FREEBURG — The Village of Freeburg approved election results at their meeting on Monday, April 8.

Returning Trustee Jamie Kaesik and new Trustee Brad Wieberg both took the Oath of Office. Darryl Haller was unanimously approved as the new Mayor of Freeburg.

In their first act of official business, trustees approved Ordinance No. 206 which regulates mobile homes, manufactured homes, and recreational vehicles (RVs). Trustees have been struggling with the details and the wording of the so called “trailer ordinance” for the past several months and vowed that they were going to pass the ordinance at this meeting. Trustees expressed frustration that the ordinance, as revised by the village’s attorney, Nathan Nicholas, had names listed incorrectly.

“This ordinance looks to me to be about as good as we are going to get,” Trustee Scott Knoll said.

Ordinance No. 206 provides legal descriptions for mobile homes, manufactured homes and RVs. One of the main changes with the new ordinance is that by law the village is not allowed to ban manufactured homes from the village limits. Lansford had laid out that the federal government is very specific on the definition of a manufactured home as “a transportable, factory-built structure that is manufactured in accordance with the Federal Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974” and that a manufactured home can not be banned from the village. Mobile homes and RVs can be banned and regulated more stringently.

The new ordinance permits manufactured homes to be in the village limits, but they must be “permanently affixed to a concrete foundation” and finished with skirting to the ground. Mobile homes, defined as “a transportable, factory-built structure that is designed to be used as a single dwelling that was manufactured before 1976,” are not allowed to be placed within the village limits of Freeburg. Mobile homes that already exist within the village limits can remain at their present location but are not allowed to be moved.

The new ordinance also sets up new regulations for recreational vehicles (RVs). RVs can only be used for residential occupation for a period of no more that 10 days within a 90-day period. RVs are not allowed to be connected to public utilities at any time unless the connection meets the village codes. RVs cannot be parked on village streets or state highways or county roads or within 10 feet of the edge of the pavement of a street or road.

The penalty for violators of the ordinance is a “fine of not less than $100 and no more that $500, or imprisonment for not more than 90 days in jail, or both.”

The new ordinance replaces the old ordinance and is in effect immediately. The ordinance passed unanimously.

The Village of Freeburg awarded the lead service line project to All Clear Plumbing and Sewer for a total cost of $64,970 pending approval by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

In March, the Village of Freeburg received six bids for the Lead Service Line Project as required by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA had directed all cities and villages to award the lowest bidder for each project. Corbett Construction was the lowest bid for the Village of Freeburg coming in at $31,338.95. After looking over the bid, Bartlett and West Engineer Kyle Landwehr had determined that Corbett Construction had made an error in their estimate.

Corbett Construction rebid and were no longer the lowest bid. The Village of Freeburg is still waiting on official approval from DNR to accept the bid since it was not originally the lowest estimate of the ones received.

Freeburg trustees approved an $1,800 change order for Verslues Construction to add an additional curb and grate at the Reinkemeyer property at West Lewis Street and North Pine Street to avoid additional storm water running onto the property. Verslues Construction is hoping to start the project within the next couple of weeks.

The Holy Family Catholic Church needs to have tuck-pointing done on both the school and the church building. The parish has the funding and would like to proceed with the project this summer. The parish also has some foundation issues that will need to be done on the back side of the cafeteria.

“We are going to have a foundation guy come in and put a half dozen piers along the parking lot,” Ryan Luebbert, a parish representative told trustees. “They need about six feet for their construction zone, and we are only three feet from the street.”

The parish is not sure of how much of the street will need to be closed for construction. The parish is asking permission from the village to close at least one lane of the street and figure out what the village will require to direct traffic.

Luebbert explained that school will be out during the construction and while the equipment may be moved off the street during the evening hours, it still leaves only a one-way street where no one can see ahead very well.

The trustees discussed different options from rerouting traffic through alleyways, to renting a mechanical stop sign to closing the street to all traffic during the construction.

“We don’t have a lot of time to figure this out,” Haller said. “We are going to have to work out a one lane traffic for part of the day and I don’t know how to figure that out.”

In addition to the traffic problems during construction of the piers for the foundation, and during tuck-pointing, the parish is also asking for assistance from the village in regard to the storm water that keeps flooding the school.

“During the last rain, we had flooding again in the basement of the school,” Luebbert said. “It came in from both sides. We can’t have water getting into the school.”

The parish is proposing that while the area is already torn up from construction to fix the foundation, that the village work with the parish to come up with a solution for the storm water.  Luebbert said that the school has flooded already twice this spring.

“We don’t know exactly what to do,” Luebbert said. “But while it is all torn up this summer, now is the time to do something.”

The trustees agreed and noted that maybe Verslues Construction could look at the area and offer some solutions and possibly put together an estimate.

“We want the school fixed,” Haller said. “We need to keep our school in good condition. We just must figure out the right way to make it work for everybody.”

Trustees gave the parish permission to move forward with fixing the foundation of the school with the understanding that the traffic situation would be solved before construction begins.

Haller was disappointed in the response he received from Nicholas regarding the dangerous dog situation that had occurred in town last month and Freeburg’s Dangerous Dog Ordinance.

“Years ago, we would have our attorney write up a letter to violators and Nickolas says he wants a code enforcement officer,” Haller explained.

Haller explained that according to an email that Nicholas sent, letters would be sent by an appointed “Code Enforcement Officer” and not from the village attorney. Freeburg does not currently have a Code Enforcement Officer.

Haller plans to address the Osage County commissioners at a future meeting about dangerous dogs and how to deal with them as they are an issue throughout the county. Haller said that maybe it comes down to passing a special tax that would cover animal control for Osage County.

“I don’t have all of the answers, but I do know if we start sending people tickets and charging them money, the problem gets fixed,” Haller said. “Maybe we can get the problem fixed, maybe we can’t. I don’t know. We just can’t have dangerous dogs.”

Trustees approved the purchase of 15 new three foot by five-foot flags and one, four feet by six-foot flag to replace the existing flags that have been torn up from the wind and other natural elements. Kaesik suggested looking for marine-grade flags that will be more resistant to the wind.

Knoll noted that he had been contacted by Jason Rehagen from R & K Roofing that his company’s name had been in the Unterrifed Democrat because he hadn’t paid for a Village of Freeburg Business License.

“He was unaware he had to get a license,” Knoll said. “There are some of these businesses that didn’t know they needed a business license.”

Village Clerk Nicki Bax asked if they had received a notice in the mail and Knoll was not sure.

Haller explained that if someone is doing business within the village limits, they need to have a business license.

“We are just hoping that people pay if they do business in the village limits,” Haller said. “We hope that the honest people stay honest.”

Trustees approved general revenue bills for $5,153.88. Trustees did not approve paying the bill for Lauber Law Firm, totaling $1,326, noting that Haller would call to discuss several of the charges on the bill.

Trustees approved bills totaling $7,988.54 for sewer and $1,395.35 for water.

The Village of Freeburg has the following account balances: purchasing ($539.34), sewer checking ($16,532.24), general revenue checking ($20,053.59), sewer money market ($318,933.87), general revenue money market ($460,654.19), lead service line ($300,189.09), water revenue ($11,273), water replacement ($39.89), and water works money market ($844,453.80).

The village had a 2% water loss for the month. The village produced 2,402,138 gallons of water and billed 1,545,800 gallons of water.

The next meeting will be on Monday, May 6 at 6:30 p.m.