Owensville aldermen were holding a special closed session Tuesday evening as The Republican was going to press to discuss personal safety concerns of its employees during the new novel coronavirus pandemic sweeping the nation and the state.

Employee safety was a theme which came up during several points in different portions of the city’s meeting Monday held in a virtual setting through Zoom Meeting.

“We’re in uncharted waters here,” said Mayor John Kamler noting he was planning that exact discussion for the special session when employee health concerns were first mentioned.

Aldermen met April 6 in their regularly scheduled first meeting of the month but did so from their respective homes via the Zoom Meeting online process. Only City Clerk Bobbi Limberg was at City Hall due to limited broadband access from her rural Owensville home.

Ward 1 Alderman Kevin McFadden expressed health concerns for City Hall staff.

Workers there are already limiting access to the main lobby and requiring payments for city bills to be made through the drop box on the east end of the building or over the phone. Aldermen last met in person at City Hall on March 23.

“That will be on the discussion tomorrow night,” Kamler told McFadden. “We need to have a more cohesive plan that’s for sure.”

McFadden said he was especially concerned with what will happen if City Hall staff becomes incapacitated and city payroll is interrupted — even though it is an automated process for the most part.

City Marshal Robert Rickerd’s report conducted via Zoom from his house noted his patrolmen were regularly cleaning and disinfecting squad cars and office spaces. Despite the stay at home order from state government, he said his department has not seen the increase in domestic disturbances they had be concerned about.

Aldermen agreed it might be nice to reschedule the police department’s Easter egg hunt for sometime later this spring when social distancing restrictions are eased or lifted completely.

Aldermen were also scheduled to discuss a real estate issue during the closed session. The city’s attorney was expected to participate in the meeting via the Zoom program.

City suspends I&I inspections

Jeff Kuhne, the city’s Public Works director, on Monday told aldermen the city of New Haven was dividing its public works employees into separate crews and working 12-hour shifts on projects to limit their potential exposure to illness. Workers in the Franklin County river community were also limiting occupancy of vehicles to one person and were wearing personal protection equipment (PPE).

Kuhne told aldermen he did not feel comfortable continuing the city’s home inspections of basement floor drains and sump pumps at this time. He told aldermen he had two scheduled currently but wanted authorization from the board to postpone those for the time being.

He said called both property owners and the first question he was asked was would they still be charged the monthly surcharge the city is adding onto water and sewer bills until an inspection is completed. The city has been charging a monthly surcharge for those who have either not had an inspection or those who have not made required repairs as deemed necessary to their lateral sewer lines, or eliminated or rerouted sump-pumping systems which discharge stormwater into lateral sewer lines.

Those monthly charges have increased in $5 increments per year over the past three years. Starting at $10 a month, those without an inspection, or re-inspection following repairs, are paying up to $20 per month extra with the surcharge fee.

“If there’s a building out there that hasn’t been inspected it’s through no fault of ours,” said Kuhne.

McFadden quickly made the motion to forgo the monthly surcharge. Ward 2 Alderman Rob Borgmann, the board’s president, added to the motion in offering the second, saying it was for those customers who currently have inspections scheduled.

“For those that were scheduled,” said McFadden in agreement with Borgmann.

The motion carried on a 4-0 vote.

Kamler said he could also call the two residents affected by the action to explain it to them if needed.

The city enacted the inspection policy and the surcharges in response to a Department of Natural Resources abatement order on consent (AOC) agreement which mandates the city take steps to remedy excessive inflow and infiltration (I&I) of stormwater into the waste water treatment plant.

Aldermen award $462.442 in two

contracts for I&I improvements

Aldermen also unanimously approved two bid awards for I&I related improvements in two separate sewersheds.

Visu-Sewer of Missouri, LLC., of East St. Louis, Ill., was awarded a $152,299.20 contract to slip line a section of 12-inch clay sewer tile north of City Hall running toward Marvin Avenue and then along the creek toward Springfield Road.

Donald Maggi, Inc., Rolla, was awarded a contract worth $310,143.24 to dig up existing 6-inch clay lines south of Highway 28 and replace those with 8-inch PVC pipe.

Travis Hernandez, the city’s contracted engineer with Archer-Elgin, also participated in the virtual meeting and explained the bidding and award process. Aldermen had received a two-page memo from Hernandez prior to the meeting laying out the bidding tabulations along with spread sheets detailing quotes from six of the seven contractors who submitted price quotes.

Noting the city’s current budget year carried a $464,000 line item for I&I projects, Hernandez said the Maggi bid would need to be split up over two budget cycles including the current fiscal year which ends June 30 and funding for 2020-21 which begins July1.

Maggi’s bid for the entire project including the base bid and five options came to $511,578.48. Maggi’s bid was lower overall than the next closest bid which was submitted by Midstate Pipeline Maintenance out of Belle although Midstate’s base bid was lower.

Aldermen agreed and approved the suggestion from Hernandez to award the base bid and two of the options, A and B, to Maggie. The award can be extended through the use of a change order to include the options C, D, and E with funding the city will commit through the new fiscal year budget starting July 1.

Hernandez expects Maggi to complete the entire project in the same calendar year but was not sure if the Rolla contractor would do all six portions of the award in one mobilization to town. He did not think, however, the city would be charged a second mobilization fee if Maggi’s crew had to come back to town a second time to complete the entire project.

The slip-lining work awarded to Visu-Sewer and the dig and replace contract approved for Maggi combined will cost the city $462,442.44 of the $464,000 budgeted for the current fiscal year.

Aldermen also authorized Kuhne to begin ordering $16,508 worth of supplies for the Link Avenue water line and street project scheduled for this spring and summer. Schulte Supply, Inc., of Edwardsville, Ill., won the award by a difference of $1,230.91 over Core & Main from Columbia, Mo.

Kuhne told aldermen the project would begin as soon as the Department of Natural Resources approves the permit for the water line plans. He said the plan calls for city workers to install the new water main then begin site work on the new police station site along Highway 28 near the fire station. Then, once site work for the building site is completed, city crews will go back to Link to excavate and rebuild the road base for the two-block section of Link. The city hopes to begin building the police station by early June.

The bidding process could begin in late April.