Monteleone joins Joplin council temporarily

Dec. 19—The Joplin City Council seated a new temporary council member on Monday before going to work on other business.

Former council member Anthony Monteleone was sworn in to serve in the seat vacated by former council member Kate Spencer. He will serve until the council election in April when voters will fill the seat for the remaining two years of her vacated term. He was one of 12 who applied.

Monteleone was appointed in 2018 to two years of a vacated council term and then elected in 2020 to the remaining two years of that term.

Mayor Doug Lawson thanked those who applied for the temporary seat. "We were blessed by 12 volunteers ... and I thank them and thank you, Mr. Monteleone, for your service."

In other business, an ordinance was approved for a contract with Joplin Industrial Electric Co. for $1,094,534 for a new monitoring system for operations of the Turkey Creek and Shoal Creek wastewater plants and 27 lift stations that move sewage to those plants.

Dan Johnson, the public works director, said the current system was installed in 2012 and that it worked well to provide real-time information remotely for several years. But because of the system's age, the city is unable to find a company to perform maintenance on it or to obtain a maintenance contract. He said a new system will consolidate the plants and the lift stations into one system and let the city know in real time what's happening with the equipment. It also provides security cameras for the premises as well as for caustic areas of the plants that could be monitored remotely rather than to risk sending people into those areas routinely.

He asked that the purchase be approved on emergency ordinance to go into effect immediately because the vendor would not hold the price for later approval.

The purchase was approved by a vote of 8-1.

The council also:

—Approved an agreement with property owner Latasha Vick to provide sanitary sewer to property located at 1901 Crow Road. The request required council action because the property is outside the city limits. It also was approved on an emergency basis.

—Authorized an agreement between the city and the Economic Security Corp. to pass through $50,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds provided by the federal government for public service grants for operation of the coordinated entry program that assesses housing needs for homeless people.

—Authorized participation in a program agreement that will provide federal grant funds of $17,000 for operation of a database that tracks services to homeless people.