Joplin City Council Approves Several Bills
The Joplin City Council approved an agreement between the city and Hartman & Company for construction of the Schifferdecker Bridge over Turkey Creek near the intersection of Zora. The project will cost $2.45 million. The payments are included in the fiscal year 2017-2018 budget from the Capital Improvement Sales Tax Program. Jasper County Commission will provide up to $1.4 million for the bridge and right of way. Joplin Special Road District will provide up to $100,000 for the roadway. They expect it to be completed in the 2019 construction season. It will be 50 foot wide with a center turn lane, shoulder width on each side for possible future bike lanes.
Council also approved a path maintenance agreement with Northpark Mall/Joplin LLC to construct a pedestrian and bicycle path across portions of mall property that would connect the campus of Missouri Southern and the mall. The agreement defines the construction, maintenance, and repair responsibilities of the city. The total cost of the project is $345,664, but the city will only be responsible for just roughly $73,000 after they received funding from the Federal Highway Association through its Transportation Enhancement Program. Missouri Southern also would like to install lighting and security cameras along the path for added safety.
Shelby Howard, President of The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #27, addressed the council on their proposed revenue sources for the city in order to help fund further pay increases for police and fire. “We believe that the general sales tax increase would be the most beneficial, that way the citizens of Joplin are not carrying the entire load. We’re actually relying on other people coming into the city doing shopping and such to help pay for the services they’re enjoying but not paying for. Any of those other taxes that were proposed in the work session would be leading straight on to our citizens requiring them to pay for all the services that everyone enjoys when they come into Joplin to shop.”
Howard cites that with the holiday season coming up, the number of people in Joplin could spike to 250,000 to 300,000 people, with police and fire responsible for the safety of that population on any given day.
Howard says the Fraternal Order would like to see a sales tax placed on the April ballot to keep their current momentum going forward to get them to that 80% funding mark that council set as a goal at past meetings.
Howard says they are seeing progress with council’s recent raises in their wages. “We’ve already seen an increase in applicants and we’ve actually had a couple of officers that left..have reapplied to come back. Now if we could just get pay up to be competitive with what we think is competitive then I think retention issues will go away.”