At the March 6 Hopkins City Council meeting, Chief Operator Chris Bird shared the letter he had sent to city residents.

The public notice gave information on the city’s drinking water. “City of Hopkins water system failed to take corrective actions following letter of warning” from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

“The City of Hopkins PWS is required to have an operator certified at the C1 level or higher.” The city doesn’t have a certified operator and is in “violation of Missouri Safe Drinking Water Regulation 10 CSR 60-14.010.”

“This is not an emergency. However, as our customers, you have a right to know what happened and what we are doing to correct the situation.

“Chris Bird has obtained Class C water treatment, Class D wastewater treatment, and distribution level 1 – required by Mo DNR for chief operator. Currently seeking backup operator.”

Bird said the demolition of the buildings on North Third Street is moving forward with Nodaway Contracting although the date for the demolition has not been established.

There has been no progress on the school parking lot.

The aldermen interviewed Krystal Bowen, the new billing clerk. She has worked for approximately three weeks and is being trained on organizing the cemetery records and on billing.

Bird and the aldermen are looking at approximately 20 street blocks to chip and seal. Bird wants the project done early. He felt with his compacting of the streets several times last year after the asphalt was placed, it helped the streets to seal better. He wants to keep the project under $50,000. Bird plans to apply for a Rickard Trust grant for the asphalting of streets and for a tractor.

Lincoln Pope, Pickering, bid $14,000 to tear out and replace the sidewalk from the Roxy Center to the corner. Bird is unsure what is beneath the sidewalks but stated whatever is discovered will have to be removed. He plans to work do the tear-out to save on the cost to the city. The plan is to replace it with a four-inch deep, eight-foot wide sidewalk.

While the city is working on sidewalks, Bird asked if the alderman wanted to put in new light poles at a cost of $1,000 to $1,500 each or to reuse the current poles. This was tabled by the council.