The Osage Beach Board of Aldermen has now utilized their full $10,000 budgeted allotment to fund four different events they anticipate will increase economic growth in the city.
On March 3, the aldermen approved $2,000 in event support from the city to help fund this year's Lake of the Ozarks Bikefest, scheduled for Sept. 15-18 with activities happening throughout the tri-country region, including Osage Beach.
With $8,000 left in the 2016 city budget dedicated to community event support, the aldermen had three additional event funding requests to consider at its May 19 meeting. The first, a $3,000 funding request for the inaugural Festival of Speed held in Osage Beach, was a tabled from the board's May 5 meeting.
A kick-off community event for Lake Race 2016, Festival of Speed will invite the community to a free on-street festival on a portion of Osage Beach Parkway west of the Grand Glaize Bridge. The event includes a wide range of activities including vendors, boat and car displays, interactive exhibits and games for adults and children, food, drinks and refreshments, and live entertainment from 4-9 p.m. Thursday, June 2.
Before the May 19 meeting, Festival of Speed organizers had brought back the detailed budget items aldermen requested to review before making their decision to support funding for the event.
Aldermen Phyllis Marose brought up a question in postponing approving an $5,000 event funding request to support the 2018 Can-Am Police and Fire Games, allowing aldermen to allocate more money into the community event support fund for next year's city budget this fall. Aldermen Kevin Rucker said there is no guarantee that amount could be budgeted for next year and it was not right to encumber a future Board of Aldermen with ensuring the event is funded at a later date on a decision made previously.
"Whatever we do, we have to do with the money we have and the decision we have before us," he said.
After aldermen discussed the possibility of funding a specific item in the Festival of Speed overall budget and some other issues, Aldermen Jeff Bethurem made a motion to amend the ordinance to allocate $2,000 toward the event, instead of the original $3,000 request. The board unanimously passed the motion, as well as first and second readings of the ordinance to give $2,000 of the city's budgeted fund to the Festival of Speed.
The inaugural Firefighter Combat Challenge planning committee also requested $2,500 for event funding support from the city. This event is scheduled Sept. 24-25 at Osage Beach Premium Outlets in Osage Beach. According to the committee's event support request application, the challenge seeks to encourage firefighter fitness and demonstrate the profession's rigors to the public, by completing vigorous obstacle course in full gear. It also promotes families and kid safety with a kid's challenge, as well as other activities.
Rucker made a motion to amend the ordinance for the city to give $1,000 to support the event, in which the Board unanimously approved.
Leaving $5,000 left the city's community event support fund, the final event request before the aldermen May 19 was for the Can-Am Police and Fire Games, which is scheduled for June 25-July 1, 2018 in various locations throughout the Lake Area. According to the planning committee's application, the Can-Am Police and Fire Games is an Olympic-styled competition among first responders during a seven-day period. The event offers 43 sports and more than 60 events, including social activities in the evening. Fifteen of the sports will take place in Osage Beach, with the host hotel, Tan-Tar-A Resort, housing thousands of visitors who will spend money in the Osage Beach tax district, the application said. The board unanimously approved granting the $5,000 event funding request.
In other board business
Also on May 19, the board of aldermen approved 3-2 to pass the second reading of a request to adopt the 2012 International Residential Code and make exceptions to that code, amending the restriction prohibiting horizontal rails on single-family dwellings.
About 90 days ago, the first reading of the request was passed by the board 5-1, with Rucker voting against the amendment. On May 19, Bethurem, who requested the ordinance, Marose and Alderman Tom Walker all voted in favor of approving the second reading of the adopted 2012 code. Rucker, again, along with Alderman Ron Schmitt, voted against it.
Additional items the board passed included:
the first reading of changing zoning regulations to meet proper group home spacing requirements and amending Osage Beach Municipal Code to provide an accommodation policy and procedure that allows a proper avenue for appeal;
installing two stop signs on Inlet Lane at the Greenwood Circle, creating a four-way intersection and traffic control; and
authorizing the mayor to execute a contract for the under budget purchase and installation of a Stewart Signs Tekstar full-color LED display at the entrance to Osage Beach City Park for $29,940.
The board also approved Mayor John Olivarri's board representation recommendations to city boards and commissions. The following aldermen and city staff will serve on boards and commissions: Alderman Walker on the Planning Commission, Aldermen Marose on Liquor Control Board, Alderman Schmitt on Joint Sewer Board, Alderman Rucker on TIF Commission, Olivarri and City Administrator Jeana Woods on Dierbergs TDD, Olivarri on Lake of the Ozarks Council of Local Governments and Woods on L.O. Solid Waste District.
Olivarri's citizen appointments to city committees, boards and commissions were also approved. Those appointments are: Gloria O'Keefe for a five-year term on the Board of Zoning Adjustment; re-appointment of Kevin Carter for a five-year term on the Board of Appeals; re-appointment of Gloria O'Keefe, Geniece Tyler, Roger Rand, Jim Morris and Brian Schuster for two-year terms on the Citizens Advisory Committee; reappointment of Gary Hamner for a three-year term on the Joint Sewer Board; Collector and Chairman John Berry, Police Chief Todd Davis and Planning Commission Chairman Jerry Fox for one-year terms to the Liquor Control Board; reappointment of Ron Rule for a four-year term to the TIF Commission and two new four-year term positions to the Planning Commission for Tony Kern and Alan Blair.