The City of Tarkio Board of Aldermen met Wednesday, May 8, 2024, at Tarkio City Hall. Roll call was taken by City Clerk Danielle Madron: aldermen Scott Walker, Blu Dow, and Jeff Olson were present. Visitors were: City of Tarkio employees – Police Chief Tyson Gibbons, Police Officer Tyler Dorrel, Animal Control Officer/Park Superintendent Chris Niles, and Street Superintendent Jamie Quimby; Tarkio Board of Public Works employees Curtis Hedrick, Danny Martin, and Samantha Voltmer; and citizens Laura Gibbons, and Dan and Sally Vietze.

Minutes of the regular meeting April 10, 2024, were approved.

Two additional items were added to the agenda: cemetery/sidewalk questions and concerns from citizens; and approving manager, co-manager, lifeguards, and junior lifeguards and pay rates that were approved by the Park Board.

Mayor Agnew asked the council to approve the appointment of James Navin, Jr. to the vacant South Ward Alderman position. He will complete the two-year term that was recently vacated by Jeffrey Agnew. The aldermen voted unanimously to approve the appointment. Navin will be sworn in by City Clerk Madron later this week.

Tyler Dorrel asked the council for permission for the youth wrestling board to use either the baseball field or the sand volleyball pit at the tennis courts to host a fundraiser for their youth wrestling program. They do not have any dates set for their fundraiser yet. He asked if the event adults could bring their alcoholic beverages to the event. The council stated that if alcohol was going to be at the event, the youth wrestling would have to have a licensed vendor come in to sell the alcohol, since there would be underage attendees. The aldermen voted to allow the youth wrestling program to use either location for their event.

In 2021, The Tarkio Special Road District asked to purchase three lots located at 107, 109, and 111 Walnut Street in Tarkio for the purpose of putting up a new shop. The Tarkio Special Road District purchased these lots from the city for $1.00. The district has decided they no longer want this property and has asked to give it back to the city. A quit-claim deed was signed in 2021 by the city and special road district, but the district never filed the deed with the county. The council asked Clerk Madron to send the information to the city attorney to get the proper information on how the city needs to proceed and make sure it has the proper paperwork in place for these lots to be given back to the city.

The city received two bids for the 2024 street matting project. The bid packet was to include street overlay from 4th Street down to the east end of 1st Street, and to do the parking spot markings. Approved Paving, LLC out of Atchison, Kansas, turned in a bid of $135,000.00. This was for 900T of asphalt at $150.00 a ton. The council questioned if this bid included the street markings in their total cost, since it was not itemized out in the bid. Quimby stated that he believed so, as he met with the bidder when they came to town to measure the street to make their bids. The second bid was from Herzog out of St. Joseph, Missouri. Their bid was in the amount of $180,720.00. This bid included 954T of asphalt at $180.00 per ton, equaling $171,720.00 and pavement marking for parking stalls at $9,000.00. The council asked Clerk Madron to reach out to Approved Paving, LLC and ask them to itemize their bid so the council can make a more informed decision on which bid to approve. A special meeting will be held once this information is received.

Mayor Agnew informed the council about a lawsuit that has been filed. Jeanette J. Glenn, as Trustee, and her Successors in interest thereto, of the JJG Trust vs. Tarkio Board of Public Works and the City of Tarkio, Case No. 23AT-CC0040. Clerk Madron informed the board that MIRMA offers cost of defense coverage up to $10,000. MIRMA would retain defense counsel on the city’s behalf and pay their fees up to $10,000. If the defense exceeds that amount, the city would be responsible for paying legal fees over the $10,000 threshold. The aldermen voted unanimously to approve the use of the cost of defense coverage through MIRMA.

City Hall has received several phone calls regarding the gates at the cemetery being closed during the day. Citizens are having to take down a chain on the west side of the cemetery to enter the cemetery and the north gate is closed most of the time. While the city is not in control of the cemetery, Clerk Madron has also received phone calls from a concerned citizen who is in a motorized wheelchair and uses the cemetery as his way to get into town from his apartment, as driving his chair on the highway is his only other option. There are no sidewalks on the side of the highway for him to use, and with the gate closed on the north side of the cemetery, he has to travel through the grass on someone’s property to go around the closed gate. The property owner does not want him traveling through their yard. Agnew mentioned that he had recently spoken to Scott Morehouse about possible options to having the gate open during the day. The council discussed possible options as well, such as putting in a small path for travel around the gate for a motorized wheelchair or bicycle, and other possibilities. The council would like to meet with the cemetery board to discuss possible options and solutions to these concerns.

Clerk Madron presented the council with the approved manager, co-manager, lifeguard, and junior lifeguard applicants and pay rates that the Park Board approved on April 29. The Park Board approved Terry Wooten for manager at $14.00 per hour; Paige Agnew for co-manager at $13.00 per hour; Addison Noland, Dylan Drummond, Claire Martin, and Teagen Wennihan as lifeguards; and Jaeka Wiley and Kennedy White as junior lifeguards. The park board approved pay rates as follow: new lifeguards at $9.50 an hour with returning guards at $10.00 per hour; new junior lifeguards at a rate of $8.00 per hour and returning junior lifeguards at $8.50 an hour. Blu Dow suggested that manager and co-manager pay should be the same rate, since they essentially have the same job. Dow made a motion to pay the manager and co-manager at the rate of $14.00 per hour and approve applicants and other pay rates as presented. The motion was seconded and approved by all.

Department Reports

Blu Dow, City of Tarkio Buildings – Travis Hicks will be giving an estimate to fix the frame around the door at the Tarkio Community Building. The council discussed the need for repairs and improvements to the community building and decided the repairs will be of top priority with funds from the capital improvement tax once funds are available. This will not be done until the new fire truck has been purchased and paid off with the capital improvement tax.

Jeff Agnew, Tarkio Volunteer Fire Department – Fire Chief Keaton Shaw attended the MIRMA firefighter training on mental health. He will be sharing the information from his classes with the fire department.

Jeff Olson, Parks & Pool – Chris Niles reported that work to the crow’s nest is nearly complete. The inside needs one more coat of paint. KC Gunite was going to start painting the pool at the beginning of the week, but with the large amount of rain, they had to pump water out of the pool first. They have been pressure washing the pool and will be painting by the end of the week. A large majority of the work was done in February and March, and they should be completing the work on schedule. The sign for the baseball field that will have all the names of the people who donated to the baseball field renovation project is in the works. Tarkio Gas Service, Rock Port, has been donating propane for use at the baseball concession stand. The council thanked Tarkio Gas Service and Dan Vietze for all his help with the baseball field, his tech support skills, and at the baseball concessions.

Scott Walker, City Streets – Quimby’s Report:

• Rip Rap – The county has taken eight dump truck loads of rip rap this last month.

• Brush Pile – This is being used a lot which is normal for this time of year.

• Brightspeed – Quimby contacted them because they were digging holes in streets in a couple of areas. He let them know how he wanted them to repair what they had done and that it would be prudent of them to let the city know when they are going to dig in the street.

• Potholes – The street crew has continued to try and keep up with filling in potholes. Depending on nighttime temperatures, Quimby should be ordering cold patch by the end of the month.

• Curb Project – This project has started and is progressing. The recent rains have caused a bit of a slow-down, but it is moving forward. The crew has been trying to keep up with cleaning up debris as the demo work is done.

• Tree Removal – Two trees were removed from the corner of 6th and Chestnut. These were maple trees that were losing limbs in the high winds and were dangerous.

• Driveway – Quimby was approached by a resident that was wondering if the money available through the city for sidewalk repairs/replacement applied to driveways. Clerk Madron and Quimby could not find a clear answer to this.

• Barricades – The crew provided barricades for the alley between 7th and 8th at Main and Broad streets because of a gas leak caused by a boring crew installing fiber for Brightspeed. There is a drain pipe on Pine Street that will be getting jetted at the end of the week to clear debris. Hopefully, this will help control any flooding in the area if we have more heavy rains.

Curtis Hedrick, Tarkio Board of Public Works – Hedrick wanted to put out a reminder that flushable wipes are not really flushable and they cause issue to the sewers. Please refrain from flushing them! More testing will be done this time of year on the lagoons. These frequent tests are done every year at this time. Missouri Rural Water personnel will be going around Tarkio on June 11 and mapping all the meters and valve boxes in town.

Jeff Agnew, Gould Peterson Municipal Airport – Agnew had nothing to report.

Chris Niles, Animal Control – The animal control pound building has been flooded after each of the rain storms we have had recently. The mud and water have been cleaned up from inside the building. There have been no animals in the pound recently.

Tyson Gibbons, Tarkio Police Department – Chief Gibbons recently attended the annual chiefs conference. The K-9 Golf Tournament is scheduled for July 27. The drug takeback initiative netted approximately 75 pounds of expired or unused prescriptions and over-the-counter medications to be disposed of in the proper manner.

Danielle Madron, City Financials – No financial questions were asked. Clerk Madron reminded the board that she would be out of the office May 16 for a clerks meeting and would be gone for a court conference May 19-24. Deputy clerks will be covering these days in the office. Madron reminded everyone that the Mental Health Fair was scheduled for May 18. Clerk Madron asked for permission to purchase a small voice recorder to be used at council meetings to help with retaining information for meeting minutes. Her request was approved.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:31 p.m. Next month’s regular Tarkio Board of Aldermen meeting will be held Wednesday, June 12, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. at Tarkio City Hall.