July 8, 2025: More Gainesville City Council

Water system work is coming

City Water Specialist Jessi Price says work on the city’s $4 million water upgrades will likely begin in the next few weeks. Workers warn that there may be some disruption to water service while construction is being completed. The $4,252,500 project is being funded through a Department of Natural Resources ARPA grant, which aims to help improve the aging city’s water system. To find out more, call Gainesville City Hall at 417-679-4858.

New city prosecutor hired, talks options

The City of Gainesville has hired Gainesville resident and attorney James Mucklestone as the new city prosecutor. Mucklestone addressed the city council and discussed ways that the city can pursue traffic and ordinance violation tickets and prosecution by signed statements, even if a police officer isn’t able to respond to the incident and write a report. 

The city hired Mucklestone last month after the former city prosecutor changed locations to Mountain Grove. Cities are legally required to have their own prosecutor; the Ozark County Prosecutor cannot serve in that role for municipalities.

Nuisance order violators still need to clean up

The city council discussed a couple different nuisance order violators who have not followed up with required clean up following the city’s mailed letters recently.

One violator, whose home sits at Main and Sixth Streets, recently did some clean up, but city officials say the property is still in violation and needs quite a bit of additional work to be in compliance with the ordinance. City Councilwoman Lana Bushong volunteered to accompany a city employee to go to the woman’s house to explain the situation again. 

An owner of a home that is falling in on Highway 181 on the stretch before the school will also be contacted a second time about cleaning up that property.