VIENNA — Vienna Board of Aldermen at the June 9 city meeting voted to accept a bid for asbestos inspection as part of the ongoing demolition grant process.

The city continues to go through the process of obtaining a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) from the Missouri Department of Economic Development to demolish a handful of buildings within the city limits at a small cost to the owners. The next step was contracting an asbestos inspection service.

Five contractors submitted asbestos inspection bids. Columbia-based Jeffery Environmental Services, LLC, had the winning $3,110 bid. The other bids were $3,800 from the Meramec Regional Planning Commission, $4,000 from Triangle Environmental Services, $6,200 from ARSI and $10,800 from Terracon Consultants.

Jeffery Environmental Services has previous experience working with the city as the inspector for the wastewater treatment facility in the 1990s.

Alderman Freddie Shiver asked if the inspector finding asbestos would result in additional costs to the city.

City Clerk Tracy Shiver said the additional cost of asbestos removal would be factored into the total amount the city received for the grant.

Two of the buildings on the city’s list for demolition are under review because their possible historical significance may prevent the city from using grant money to demolish them. The structures in question are the building on Coffey Street owned by Maries County and an uninhabitable residence on Highway 63 owned by Alan Fick.

Another project moving forward is Vienna Main Street’s plan to put up street banners around town. Although Ameren did not accept the organization’s original proposal to place about two dozen banners on its poles, the utility company is working with the group and the city to determine placements for some of the banners.

The aldermen approved a maintenance agreement with Vienna Main Street to allow the banners to go on some of the utility poles. Ameren employees will visit sometime in the future to approve the placements of the banners. The city utilities employees will install the banners.

Later, the aldermen began discussions for the 2025-26 budget, which must be approved by July. Before looking toward the upcoming budget, they voted to amend the current budget to reflect the lack of renovations to the upper diamond restrooms, which were planned for this year but not completed. The funds will be allocated to the project in the upcoming budget.

Utilities Superintendent Shon Westart said the street budget for this year would be much smaller than the previous budget because he planned to take a couple of years off from paving. His department also had no equipment needs. The money saved could go toward the park budget.

Police Chief Shannon Thompson said he expected his budget would be mostly the same as last year.

Shiver noted that attorney fees were over budget. The city had been in and out of court over the last year as part of a petition originating from a records request filed by former Sheriff Chris Heitman.

Mayor Tim Schell asked if the city should again request bids for a new city attorney. The city hired Lauber Municipal Law as its representation last year.

Thompson said he would prefer to have a local attorney, but he was unsure if the city would get any interest if it were to request bids. Few attorneys were interested in both representing the city for general matters and prosecuting matters for the police department.

Later, Westart updated the aldermen about the results of the latest test of city drinking water for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS. He shared at the April meeting that the water had tested positive and the city would need to limit exposure by 2029. The Environmental Protection Agency published findings that included legally enforceable mandatory limits on six PFAS found in public drinking water last year.

PFAS appears in everyday items such as carpets, cosmetic products, feminine hygiene products, food packaging, phone screens, shampoos and many more. They are found in blood tests of people and animals throughout the world, and exposures often occur via food and household products though drinking water is also a possibility.

The federal deadline for developing a plan to limit exposure was extended to 2031. Westart said the city’s water treatment system tested a point higher for PFAS than the city wells, but the difference equated to drops in an Olympic-sized swimming pool. He expected funding would be available to the city to develop solutions to the PFAS exposure once federal requirements were in effect.

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources’ suggestions to limit exposure to PFAS include installing home or countertop water treatment devices. More information about the compounds and potential health risks that they pose are available online at epa.gov/pfas.

Westart said he expected construction of the lower diamond restrooms at the park to end this week. The new restrooms replace those that a fire destroyed last November.

A resident had asked Shiver about installing a memorial bench at the park. She asked the aldermen about the process of establishing a memorial and if a bench would be a feasible format.

Westart said the park already has many benches, but there may be other alternatives for memorials. One idea was to add a stand to the flower boxes at one of the buildings.

Shiver recently attended a meeting about how the city can obtain reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the April 4 flooding that damaged the wastewater treatment facility and washed out a culvert on Parkway. She planned to submit a form this week.

Westart said the city lagoons are functioning after the flooding but could be the subject of a significant project.

In other business, the aldermen voted to move $300,000 from the city’s cash account to an 182-day certificate of deposit account. The new account has a 4.58 percent annual percentage yield to allow the city to collect additional interest on the funds.

Shiver said she planned to update the city’s personnel handbook because it had not had significant revisions in six years.