Steelville City Council made the decision Jan. 5 to publish unpaid business licenses in the newspaper starting March 1.

At the previous meeting on Dec. 15, the council discussed publishing unpaid property taxes and business licenses. Ward 1 Alderman Curtis Crouch also previously mentioned that the county offered to take care of Steelville’s property taxes for a small portion of the revenue. They are still waiting for a proposal from the county to move forward with that.

Police Chief Mike Sherman explained the penalty for not paying business licenses.

“So how it works is they get fined through the city…and then, if they don’t continue to get current, then…the state will send out letters stating, ‘hey, their business is behind,’” Sherman said. “The city needs to do with, per their ordinance, what their process is…The process is it goes to (City Attorney) Brooks Kenagy. Brooks Kenagy serves them with a letter. If they don’t (pay), then it goes to court…if they don’t follow through when it goes to court, he sends out the judgment letter from the courts (and) we post it on their door. Then if they don’t follow that, it goes back to the courts for an injunction for us to come down and put locks on the doors.”

While aldermen did not vote on the issue, it was the consensus to proceed.

In other business, Sherman gave a police update.

“The truck that we were going to get through the Missouri Blue Shield program somehow was totaled on the parking lot of the place where we were ordering it from,” Sherman said.

Timeline for receiving the truck has already been pushed back a couple of weeks as they search for a new truck.

Public Works Director Jason Evans also gave his report.

“We finished up that sewer on Oak Street. We’ll babysit the trench for a little bit to keep gravel in there. We’ve got some cleanup yet to do, so over this week we should (be able) to accomplish that,” Evans said.

Treatment plant results showed everything is within normal limits, and the police department garage door was fixed but the electric department door needs to be replaced.

When doing an audit from a checklist they received from the Missouri Public Utility Alliance (MPUA), it was discovered that the electric department is in severe need of some safety equipment.

A motion was passed with a 3-0 vote to replace the 12-foot by 12-foot commercial garage door for up to $4,600 and to spend up to $5,000 for safety equipment for the electric department.

A proposed subdivision development will be brought up in the next council meeting, but Evans wanted to put it on the council’s radar now.

“The council is going to be petitioned to allow a new subdivision to be put into town. Part of the property is already in the city limits. Part of it isn’t, and so there’s a legal process that you have to go through,” Evans said.

City Clerk Jamey Griffith gave the shutoff report.

“There were 18 shutoffs total, seven are still unpaid and zero are being final billed,” Griffith said.