Board of Aldermen meeting recap

by Cole Arndorfer

​The City of Grain Valley Board of Aldermen met on Monday, September 11, for their first regular meeting in the month of September. This meeting included a presentation on the Comprehensive Plan and Parks Master Plan by Confluence, a public hearing on amending Chapter 425 of the City Codes of Ordinances in order to be consistent with the Missouri Constitution being amended in regard to marijuana laws, three new resolutions, and two first readings of ordinances.
 
Under presentations, representatives from Confluence Inc. gave aldermen an overview of both the Comprehensive Plan and the Parks Master Plan that are ready to be implemented.
 
At the time of the public hearing regarding the marijuana laws, Community Development Director, Mark. Trosen, explained that Missouri voters voted to legalize recreational marijuana use. Because of this, the Code of Ordinances must be changed to remove language referring to “medical marijuana facilities” and replace it with “comprehensive marijuana facilities”. The public hearing was closed with no residents speaking regarding the matter.
 
The first resolution was over adopting the Comprehensive Plan and the Parks Master Plan that was discussed previously in the meeting. The board had a lengthy conversation concerning the planned increase in multifamily housing and decrease in single family housing and how that might affect the city in the future. At this time, the board felt that even though this plan was a soft plan and would be able to change over time, their constituents would not be on board with the planned increases in multifamily housing that the plan spells out. This resolution was rejected 4-1 with alderman Bray being the lone acceptance vote.
 
The next resolution discussed was brought up in order to allow the city administrator to execute an agreement with Crawford, Murphy, and Tilly Inc. to design a northeast sewer interceptor and pump station. This was approved 5-0.
 
The third, and final, resolution that was discussed was in order to allow the city to enter into a contract with Shawnee LED to install a digital sign. This was approved 5-0. The digital sign discussed will be a 4’ by 8’ board with a base that is 2’ by 10’ and it will replace the old, manual sign at City Hall.
 
Under ordinances, the first bill discussed was to amend the city code regarding the legality of recreational marijuana in the city in accordance with state law. The first read of this bill was accepted 5-0 and it will be brought back for its second read at the next meeting.
 
The second bill discussed was to amend the wording in the city code regarding marijuana as previously discussed in the meeting. The only changes in the code would be taking out the “medical marijuana facilities” wording and change it to “comprehensive marijuana facilities” in Chapter 425. The first read of this bill was accepted 5-0 and it will also be brought back for its second read at the next meeting.
 
During staff reports, Parks and Recreation Director Shannon Davies updated the board on the fall baseball and softball program; saying that games would start next week and run through the middle or end of October depending on the weather. The department reports 335 kids participating in the programs this season.
 
During mayor comments, Mayor Mike Todd thanked everyone involved in the parade from the police department, to parks and recreation and public works, to the volunteers that helped everything run smooth. He also noted that this looked to be the highest attended fair that he could remember.
 
The next meeting of the board of aldermen will be held on Monday, September 25 at 7 pm in City Hall.