The big news from the Butler City council is the budget for the coming year, but we'd like to open the council news, to give an opinion that the best piece of beautification this city has had in recent memory, was planting the Bradford pear trees along the Butler Strip. For the past several days, that street has been a beautiful flowery scene that any community would be proud to imitate. It has been a pleasure just to drive it, and now it will move into another pretty scene...summer green.
And so we should offer our congratulations to MoDOT...(the Missouri Department of Transportation)...it was their idea back about 1997. And of course that's because our Butler Strip, Orange Street, is Highway 71 business district, so they're in charge of it.
Now to the more important story...not as pretty, but even MORE necessary...Butler's City Budget for the coming fiscal year which begins April 1st...It's up about 17 thousand dollars over last year, but you can blame federal and state regulations that hound us.
This past year's budget was just over 13 million dollars, while the new budget is coming in at 14-point-six million, so the city has done well to keep the coming year at around 17 thousand dollars, as we mentioned.
Those federal and state regulations include requirements at the power plant, the water treatment plant and the wastewater treatment plant, the airport, and the sanitary sewer collection system. And remember...they don't LIVE it...they just spend our tax money!
Your mayor and city council spends many hours wrestling with keeping the city in the black without raising the cost of living in our community too much. One that won't go away is an estimated 25 percent increase in sewer rates. The council will study this more closely before they make it official.
The City's Street and Sidewalk Improvement Plan continues with at least 31 projects in mind for the five-year plan. Upgrades and new installation is planned all over the community...costly, but necessary for the convenience and safety of residents. Of course, these hinge on keeping other projects in line, but we mention it to let you know that they don't forget these jobs that are needed, but have to give way at times to things that won't wait.
The need for a community center is still on the minds of the Visioning Committee. We've known for years that this is a good thing, and their overall study of the community agreed, putting it at the top of things we'd like to see happen.
Shannon Barth got the nod from the council regarding the Relay for Life project, which is scheduled for Saturday, June 9th around the Courthouse square...
Kathy Henderson, Girl Scout leader, also got an ok concerning a recycling event they want to hold around the courthouse square on Saturday, April 14th...
And Jon McCoy, who is with the McKinstry company, gave a review of the energy saving projects that will be completed with the low interest loan funds that the City has received.
Police Chief Jerry Boyd has hired Cory Cates for the police force. He's currently on the force of a community in Southeast Missouri. He'll go on duty April 1st.
And Randy Rader got the bid on haying on cemetery property, while Robert Shine will work the City Lake property.
One final note...the Council will continue with Tom Addleman Law Firm to provide City Attorney and City Prosecutor services to the city this coming fiscal year. He has provided these services to the City since April of 2010, and will continue with the same monthly retainer of 25 hundred dollars.
The Council's next meeting on April 3rd appears to be a normal one, but their meeting on April 17th will begin an hour early...at six p.m....due to public hearings to be held that evening. They'll start at six with a meeting on Wastewater System improvements and the sewer user fee increase, plus consideration of environmental impacts on the projects.
These public meetings are required for the City to utilize over 205 thousand dollars in construction funds that were left over from the Wastewater Treatment Plant improvements that were completed back in 2003.
Vance Neal, the engineer with the Larkin Group, will be at the public hearings to provide information and answer questions.
-story courtesy of FM 92 the Bullet
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