The City of Tarkio Board of Alderman met Wednesday, June 8, 2022, at 6:00 p.m. Mayor Mark Staten called the meeting to order. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited by all. Roll call was done by City Clerk Danielle Madron: aldermen Jeff Agnew and Scott Poppa were present, Blu Dow was present via FaceTime, and Andy Riley was absent.

Mayor Staten asked for the approval of the May 11, 2022, regular meeting minutes. Dow made a motion to approve the minutes. The motion passed. The minutes were approved.

Visitors present were: Police Chief Tyson Gibbons; Police Officer Tyler Dorrel; City of Tarkio employees – Street Superintendent Jamie Quimby and Building Inspector Jesse Payne; Park Board members Ashlee Driskell, Summer Reeves, Paige Agnew, and Jennifer Peregrine; and Tarkio resident Joseph Cannon.

Joseph Cannon spoke to the board about the trees around town that look like they could be dying. He has a treatment that can bring life back to the trees, and save them from having to be cut down. He left his number with Jamie Quimby for the city to contact him if they are interested in his services.

Mayor Staten asked for the board’s approval of the recommendation from the Zoning Board to allow Mark Kling a variance to build a 720 square foot box metal eave building at 902 Locust Street in Tarkio; the building taking up more than 30% of the back yard, by 120 square feet, more than allowed by the building codes of the City of Tarkio, Missouri. Poppa made a motion to accept the Zoning Board’s recommendation. Agnew seconded the motion, and three ayes approved the motion and the second. The motion passed.

Dow spoke to the board about the student resource officer position at the school. The council discussed speaking to the school about Tarkio having its own SRO instead of sharing the current SRO that works for the entire county. Chief Gibbons and Scott Poppa will be contacting the school to see about talking to the school board about some possibilities to make this happen to better assist the school and students.

Clerk Madron informed the board that the Airport Hangar Building Project plans have been started by MoDOT. They are double checking all the pricing in the proposal with the rising concrete and steel prices and will be coming to speak to the council at a later date to present their proposal.

Department Reports

Blu Dow, City Buildings – The ceiling in the attic at City Hall collapsed in one spot. Tommy Dow came and looked at it from the inside, but did not go onto the roof to check what the damage could be from. Roofers, Inc., the company that did the roof, will be coming to check the damage and see what all it will take to fix this issue.

Jeff Agnew, Fire Department – There was nothing to report.

Andy Riley, Parks and Pool – City employee Chris Niles, along with help from the street department, has been working hard to keep the city parks mowed and cleaned up. There has been some vandalism at both the Summa and Niedermeyer Parks recently. Niles is getting these things repaired. The new sink has been installed at Niedermeyer Park. There is a slide that has some damage due to weather and normal wear due to how old it is. Clerk Madron is working on getting information to have this taken care of. Until then, the slide has been red flagged as a safety hazard. The pool opened on June 3. There is a leak issue, but it will have to be handled after the pool closes for the year at the end of the summer. The Park Board is working on a new bleacher project for the Tarkio baseball field. They have been meeting with local contractors to try and get more specifics on this project.

Scott Poppa, Street Department – Quimby’s Report:

• Repairs/Equipment – The white dump truck is at Quality Auto waiting for repairs to the front brakes.

• Brush Pile – This area is being used frequently and properly.

• Street Project – Herzog has completed the street matting project within the contracted time allotted. Quimby is looking into hiring someone to have the parking stripes painted instead of the city crew doing it; the reason being that a company that does this knows how to lay them out so that they will be uniform and of proper width and depth.

• Ditches and Tubes – There have been several ditches and some curbs cleaned. The street crew has also installed one new tube in the alley on south 7th between Walnut and Pine streets. They will be installing another new one on 1st Street on the alley entrance that goes to Hy-Vee. They will have to clean the ditch along the street when they do this one. There are several tubes that Quimby is going to line up a fire truck and fireman (usually get Charlie) to blow out debris.

• Asphalt Fines – Herzog did a lot more milling than they are used to them doing so there were a lot of asphalt grindings. The street crew has been putting these in some of the alleys that are used a lot or that have issues with washing or rutting out. Quimby also did the whole road going to the dog pound to save the parks and street department money on gravel this year. He has a few more places where these could be used. After that, he is going to spread them out in the area used for parking across from the pool at the gravel lot.

• Fuel Cost – Quimby is keeping an eye on how much the city is spending on fuel and trying to find ways to conserve when possible. One way to save some fuel is they will not mow the empty lot south of the pool as often as they usually mow it once a week. He is going to change the schedule to once every two or three weeks. This is quickly becoming an issue for everyone and will affect how we budget incoming monies.

• Cold Patch – The city will be getting the storage area ready for cold patch and will order it soon. The city usually orders around 20 tons of this at a time. From what Quimby has seen this year while driving the streets, he is only going to order around 10 tons as he believes this will be enough.

• Laydown Yard – This is the area south of the ballfield that was graveled and used by people working on the windmills. They have completed their project and are in the process of clearing the area. When it is cleared, it will be available for use as another parking area for the baseball field.

Chris Hogue, Animal Control – Chris is on medical leave. Clerk Madron reported that there are currently no animals in the pound.

Chief Tyson Gibbons, Police Department – There have been several juvenile cases since school was let out that the PD is handling. Nic Schebaum graduates from the Police Academy on June 10. Clerk Madron will be swearing him in Saturday morning, June 11, for him to start his hands-on training with Chief Gibbons that day. The K-9 Golf Tournament is July 1. Teams can still sign up.

Clerk Madron, City Financials – Clerk Madron reported that the checks have been sent for the street matting projects.

Mayor Staten announced an executive session would be held per Chapter 610.021 Section 3 hiring, firing, disciplining or promoting a particular employee, etc. The meeting moved into executive session and was held. It then moved back into regular session.

Agnew made a motion to give Chris Niles a $1.00 per hour raise, increasing his pay from $14.76 per hour to $15.76 per hour. Poppa seconded the motion and three ayes approved the motion and the second. Chris Niles’ raise was approved.

The meeting adjourned at 7:00 p.m. The next regular meeting will be July 13, 2022, at 6:00 p.m.