As young and old make use of the fountain in Legion Park, thoughts of installing a second fountain at Lincoln Park is being entertained by Sikeston City Council.
During Monday’s nights public hearing on the FY22 budget during a Sikeston City Council meeting, Sikeston City Councilman Brian Self brought up the idea of building a fountain at Lincoln Park.
“I’ve had a few people reach out to me about our fountain and splash pad (in Legion Park),” Self said. “I’m watching it (being used) on a daily basis and it’s awesome. I would love to put in this year’s budget enough money to possibly put in another one, that size, maybe not all the bells and whistles, but something similar to that, in Lincoln Park.”
Sikeston Director of Public Works Jay Lancaster said the fountain in Legion Park cost about $135,000 for materials and city workers did the work themselves. He also added that a big expense for the fountain was the lighting, which would not have to part of a fountain in Lincoln Park.
“I’m totally in favor of this but there are some questions,” Lancaster said. “We need to talk to BMU about how we would do the water. We would also have to have some conversations about labor. But material only, without lights, we’re probably talking $90,000-$100,000 without labor.”
Sikeston Director of Parks and Recreation Dustin Care said the biggest question would be the water. The fountain in Legion Park uses a wastewater system and a different type of fountain would be more costly and take more upkeep.
“When you start talking about circulation systems and chemicals and things like that you are talking about an hour or two a day in potential maintenance from us and then keeping up with chemicals and things like that, which adds an additional cost,” Care said. “Legion Park (fountain) is perfect for the simplicity and the idea behind it.”
Self then added maybe the idea was something they needed to discuss further.
“Perhaps I’m putting out an idea or request that we need more time to discuss,” Self said. “I just think something like this would be really nice for Lincoln Park and I think it would be really utilized.”
Lancaster said he didn’t want to be discouraging to the idea and asked how long they would have to figure things out such as cost and if BMU could do a wastewater fountain like that in Legion Park.
“We can certainly make any changes to the budget,” said Sikeston City Manager Jonathan Douglass. “It’s really just a question of whether you all can gather enough information to get a good number. I assume that would involve some discussions with BMU.”
__Dansler Field Lights__
Another item discussed by Council was installing lights at Dansler Field. During the last Council meeting, residents approached Council about installing the lights at Dansler so more activities can be held.
“Our best estimate of what it would cost would be about $300,000,” said Douglass. “The lights would be the biggest portion of that, about $250,000.”
While Douglass said that is more expensive than what the cost has been in the past, city officials were told by their vendor that they now only use LED lights. That’s a lot more expensive than what we’ve done but our vendor has told us they only use LED lights now.
“They did not get us a hard estimate so it is still in question what that would exactly cost,” Douglass said.
One option would be to shrink the field down. Currently it is an adult softball sized field and it could be shrunk down to a youth baseball field to save a little money.
The project could also be done in phases, however, Douglass said the biggest cost would still be the lights, which would have to be done at one time.
Douglass said it could be done with the FY22 budget.
“We did have a really good financial year this year. Our fund balances are up significantly because we budgeted conservatively on our revenues last year not knowing what the pandemic would bring,” Douglass said, adding they received a lot of money in sales tax.
“If we wanted to spend that out of the general fund balance, our general fund balance would still be left at about 55%, which is well above the 25% needed,” Douglass said. “But we always want to keep the fund balances up because that is our rainy day fund and is how we manage our cash. A 50% fund balance is probably what it would take to operate the city for six months. If a big disaster of something were to hit we could still manage the city.”
Council plans to hold a work session on the fountain in Lincoln Park and lights at Dansler Field before the budget is voted on at the June 7 meeting.
__Benches at Lincoln Park__
During the May 3 City Council meeting, a member of the public requested benches be installed around the walking track at Lincoln Park. The Parks Department reviewed the current year budget and determined that there was enough money in this year’s budget to go ahead and order four benches for Lincoln Park, two benches for Roberta Rowe Park and two benches for Clayton Park.
__Additional skilled worker__
A review of the FY22 budget showed that mowing equipment had been budgeted in two places. The elimination of one of those lines, plus modest trimming of a few other Parks Department items, allowed enough money in the Parks and Recreation Fund to be budgeted for one additional skilled worker position.
__HVAC replacements at DPS Headquarters__
After the May 3 Council meeting, a Council member asked about budgeted HVAC replacements at DPS headquarters, since the building is relatively new. The city’s HVAC contractor reports that the rooftop units do tend to suffer more wear and tear than ground units, and he does expect a shorter lifespan on rooftop units.
For the last several years, the City has budgeted $27,000 for routine maintenance at the DPS headquarters. Douglass said that amount may seem high for a relatively new building, but to put it in perspective, the building cost $5.6 million to build. That means that the routine maintenance costs have been equivalent to spending $964 a year on a $200,000 house.
In FY21 and FY22 the City budgeted an additional $25,000 each year for HVAC replacements, bringing the total budgeted each year to the equivalent of spending $1,857 on a $200,000 house.
__American Rescue Plan Act funds__
The City is expecting to receive $2.95 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds. The funds are going to be released in two payments, with the City to receive the first half in 2021.
Douglass said the City did receive the 151 page “Interim Rule” from the Treasury Department but that the final rules have yet to be released. He said he and staff are analyzing the rules and suggested a study session with City Council in June or July to discuss the use of the funds.
__Municipal court__
The Council has had some discussion of possibility of moving municipal court cases to the county circuit courts. The move would save Sikeston taxpayers about $160,000 per year and is not expected to burden Sikeston DPS officers in terms of travel time for court appearances.
There are pros and cons of the move to Sikeston citizens and Douglass suggested a study session with Council in June or July to discuss the issue in depth and receive public comment.