A board reorganization on April 21 included swearing in the newly elected Mayor Sky Huddleston and Alderman Ward 1 James Naquin and reswearing in of Alderman Ward 2 Mary Heywood.

City Attorney Robert Davis has resigned from his position and his last day will be May 8, after 20 years in the position.

Citizen Cathy Alexander was back on the agenda this month for a follow-up on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) complaints she first made on Jan. 20 against the Bourbon Café and Coffee Saloon.

“The oath you guys just took, that I just heard, which I never heard before. It stated that you can uphold the Constitution, uphold the Missouri laws, right, and uphold the ordinance of this town, right?” Alexander asked. “So I’ve been fighting all of those, since January, and nothing has been done yet.”

Davis said he had a letter written from Dan Gray and Michelle Reynolds Gray, who own the Bourbon Cafe.

“The only thing we have moved was one bike because it was five inches too close,” Davis read. “As with everything we do, it is strategically placed there to catch people’s eye and get them to stop instead of drive by, drive on by to a town that might offer more.”

They complied with removing the three antique thermometers from the electric pole, but refused to move the marquee sign.

“We have not moved our marquee sign back 10 feet, and we don’t plan to do that. We have planned to move it a couple of feet back off the sidewalk, only because we want the building to block it somewhat so that the letters on the sign are not blown around when it is windy,” Davis read.

The Grays then pointed out that other businesses use the sidewalk to advertise their businesses, but they were not asked to make changes.

With ADA laws being federal laws and not city ordinances, the board claimed that it was not under their jurisdiction and that they were done with the matter. No further action was taken.

Citizen Toby Key was added to the agenda to dispute his water bill.

It showed that he broke the meter four times, but this was the first time he was hearing about it.

“They’re saying I’m running it over with my truck or my lawn mower, and I know for a fact that I’m not doing that. I was looking at the manhole,” Key said. “There’s a manhole that, then there’s the little meter thing in the middle.”

Alderman Ward 1 Margie Brine asked if they could cut the charges down to the fee of only one broken meter, but Key said it’s not even his. Huddleston asked if Key could present him or Water Manager Mark McEuen with a picture of the meter to assess how to protect it.

Francie Rohrer, parks board member, asked for more cameras to be put in the park.

“The pickleball court is being destroyed, and we need to get a camera down there,” Rohrer said. “They’ve taken the gate off, and I have a picture of a guy with a bat, and when we saw them down there at the pickleball court, I called the police.”

A motion to purchase a camera for the pickleball court passed with a 4-0 vote.

Heywood discussed looking for the Route 66 stencils to paint them on Route 66, for the 100th anniversary.

New appointments for the city attorney and city prosecutor, planning and zoning board and park board were on the agenda, but Huddleston decided to table the decision. A motion to keep the members already on the planning and zoning and parks board was approved with a 4-0 vote. Brine was approved as mayor pro tem with a 3-0 vote.