**Personnel Committee met to discuss the retirement of Mary Jo Cook and decide how to fill the position. Mary Jo has been an employee of the City of Butler for over 40 years- We thank her for her wonderful work and dedication! It was decided and officially voted on during regular session to promote Gayle Alexander to fill this City Office Manager position. Congratulations Gayle! It was also voted to put out a Job Opening notice for the Administrative Assistant position that Gayle will be vacating.
Furthermore, the council approved a final Job Description Position ad to run in the search for a City Administrator.
**City Owned Facilities Committee met and discussed the Sanitation Contract, the Senior Taxi and voted to accept a roof repair bid from SUN Construction to do some immediate, necessary repairs on the fire department building to stop the leaks. A committee including myself, Dale Newkirk, Jeff Hall, Linn Nitsche along with the fire chief and police chief was formed to start discussion on future options for our fire and police station buildings. After the council met with Patricia Pike last week, we were made aware of MANY potential grant options that are available for us to apply for that have NOT been taken advantage of. This is a VERY exciting project to me! I definitely think we can come up with some great solutions to our current building issues. I will keep you posted as we learn more!
**It was reported that the 2019 Street Project is almost complete! The contractor hopes to finish tomorrow! I think the completed streets are a great start to showing the citizens that we are moving foward in a good direction!
**It was reported that a contract for demolition of 114 E Dakota has been completed and should be in progress soon!
**The auditors have been performing their field work with the City and hope to wrap up by July 8th. They will present their full report in the fall.
**Some GOOD NEWS: MDNR notified the City that the current wastewater situation has been approved to be put on a 20 year compliance schedule. There will be future upgrades required to our Wastewater Treatment Plan or other solutions needed, BUT we now have TIME to PLAN for these options! There are potential grant matches with low interest funding options, etc that we will be researching as we start to develop a strategy once we learn more details of future requirements.
**Guest Carolyn Jett updated council on the Historic Preservation Committee that she is a member of. They have been compiling a list of historic buildings in town and are putting together resources to help the owners preserve these parts of Butler's history.
**Chamber of Commerce was granted approval for their July 27th Car Show on the Square as well as their Sept 7th Huckster's Day and BBQ event.
**There was discussion regarding the City's current Centurylink bill. It has come to light that the bill has not been reviewed for many years. Jerret Wheatley and Corey Snead are working diligently to get credit for old lines not in use as well as bundling services to significantly lower this bill and save some money. Well done!
**Another Town Hall Meeting was discussed and tentatively scheduled for Monday, Aug 12th at 7pm (as long as it does not interfere with any school functions planned and venue is available). We really appreciated those who attended and participated and we hope that we have many more attend this next one! It is so important that you let us know your ideas, thoughts, concerns and feedback so that we can make decisions that are in the best interest of the Citizens of Butler!
We are making progress, we are finding budget savings, we are planning for the future...we are working for YOU! Please stay informed and involved with us!
Sincerely,
Heather Diehl,
Ward 2 Councilwoman
