E-mail alert system set up for odor complaints

City leaders and company officials with the companies in the Carthage industrial bottoms area are now receiving e-mail alerts if someone complains to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources about a bad smell.

City Administrator Tom Short told the Carthage City Council, at Thursday's regular meeting, the alert system has been up and running for a little more than a week and was the result of a meeting with DNR officials, city officials, representatives of the companies in the bottoms and residents more than two weeks ago.

Short said since the system was established by the DNR, he's received five e-mails telling him someone was complaining about odors.

"There is an email notice system that is set up regarding any kind of smell that is reported to DNR from the city," Short said. "It's gone out to a number of staff people and we've gotten about five or six notices so far that have been forwarded to the departments.

"One of the things this is supposed to do is, once the companies in the bottoms find out about a complaint, they are supposed to be looking at their processes to see if they are doing anything differently that may have caused the smell."

Short said the city's comprehensive planning process is back on track after a delay so the consultant with the Kansas City consulting firm of Planning Works could have a baby.
Short reported that a draft of a comprehensive plan was finished.

"They have given us a draft comprehensive plan, an electronic version, so we'll be sending out an email to the council, the city staff and the steering committee tomorrow with a link to that so they can start looking at the document," Short told council members. "We'll probably be scheduling a special steering committee meeting to talk about all the changes that anyone wants to propose and bring that as a package to Planning Works to get a final document that we'll run through the Planning and Zoning Commission for adoption."

The draft of the plan is available for public inspection at http://www.ourplanningworks.com/docs/carthage/Plan.

Short said the plan itself is about 70 pages long and is accompanied by seven land use maps.

In other business, the council approved a proposal by Council Member Diane Sharits, chairwoman of the finance and personnel committee, to hire St. Louis attorney Ivan Schraeder to review how the city department handle payroll.

Sharits and Short said different departments handle payroll in different ways and Schraeder will develop a common payroll system to be used by all departments and make sure the city is following all the rules of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.

The city will pay Schraeder $3,000 for his services.

Council members also approved new job descriptions for positions in the Carthage Street Department and Public Works Department to take effect upon the retirement of Carthage Street Superintendent Tom Shelley at the end of this month.

Sharits said the new street superintendent will report to the public works director and a few other job descriptions needed to be reworded to account for that change. 

COUNCIL BILLS:

The Carthage City Council gave final approval to three bills and rejected a fourth during their regular meeting on Thursday. All council bills require two readings and approval by the majority of the council on second reading to pass.

They approved the bills to:

• Strengthen penalties for contractors who work in the city without obtaining a city permit.

• Allow a special use permit for a preschool at 627 S. Orner St., as requested by Robert and Nataly Patterson.

• Rezone two lots in the Pleasant Hills subdivision to allow the construction of duplexes.

They denied a bill to:

• Rezone a lot at 1226 E. 13th Street, as requested by Sandra and Randy Bennett, so they could build a duplex.

The Council gave first reading approval to a bill establishing a process so taxpayers could pay their taxes under protest.