City Council meets at The W Club on opening night

The Webb City Council conveniently stayed in place after the ribbon-cutting for The W Club Monday to conduct a regular meeting.

Ownership of the new recreation center was transferred earlier in the month from Jim Dawson and the Dawson Heritage Foundation to the city.

Hundreds attended the ribbon-cutting at 5 p.m. in the large gym. Tours were still being given when the council met at the normal time, 5:30 p.m., in the multi-purpose meeting room at the front of the building.

Mayor Lynn Ragsdale opened the meeting by thanking Dawson (a 4th Ward councilman) and the city departments for constructing the building and parking lot.

The W Club will be operated, managed and promoted by the parks and recreation staff, including Kong Lee, the new recreation center director.

City Administrator Carl Francis updated the council on the water system’s ability to keep up with increased demand that typically occurs during the summer heat.

So far, he said the pumps are able to keep up by running 16 hours a day. The suggested maximum is 18 hours a day. Under normal demand, he says the pumps only need to run 10 to 12 hours per day.

If demand surpasses the amount being pumped, the city opens the Missouri American valve in the Joplin-Webb City Industrial Park. The city considers that a luxury because it costs more to purchase the water from Missouri American than to pump it from the city wells.

Francis said he and department heads are considering ways to expand the water system to be ready for growth. Rather than dig another well, he said the best step may be construction of another water tower. As it is, he said there’s more pumping capacity than can be stored in the million-gallon water tower. As demand lowers the level of the water tower, he said purchasing water from Missouri American becomes necessary.

The preliminary consensus is that the northwest section of the city is the most logical location for a second tower to be constructed. That’s because there’s room for growth on the north side of town, and the water pressure is somewhat lower at that end of town.

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The 1-cent general sales tax receipts through the first eighth months of the fiscal year are 4.99% higher than at the same period last year.

Council members are perplexed, though, that receipts for the 2.5% use (online) tax is .94% behind what it was last year at this time.

In previous years, the use tax receipts have made comparatively large gains each year.

Francis says a use tax plateau is being reported by other cities, as well.

The city typically budgets flat sales tax revenue (no increase). So if use tax receipts continue on this trend the reduction in revenue won’t have a big impact.

Of the two taxes, the 1-cent general tax is most important because it produces nearly three times as much revenue. In the last fiscal year, the 1-cent sales tax revenue was $2,533467, compared to $601,800 revenue collected from the use tax.

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The council accepted an $8,315 bid from Cochran Heating and Air Conditioning to replace a unit at the public works department.

A motion was passed to hire Smithley Environmental to finely grind wood for compost at a cost of $600 per hour. There are piles of wood at the Center Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant that have been coarsely ground up with existing equipment, but a finer grind is needed for compost.