Jim Stacy appointed to fill open city council seat

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

By Ralph Pokorny

Nevada Daily Mail

Tuesday night the council voted unanimously to appoint Jim Stacy to fill the seat that was vacated by the death of Mike Straight. Stacy will serve the remaining 10 months of Straight's term.

Stacy was a member of the city council in the late 1980s.

Additional news was released when City Manager Craig Hubler told the council that the rumors are true -- the spec building in the Nevada Industrial Park may have a buyer. At least the city and the Nevada Business League hope so.

"We have a prospective employer considering buying the spec building," Hubler said.

The company, which builds prefabricated interior walls for housing units, needs a railroad spur running near the building to accommodate future plans, Hubler noted.

He told the council that the city would like to apply for a Community Development Block Grant to cover the cost of constructing the needed rail spur that will run parallel to the current rail line and serve the entire industrial park.

"The 125 jobs the company will have qualifies for a $500,000 CDBG," he told the council.

Hubler said that he has been involved in building rail spurs in the past "I did this 12 years ago and they are very expensive facilities. I think $500,000 is a good guess at the cost," he said.

Tuesday night the Nevada City Council held a public hearing as required by CDBG regulations and voted unanimously to adopt Resolution No. 1125 authorizing the city to apply for a grant to pay for the rail spur.

In a related matter, the council passed on first and second readings an emergency ordinance authorizing the city to hire Allgeier, Martin & Associates, Inc. to prepare a preliminary engineering report for a CDBG application.

Asked what happens if the engineering report comes back with an estimate over $500,000, he said, "We make it cost less than $500,000."

One thing that may help is that the city has unexpectedly heard from the city of Lamar that they have a new railroad switch and the tracks for a rail spur that they want to sell, Hubler told the council.

The spec building was constructed nine years ago by the Nevada Business League with private money.

In other business the council:

* Accepted a bid of $12,500 from Rex Kutina Construction for the construction of a 15 by 15-foot pit that is 20.5 feet deep for the wet well at Erwin's Stone Gate Addition on south Spring Street, for a sewer lift station. Kutina was the only company of the 13 solicited to submit a bid.

* Accepted a bid of $6,440 from Nevada Small Engine Repair for a Cub Cadet commercial lawn mower for use at the wastewater treatment plant. Race Brothers Farm & Home Supply, Carthage, had a lower bid for a mower with a smaller engine and would require travel time for any repairs.

* Accepted the low bid of $16,261 from Putnam Chevrolet, California, for a new white one-half ton, 4X4 truck with a standard cab for use by the wastewater treatment plant. Putnam has the state contract bid.

* Approved the purchase of up to $8,000 in chemicals for Walton Family Aquatic Center from G. Farney & Associates.

* Passed on first reading a General Ordinance to amend the city code to base the number of package liquor licenses available in Nevada on the population of Vernon County. The code currently based the number of licenses on the population of only Nevada. The code allows one license per 2,000 persons and this change will permit 10 licenses for the sale of packaged liquor instead of the current seven, which are already in use. This will allow some of the new businesses in town that want to sell packaged liquor to get a license.

* Passed on first reading a special ordinance approving a service agreement with the Children's Center of West Central Missouri, Joplin, to provide up to $6,000 in educational services for the period of June 1, 2005 to May 31, 2006. The Children's Center provides a "multi-disciplinary team approach to prevent, investigate, refer for prosecution and treat children and families who are victims of child abuse."

* Passed on first reading a special ordinance approving a service agreement with the Council on Families in Crisis for no more than $6,000 to provide community education and training for the period of June 1, 2005, through May 31, 2006.

* Held a public hearing and voted to approve a special use permit to allow Doug Scism to operate a sign shop at 103 W. Grand Street.

* Held a public hearing and voted unanimously to not issue a special use permit to Morris Maxson to operate a sign business at 810 W. Austin Boulevard. The planning commission sent a negative recommendation to the city council based on the city's master plan that does not permit businesses on Austin Boulevard between Adams Street and Cottey College. Maxton was already operating Vernon County Sign & Banner from that location in violation of the city code without a special use permit when the business was discovered by the city code enforcement officer.

Virginia Nash, a local realtor, told the council that the residential character of that part of Austin Boulevard is a big selling point to people interested in locating in Nevada.

* Held a public hearing and voted to change the zoning of a building at 617 E. Cherry Street from M-1, light industrial, to C-1, local business, to facilitate the sale of the building.

* Passed on first reading a special ordinance approving a service agreement with the Nevada Baseball Club for a $1,008 Tourism Fund Grant to partly fund the Nevada Griffons parents' weekend, June 24-26.

* Passed on first reading a special ordinance approving a service agreement with the Fraternal Order of Eagles No. 3770 for a $2,000 Nevada Tourism Fund Grant for 2005. The grant will partly fund activities associated with the Eagles 2005 Missouri State Convention that will be held in Nevada on June 24-25.

* Passed on first reading a special ordinance approving a service agreement with Champion Diamonds for a 2005 Nevada Tourism Grant for $2,300 to provide umpires for the Southwest Missouri Tournament of Champions NBC Baseball Tournament to be held July 2-4.

This tournament is a qualifying tournament for the National Baseball Congress World Series held in Wichita, Kan. in early August.

* Passed on first reading a special ordinance approving a service agreement with Champion Diamonds for a 2005 Tourism Fund Partner Allocation of $6,000 to partly fund umpiring expenses for the scheduled 2005 Champion Diamond tournaments.

* Passed on second reading a general ordinance amending the city code to allow the Nevada-Vernon County Chamber of Commerce Board to appoint a member of the Chamber staff as a non-voting, ex-officio member of I.M.P.A.C.T. Nevada Tourism. Because the Chamber and the tourism board work closely on many projects there would be a possibility of a conflict of interest if the Chamber member were a voting member of the board.

* Passed on second reading a special ordinance approving a service agreement with Ronald McMillian who will be part of a living history venue during Bushwhacker Days, sponsored by the Sesquicentennial Celebration Committee and funded in part by a tourism grant.

* Passed on second reading a special ordinance approving a service agreement with Daniel Cantrell who will be part of a living history venue during Bushwhacker Days, sponsored by the Sesquicentennial Celebration Committee and funded in part by a tourism grant.

* Passed on second reading a special ordinance approving a service agreement with Frank and Linda Carlton who will be part of a living history venue during Bushwhacker Days, sponsored by the Sesquicentennial Celebration Committee and funded in part by a tourism grant.

* Passed on second reading a special ordinance approving a service agreement with Jerry and Dave Clement who will be part of a living history venue during Bushwhacker Days, sponsored by the Sesquicentennial Celebration Committee and funded in part by a tourism grant.

* Passed on second reading a special ordinance approving a financial advisor agreement with Kirkpatrick Pettis, a Division of D. A. Davidson & Company.

* Passed on second reading a special ordinance approving a service agreement with Len's Truck & Auto for vehicle repair services.

* Passed on second reading a special ordinance approving an extended service agreement with Micro-Comm Digital Control Technology for water tower maintenance.

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: