Woman donates $5,000 toward Sheldon water study

Rickie Garr was one of numerous citizens that showed up at the Sheldon City Council meeting on Thursday, Nov. 12 to discuss an increase in the water rates, and while she was there, she wrote the city a check for $5,000 to help defray the cost of having an engineering study detailing a new water system brought up to date.

Council members attending the meeting were president Jerod Lamb, Robert Moran, Larry Gardner and Clara Smith. Mayor Rob Sewell was not in attendance.

There were several items on the agenda, but the water issue and a flood of public comment relating to it took up most of the meeting. Residents wanted to know what the money, an increase in the base rate from $6 for the first 2,000 gallons to $12, a 100-percent increase would pay for. Council president Jerod Lamb assured those present that if the ordinance was adopted, the approximate $13,000 per year it brought in was required by the ordinance to be used for the repair of one of the city's two wells which has been out of commission for about a year.

Concerned customers continued to question the council about when the entire system could be redone. There was a lot of talk about grants, stimulus money and other funding sources for a project that could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Lamb made it clear to everyone that the first thing that had to be done was the engineering study had to be updated in order to use it in the grant application process. The original price of $75,000 officials thought to have been paid for the engineering study did not need to be spent again, but some of the information in it needed to be updated.

Lamb mentioned he had received a figure of $5,000 for the work needed to update the existing study. Listeners continued to ask how the process would be carried out, and at one point, Rickie Garr asked if "somebody could donate money?" Lamb said "Absolutely. Get your checkbook out; we'll take it."

A few moments later Garr left the room and returned to lay a check for $5,000 on the table. "That better get the ball rolling," she said a short time later. Lamb assured her that the entire amount would be earmarked to re-engineer the study and he would get things started. The council voted 4-0 to pass the ordinance to increase the water rates.

In other business, the council voted to let Missouri Department of Transportation begin the process of tying their truck washing station into the city sewer as long as they paid to engineer the project and DNR mandates were met and the city incurred no cost. It was agreed that any connection to the city system would be charged a connection fee just like any other customer. Alderman Moran thanked the public for attending saying, "participation leads to better government."