Skidmore makes decision on water meters

At the March 10 Skidmore City Council meeting, the decision was made to purchase the fixed system water meters from USA Bluebook, Gurnee, IL, for a bid of 145 units and total of $61,601.92.

The city will be able to purchase fewer meters. A final amount will be determined after figuring in manual shutoff locks, a few larger meters and other items. The city is using America Rescue Plan Act money to pay for water meter upgrades.

The USA Bluebook sales representative talked to the council by Zoom. Concern was expressed about the yearly software maintenance agreement. Aldermen Teresa Carter and Tracy Shewey don’t want to raise water rates to cover additional expenses. It was hoped the decrease in labor costs and the ability to pinpoint water losses will save the city more than enough to cover the software maintenance agreement.

The city had lost 68,000 gallons of water in January and 20,998 gallons in February.

Emily Wicoff, PE, from Snyder and Associates, Inc., St. Joseph, attended the meeting to update the council on the status of getting USDA approval for the sewer project. There are five items that need to be submitted: a signed contract, a resolution giving Mayor Jill Wieland authority to sign, a due diligence request form, a user charge methodology and USDA RDA-465.1 on the existing water project loan. The resolution passed.

The following ordinances were reviewed, updated and approved after first and second readings:

• The water ordinance was updated to 2022-WR to include the new connection fee of $200 for rental occupants.

• The water/wastewater superintendent/city maintenance employee ordinance was updated to 2022-WS to improve duties and include the social media policy for employees.

• The city clerk/treasurer ordinance was updated to 2022-CityClerk/Treasurer to include the social media policy for employees.

•The board of aldermen ordinance was updated to 2022-Aldermen to include the social media policy for aldermen.

• The committee’s ordinance was updated to Committees-2022A to include the social media policy for committee people.

The mayor ordinance and the procurement ordinance were tabled until emergency powers could be added to the ordinances instead of writing an entirely new ordinance.

The city approved the City of Skidmore ARPA  Proposal which shows spending requests for $66,798.08.

City Attorney Miles Figgs said Rick Stanton had filed for numerous extensions on his motions. Also, he requested the aldermen give topics to City Clerk Meagan Morrow for him to address during the training of the new council members.

Morrow mentioned the April 5 election ballot which will have the issue to allow Skidmore to forego elections if the number of candidates filed equals the number of seats to be filled. She said this will save the city money. Certified write-in candidates can still be considered if they file by the write-in deadline.