Resident Tim McFadden requested on June 16 that the city’s insurance help pay for flood damages, and that the city work to solve the recurring flooding issue.

McFadden said that his basement was flooded on June 8 due to recent storms, and this isn’t the first time it has happened.  Last year, when it flooded, they ended up having to pay $17,000 out of pocket for repairs.

“My issue is not water, it’s sewer. I have other people’s feces in my basement, and that’s not okay,” McFadden said. “I have a backflow preventer that’s going in this coming week. All that’s going to do is push it off to my neighbor.”

Since purchasing the property in 2008, McFadden hasn’t had any issues like this until 2025, and is requesting to use the city’s insurance to cover the cost of repairs.

“That’s my request, is that we can go through the city’s insurance, go through MOPERM (Missouri Public Entity Risk Management Fund) instead of making my insurance go through this insurance, and somebody’s gonna drop the ball,” McFadden said.

City Clerk Cathy Bremer said that McFadden can fill out the insurance claim and attach pictures of the damage, and the city will file it.

It is unclear why exactly this issue is suddenly occurring.

Water and Street Manager Mark McEuen said that the road the property is on belongs to Imperial, an apparel manufacturer.

City Attorney Sarah Messex said she would try to set up a meeting with Imperial to move forward in resolving the issue.

Mayor Sky Huddleston added to the discussion by saying that McFadden was bringing attention to the fact that the city’s infrastructure, mainly the sewage and water distribution systems, is not up to par.

“The infrastructure is aging immensely,” Huddleston said. “A lot of the pipes feeding hydrants are insufficiently sized.”

Huddleston said that data has already started to be collected so the city can assess what needs to be prioritized. He added that Bourbon is one of the few cities in the area that doesn’t chlorinate its water and would like it to stay that way, mainly because the chlorination system would be a large expense and it accelerates the wear on the city’s infrastructure.

“There is a collapsed sewage pipe under (Interstate) 44, and this is causing raw sewage to leak into the soil under the interstate, which will obviously contaminate the surrounding environment, and eventually the groundwater,” Huddleston said.

The city has applied for emergency grants to help start repairing the issues.

In other business, American Legion Post 81 Commander Earl Simmerly requested the $250 back that was paid for a permit for the legion’s parking lot.

“Well, years ago, when Leonard (Armstrong) was the mayor, he fixed that for us nonprofit veterans,” Simmerly said. “We didn’t have any permits from the city to do something; we built that whole building out there with no permit.”

Alderman Ward 2 Mary Heywood explained that the building permits are to ensure that the city’s underground utilities are not being struck and damaged, but the aldermen said they wanted to take care of their veterans. A motion to refund the veterans for the permit cost was approved with a 4-0 vote.