Alderman Ward 1 Bill Bennett announced on July 6 that he has received several complaints about the “unsightliness” of Steelville as people drive through it.

“I’m going to throw out this, the old Casey’s building. None of us own that. Grass is everywhere,” Bennett said. “There’s a house on Frisco, right across from the gas company. We fight this battle every year. It never gets cut, or they cut two inches of it, and they don’t cut the side.”

He added a house on Cedar Street has had tall grass for approximately 15 years, and the residents only cut a little bit in the back.

“I know Mike (Sherman, police chief) and Jason (Evans, public works supervisor), they knock on the doors and put a letter there, and they do this and that, and nothing ever gets done,” Bennett said. “I’d like to see us just go in, cut this and put a lien against that property, and if they don’t like it, then come see me.”

Mayor Duane DeRennaux said that, according to Steelville’s ordinances, residents only have to mow about 15 feet from the roadway.

“So we are working on getting those ordinances changed, but in the meantime, we’re putting up with all this unsightly stuff,” DeRennaux said. “There was a situation, even in the park the other day, someone almost stepped on a copperhead, so we’ve got to keep our place trimmed down.”

Sherman said that updating the city’s ordinances has been an ongoing discussion that keeps getting pushed down the road.

DeRennaux agreed and said that the board will get input from City Attorney Brooks Kenagy about updating the ordinances.

City Clerk Jamey Griffith said if citizens are breaking the ordinances, then the city has the right, by ordinance, to turn off their utilities. Once the ordinances are updated, they can better enforce this one.

“If it’s written up where they don’t have to mow right around the house or whatever, we just need to change that,” Griffith said.

Sherman said that many surrounding cities use eCode360, including Cuba and Rolla, which he had brought to the board before. It is a website that houses codified laws and municipal information in one location. It would allow anyone to easily look up and find ordinances.

DeRennaux said he wants to look at Cuba’s ordinances and use that as a reference for Steelville’s ordinances.

“I want to do the grass one right away before we start with this (eCode360),” DeRennaux said.

Ward asked to have a price for using the eCode360 by the next meeting so the board can make a decision on whether to use it or not.

In other business, Bennett announced some considerations, which included pouring a concrete pad this summer for a pavilion by the splash park, adding a sidewalk from the post office to Third Street and adding concrete pads to Hoppe Spring Park to sit picnic tables on.

Bennett also suggested that the city hire a tree service to cut down three big, dead sycamore trees in the park before they come down on their own and possibly cause damage or harm someone. He also mentioned some tree limbs that could be trimmed around where the food trucks were during Freedom Fest because they are also falling down and could hurt someone.