A board reorganization on April 9 included swearing in newly elected and re-elected Cuba Board of Aldermen members, following a reading of the unofficial election results by Clerk Lainie Garbo.

It is up to Cuba’s new mayor, Pitts Lesesne, to suggest someone to fill the Alderman Ward 2 vacancy, and the board to approve it.

Ray Mortimeyer and Louis Raineri are the aldermen for Ward 1, Jeremy Rosemann is the Ward 2 aldermen and Joyce Hartzell and Jeff Bouse are the Ward 3 aldermen. Lesesne is hoping for the appointment for Alderman Ward 2 and President of the Board to be made on April 16 during a special meeting.

The floor was opened up for citizen participation.

Citizen Dori Stubblefield shared her concerns about the idea of using punch cards at the pool instead of season passes, a topic first discussed at the March 10 Cuba Parks and Recreation meeting.

She is part of a group of citizens who do aerobic exercises at the pool and they are worried the punch cards would be outside of their budget. Her suggestion is to slightly raise the prices, especially in the concession stand, instead of paying for a punch card that won’t last a whole month.

Currently, season passes are $55 for individuals; $80 for a family of two; $130 for families of three to six, with $10 added for any additional members and $40 for seniors aged 55 and up. The suggested punch cards were for $60 a piece for 20 punches.

“Last year, my niece went with me. She had to eat every hour, so raise the prices of the food,” Stubblefield said.

Citizen Cyndi Mercer agreed that punch cards wouldn’t be a positive addition to the pool.

“The pool is never, ever going to get money,” Mercer said. “(Citizens) can barely afford it as it is.”

She said that if kids can’t afford to go to the pool, they will get into trouble in their free time.

“Maybe a smaller decrease for veterans and military, a decrease for maybe the elderly and low-income families, if they’re able to prove if they’re getting food stamps or if they’re getting something like that. Maybe don’t do the $5 increases (on the season passes), because the $5 increase might be nothing to some, a cup of coffee, but might be the world, whether they get that or not,” Mercer said.

In other business, Street Department Supervisor Allen Monda gave recommendations to fill two open laborer positions in his department. There was one in-house recommendation, Bryce Mounce, to which Alderman Ward 3 Jeff Bouse said that they should leave him where he is.

“We’ve invested all this money and raining into the water department. We’ve got the McBride project going on, and he’s valuable to us there,” Bouse said.

The board voted 4-0 to leave Mounce in his current position.

Monda then recommended Ryan Kitchen and Andrew Hewkin.

Before the board could vote, Comptroller Jennifer Basham recommended that they hire only one person and absorb the other through attrition.

“We talked about this for other departments. We’re in a budget crunch, and I feel like the second position should be absorbed through attrition until our cash flow (is) resolved,” Basham said.

During inclement weather, the street department borrows people from other departments to help. Monda explained that many of the shared employees are about to retire, and he is worried about having inexperienced people helping. Additionally, other departments have projects happening at the same time, which means they are mostly unavailable when the street department needs them.

The board decided that the street department couldn’t lose any positions. They approved Kitchen and Hewkin for the laborer positions with a 4-0 vote.

Jeremy Birkner was hired into the street department assistant supervisor position with a 4-0 vote.

A motion was passed to move Tyler Scharfenberg and Isaiah Woodson into Technician 2 positions in the natural gas department with a 3-1 vote. Alderman Ward 1 Mortimeyer voted against.

Grounds Supervisor Jerry Montgomery recommended Hailey Shockley for the summer help position.

Shockley was approved for hire with a 4-0 vote.

Police Chief Doug Shelton announced two road closures for the board to vote on. He couldn’t remember what the event was, but it would require Northwest Main Avenue in front of Frisco's to be closed from 3 to 10 p.m. on May 9, from South Buchanan Street to South Green Street. 

There was also a road closure needed from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on May 9 for Fair Avenue, from Bond Street to Hickory Street, for the Cuba High School track meet.

Both requests for the road closures were passed with a 4-0 vote.

Shelton also announced that the police department will be purchasing 11 new armored vests. The panels alone will cost $9,226.25 plus some other additional expenses, but overall, it will be under the $11,000 that was budgeted for the new equipment. The purchase was approved with a 4-0 vote.

During the special meeting on March 26, the Cuba Soccer Program and Cuba Ball Program asked for some revisions to be made to their sports field agreements.

Having received the revised contracts on April 8, both programs decided to table signing the agreements until they have had adequate time to review the changes.

A motion to approve Mortimeyer’s resignation as the Meramec Regional Planning Commission representative was approved with a 3-0 vote.

Bill No. 2210, an ordinance to rezone a parcel of land, as requested by Aldo Alu for a triplex, from residential to multiple-family, became General Ordinance No. 1248 after it was approved with a 4-0 vote.

Bill No. 2211, an ordinance to rezone a parcel of land, as requested by Jacob and Tammy Highley, from residential to commercial, became General Ordinance No. 1429 after it was approved with a 4-0 vote.