City of Goodman, Missouri

The Board of Aldermen held a Special meeting Monday night September 13, 2010 at 7:30 PM. Those present included Mayor Calvin Wilson, Alderpersons Greg Richmond, Kristin Lett, Keith Kohley and Kevin Reardon. Also, present were City Clerk Paula Brodie, City Supervisor David Brodie, Judge Clyde Davidson and Chief West. Visitors included Jessica Ferguson and Jenny Holweger from the YMCA.

The Mayor called the meeting to order at 7:30PM

The Mayor acknowledged Jessica Ferguson, who was present to discuss applying for a transportation Enhancement grant through the Missouri Department of Transportation for sidewalks for a safer and healthier way for kids to walk to school. Ms. Ferguson is the coordinator of an organization by the name of Pioneering Healthy Communities and also works at the YMCA. She stated that she was present to encourage the Board to participate by being the sponsor for the grant.

Ms. Ferguson stated that she was also working with the School. Because of over crowding on the busses the school district has decided to change who rides the bus and who doesn’t. She said that this places a lot of children walking to the school. She said the grant is for various things including sidewalks.

She stated that October 6^th is a walk to school day. She said the day is to promote healthy and safer walking to and from school. Ms. Ferguson and Clyde Davidson talked about the over crowding in the school busses was the reason many children will be walking this year. Clyde explained how the school system decided who could ride the bus. Many of the children that rode the bus in the past were actually within the classified walking area.

Jessica stated that MODOT has designated 1.9 million dollars for District 7. The maximum grant amount is $300,000.00. She said the grant they would be asking for is a pedestrian and sidewalk grant. The grant has to be sponsored by the local government. She stated the City would have to be willing to do a 20% match. She said she had someone who can write the grants. The grant does have to be in on September 29, 2010. She stated that she had asked Paul Crews if he would come and look at the project area. She said that he would look the area over to see what it would take to put in the sidewalks. Time and efforts from volunteers would count up for the 20%. It was noted that the City could also include the land that they own that would be used for the sidewalks.

Clyde said that the Betterment Club would be willing to help with the construction of the sidewalks.

Jessica stated that the school had sent home a survey for the kid’s parents to complete. She stated that the survey reflected that the parent’s main concern about their children walking was that the town did not have sidewalks and that they were afraid of the train tracks.

David said there will be some construction problems. He said on the East side of School Street there are telephone poles and water meters that would have to be moved. He said that the West side would be the best until you get to the property right across from the school. He said that he was not saying it was not possible it would just be a major undertaking.

Jessica said the grant also requires that the sidewalks be on property owned by the City or on permanent easements. The City must guarantee the use of the sidewalks for 25 years. She said that the project must be started by November 2011. She said that they asked for the sponsor to pick out one person to be the contact person to work with MODOT. There will be monthly meetings that the contact person would have to attend. The enhancement application has to be turned in by September 29, 2010.

There was a lot of discussion in regard to drawing up the plans, engineering, moving the utility poles, water meters, getting donations from people to help pay for the match. There was discussion in regard to what streets would be done first. Jessica recommended maybe putting together a board to help make decisions.

There was discussion in regard to the Cities being able to pay the 20%. It was noted that the City did have some CD funds in Streets and General Fund that could help pay part of the 20% match. Jessica noted that the sponsoring entity would have to pay the contractor up front and then request reimbursement through MODOT. It was discussed whether or not this could be done on a monthly basis as the City does not have enough funds to pay for the complete project and then seek reimbursement.

The Board discussed the need to put some figures together to see what the costs would be. They also talked about the need to have the plans drawn up, engineering done, costs estimates, etc. Jessica said a lot of that could be done by volunteers. Clyde stated that the Board did not need to vote on whether to sign the grant application until the estimates could be figured out. Jessica stated that she would put the grant application together and get some figures and return to the meeting on September 21^st.

Ald Lett made the motion to proceed with the enhancement grant through MODOT. Ald Reardon seconded. The Board voted 4 ayes, 0 nays.

Clyde stated that he would talk to Jim Newell and ask him for a permanent easement to put the sidewalk or a walking path in through his property.

Ald. Kohley moved to adjourn. Ald Reardon seconded. The Board voted 4 ayes,0 nays.

Respectfully submitted:

Paula W. Brodie, MRCC, City Clerk

Calvin Wilson, Mayor