SIKESTON — A fountain will soon be part of the landscape at Legion Park.
At Monday’s Sikeston City Council meeting, Council authorized the development of the fountain. According to Sikeston Public Works Director Jay Lancaster, work will begin this fall and winter “with the goal to have it ready by springtime next year.”
Lancaster said Historic Downtown Sikeston has been working on the design and fundraising to proceed with the project as drawings from the fountain components are complete and Chris Lambert with Lambert Engineering has completed the site plan.
To accommodate the project, Sikeston Public Works plans to remove and replace all concrete and the Board of Municipal Utilities will be providing water and sewer utilities to the site. In addition, BMU has agreed to allow the fountain to be water-to-waste so that no recirculation is required.
By using the water-to-waste system, there is “a lot less moving parts to maintain,” Lancaster said.
The installation will also help to solve two problems the city currently has. One is the bathrooms at the Sikeston Depot and city officials have not been able to figure out where the sewage goes. The installation of a sewer line to the fountain would allow the City to connect to the Depot and also allow for a bathroom to be put downtown, which has been discussed in the past.
The current estimated costs include: concrete ($4,000), trench grate ($10,500), pipe/fittings ($1,500), hydromatic products ($62,500), hydromatic drawings ($5,500) for a subtotal of $83,500.
In other action Monday, Council:
• Authorized new field reservation and fee structure for the use of baseball and softball fields at the Sikeston Recreation Complex. Due to the high demand of travel ball teams requesting to use fields at specific times and requesting special accommodations, the Parks and Recreation Department is suggesting implementing a field rental policy and charging fees. This policy does not require teams to reserve fields for practice or pay a fee as the fields are always available on a first come/first serve basis.
Instead this policy requires fields to be reserved and a fee paid if a team/group want to guarantee that a field is available for their use on a specific day at a specific time. The fees do not impact the Sikeston Area Youth Baseball League as they would continue to be able to utilize the fields at no charge during the season and post season.
The concept behind the field rental policy is similar to the pavilion rental policy in all of Sikeston’s parks. No one is required to reserve a shelter for use, but to guarantee they have one for an event, they reserve and pay a fee at City Hall.
• Reappointed James Beaird, Larry Wheatley and appointed Tim Mitchell and Robert Murphy to the Board of Appeals.
• Appointed John Gilmore to the Board of Municipal Utilities.
• Reappointed James Miller and Steve Matthews to the Enhanced Enterprise Zone Board.
• Reappointed Alice Tharp and appointed Tim Mitchell to the Housing Authority Board of Commissioners.
• Appointed Matt Drake to the Industrial Development Authority.
• Reappointed John Leible and appointed Clayton Driskill and Carrie Lape to the LCRA Commission.
• Reappointed Marcie Lawson, Jeff Hay and Wade Hamra to the Park Board.
• Reappointed Kathy Teachout to the Planning and Zoning Commission.
• Reappointed Ned Matthews, Nathan Cox and Gordon Jones to the Public Safety Advisory Board.
• Reappointed Andy Caton and appointed Crystal Stanislav and Carrie Anne Corso to the Sikeston Pet and Animal Welfare Services Advisory Board.
• Tabled appointing anyone to the Appointed to the Tax Increment Finance Commission and Traffic Committee.
• Reappointed Michael Harris and Holly Greene and appointed Barb Collins and Scott Ezell to the SEMO University-Sikeston Campus Advisory Council.
• Sikeston City Manager Jon Douglass also said the meeting set for Sept. 19 between the landlords and city has been postponed with no rescheduled date set yet. According to Douglass the City is making some amendments to the rental agreement after meeting with some landlords and a date for the meeting will be set for a later date.