The City of Tarkio Board of Aldermen met Wednesday, May 10, 2023, at 6:00 p.m. at Tarkio City Hall. The Pledge of Allegiance was conducted. Roll call was done by City Clerk Danielle Madron: aldermen Scott Walker, Jeff Agnew, Blu Dow, and Jeff Olson were all present. Visitors were: City of Tarkio employees – Street Superintendent Jamie Quimby, Police Chief Tyson Gibbons, Parks employee Chris Niles, and Building Inspector Jesse Payne; Park Board President Ashlee Driskell; Tarkio Board of Public Works employee Curtis Hedrick; and Tarkio citizens Tiffany Eddy, Sherry Bowlin, Barb Swinford, Gerry Tohill, Tammy and Tony Grossman, Sid Cooper, Megan McAdams, Dallas Prather, Sandra and JoAnne Kaelin, Bob Prestyly, Sharon McCall, Amy and Richard Weidenaar, and Mike Klosek, Sr.

Mayor Staten opened the public hearing at 6:01 p.m. referencing the proposed “no parking” ordinance for Main Street from 6th Street to 10th Street.

Several residents who live on Main Street expressed that they are in favor of the proposed ordinance due to safety and aesthetic reasons. There have been many near miss accidents due to vehicles being parked on the street and drivers not being able to see around parked cars. There are a few concerns that no parking on Main Street will just move the issue to a side street. Councilwoman Dow stated that this is something she has been working on to get fixed for many years and that the council is trying to make changes that are in the best interest of everyone. Amy Weidenaar asked how and when the ordinance would be enforced, and the possible costs the residents will have to take on to make parking available on their property rather than on the street. Mrs. Weidenaar stated that there are stipulations when it comes to cutting curbs to provide for new gravel driveways to be placed in the yards, which would put more costs on the homeowners, costs that some of them are not able to afford. Richard Weidenaar stated parking should not be changed on Main Street, as it has been always been allowed before. Mayor Staten thanked everyone for their input on the proposed ordinance.

Mayor Staten closed the public hearing at 6:30 p.m.

Mayor Staten asked for the approval of the regular meeting minutes from April 12, 2023. Agnew made a motion to approve the minutes from the April 12 meeting and the motion was seconded and approved.

Dallas Prather with Tarkio Renewal informed the City Council that Tarkio Renewal would be planting the flower pots on Main Street next week and they had signs to put in them to recognize the graduating class of Tarkio High School and classes coming back for THS alumni weekend this month.

Mayor Staten read by title Bill No. 298.23 Ordinance 284.23 “An Ordinance Prohibiting Parking On The North Side Of Main Street From 6th To 10th Streets.” Dow made a motion to approve Bill No. 298.23 Ordinance 284.23. The motion was seconded and approved.

Mayor Staten gave the second reading of Bill No. 298.23 Ordinance 284.23. Dow made a motion to approve Bill No. 298.23 Ordinance 284.23. The motion was seconded and approved by all. Bill No. 298.23 Ordinance 284.23 was adopted.

The City Council made the decision to give residents living on Main Street 30 days to comply with the new ordinance. The ordinance will take effect on June 9, 2023. This will give residents time to prepare other places to park on their properties, other than the street.

Street Superintendent Jamie Quimby suggested cancelling this year’s street matting project and doing an extended project in 2024. Waiting until next year will give the city a chance for a better rate due to the project being larger. The council agreed to wait until next year and do a larger project.

Clerk Madron gave the council members copies of the lease agreement that is signed with the school yearly for use of the baseball field. The council would like to review the agreement and make some changes. Agnew stated he would like to check into having a sit-down meeting with school officials or the school board members to discuss some changes that could make this lease work better for both parties.

The council reviewed the current employee handbook and made some suggestions for changes to the policy. Clerk Madron will make some of these changes and bring it back to the council next month for the changes to be reviewed and approved.

Blu Dow asked the council about the ordinance pertaining to single wide trailer homes within city limits. Tiffany Eddy has asked Tarkio Renewal if she can buy one of their properties to put a trailer home on it. There is an ordinance stating single wide trailers cannot be placed on properties in town; however, Chief Gibbons and Building Inspector Jesse Payne informed Mrs. Eddy that she could take the matter to the Zoning Board for approval. Clerk Madron informed Mrs. Eddy of the steps in the zoning process. Tarkio Renewal has a meeting next week where they will discuss selling the lot. Clerk Madron will help Mrs. Eddy with the process after the decision is made by Tarkio Renewal.

Blu Dow, Tarkio City Buildings – The city is looking for someone to do the tuckpointing on the front of City Hall. Dow will be contacting contractors to get some pricing for this project.

Jeff Agnew, Tarkio Volunteer Fire Department – The fire department was able to view a fire truck last week. This truck is the same type of truck the department is interested in purchasing. Department members liked the truck and would like to move forward with exploring options to get funding for the truck.

Chris Niles, Tarkio Parks & Pool – Some small repairs have been made at the pool. The hole in the pool will be repaired at the end of this week. Painting has been started and will be completed at the beginning of next week. The pool will be filled as soon as these repairs and painting are finished. The baseball concession stand brought in $549.55 from sales at the baseball field on Tuesday night. The Park Board’s next big event will be the baseball tournament on Memorial Day weekend.

Scott Walker, Street Department: Quimby’s Report:

• Brush Pile: This area has seen an uptick in use with the warm spring like weather. Quimby did stop someone from dumping brush here that was bringing it from another town.

• Potholes: He will be ordering cold patch soon for summer use.

• City-Wide Clean-Up: This project was completed the week of May 1-5. A total of 20.75 tons of items were disposed of. Quimby is once again going to propose changes to this as rules are not being followed. There are items put out that are listed as not allowed. There are still bodily fluids being put out and things are not being put out neatly so that they can be grabbed with the machine. Thus, many of these piles had to be loaded by hand. Some of these piles were a dump truck load alone and some were even a bit more than a dump truck load. The clean-up crew was able to finish in the timeframe allotted for this project, but they worked straight through every day except Monday to get it done, and they were allowed to dump later into the afternoon than they were supposed to.

• Tube At Baseball Field: The tube at this location has been replaced at the ditch going down the hill so that it should drain better.

• Parks Department: Chris Niles assisted the street guys with the clean-up. Without him, it would have been much more difficult. The street crew has been assisting Chris with mowing to help him catch up and keep up with the parks.

• Pick-up: The pick-up that was ordered for the street department has been built and is currently on a train in Kentucky. Quimby has been given the VIN number of the vehicle. The dealership hopes to have it within a month and then it will go in to have the snow blade, wiring and other snow removal controls installed.

• Trees On Main Street: Three of the businesses on Main Street have contacted Quimby about the trees that are still in the sidewalks. They want them removed. They stated that the trees are cracking the sidewalk, doing damage to their buildings and creating a nasty mess with bird feces.

• Mental Health Event: On May 20, there is a mental health event on Main Street taking place from 4th to 5th street. Quimby is making sure that there are enough barricades available, and will have them staged prior to the event so that they just have to be set out.

Curtis Hedrick, Tarkio Board of Public Works – Work has been completed to get the meter run out to the McEnaney property by the Tarkio Golf Course. The meter is not turned on yet, but is ready when he wants it turned on. The water company has been assisting contractors at Jensen Hall at Tarkio Tech to prepare for water lines to be run to the building. Curtis asked the board to keep informing the community to not flush flushable wipes or paper towels down the toilet. This causes clogging issues and problems at the lift stations.

Mark Staten, Gould Peterson Municipal Airport – The notice to proceed has been signed and sent back to MoDOT.

Chris Niles, Tarkio Animal Control – There were no animals picked up this month.

Tyson Gibbons, Tarkio Police Department – The prescription drug take back initiative netted 103 pounds of unwanted prescription meds over the last six months and during the April 22 event. This event helps prevent introduction of medication into the water table if the meds are flushed, and keeps unused medication, especially opioids, off the streets. The trespassing in the City Parks has been addressed and is still being monitored. New signs were put up by the park superintendent to reinforce that the parks are closed during certain hours over night. Prep for the K-9 golf tournament on July 14 is underway.

Danielle Madron, Tarkio City Financials – The city audit was completed on May 3 and 4. The auditor will be back in July to present the audit to the council. The city paid $2,280.00 for the fire department cancer policy. MIRMA has reimbursed the city $1,482.00 for 2023. Every year, MIRMA will reimburse a percentage of the cost to the city. Clerk Madron will be gone the week of May 21-26 at a court clerk conference.

After a break was taken, 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.

Following discussion, the meeting moved out of executive session and back into regular session.

Dow made a motion to increase Chris Niles’ pay from $16.23 and hour to $16.75 an hour. The motion was seconded and approved by all.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:30 p.m. Next month’s regular meeting will be June 14, 2023, at 6:00 p.m.