Saint Joseph council approves consent agenda including aquatic-park filters, grants and ARPA-funded energy contract

The Saint Joseph City Council on a unanimous vote approved a broad consent agenda that bundled ordinances, grants, plats and contracts addressing parks, public works and public health.

Council member Traub moved to accept the consent agenda; Council member Schulz seconded. The presiding officer announced, "Carries 9 ayes." Items on the consent agenda included an ordinance authorizing up to $330,603 for purchase and installation of pool filters at the Saint Joseph Aquatic Park with Westport Pools; amendments to align local traffic-code language with state law; preliminary plats for Fox Hill Plat 5 and Brook Hill; vacates of alley and Olive Street right-of-way segments; and a two-year management agreement with Saint Joseph Museums Inc. The package also included grant acceptance and matching funds for a virtual park tour project and other smaller contracts and appropriations.

The consent agenda contained several funding and project items singled out by the clerk during the reading: a $5,000 historic-preservation grant from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources plus $2,150 donations from Friends of the Park and the St. Joseph Downtown Community Improvement District to make a $9,300 appropriation for a virtual tour project; an $8,606.40 appropriation from the sale of old bleachers to the civic arena fund; designation of $531,505 in ARPA funds as lost-revenue use for community revitalization along King Yale Avenue; and a $1,615,506 energy services contract with Schneider Electric Buildings, Americas Inc., funded by ARPA to replace City Hall cooling systems.

The council approved the consent agenda without recorded dissent. The clerk had earlier read a separate vote result that "It fails 9 0" for an item not fully described in the recorded transcript; the council moved on afterward to finalize the consent agenda.

What happens next: Items that were read for first reading during the same meeting (including grants, a public-health budget roll-over of $370,970.75 and a Federal Transit Administration grant request of $877,130 for future bus purchases) will return for a subsequent council action or second reading as required by city code.