City of Tarkio Board of Aldermen met Wednesday, June 14, 2023, at 6:00 p.m. at City Hall in Tarkio. 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 and Police Officer Dorrel; Tarkio Park Board President Ashlee Driskell; Tarkio Board of Public Works employee Curtis Hedrick; and city citizens Dallas Prather, Donnie Dockins, and Gerry Tohill.

The aldermen voted to approve the regular meeting minutes from May 10, 2023.

Dallas Prather informed the board that Tarkio Renewal received many compliments on the flower boxes and signs on Main Street for Tarkio High School Alumni weekend. She wanted to thank sponsors for keeping the flowers in the pots watered and looking nice.

Officer Dorrel spoke to the board about alcohol consumption at the Community Building when it is being rented out by patrons. The council decided a hold harm-less should be signed by every renter to release the city of any liability from injuries that may occur when the building is rented.

Clerk Madron informed the board that there were three applicants for the part-time parks position. Applicants were Anton Theas, Blake Harbin, and James Mather. Closed session would be needed to review the applications.

The council reviewed the changes to the city employee handbook that were presented at the May meeting. Alderman Olson asked for verbiage to be added to make the stipulations for bereavement days clearer. The new changes will be made and brought back to the board in July.

Jamie Quimby spoke to the board about the possibility of changing Sycamore Street from 6th to 7th from a street into an alley. This would essentially give the property owners some extra property and keep the alleyway open to residents. Dow made a motion to designate Sycamore Street from 6th to 7th streets as an alley. Olson seconded. Four ayes voted to approve the motion and the second. The motion passed. Clerk Madron will check into what all needs to be done to get this accomplished. A public hearing will be scheduled for July if needed.

Department Reports

Blu Dow, City Buildings – Travis Hicks will be installing the new evidence room door on Thursday. He has looked at the ceilings in City Hall that need to be repaired and will be getting the city an estimate for the work needed.

Jeff Agnew, Fire Department – There is now a fully staffed fire department with 25 members. The fire department has four pagers that need repairs and some that need replaced. They are $475.00 each. The rural board will pay for two pagers and the city will pay for two pagers. Total cost to the city should be around $950.00.

Parks & Pool, Chris Niles – Maintenance on the mowers has been kept up to date. There have been some fixes to the pool to keep any larger issues from occurring. There was an issue with the main pump and the water slide pump, but those have been fixed. The Park Board voted to get a small three-gallon hot water heater for the concession stand at the pool, so that there is hot water to clean utensils and for workers to wash their hands. Swim lessons will be in the evenings in July. Those dates will be released soon. A total of $11,247.48 is left in donations from the baseball field renovations fund. With the $2,800.00 brought in from baseball concessions so far this season, there should be approximately $15,000 to put towards renovations to the crow’s nest and concession stand at the ballfield. Sand for the volleyball court at the tennis courts will be here in 30-45 days. The Park Board asked the council to approve the appointment of Karly Hicks as a new member. Dow made a motion to approve the appointment, Agnew seconded. Four ayes voted to approve the motion and the second. The motion passed.

Street Department – Quimby’s Report –

• Repairs/Equipment: There have been no major repairs in the last month.

• Brush Pile: The brush pile has been used properly so far this season and no items of concern have been dumped.

• RV Park: There are no campers here at this time.

• Potholes: Cold patch arrived late last week the crew is starting to use it.

• Parks Department: The crew has assisted a bit with mowing and a little at the pool. There was a large limb that fell out of one of the cotton wood trees at Summa Park that the crew assisted in cleaning up.

• Pick-up: The new F350 has been delivered to the dealership and they are making arrangements to take it to Kansas City and have the snow blade installed.

• Street Name Plates: The remaining new name plates have arrived and are being installed. 11th Street is complete. Now they have to put in the locates for 12th Street and will do 13th after that. They are still waiting on some pieces of hardware so that the signage can be put together; the posts are being installed and the name plates will be placed as soon as the hardware arrives. When finished this year, all streets should have new or newer name plates, so next year Quimby can start to monitor and replace damaged or faded ones as needed.

• Basketball Court/Volleyball Pit: The dirt work on the south end of the basketball court has been completed. Jeff Olson has asked if Quimby could do some work to the volleyball area before the sand is added. He is going to try to get it done this week. Poles for the net should probably be installed before the sand. Quimby said he doesn’t know if they have been ordered or what the status is of that part of the project.

• Tree Removal & Trimming: One large tree on Broad Street was removed because it was a danger. The crew has started trimming low hanging branches and they have trimmed six dump truck loads so far. Quimby has budgeted for a grapple bucket for the skid steer. He would like to purchase one that is made in Clarinda, Iowa, at CL Fab. It is well made and would cost just under $5,000. This would make it much easier to clean up small debris when they are cutting or trimming trees. It would also assist after severe storms in clean up.

• Rodeo Weekend: Flags were hung on Main Street for the Tarkio Rodeo weekend; the small baseball field was flagged off so that no one would park there for the rodeo. Traffic cones were provided for the bike rodeo held at the bank parking lot on Saturday, June 10.

• No Parking Signage: The signage for Main Street on the north side from 6th to 10th Street has been updated to match the new ordinance.

Curtis Hedrick, Tarkio Board of Public Works – There have been a few issues down at the lagoons, but repairs have been made and the problems are fixed. A total of 292,000 gallons of water have been used at the pool as of Monday, June 12. This includes the pool fill up. Public Water Supply District #1 is trying to work out a deal to get Nodaway County to join and become a Tier 2 member. Adding new members would possibly make the water rates for our area sustainable for a longer period of time. There is a meeting June 27 at 1:00 p.m. at the water plant in Rock Port that residents are encouraged to attend to get more information on this topic.

Mark Staten, Gould Peterson Municipal Airport – Work has begun on the new hangar building at the airport. The air show is July 8.

Chris Niles, Animal Control – There was one dog at the pound. After it served its seven day stray hold, it was taken to the Atchison County Veterinary Clinic in Tarkio and placed under the Paw Prints fund account. It was then scanned for a microchip and was found to have one. After the owner was called, but failed to make contact with the clinic to claim, the dog was picked up and transferred to the Kansas City Pet Project shelter in Kansas City, Missouri, where it had been chipped in the first place.

Tyson Gibbons, Police Department – The board was presented with the activity numbers for this month. Chief Gibbons is out on leave for two weeks due to surgery. Reserve officers helped cover shifts to make sure there is continued patrol of the city streets.

Danielle Madron, City Financials – There was nothing to report.

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 entered into executive session. After discussion, the executive session ended.

The meeting moved back into regular session. Agnew made a motion to hire James Mather at the rate of $14.00 an hour, after the pre-employment drug screen has been completed. Four ayes voted to approve the motion and the second. The motion passed.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:18 p.m. Next month’s regular meeting will be July 12, 2023, at 6:00 p.m.