Board of Aldermen meeting recap

​On Monday, October 9, the Grain Valley Board of Aldermen briefly met for their regularly scheduled meeting. This meeting consisted of a community survey presentation and two new resolutions.
 
Under presentations, Assistant Director of Community Research for ETC Institute, Ryan Murray, gave the board an overview of data that was collected through a recent survey of community members. Through the survey, it was found that 80% of respondents said that they were either very satisfied or satisfied with Grain Valley as a place to live and a place to raise children. Murray said that throughout the survey, they saw many satisfied and very satisfied answers from residents.
 
ETC Institute highlighted some areas for improvement within the city based on the responses of those surveyed. Those areas include: maintenance of city streets, sidewalks, and infrastructure, enforcement of city codes and ordinances, effectiveness of communication with the public, parks and recreation programs and facilities, and police services.
 
Looking at trends from past surveys to this year, Murray said that the overall value of taxes and fees, as well as the quality of the education system within the city has gone down in terms of overall satisfied and very satisfied responses.
 
“Across the country, we’re seeing sharp downturns in those perceptions of government that are related primarily to public trust,” Murray said. “We’re seeing those types of responses or perception shifts right in our results from year-over-year.”
 
A trend that has seen a sharp increase in satisfied or very satisfied responses is appearance of neighborhoods and appearance of commercial properties in the city.
 
Moving on to resolutions, the board discussed and took action on two resolutions.
 
The first resolution was introduced by Alderman Bray. This resolution would authorize the city administrator to renew the city’s annual software and hardware maintenance and support agreement with Neptune Technology. City Administrator, Ken Murphy, said that Neptune Technology is who the city uses for their water meters and water meter reading symptoms. Murphy said that the city has been very happy with the work they have done and would like to continue it. The resolution was put to a vote and passed unanimously.
 
The other resolution was introduced by Alderman Cleaver. This resolution would approve the city’s contract with Tandem Paving Co. to do repairs at Butterfly Trail. Murphy said that the original budget only accounted for filling cracks at Butterfly Trail but the city has decided to use savings from the Ryan Road project to also add a seal coat in order to extend the lifespan of the trail. The resolution was passed unanimously.
In Alderman Arnold’s comments, he recognized the Grain Valley Band as they were Grand Champions at the recent Blue Springs band competition. The band scored top honors in all categories. Arnold said that he looks forward to their continued success as they continue to compete.
 
Arnold also noted the upcoming Downtown Spooktacular, asking about how donations were coming for that event. Mayor Todd said that there have not been any donations as of yet and Arnold presented him with a $500 check as a personal donation to the event. Arnold challenged the rest of the board to also donate to the event and said that the donations would help show the public that they are committed to saving taxpayer’s dollars.
 
The next Board of Aldermen’s meeting will take place at City Hall on October 23 at 7:00pm.