By Ella Aguilar
The Palmyra City Council met on Thursday, February 20th at 7 o’clock in the evening.
The Palmyra City Council approved the 457 Pension Plan, 5 votes to 6 after hearing from the Finance Committee was in favor of this plan as it can be split between each department. The Pension Plan will be implemented in July to work in favor with the new software being installed.
In discussion with City Attorney James Lemon, the Palmyra City Council wanted to create a universal policy manual that can have access to all of the departments rules, regulations, and policies. City Attorney Lemon encouraged an index that can separate each departments specific policies from other departments to make the organization more clear.
In regards to the billboard with the IDA, the city council wants to increase the size of the billboard and get exact measurements of the size of the billboard. The Palmyra City Council agreed to discuss this further at the next meeting.
The Palmyra City Council approved the settlement agreement for the hail damage to each department as well as the culverts bill for Olive and Lane Street.
In regards to the Missouri Tap Grant archaeological survey, the council had questions in relation to a provision on the contract and are hesitant to approve. City Attorney Lemon will conduct communication to re-negotiate the contract and will meet again next meeting.
The Palmyra City Council approved the CBDG Grant bid from Bligh Construction as well as the installation of six flock cameras, or license plate readers. The installation of these cameras will be in four to five months.
The Finance Committee completed the 2025 budget with come change requests as well. The Finance Committee wants to increase the price for claiming dogs as well as stop having police assistance with the capturing of stray cats. This has been agreed to be further discussed in the next meeting.
The Finance Committee would also like to conduct a wage survey with the employees of the city to see if they are doing everything they can for their employees. The city council agreed to table this till next meeting in order to look at costs and finding more information.
The Palmyra Police Department received a compliment for their excellent work with helping the food pantry.
The Palmyra City Council will meet again on March 6th.
