St. Marys council approves emergency street program resolution, seeks bids for grist mill renovation

The St. Marys City Council approved an emergency resolution to fund its annual street program and heard a notice that sealed bids for the grist mill interior renovation will open Jan. 22.

City engineering staff presented Resolution 20 26 03 as an emergency measure to repair or replace curbs, gutters, sidewalks, asphalt pavement and drive approaches. The director said the package covers resurfacing six streets and reconstructing one long block. In the transcript the engineer's estimate is read aloud as "just around 1000000000 dollars" and staff said a typical property share would be about $31,000; the transcript contains transcription ambiguity on the large estimate number and the council did not provide a corrected figure on the record.

Council voted to suspend the rules and then adopted the emergency resolution; the vote was recorded as unanimous ('All yeses').

Separately, the director of public service and safety told council sealed bids for the interior renovation of the grist mill will be opened on January 22; staff said there has been strong local contractor interest and hoped for competitive pricing.

The city also received an update on police staffing: Coleman Fisher is scheduled to graduate from the highway patrol academy and, after roughly a 10-week field training period, staff expects the police department to return to full staffing levels.