City Beat: Council OKs annexation at Evans Road-65

Springfield continues to expand toward Ozark. At the April 17 City Council meeting, council unanimously annexed 2.13 acres of private property at the U.S. Highway 65 and Evans Road interchange.

Meanwhile, anticipated debate at the public hearing of a first reading bill to annex an additional 148.4 acres in the same general vicinity drew only one questioner.

George Fotopulos, who lives on South Woodcliffe Drive, asked council "for more time and thought" to be put into the larger annexation. He was assured by Councilman Ralph Manley that development of roads and services in the area will come later and will be subject to much discussion.

The rezoning of about 1.5 acres at the same intersection was delayed until the April 30 meeting, said City Clerk Brenda Cirtin. The parcels are to be used to extend Evans Road and the Southeast Development Plan.

This was the first council meeting for new council members Denny Whayne, Mary Collette and John Wylie, and new Mayor Tom Carlson.

Council also approved an amendment to the Public Works budget to allow the expenditure of $1 million for purchase of buffer land at the Southwest Wastewater Treatment Plant. According to the explanation attached to the council bill, the city has long been interested in the purchase of the properties between the plant and the residential and commercial developments of the area.

All other consent agenda items were approved with one unanimous vote, including additional funding in the Public Works budget to pay $117,500 to relocate a segment of sanitary sewer in the Jordan Valley Park area. Another $1.2 million was added to the Public Works budget to rehabilitate the sanitary sewer collection system in the Jordan Valley basin to reduce infiltration and inflow in the system. The explanation to the bill indicated that this work was in advance to park development, but "will provide water quality benefits ... and the division should realize cost savings benefits by scheduling work in advance ..."

The balance of the total $3,467,600 addition to the Public Works budget includes $300,000 for phosphorus-removal chemicals to meet the 0.5 milligrams per liter requirement in the discharge at the Southwest Wastewater Treatment Plant and $850,000 to advance construction of phase III bio-solids improvements at the plant.

The construction of a new digester, renovation of an existing digester and installation of a process to thicken the bio-solids prior to pumping into the digesters is expected to provide enough bio-solid capacity at the plant for the next 20 years, according to the bill's explanation, submitted by Robert Shaefer, assistant director of Public Works.

Another consent agenda item approve by council gave City Manager Tom Finnie the authority to accept a transportation enhancement grant from the Missouri Department of Transportation to fund the design and construction of a bicycle and pedestrian link from Phelps to Water Street, part of the Jordan Valley master plan. The total cost is to be $413,500, with grant funds to make up $322,500 of the project cost.

At the end of the meeting, before council went into a closed session to consider non-public record issues, Carlson said he had received a letter from R-XII School Board President Debbie Tolliver requesting joint meetings with council to consider issues affecting both entities.

Finnie told Carlson he would set up the meetings.