The Reporter covers Miller, Morgan and Camden County in Central Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks and is published once per week on Wednesdays.

 

Published July 12, 2017

Ameren contract with city questioned by board

OSAGE BEACH – A short board meeting last week has resulted in a vote to pave a portion of a city street and multiple questions about a 20-year contract with Ameren for Street lighting.

The board questioned several details of a contract with Ameren for lighting within the city.

“Ameren Missouri is our public utility company who supplies our street and other public area lighting within our City limits and this contract outlines the details of that service,” Jeana Woods, City Administrator said in her report. “This is a twenty year contract.”

$72,000 has been budgeted this fiscal year for the street light electric service.

The contract will have Ameren “providing for the lighting of the streets, avenues, alleys, and other public places of the City by electricity, and providing for the lighting of the streets, avenues, alleys, and other public places of the City be electricity, and providing for the supply of other electric utility service required by the City for its City Hall and other premises…”

Several aldermen asked questions and expressed concerns with the Ameren contract, one of which why is it a 20-year contract?

The city Administrator stated that she didn’t know why it was 20 years, since the old contract was only for 10 years.

A discussion was then held on the rates and the type of lighting that is being used.

Some of the lights are owned by the city and the city will be charged for the electricity and maintenance of those lights but others are owned by Ameren.

Aldermen Jeff Bethurem asked if the lights are LED or sodium. If they are the old style (sodium) are they going to be changed to LED in the next 20 years?

LEDs use less electricity and switching can save the city quite a bit of money, Bethurem said.

One response is that Ameren is changing to the LEDs when the other go bad but no timetable was presented.

The board voted to put a hold on deciding the contract until various concerns can be answered by Ameren. The City Administrator said she will contact their representative at Ameren and bring the results to a future Board of Aldermen meeting.

The only other business addressed at the short board meeting was paving a portion of a city street.

Creek Cove Lane Road will see the paving improvements being done by the low bidder for the project, Higgins Asphalt Paving Company, Inc., out of Tipton, MO.

Two bids were received for the project:

• Higgins Asphalt: $35,160
• Capital: $36,808

“This is a budgeted project within line item 20-00-773210 Osage Beach Special Road District Projects,” Nicholas Edelman, Public Works Director, told the board in his report. “The Osage Beach Special Road District will be covering 100 percent of the costs.”

Once the work is started the contract requires it to be done within 30 days.

The next board meeting is scheduled for July 20.

All content is Copyright 2017 by Reporter Publishing, L.L.C. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited without written permission.