It was announced on Sept. 15 by Bourbon City Clerk Stacy Blake that, after calculations by the Department of Natural Resources, they produced a spreadsheet showing how much the city must raise its water and sewer rates over the next 18 months to meet state requirements. Mayor Sky Huddleston said that the state is forcing the rate increase; it is out of the city’s hands.

For water, the current rate is $8.20 for the first 1,000 gallons. The proposed increase is a base rate of $27, which includes the first 1,000 gallons. For usage beyond 1,000 gallons, the rate will increase by $5.25 per 1,000 gallons.

The current sewer base rate is $26, but the proposed rate is $31.75, which includes the first 1,000 gallons. For usage above 1,000 gallons, the rate will increase by $5.50 per 1,000 gallons.

In this situation, the aldermen have only two options; raise the rate all at once or raise it in four six-month increments.

Blake said that there are advantages to raising the rates all at once.

“If we do it all at once, we have that money from…the 18 months that we can have for our next emergency before 20 years passes when we pay this loan off,” Blake said.

Ward 1 Alderman James Naquin raised concerns about those who won’t be able to afford the increase and will have their utilities shut off. Blake said that they have to give a 30-day notice for the rate increase, hold a public hearing and the council could pick a month on when to start the rate increase, to give Bourbon residents some time to try to situate their finances.

“Right now, I think people pay about, one or two people that live in a household, probably $60 or $70 for their water, sewer and trash at the minimum, and the minimum is going to be closer to $90,” Blake said. “Here in Bourbon, people pay less for water than any place else that I’ve ever lived.”

The aldermen agreed unanimously 4-0 to raise the rates all at once.

A public hearing for the water and sewer rates will be held at 6 p.m. on Oct. 20 before the regular monthly meeting.

During the Aug. 18 meeting, Resident Samantha Cash raised an issue about a tornado siren near her house. She mentioned that during emergencies, the siren is barely audible. The board addressed this concern after doing research and further testing.

Blake said that she had called the county and was told that the siren wasn’t a tornado siren, but rather an outdoor warning siren. This type of siren isn’t designed to be heard inside homes because there are other ways to receive that information, like phones and TVs.

A test was run, and the siren could be heard from Cash’s yard, and the county ran an additional test. That test showed that the volume could use some improvement, so it is currently being repaired.

Blake announced that the water tower needs emergency repairs.

“Something happened with our telephone system….It used to be that they called each other, and now they can’t do that anymore, and they can’t get us communicating properly, so Mark has to go down and manually stop and start the water tower from going up all the time,” Blake said.

Repairs will cost $3,800, approximately.

A motion to repair the water tower was approved with a 4-0 vote.

Due to regular wear and tear, multiple UV lamps at the water treatment plant are broken.

A motion to accept replacing the broken UV lamps at a cost of $7,002.44 was approved by a 4-0 vote.

The aldermen addressed approving entering into an agreement with Computer Informant Systems, Inc. for a mobile computer system and records management.

Blake explained that since Crawford County provides certain services to Bourbon due to the city’s smaller police force, this system helps with communication and information sharing between the two entities.

She mentioned that the county switched companies, and that it is better to be on the same communication path as them. This new contract is also $400 cheaper compared to last year’s.

A motion to accept an agreement with Computer Informant Systems, Inc. was approved by a 4-0 vote.

Huddleston asked for approval to purchase a laptop from Net Engineers to be used by the mayor and City Hall.

“So we need to see if you guys are willing to approve a laptop to be used by City Hall, specifically for me, to prevent commingling of electronic communication. I have a lot of business communication that I like to separate from city communication,” Huddleston said.

Blake added that it would also be used for training, presentations and other similar tasks.

Ward 2 Alderman Mary Heywood was deeply concerned about the high bid of approximately $1,300 for the laptop, and requested they keep looking for a more affordable option.

While the laptop price is high, Blake explained that part of that is to cover the cybersecurity programs that the engineer puts on it.

The aldermen still agreed that they should continue to look for a lower-cost laptop.

Both Huddleston and Head of Utilities Mark McEuen have spoken with Resident Cody Higgins about hiring him for a wastewater position.

“I think it’s a good idea because Mark needs somebody to start handing off this knowledge that’s in his brain to somebody who’s younger…, and there’s a lot of pipes that only Mark knows where they’re at, and that’s a problem,” Huddleston said. “We need to start creating maps, but we also need to make Mark hand off that knowledge to somebody who can continue that work.”

A motion to accept hiring Higgins for a wastewater position was approved by a 4-0 vote.

A motion to hire Certified Public Accountant Cynthia Bates to ready the city’s books for an audit was approved with a 4-0 vote.

In other business, a QR code for the mayor’s quarterly report was posted to the City of Bourbon, Missouri Facebook page.