After months of internal fights in closed session, the resignation and return of Mayor Jim Morgan, and a disputed election that returned the existing aldermen to office, Crocker city council members voted Tuesday to retain the city administrator and other city personnel.
The vote to keep City Administrator Joyce Peterson was by only the barest of margins. Alderman Kim Skaggs-Henson and Jeff Curry voted to retain her and Aldermen Charles Stroburg and Jim Patton voted “no,” with Morgan breaking the tie by voting to keep her.
The reappointment of Deputy City Clerk and Collector Diane Dochterman was also split, with Patton voting against her and the others supporting her. City Clerk Rita Bomar, who replaced a previous city clerk who was a focus of the controversy, was reappointed unanimously.
The content of the complaints has never been publicly released and all debates regarding the performance of city officials have been conducted in closed session as personnel matters.
Morgan said he has several items of good news that he said should help improve the city of Crocker.
Crocker has been chosen through the Meramec Regional Planning Commission as a city that will benefit from a group of engineering students coming to town to assess community needs, possibly including downtown revitalization, the city depot, and the city park area, as part of a class project.
“I went down to the presentation in Potosi a couple weeks ago and I was highly impressed with what these students did,” Morgan said. “It’s not going to cost us anything; the only thing we are out is a meal.”
The students will visit Crocker for several days at a time, possibly do some preliminary engineering work, and report back in December. A public meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on June 3 to consider how best to use the students.
Responding to questions from Patton, Morgan said he’s working on obtaining a $10,000 grant for the old Crocker Depot through the History Channel. The depot was originally planned as a museum and contains much of Crocker’s history.
“It’s just unbelievable some of the stuff in there; you ought to take the school in there,” Patton said.
That could easily happen, Morgan said. It’s a requirement of the grant to work with the local schools, Morgan said, and he said he’s talked to the school board and is optimistic that the school will support the project.
Morgan also reported on the progress of an effort to hire an economic developer for all five cities of Pulaski County and for the county as a whole. Morgan said a report on how to promote economic development paid for by a Department of Defense grant generated about 200 pages of detailed recommendations and another meeting of the county’s five cities will be held next week to decide what to do next.
“Hopefully we will be able to hire an economic director for Pulaski County,” Morgan said. “We’ve done a lot of work in 2 1/2 years of work.”
Patton wanted to know who will pay the bill.
“If they do hire one, is the county paying for it or is this something we’re all going to have to chip in for?” asked Patton.
Not necessarily either one, Morgan said.
“There is a possibility of a tax being put on the ballot this November,” Morgan said. “That’s something they’re talking about; nobody really knows.”
If an assessment is made, it would probably be based on population, Morgan said.
In other business:
• Robert Layman, the city’s superintendent of public works, said Ozark Applicators will be cleaning the water tower on May 20 and the tower will be drained on the preceding Sunday. That will take 50,000 gallons out of the city’s water supply for about six weeks and Layman said city residents will need to be careful about their water usage.
• Police Chief Robert Ishmael said the control boxes for Crocker’s new storm sirens have arrived and a battery power backup has been purchased.
• Aldermen approved an annual railroad lease agreement for $600 with BNSF railroad officials for the land that’s commonly referred to as the city parking lot.
• Aldermen approved three ATV permits for Kelly and Hank Newcomb and for Sherry Kaley.
“Basically it’s all because they want to save on gas,” Morgan said.
• Morgan presented a proposal from Townsend Painting to repaint and clean a caboose in the city park at a cost not to exceed $850.
• Aldermen agreed that a city-owned fire truck should go to a fire department that could use it rather than being sold to an antique dealer. While most of the Crocker fire trucks are owned by the Crocker Rural Fire Protection District, the 1962 fire truck is city-owned because it predates the creation of the fire district.
“It’s an antique; it’s not considered part of your ISO (insurance) rating anymore because of the age of it,” said Fire Chief Ken Gardner. “Of course, this is your equipment to do with it what you want.”