With 2023 finally arriving, the City of California Board of Aldermen jumped head-first into topics such as pool maintenance, the rejoining of organizations and sales tax on potential marijuana stores during its Jan. 3 meeting.
The city is reuniting with an organization it parted with several years ago. The aldermen decided to rejoin the Missouri Main Street Connection after the city was approached by the organization for membership. The Missouri Main Street Connection is an organization dedicated to helping revitalize a city's economy and local businesses with an emphasis on a historic district.
Before addressing the board's main agenda for the meeting, Alderman Buck Moody suggested three issues to the board -- whether to hire a city manager; the uneven balance of population within each ward; and an idea for a digital sign outside of city hall to notify residents of council meetings, city pool hours and other events.
- The board discussed the idea to incorporate a city manager to handle issues relating to California such as grants, city planning, etc. Although an official vote has not been made by the council, implementation of the position is not favored by members at this time.
- The city is looking to redraw ward lines after discovering an uneven percentage of voters within each area. By law, the city should have 33 percent of voters within each ward, however, 47 percent of voters live within Ward 3 of California while 53 percent are shared between Ward 1 and Ward 2. City attorney Ann Perry is currently studying the issue. Once lines are decided, then the decision will turn to the aldermen to confirm them.
- After recieving comments from the public asking for more information from the city, Moody suggested the digital sign as a way for the city to convey information to residents. However, this issue will be brought up during further meetings.
The board approved an ordinance related to legalization of recreational marijuana. According to Mayor Rich Green, voters approved a ballot measure for recreational marijuana, which allowed municipalities to impose a sales tax on any recreational marijuana sold within city limits. Members unanimously approved the ordinance for a 3 percent sales tax on marijuana sales, should stores open in the area; however, residents must also approve the measure during April's election.
Aldermen also approved maintenance measures regarding the city's indoor pool on West Stella Street. According to a report by Parks and Recreation supervisor Leslie Scheidt, the pool currently has mold and mildew growing within the building.
"When the pool is warmer than the air, then you get condensation and moisture. And we have to keep the pool warm enough to keep the little old ladies that use it from freezing," Green told the Democrat. "But the problem is our dehumidifier is broken, it's not called a dehumidifier, but it takes the moisture out of the air, and it's been broken now for about three months. Well we've had a terrible growth of mold and mildew which was already there, but now it's exploded."
California's Parks and Recreation Department has drained the pool and will be power washing the affected areas with cleaning material. In the meantime, Scheidt will be looking to get a quote for a new dehumidifer unit.
"We're also checking the pool to make sure it's viable because the pool is pretty old. It's 47 years old, and we're afraid it's going to need some pretty serious maintenance to keep it open," Green said. "We're already having problems with the roof and we've got some rust problems with stuff rusting up on the ceiling that's dropping into the pool and onto the deck. So we're trying to clean the deck, clean the walls, kill the mildew and kill it in our dressing rooms."
In other business:
- California Street Supervisor reported back to the board regarding the removal of an island in front of the California Elementary and Middle Schools. Maurer said it would be safe for the school district to remove and replace it with additional parking spaces if it wishes to do so.
- The board approved a bid from Gene Haile Excavating, Inc for the Windmill Ridge booster pump station to be built.
- California Police Chief Daniel Hurt reported Charlotte Friedmeyer is the new police clerk for the department.