Gainesville City Council meets, names Piland interim fire chief

The Gainesville City Council met in regular session Tuesday, June 11, at City Hall. Council members Dana Crisp, Renee Schmucker, Treva Warrick and Teri Edades were in attendance. Councilmen Seth Collins and Lana Bushong were absent. 

Also attending the meeting was Mayor Gail Reich, City Clerk Lisa Goodnight, Water Specialist Jessi Price, Maintenance Supervisor Mike Davis, City Attorney Jessica Blackburn and Gainesville Fire Department Cpt. Kevin Piland. 

Piland named interim fire chief, after Doiron resigns

After approving the minutes, the city council’s first order of business was to discuss the Gainesville Fire Department and its recent changes. 

Longtime Fire Chief Ed Doiron submitted a letter of resignation early this month indicating that he was stepping down from the position on July 1 or whenever the city found a replacement. Assistant Fire Chief John Russo has also resigned. 

Fire Cpt. Kevin Piland was present at the city council meeting and said that losing Doiron and Russo leaves the fire department with only one other  regularly-responding member besides himself. That member is Josh Sherman, who is only able to respond when he is not fulfilling his duties as an Ozark County Sheriff’s Deputy and K9 handler. 

Piland said it’s a big job for just one or two people, and other area volunteer fire departments do not always have firefighters or first responders to send for mutual aid for fires, crashes or first responder calls. 

Piland did mention that a 17-year-old has shown interest in becoming a junior firefighter, and his father might be interested in volunteering too. Anyone else who would like to volunteer as a firefighter or first responder for the Gainesville Fire Department should contact City Hall at 417-679-4858. 

The council voted to appoint Piland as an interim fire chief until a replacement could be named. They also voted to put an advertisement in the newspaper, seeking applicants for the volunteer fire chief position. That ad will run in an upcoming edition. The city is accepting applications through Aug. 1 and will revisit the topic during the Aug. 13 city council meeting. 

Doiron has been an Ozark County firefighter for 20 years and served as Gainesville Fire Chief for 16 years. He said that although he’s stepping down from the fire department, he will continue his work on the Ozark County Ambulance and as Deputy Coroner under current Ozark County Coroner Gene Britt.

Also under fire department business, it was reported that Hughes Towing of West Plains donated $300 and 40 pounds of speedy-dry material to the Gainesville Fire Department in appreciation of the assistance the fire department provided during a May 31 four-vehicle crash. Hughes Towing responded to the crash and towed a Dollar General tractor trailer that was totaled in the collision. 

City RV Park and Saddle Club contract

City attorney Jessica Blackburn attended the meeting to discuss a contract that she is drafting for the City of Gainesville and Gainesville Saddle Club concerning the city-owned land that the saddle club currently leases for the saddle club arena. The contract will also reference the campground that adjoins the saddle club arena. That piece of property is city-owned and not leased by the saddle club, although the club does take camping reservations during saddle club events.

 The councilmen and city employees decided to take the draft home, read through it and provide feedback to Blackburn before the next meeting, so she can provide a final draft to the council that will then be shared with the saddle club.

The council also discussed the RV park rates. The sites, which have electricity and water, have been set at $15 per night for a 30 amp site and $20 per night for a 50 amp site. The council decided to keep the rates the same. 

The council also voted to install a sign at the RV Park with campsite rates and information on how to book the campsites. 

Nuisance property

Blackburn also weighed in on the city’s desire to explore options regarding a nuisance property in the city limits that has been unkept and is dangerous, they say. 

Blackburn gave the city advice on two possible ways of handling the issue. The first option is through prosecution of a violation of a city nuisance ordinance, which usually results in a fine and/or order to fix or update certain aspects of the property. The other option is a path to look toward tearing down the property, which is a more lengthy and expensive option. On Blackburn’s advice, the city voted to have the attorney first draft a revision of its nuisance property ordinance to include a more complete description of what property violations the city considers as a nuisance. 

Grant opportunities

Goodnight gave the council an update in three potential grant applications. 

She said the organizers with a generator power-grid grant that the city applied for is currently in the process of determining winning applications. Goodnight said CBG contacted SCOCOG, an organization that helped write the grant, to ask who would do regular maintenance to the generator power grid and what would happen if there was a major issue not covered by warranty. She told them the city employees would do simple maintenance, and if there was something that needed extra attention, they would rely on the advice of company they bought the equipment from. With that squared away, the city’s proposal made it to round three of consideration. 

Goodnight said the Department of Natural Resources has opened a grant program in which agencies can apply for non-playground products made with scrap tires. To qualify for the grant, 40 percent of the purchased item has to be made from old tires from Missouri. The grant, if awarded, would be a pay-back grant, meaning the city would purchase the items and the grant would reimburse it for the expense. Goodnight found a company that makes picnic tables from old tires that meet the 40-percent Missouri tire scrap qualification. The council voted to apply for the grant, asking for funding to replace the picnic tables at the Hoerman Memorial Park in Gainesville. 

The third grant she talked about was the council discussed last month from the Missouri Department of Transportation. It funds equipment for people who respond to motor vehicle accidents. The Gainesville Fire Department sends first responders to crashes in the city limits and in mutual aid in other districts. Piland will provide Goodnight with a list of things he thinks would be helpful for the fire department.

Bid opening and propane pre-buy

The city advertised for bids for septic tank pumping, and a bid opening was held at the meeting. The city pays to pump septic tanks at city residences where customers pay septic bills, along with the city’s own pump stations. 

There were two bids submitted. 

The first was from Will Johnson with Ozark County Septic of Gainesville for $200 per pump station and $300 per home septic tank pumping service. The bid clarified that the company would be available within a 24-hour timeframe of being called. 

The second bid was from H&H Septic of Mountain Home, Arkansas, which the city had been using. It was for $285 for pump stations or homes. 

The council voted to accept the bid from H&H Septic. 

The council also took up business on pre-buying propane. They approved the purchase of 3,000 gallons of propane for City Hall from MFA Oil at 1.809 per gallon, equaling a total of $5,427.

They also approved the purchase of 657 gallons of propane for the Gainesville fire house at $1.859 per gallon for a total of $1,221. 

City department/business updates

Maintenance Supervisor Mike Davis said a resident on Hillside Drive in Gainesville has requested that the city install speed bumps on that street due to speeding traffic on that road. Davis said there had been a complaint for the same thing on Cedar Oak Drive. Dana Crisp mentioned that if the city installs speed bumps, they won’t be able to plow snow or ice off the roadway during winter. Mayor Gail Reich said she’d talk to the local officers and ask them to keep an eye out on the roads when certain vehicles that are thought to be speeding are typically coming through. 

Davis said that the High School Drive city street sign has been stolen again. The council discussed putting a new sign up, and potentially a camera to see who is stealing the signs. 

In the water department report, Jessi Price said the center district’s water loss has stayed the same, the east side went down after they found a leak and fixed it, and the west side water loss went up. They have located the leak, but it hadn’t been repaired yet. 

In the wastewater treatment facility report, City Clerk Lisa Goodnight said that the city received the engineering reports for the improvements that will be made to the wastewater treatment facility as part of an ARPA-funded grant. The plans were approved for the generator, new lab building, utility connections and grinder pump stations, along with possible fencing if there are enough funds left. 

Jessi Price said that city employees Levi Evans and Logan Vaught will need to take their wastewater treatment license classes and test this summer. Currently, the city doesn’t have a licensed employee to oversee the wastewater treatment plant, so they are paying an outside company $2,400 a month. If a city employee becomes licensed, the city will not have to pay that monthly fee.  The classes are two to three days a week, 8 hours a day, for six weeks. That means during the time they are in class, they would not be able to conduct their normal city business. The council voted to allow Logan to take a virtual class and test this July, and to allow Levi to take an in-person in Salem, Missouri, in October. The employees might take a sooner class if a class becomes available.

In an update about the city’s audit, Goodnight said the auditor had to be out of town unexpectedly, which caused a delay on her releasing the audit report. She anticipated that it would be released later that week. 

Goodnight said that the city’s general liability insurance used to include cyber-security insurance, but it has notified the city that it has stopped offering that service. She got a quote from FCNB Insurance for $2,847 per year for cyber security insurance. 

Next meeting

The next city council meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 9. The meetings are open to the public, and anyone can attend.