An effort to four lane Highway 67 south to the Arkansas state line will benefit from a second $5 million state grant.
The Missouri Department of Transportation has approved another cost share grant to help with the project, city manager Mark Massingham said Tuesday, during a regular city council meeting.
It was one of several matters discussed, including an unexpected decision by council members to bring a police officers union contract back to the table for a vote Feb. 3.
Grant
The newest grant would be combined with $5.8 million in cost share money discussed by the council in December from the Governor’s Transportation Cost-Share Program.
The combined approximately $10.8 million in grant money would be paired with matching money raised by Poplar Bluff’s Highway 67 sales tax.
“That will take care of the first four miles from the interchange at (Highway) 160 going south down (Highway) 67,” Massingham said. “The first thing we would have to do is have an environmental impact study.”
The council may need to hold a special meeting next week to accept an engineering firm for this, he said, adding there are not of a lot engineering firms that do it.
“It kind of needs fast tracked so we can make some cut offs or deadlines on both of these grants,” Massingham said.
Police union
Council members discussed during their Dec. 2 meeting a proposed contract with a police officers union, represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 702.
Council members chose at that time to table the matter indefinitely. Mayor pro tem Steve Davis made the request, saying then that changes had been made to future employee benefits and he was concerned about conflicts with those changes.
Davis asked Tuesday for the matter to be brought off the table and moved to the Feb. 3 voting session. The item was not listed on the Jan. 21 council agenda.
Massingham said after the meeting the matter had been tabled for several weeks and it was time for council members to act on the contract.
This would be the first contract between the city and this union, which was formed in November 2018 by a majority vote of members of the department.
The city also voted in April on its first contract with the newly formed police department dispatchers union.
In other business:
• Voted to place a use tax proposal on the April 7 ballot. It would place a tax on certain items purchased over the internet from out-of-state vendors at the same rate that is paid at brick and mortar businesses inside the city limits.
• Moved a resolution to the Feb. 3 voting session reappointing Dean Million as the municipal court judge. It is one of three positions, along with the city clerk and city manager, that are hired by the council, Massingham said.
• Discussed and voted to annex into the city limits Shelby Road extension itself, from the Shelby Road right-of-way down to the west side of Business 67 right-of-way with a zoning designation of C-2 general commercial. The road is owned by the city.
• Discussed and voted to enter into an agreement with Ozark Foothills Regional Planning Commission to provide professional services for a grant that will be applied for from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources for the Poplar Bluff Park Department.
• Council member Ron Black recused himself from workshop item C and voting item CC, both of which relate to annexation into the city limits of property at 3547 N. Westwood Blvd., owned by Fellowship General Baptist Church. The item was passed, with zoning of RS-1 rural residential.
• Council member Lisa Parson recused herself from workshop item D and voting item DD, both of which related to brokerage services for health, dental and optical insurance. Council members voted to accept Sonus Benefits of St. Louis, with Massingham saying the company also has a local office.