Notes from the Butler City Council meeting Tuesday night
President of the Airport Commission, Dennis Jacobs, with airport meetings in alternate months at 6:30 p.m.
Chairman of the Police Personnel Board, Danny Robinson, meetings when called for...
Chairman of the Planning Commission, Rob Hattan, meetings the 2nd Tuesday at 7:30...
Chairman of the Zoning Board of Adjustment, Denny Appleberry, meetings on call
Chairman of the Parks & Recreation Commission, John Daniel, meetings the 1st Thursday at 12 noon...
The Industrial Marketing Commission will be chaired by Wayne Rives, meeting the 2nd Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
The Cemetery Commission will meet at the Mayor's call...no chairman named...
The Industrial Development Authority's president will be Earl Van Slyke, meeting annually on the 4th Tuesday in March, at 7:30 p.m. and the neighborhood Advisory Commission's chairman will be Bob Conley, with meetings the 1st and 3drd Monday at 7:30.
These people meet with no fanfare and no thanks for their efforts, other than the satisfaction of helping our community. And this 100 or so volunteers, at no pay, are just a small portion of the people of our city who help keep the town operating smoothly.
Another person whose job is never finished, is Code Enforcement Officer, Jim Wheatley. His report for June shows 15 area eyesores taken care of, but with 16 new addresses that need service or cleanup...Wheatley noted that total fines up to this time for this year amount to $515 dollars, and Four places have been ticketed, as well as seven needing court action, and with 11 problem properties with such problems as a dispute over property lines, or being set for demolition, or some other problem.
A request by Eugene Miller, through his attorney, Todd Wilhelmus, got an ok from the City Council. Due to handicap problems, Miller and his wife have difficulty in moving to and from their vehicle to the house, and had asked in a letter to the Council, for permission to park the vehicle on the yard, closer to the entrance to the house. The Council realized that there must be exceptions to all rules when circumstances enter into the picture, and has allowed the request.
A request by Eugene Miller, through his attorney, Todd Wilhelmus, got an ok from the City Council. Due to handicap problems, Miller and his wife have difficulty in moving to and from their vehicle to the house, and had asked in a letter to the Council, for permission to park the vehicle on the yard, closer to the entrance to the house. The Council realized that there must be exceptions to all rules when circumstances enter into the picture, and has allowed the request.
The energy improvements being made with the Butler city limits will continue, as the City has given the ok to the Gallagher and McKinstry Company to go ahead. These improvements are financed with low interest loans of 190 thousand dollars, approved by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. The energy cost savings from making these improvements is guaranteed to McKinstry and is used to pay back the loans.
The question of re-zoning a portion of West Fort Scott Street has come to a close, with one address to be re-zoned. The property of Al Hellebuyck at 904 West Fort Scott Street will be changed from R-2 single-family, to C-3 Highway Commercial District. The other addresses, lying between the railroad and Rice Road, will not change at this time.
And Butler is still in the running to get a grand for unsafe structures to be demolished. The state has requests amounting to one-and-a-half million dollars, but only has 750 thousand dollars to allot. But our request has made the cut so far, and City Administrator Mark Arbuthnot said that a team has come to look at our needs, and their making a trip to Butler is encouraging. He said we should hear within 90 days, whether we get a grant or not.
We continue to be thankful for our own power plant, because we were able to handle a request a few days ago, when MoPEP asked us to run our generators, to help during a high temperature time for our area. With the extended high temperatures all over the Midwest, if the amount of electricity required gets too high, Butler is able to generate its own power, to keep us below a level that would put us in a higher cost bracket. City Administrator Arbuthnot said we had not gotten to that point when the request was made, but were able to keep us in a safe area, to be safe.
And on the subject of power, our light plant requires batteries that have to be replaced from time to time, and this is the need at this time. Weisler and Associates will handle that need for a little over 11 thousand dollars, and since the city had 15 thousand dollars budgeted for a water/oil separator for storm water discharge, the Council will dip into that budget, to take care of the battery need, and can let the separator wait for the time being.
-story by FM 92 the Bullet
