Sweet Springs Aldermen met in regular session Monday, Dec. 10, to address a lengthy agenda, including an application for a planning grant from Rural Development.

The $9,000 grant would help the city address ways to improve the city lagoon. Approval to pursue it was unanimous.

Mayor Roxanne Hinton reported on the possibility of a change in how city taxes are collected. At present, tax statements are printed by the office of Saline County Collector Grace Miles. According to Hinton's report, Miles said the county will no longer print the statements unless the collector's office also collects the tax, which would cost the city of Sweet Springs about $4,000.

After some discussion of city stickers and the difficulty of collecting the tax on that basis, action on the issue was postponed until the January meeting. Hinton noted there has been some concern expressed by city residents about the stickers representing an intrusion into their privacy.

Next up for discussion was the marked 2002 patrol car, which is in need of repair. Suggestions for repair or replacement ranged from keeping the older car for repair parts to selling it after it's repaired. Chief of Police Richard Downing recommended keeping the transmission and rear end from the marked car and using them to replace the bad ones in the unmarked 2002 patrol car.

After a lengthy discussion of the issue, the bid from Tony's Auto Repair, to switch the rear ends and one transmission, carried by a vote of 3-0.

In old business, a resolution to adopt guidelines of conduct for the Mayor and Board of Aldermen once again failed for lack of a second.

Bill No. 503, an ordinance to establish a response time for residency for the Chief of Police failed to be adopted. A time for response was established at 20 minutes, but by a vote of 2-1, the board rejected the bill.

The board did agree to accept a bid from Streck Construction of $53,477.60 for the sidewalk project on Highway 127.

The board also unanimously agreed to increase the water rate from the current $.057 per cubic foot to $0.06 per cubic foot.

The next regular meeting of the board is scheduled for Jan. 14, 2008, at 7 p.m.

Contact Kathy Fairchild at

marshallhealth@socket.net