bullington said the Resource officer at the school has made a tremendous difference.  She complimented the good working relationship between the school and police department and is looking forward to another contractual year between the school and police department.  

Terry Rushing reported the crews have continued picking up debris from the storm and spring cleanup. They burned the large limb pile and hauled 14 truckloads to the transfer station. Several home inspections were conducted, and two building inspections.  One building permit was conducted with four pending.  Rushing introduced the new Code Enforcement, Sonya Fuller. Fuller said she believes in integrity and professionalism, and looks forward to making the community a better place.  

Councilperson Bullington asked if the department heads would have a draft of their budget by May 26. There will be a budget to adopt based on estimated revenue, but would have to be amended with only having financials from the accountants through January.  Terry Rushing stated the Council had approved two drainage projects in the budget.  He wanted to know whether to proceed with both or choose one, and do the other at a later date.  John Chittenden recommends the 19th project since Belle and Adams had somewhat of a relief from a previous clean out.  Councilperson Duckworth stated the Street and Sanitation Committee needs to meet have a discussion about the projects. 

Library Director Teresa Tidwell reported the bike program is up and running. The biggest problem is having the parents sign the waiver for not holding the City or Healthy Communities for any responsibilities.  There are four bikes and 12 helmets, and a helmet has to be taken with the checkout of a bike for a day.  Rules are being instituted for the summer, in which one rule is no computer time until after the summer food program.

Councilperson BT Merideth stated he made a derogatory statement on social media in response to a Planning and Zoning recommendation to grant Wendell Hoskins’ request for a conditional use permit for a professional business. He apologized for taking the approach that he did.  

The group went into closed session, and upon return, the City Clerk presented the Council with schedules of data from 2012-2013 provided by the Missouri Municipal League. The schedules consist of municipalities categorized by population, annual operating budget, classification and number of employees.  The data was presented to show comparison of salaries in relation to job positions to other cities close to having the same breakdown as the city of Caruthersville. There was information floating around that the salaries and classifications of positions would be significantly different. Members of the budget committee stated nothing had been set in stone, and it is still a work in progress.