2008 Year in Review

Jed Renkes Sworn as New Morrison Police Officer

Jed Renkes Sworn in by Mayor Roger Drew

Dan Solchenberger

by Ben Wolf

As with all things big and needed, replacement of municipal water pump is an expensive venture, as was learned at the September 8th city council meeting. The failure of the pump at Morrison’s Well #3 required purchasing a newly rebuilt 200 horsepower submersible pump. The cost of the pump and installation is estimated at $160,000. “We do not have that level of reserve funding on hand,” said Tim Long, city administrator. The city can, however, solicit a short-term bridge loan. A bridge debt certificate would be issued for one year, and would be repaid with proceeds of a Water and Sewer Revenue bond in Spring, 2009. Fees for issuance should be less than $4,000. This repair was not anticipated, and is considered an emergency to assure continued water service for the city.

Jedediah Renkes was sworn in as the city’s newest officer. Renkes will first attend the police academy for training.

In other police news, the council authorized administrator; Tim Long, Mayor; Roger Drey, Councilmember; Dave Rose and City Attorney; Lester Weinstein to negotiate a contract for the interim Chief of Police for September through January. The city has a tentative agreement with retired Chief of Police, Anton Graff from Yorkville, Illinois. The contract is expected to be executed within a week.

The Morrison Rotary club was granted their request for street closure for their Baggo Tournament on September 20th, during Paint The Town.

There were questions about the sloping of the outfields at the new sports complex. The fall stands at one and one half percent in the outfields, and two and a half percent is the maximum allowable by most sanctioning bodies. The purpose of the sloping is to eliminate the need for additional underground drainage. Dan Solchenberger from Shiver Hatery design firm was on hand to field questions, and said that he would have the slope double checked. He also said that final grade was not in place on all fields at this point. Questions were also raised about the need to add safety tracks that warn outfielders who are focused on a ball that they are approaching the fence. Solchenberger will look into the additional cost to add them, and it was also noted that they could be added by volunteers later after the fields were developed. No one was aware of any sanctioning bodies that required the safety tracks. Councilman Jim Blakemore noted, “This (project) needs to be done right, and hopefully it doesn’t delay anything.” Blakemore was commenting on the drainage and slope and pointed out that these are things that are difficult and expensive to change after grass is growing.

The council also reviewed and approved the installation of a temporary transformer and enclosure at the sports complex. The electricity will eventually be run from the buildings, but the buildings are not ready. Tim Long explained, “The reason we are in this position is that the block for the buildings is not ready. The block supply companies are behind, and our block is on backorder. The electricity wouldn’t be important if it were not for the sprinkler system which will be needed shortly when the grass seed goes down.” Total cost for the temporary transformer and enclosure is $2,435.20.

Mayor, Roger Drey reported that the City Clerk’s position would remain as-is, which is an appointed position.

City attorney, Lester Weinstein said that he had been contacted by Chris Lowe, an attorney representing Warrensburg MO. Lowe wanted to know if Warrensburg could use the name “Paint the Town” for their street painting event. Weinstein said that Morrison has common-law copyright on the name, which is only protection within Morrison. “Paint the Town” has no formal registration. Weinstein suggested that Warrensburg give credit on signage at their painting event to Morrison as the original “Paint the Town”.

by Dawn Zuidema, theCity1.com
September 22, 2008