The Mexico City Council met at its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, March 11. At the top of the meeting, retiring Parks and Recreation director Chad Shoemaker gave a presentation about all of the happenings within his department.

The items presented included results from a survey that show what residents appreciate the most from Parks and Recreation and what they would like to see with the majority of residents wanting things like additional bathrooms, picnic tables and benches added to the parks closest to them.

There was some concern that some operations will be pushed back due to the earlier onset of grass and weeds which will take a month of staff time to take care of according to Shoemaker, which could take time away from other objectives that the department is striving to complete.

Shoemaker ended the presentation with a slideshow reminiscing about the projects that Parks and Recreation has accomplished in the time since he has been with them. Accomplishments included the Hardin Park gazebo, Lakeview Trail, and the Fairground Tennis Courts, with many more included.

The city is also awarding a contract to MoDOT through a State Block Grant for work at the Mexico airport. The contract provides a variety of improvements, namely runway lighting and pavement repairs. The grant provides 90 percent of the funding for the project or $304,000, while the city is to provide no more than $33,777 or 10 percent of the funds. The total cost of the grant is $337,777. Funds for this project were available from the 2022-2023 airport fund of the city.

The City Council continued on their city improvement theme with the discussion over the 2024-2026 crack and joint seal contract bid. Among the bidders, Sweetens Sealing Services LLC in Wright, offered the lowest bid at $8,754. After reviewing the range of bids, the city engineering department was able to confirm the bid from Sweetens Sealing Services, coming in at almost $27,000 under the budget of $35,688.80. It is noted in the resolution that there could be a change order due to the savings to increase the scope of the project.

The city will be able to review the performance of Sweetens Sealing Services each year. City Engineer Drew Wiliford noted that the rate may increase each year and that if Sweetens Sealing Services is not up to par, they can walk away from the contract. The council voted unanimously to move forward with awarding the bid to Sweetens Sealing Services.

Other items discussed during the meeting included staff reports about the emergency repair job on the Mexico Industrial Railroad Spur. The repair is estimated to cost $29,000 and will be performed by M&K Rail Construction. The funds will be provided through the economic development fund which has had a budget increase to $90,000 for the fiscal year of 2023-2024 due to critical defects found previously.

Additionally, a staff report on the purchase of a compact street loader for the street department from Martin Equipment in Columbia was discussed. The street loader will cost $54,800 and will be used to handle a variety of tasks such as demolition, material loading and pavement maintenance. There was discourse surrounding whether or not to purchase the street loader from Sydenstricker-Nobbe Partners in Mexico.

The main argument stemmed from Chairman Pro Tem Steve Haag who noted that the difference in prices was only a few hundred dollars. The rest of the council voted to purchase the loader from Martin Equipment but may come back to the policy that dictated the decision at a later date.