The Chouteau town meeting set employee wages for fiscal year 2012/2013 Monday night. There was one change on the council as Jeremy Cantrell is no longer a town council member since he moved to Pryor. He was replaced by new council member Cecil Lane.

Shortly after convening the meeting the council went into executive session and spent the next hour and twenty minutes in session. The council meeting resumed around 8:25 p.m. Police Department employees will receive a three percent increase beginning July 16. The town animal control officer will receive a $100 per month increase. The animal control officer will make a total of $450 a month.

Salaried fire department employees will receive a three percent increase and volunteers will earn $15 per run up to $300 per month and $5 for first responders.

Billy Wishard was hired as a part time fireman pending completion of testing for the fire department.

The town clerk and office clerk will also receive a three percent increase in salary.

A policy was approved for the marking of time sheets for town employees.

Town employees in training will receive a fifty cent an hour increase and a three percent increase after they have completed training.

The town will pay a $1,000 deductible to the Oklahoma Municipal Assurance Group. OMAG is the insurance for town employees.

The town approved payment of $2,885 to Sutterfield Technologies for court system Station One. This is software used by the town court for the processing of tickets. The council approved sending Nancy Suda and Connie Baker to Oklahoma City for training on how to use Sutterfield Technologies software. Both women will be reimbursed for mileage.

The town approved the annual contract agreement between Chouteau-Mazie schools and the town of Chouteau for a school resource officer. The police department requested $6,816 to be taken from the Police Training and Equipment Fund for a one year service agreement with Saltus Technologies for two hand held mobile computers as part of the Digi Ticket Electronic Ticketing Solution.

The merry-go-round in the town park will be removed due to age and safety reasons resulting from wear and tear. The council approved its removal.

The council approved payment to the Oklahoma Firefighters Pension System at $60 per firefighter totaling $960 to be taken from the General Fire Department and other outlay. This is for annual dues of the volunteer firefighters.

The council approved closing Main Street from the railroad to McCracken Street on July 27 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. for the Lucas Drag Boat Racing Series Boat Show. The council agreed to create a dealer’s ordinance for a town business that sells All Terrain Vehicles (ATV’s) allowing those vehicles as well as golf carts on the street for test drives. Fire Chief Ted Key said the town benefits in sales taxes from the sale of the units and the town should make it legal for those vehicles to be test driven on the street immediately in front of the dealership.

The council approved $1,400 payment to Grand Gateway as a part of the town’s annual dues.

A dilapidated structure at 122 N. 3rd Street was declared a nuisance. The town will arrange to have the structure , a singlewide mobile home, removed. The structure was first declared a nuisance in 2004.

Resolution 2012-7 was approved authorizing application for financial assistance from the Rural Economic Action Plan (REAP) fund. This money, according to the mayor, is about $15,000 for the waste water treatment plant.

The council took no action on a letter from Sterling Codifiers of possible code conflicts with a town ordinance since no one seemed to know the exact nature of the conflict. Town attorney Ben Sherrer said he would look into the matter before the council took any future action.

The Mayor mentioned that United States (US) Steel has renewed their building permit with the town. The Amish Cheese House is two weeks away from getting the building materials for their addition and Nettie Ann’s Bakery is going to coinstruct an addition to the bakery. Their being no new business, the meeting was adjourned.

A meeting of the Public Works Authority was followed the town meeting.  All members of the council were joined by PWA member Frank Klucevsek; member Russell Sullivan was absent. The Board went into a short executive session to discuss pay raises for PWA employees. The PWA returned from executive session and decided to approve a three percent wage increase for PWA employees.

The PWA will get a new four-wheel drive truck for $23,101 from Kevin Grover GMC in Wagoner. Mayor Jerry Floyd said that the dealership will service the truck for the life of its use. PWA board member Brenda Cunningham asked why not purchase a truck from Roberts Auto since it is a local dealership. Floyd said it was better to go with Grover given the lifetime service agreement. Roberts Auto offered the same vehicle for $23,235. Other dealerships that offered the truck were Bob Hart at $23,245 and Danny Beck at $23,500.

The PWA approved selling its 1999 one-ton Ford truck for surplus.  

The PWA approved payment of $3,500 to Tetra Tech for closeout on a wastewater treatment plant Community Development Block Grant and refinancing with the Oklahoma Water Resource Board (OWRB). Tetra Tech is a company that has a substantial amount of data on the waste water treatment plant. This refinancing application is needed to reduce interest on the loan payments for the treatment plant from 4.55 percent to 2.6 percent interest. Mayor Floyd said that over a 20 year period the PWA will save $1,700,000. The PWA pays about $19,000 a month in interest payments on the treatment plant.

The PWA approved purchase of chlorine and sulfur dioxide from Brenntag Supplies for the sewer plant at a cost of $1,669.41. The meeting was adjourned.

Following the meeting the meeting Mayor Floyd was asked why the town and PWA were giving pay increases to employees when he had previously said that the town was running short of money. Floyd responded that the town had more in its financial coffers than he had previously believed, but did not elaborate. In May the town transferred $100,000 from the PWA fund to the town fund to boost the town’s finances.