Council votes for public safety buildings

Nevada Daily Mail

After years of wanting a new public safety building and months of discussion and negotiations between the city, police, fire departments and the architects, the Nevada City Council voted 5-0 to accept the bid of $3,815,086 from R.E. Smith Construction, Joplin, for the construction of a new fire station and a police/municipal courts building.

"It's been a long time coming," council member Brian Leonard said.

"I think we have a good project going forward," city manager JD Kehrman said.

Kehrman said that during the negotiations that Randy Marti conducted with the city's architect, the cost of the facility was reduced by $900,000.

He noted that R.E Smith helped to cut the cost as well.

"We did a good job of removing any embellishments from the building," he said.

These will be functional facilities, but will not be something an architect would want in his portfolio to showcase his work, he said.

What the city did accomplish is to be able to include all of the options that were bid separately, like a sally port, and holding cells in the police station and the fourth bay at the fire station.

Kehrman told the council that adding the fourth bay at the fire station will let the fire department move all its equipment from the back of the city hall and free that space for other purposes.

He told the council that weather permitting the city will start demolishing the remaining structures on the property at the northeast corner of Cherry and Adams streets so the necessary dirt work can start. During that work he said that traffic on Cherry and Adams will be impacted to some degree.

In other business the council:

* Voted unanimously to approve the appointments of Bill Denman, Jenise Burch and Larry Bledsoe to the Nevada Regional Medical Center board of directors.

* Voted 5-0 to approve the appointment of Chris Forsythe to the park and recreation board replacing Jon Reneberg, who resigned due to a change in jobs.

* Voted 5-0 to approve the re-appointments of Perry Cash and Randy Wallace to the electrical board.

* Voted 5-0 to accept the bid of $6,731.81 from USA Bluebook for one Neptune acid pump for the water treatment plant. It is used to keep the hydrogen sulfide odor levels to a minimum.

Voted 5-0 to approve the emergency repair of the No. 1 pump at the No. 2 lift station at the wastewater treatment plant at a cost of $19,800.

* Voted 5-0 to approve the purchase of winter themed street banners at a cost of $7,203.85 from North Star Flags. The money will come from the city's tourism fund.

* Held a public hearing and voted 5-0 to pass on first reading of a special ordinance approving changing the zoning from R-3, apartment house district to RP-3, planned apartment house district for property at 407 W. Highland St. to allow the owner, Buildet LLC, to construct three more apartment houses and a laundry facility on the property. The planned zoning will give Buildet greater flexibility on the design of the project.

Voted 5-0 to pass on first reading a special ordinance establishing a new fee structure at the Frank E. Peters Municiple. Although the parks board voted in September to not increase any parks fees, the city recommended an increase to cover increases in operating costs.

* Voted 5-0 to pass on first reading a special ordinance establishing a new fee structure for the use of the Nevada Parks Shelters.

* Voted 5-0 to pass on first reading a special ordinance establishing a new fee structure for the Franklin P. Norman City/County Community Center.

* Voted unanimously to pass on first reading a general ordinance amending Section 5-26 (a) and (b) to allow veterinarians to issue dog licensing and add requirements for vaccinations and licensing for impounded dogs.

* Voted unanimously to pass on first reading a special ordinance authorizing the city manager to establish a memorandum of understanding with local veterinarians for the sale of dog licenses.

* Voted 5-0 to pass on second reading a special ordinance authorizing the city manager and mayor to accept any grants from the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission to partially fund the city's taxi coupon program.

* Voted 5-0 to pass on second reading a special ordinance approving a non-disturbance agreement with Precision Machined Parts to facilitate that company's planned expansion.

* Voted 5-0 to give final approval to a special ordinance approving the sale and delivery of refunding certificates of participation Series 2014 to provide money to part of the debt service related to the financing of the new public safety buildings.