Auxvasse reorganizes board, discusses repairing Walnut Street

Swearing in newly elected officials and reorganizing the board was one of the main items covered during Tuesday night's Auxvasse Board of Alderman meeting.

The board welcomed one new member, Trey Baumgartner, and decided he would oversee the police department. Alderman Terry Walker will continue as board president and overseeing the fire department. Alderman Mike Bickel will remain over the maintenance department, and Alderwoman Stephanie Leverett will oversee the parks and cemetery department.

The meeting started with a short public hearing in which no public comments were made. The hearing was over the rezoning of the property for the proposed Dollar General store. The board read a letter from the city's planning and zoning commission which recommended rezoning the property to commercial use. The tract of land is located on the north side of Route E and east of Casey's General Store.

During the financial reports, board members discussed whether to pour asphalt over a section of Walnut Street that is in urgent need of repair or to fix water lines under the street prior to repaving it. City Supervisor Justin Feger said the water lines are old and in need of repair but abstained from an opinion on whether the city should replace them before pouring new asphalt. He also added that concrete was preferred over asphalt, but it would also be more difficult to repair if his crew had to dig under the street for water line repairs. Mayor Kevin Phares told the board it may be in the best interest of the city to repair the lines first so Feger's crew wouldn't have to tear up new asphalt or concrete to fix any potential water main breaks. The estimated cost to pour new asphalt over the designated section was $14,000. The mayor and board members discussed that the city may not have enough funds to replace the water lines and repair the road. It was decided to discuss the venture further at the next meeting.

Angeline Brown of Auxvasse presented the board with a letter asking that it consider changing its current animal ordinance in order to allow a certain number of farm animals within city limits. Her request was to own a few hens on her property.

"Hopefully, you all will read it and give it some thought," Brown told the board members.

Bickel told her the board would discuss the issue in the future, as it had already broached the subject and decided to wait until after the April elections before deciding anything.