The St. James Board of Aldermen on Feb. 9 approved a five-year electrical master service agreement with three engineering firms, allowing up to $500,000 annually for electrical engineering services.

The city will be contracting with CM Archer Group, P.C., of Rolla, Toth and Associates, Inc., of Springfield and Allgeier, Martin and Associates, Inc., of Joplin to provide professional services for various electrical system projects that are too complex for the city to design themselves.

“Whenever you start getting into substation upgrades and that type of thing, our guys can do a lot of the work, or some of the work, but they can’t do the design that goes into it,” Public Works Director Lyle Thomas said. “This gets into the engineering a lot deeper than what our linemen can do.”

In November, a selection advisory committee made up of subject matter experts met to put together a request for proposals (RFP). The RFP was posted on the city’s website and inside City Hall for one month, as well as sent out to multiple engineering firms in the state.

The city received four proposals, which the committee evaluated and scored based on a criteria developed in the RFP. The decision was made to contract with the three firms due to their different specialties and familiarity with the city’s electrical system.

City Administrator Leeann DeMouche clarified that just because the budget allows $500,000 annually for the agreement, it is not guaranteed the full amount will be spent every year. If spending exceeds $500,000, it will require council approval.

“When I say half a million dollars, that just gives them the budget authority to spend up to that amount as a total for all three contracts together, not each contract at half a million dollars,” DeMouche said. “And I will honestly tell you, I know that we probably will not spend that much.”

Once projects are identified, the city will request cost and timeline proposals from each of the three firms. According to the resolution, staff will then select which company to use for the project based on price and availability.

“This is how cities run,” DeMouche said. “They have these contracts like this, so that way they can keep working and keep doing projects and not have to stop and wait a month to take something to council. That’s why these are good ideas.”

According to DeMouche, the city put out another RFP on Feb. 10 for civil engineering, which will cover street, stormwater and wastewater projects, as well as natural gas, as needed.

“With the growth we’re seeing right now, this is almost a necessity,” Mayor Rick Krawiecki said. “We’ve got to prepare for the future.”

In other news, the council approved an ordinance making updates to St. James’ municipal codes regarding tourism. It is now no longer required for members of the city’s Tourism Commission to reside within city limits.

“We do have business owners that have businesses in the city limits that do not live in the city limits,” Krawiecki said. “So we want to make sure we include them in the decision making of how the tourism dollars are spent, because it’s very important that we direct our monies towards what’s going to best help our businesses.”

The board also approved a lot consolidation plat application submitted by Nathanael Troyer. The subdivision includes a total of eight-and-a-half lots on land that Troyer acquired from his father. According to Thomas, Troyer is looking to consolidate each of the lots and finish building the house his father started.

“So this property was actually platted in either the late 1800s or the early 1900s, and these are nonconforming lots to our current planning and zoning regulations,” Thomas said. “Each one of those lots are 40-foot by 140 feet. You got to think of the day. So basically, you cannot build over a lot line. So it was his choice to consolidate them all into one lot.”

Sewer, water and electricity are in the street and there are no structures currently on the property.

The next Board of Aldermen meeting will be held at 6 p.m. on March 9 in the St. James Council Chambers.