The Maryville City Council listened to the 2017 financial audit report from Mike Williams, Hochschild, Bloom & Company, LLP, Washington, at the March 12 meeting.

Williams noted the firm arrived at a “clean opinion” for the financial condition of the city. He shared that there were only four aspects of the city’s procedures that came into question. They involved Maryville Parks and Recreation, credit card processes, golf course receipts and travel documents. City Manager Greg McDanel responded by saying corrections have been addressed for three of the four.

Other city business:

• Approved certificates of participation authorizing Piper Jaffray as the financial advisor and Gilmore & Bell as bond counsel toward the $6.245 million toward the financing of the public safety building, asphalt overlay of Hawk Road, new road-salt building at the street department facility and storm water collection upgrades along Peach Creek. The bonds will be paid off in 20 years.

• Annexation of 76 acres owned by Maryville Industrial Development Corporation along Leigh Wilson Industrial Drive, which already has city services on site.

• Accepted the lease agreement with the SculptureOne Program, Sioux Falls, SD, for four sculptures at $1,500 each for a year. Councilwoman Renee Reidel questioned the long-term plan for the city to pass back the lease costs to the Maryville Public Art Coalition. McDanel responded by saying the agreement with the organization expires this year.

• Authorized a contract with Estate Management Services, Inc., Brunswick, GA, for the chemical treatment of Mozingo Lake in an amount not to exceed $45,000. The contract will address a preventative treatment of algae, which will include three applications of Pak27 over 125 acres of surface water near the intakes. The council accepted the city staff recommendation to proceed with a chemical fix for the algae bloom issue versus the Solarbees process. The monies for this procedure will be taken from the budgeted item of the engineering work toward a South Market water line improvement.

• Approved the contract with Allied Systems, Inc., Omaha, NE, for the rebuild of a 150 HP Aurora split case high service pump for the water treatment plant at a cost not to exceed $9,765. These monies were not budgeted, so dollars will be taken from the planned improvements to the capex building at the water plant.

Prior to the open session, the council held a public hearing concerning the abandonment of excess right-of-way owned by Fountain Park Partners, LLC, at the southwest corner of South Main Street and Carefree Drive. Council approved.

McDanel presented his report including the request for proposal for seasonal asphalt overlay and street repair, noting the bids will come to council in mid-April, and another request for proposal to seek out a firm for the housing study.

Assistant City Manager Ryan Heiland announced the first golf tournament of the season will be the weekend of March 23-24, with Graceland University, sponsoring more than 100 golfers, and the city will offer a hay lease for approximately 80 acres at the airport.

The council went into closed session for personnel. After the evaluation of McDanel’s performance, the council extended his contract for an additional four years as city manager.