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Several peopled filled the main room at Newton Hall during last week's Skidmore Board of Aldermen meeting. At left are Wallace McGinness, Soctt Clement and Rodney Allen from Monroe Township who secured approval to purchase a lot from the city. Shown at right, Dennis James along with other members of the Skidmore Ballpark Association talked about how the city handles renting the ball park.
Skidmore Alderman Marvin Sumy will retire from the board in April. He told The Forum that he has enjoyed his time on the board and serving the community.
Several peopled filled the main room at Newton Hall during last week's Skidmore Board of Aldermen meeting. At left are Wallace McGinness, Soctt Clement and Rodney Allen from Monroe Township who secured approval to purchase a lot from the city. Shown at right, Dennis James along with other members of the Skidmore Ballpark Association talked about how the city handles renting the ball park.
SKIDMORE, Mo. — As an April Missouri Department of Natural Resources deadline nears, Skidmore leaders approved entering into negotiations with McClure Engineering, of North Kansas City, to work on the city’s extended sewer project.
The city received an official Missouri DNR letter of warning regarding its surprise inspection of the city sewer plant in late January.
City employee Cassie Partridge reported five major findings.
The first finding was for failure to develop, maintain and implement an operational and maintenance manual for the sewer facility at the time of the inspection. It was created last month by Jonathan Eckstein of PeopleService and sent to DNR.
“There’s no more action required on that,” Partridge said.
The second finding was the city’s failure to develop and implement a program for maintenance and repair of the collection system, a Capacity Management Operations and Maintenance program, which is required.
A CMOM provides a comprehensive framework to the collection system owner for planning and executing work, cost-effectively protecting and public health and the environment, according to the DNR website.
Partridge told board members that Eckstein offered to create the program for four additional billable hours of work. She believed that rate of pay would be $75 per hour.
“I can’t do it by myself, so I would have to have help,” Partridge said. “... It has to be done and then we have to have that sent into DNR by April 7.”
The third finding was failure to operate and maintain facilities to comply with the Missouri Clean Water Act and Law. She said the city has already been referred to the Department of Water Protection Program Compliance and Enforcement section.
“We just have to provide a written statement to them by April 7 of what we are doing to remedy this,” Partridge said.
The fourth finding was failure to protect potable water and allow an indirect connection in the wastewater treatment facility.
She had a hose connected at the time that should not have been. Now that she has removed it, photographed it and sent it to DNR, she said the city is back in compliance with that.
The fifth and final finding is that for every month from January 2022 through December 2022, the city failed to comply with effluent limits for total suspended solids, biochemical oxygen demand and E. coli in its wastewater system.
Partridge said they were supposed to get in touch with Sam Smith, the city’s enforcement case manager, to see what the city needs to send to DNR because all must be addressed by April 7.
“The violations are because the sewer plant is not working right,” Partridge said. “We’re aware of that. … but we are remedying all this with getting an engineer and getting on top this.”
Alderman Tim Slagle offered up the option of talking to some of the local people who have worked on the trickle wheel filter with the goal of maybe just getting it to work enough. He offered a file with schematics on the filter found by a local resident.
Partridge said she has reached out to the company that originally created the wheel, and it is no long in business. It had been purchased by another company in Aurora, Illinois.
“I understand, that people have their experience in there, and not to interrupt you, but the system has totally failed,” Partridge said. “... The parts that they know everything about are obsolete that we can’t get parts for.”
Slagle thought perhaps they could offer up a whole different way of making it run that doesn’t rely on gravity.
Fetterer asked if they had all these ideas, why haven’t they brought them up before.
Slagle said the device had been working up until recently.
“If you want to entertain that, then entertain it,” Fetterer said. “I’m concerned about the quality of our water. I’m concerned about us getting violations left and right. I just want it fixed. … I would hate for people to start getting sick because we’re still sitting around talking about it.”
“That’s exactly what I was saying,” Slagle responded.
Alderwoman Teresa Carter stopped the two, asking the two aldermen to “be professional.”
Partridge said she would ask Mary West-Calcagno, with Missouri Rural Water, about the next steps with the CMOM and letters to DNR.
Skidmore Alderman Marvin Sumy will retire from the board in April. He told The Forum that he has enjoyed his time on the board and serving the community.
Wallace McGinness, Scott Clement and Rodney Allen from Monroe Township asked the board if it would be interested in selling Lot 7 to them. Lot 7 is about 25 feet by 125 feet and is located south of Newton Hall, closest to the township building.
The township is purchasing a bigger dump truck and wants a place to store it.
“We could use the extra space,” Allen said.
Alderman Marvin Sumy asked if they had any idea what they’d pay for it. They said it will still need to be surveyed.
However, after a small amount of light haggling, agreed on $1,500. Board members approved the sale at $1,500.
Other news
The city approved hiring Slocum Electric to repair the electrical box at the ballpark for $850, down from the original estimate of $1,250 that also included additional work.
Board members approved paying Luke Coffelt for the dirt work he moved for the ballfield. “He hauled a lot of dirt,” said Alderwoman Kim Fetterer who joined the meeting by phone.
Partridge told the board that part of the large payment the city made to Pittsburgh Tank for the inspection last month also pays for the tank’s repair. The city would just have to drain it. The city may time that work to help flush the sewer system thanks to a suggestion by resident Tracy Shewey.
Slagle provided the city with a street report of some areas that needed gravel. He took some previous to the meeting to help fill in several potholes. The city is aware the streets need work, however, it was also mentioned that to keep the roads in shape, the city also needs to keep the ditches clear so water has a place to run.
Dennis James spoke to the board about how the city handles renting the ballpark to the Skidmore Ballpark Association. He and several others at the meeting have taken over running the association from the Smocks.
City Clerk Meagan Morrow told the board that 79 water meters are online with the SUBS computer system. Zenner has been to town helping to bring the system online.
The next meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Thursday, April 13 at Newton Hall.
