The Holts Summit Board of Aldermen is undergoing new municipal changes following the official June 30 resignation of mayor Lucas Fitzpatrick. At the board's meeting July 20, aldermen voted on a resolution to fill Fitzpatrick's unexpired mayor term.
The first of many resolutions passed relating to the board's unexpected vacancy included electing board member Landon Oxley as mayor pro tem. Oxley subsequently took the oath of office.
Now the board is discussing how to fill the alderman ward I vacancy until the next municipal election April 5, 2016. Holts Summit City Administrator Brian Crane addressed the board about its options.
Crane said the board can appoint someone to serve temporarily until the election commences.
Then, he said, "On the election ballot there will be a one year term and then a two year term, which is the seat held by Tom (Durham) right now and then an open seat that would fill out the remainder of Landon's staggered term, which is April 2017."
Crane asked board members to spread the word about the vacant position.
"What we've done in the past is to try to get the word out about who's interested in serving," he said. "If a board member knows somebody, we have applications available from the board of commissions at city hall. The best thing to do would be to have them drop off their resume or fill out that application and we'll get that to the board for consideration."
Alderman Durham also commented on the board's vacancy, saying it would be a "good opportunity for someone to step in and have a feel for it (serving on the board)."
At the beginning of the meeting, the board heard two presentations - Retail Strategies' Director of Business Development Matthew Petro addressed the board first. Petro also spoke to Fulton officials a few hours earlier Monday at Fulton City Hall. Both cities are considering a partnership with Retail Strategies to utilize market research and analytics specifically designed to attract potential business investors and support local entrepreneurs.
Chad Sayre, a representative from the the city's contracted firm, Allstate Consultants, presented after Petro. He updated the board on Holt Summit's wastewater treatment and collection system improvements. Sayre told the board that all surveying and fieldwork has been completed, which included evaluating 465 lots around Holts Summit and six different subdivisions by cost of benefit. He elaborated on the development of several potential smaller scale projects.
"We have some grant funds that we need," Sayre said. "We have projects that bid by December the ninth - a portion
of the project so that we can use the $142,000 grant that you (the city) got last December the ninth."
Sayre spoke highly of the project's overall progression, considering changes they had to make to program planning.
"The USDA knows that the city has progressed well with their legal council and your legal council that I believe that this will be something that will be fruitful to the taxpayers of Holts Summit," Sayre said.
He specifically mentioned advantageous data for the project that recently became available.
"We've got some interesting data from this spring, this summer," he said. "We got some peak flows that we've never seen before."
Sayre said he will attend council meetings at least once a month with updates on collection system plans that are ready to submit or near completion.
The next board meeting is scheduled for August 10.