Sikeston City Council approves fair housing policy and awards mowing bid

SIKESTON — The Sikeston City Council has approved the re-adoption of the city’s Fair Housing Policy.

“Annual adoption of this policy is required each year for the city to maintain any state funding that we receive,” said Rhonda Council, city clerk of Sikeston.

Council said it’s necessary because the policy maintains compliance with state Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding requirements.

The policy outlines discriminatory practices and establishes a Fair Housing Committee to address violations of municipal fair housing complaints.

In other business, the council awarded the Land Clearance Redevelopment Authority (LCRA) mowing bid to JH Rhoden Unlimited.

“We recently put out a bid for mowing of city own lots that we have throughout the neighborhoods,” said Barry Blevins, community development director for the city of Sikeston. “That also includes lots that LCRA owns.”

According to Blevins, the bids were opened on Feb. 21, 2025 for the contract period of April 1 through March 31, 2026.

The contract is valued at $4,000 monthly, totaling approximately $28,000 for the year. Blevins said the bid covers the mowing of 135 lots within the city from April through October, with the fee reimbursed by the LCRA.

“We put the bid out for 135 lots but we actually only have 92 LCRA lots but we have about 25 nuisance lots that the city mows and a few lots that the city owns so we always give a little room there incase we end up having any more,” Blevins said.

Additionally, Sikeston Public Works Director Jay Lancaster reported on the bids for the airport runway and apron project.

Lancaster noted that the bids submitted were incomplete.

“We opened bids this past Friday and received two bids that were both incomplete in nature, so it was decided we would reject bids and re-advertise,” Lancaster said. “We are setting all of that in motion right now.”

Lancaster said they are going to be receiving bids again in about three weeks.

“We will be bringing it back to the April 7 meeting,” Lancaster said. “Hopefully everything will be in order that time.”

The meeting is available for viewing online at YouTube.

A special city council meeting is scheduled for noon Monday, March 10.