Mt. Vernon residents to go to single-source trash service provider in 2020

Doty Trash Service will provide residential solid waste trash service, recycling starting in January
Mt. Vernon residents will have a single-source trash provider, starting Jan. 1, 2020. The Mt. Vernon Board of Aldermen voted during their meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 13 to accept the proposal forwarded by Doty Trash Service to be the city’s sole trash service provider. The other trash service providers who provided proposals included Republic Services, Patriot Disposal and WCA.
Max Springer, city administrator, presented the proposals to the board, who voted to accept Doty’s proposal following considerable discussion. Doty’s proposal was to provide residents with solid waste removal for $10.50 per month and recycling services for $3.50 per month, with a 40-percent discount for senior citizens. Once a contract between the city and Doty’s is signed, the agreement will be binding for five years.
Springer also gave the board an update on the skate park project. He told the board that Pillar Design Studio, an engineering design firm, could provide a design for the park and a budget breakdown which would allow the Skate Park Committee to apply for grants. The budget would be about $70,000.
Pillar Design, Springer said, could also show the committee how to reduce the cost of the skatepark by using in-kind services. The cost for Pillar Design’s services would be $5,000, half of which the committee had already volunteered to pay. The board voted to pay the remaining half of the cost.
The board also voted to accept a $180,000 grant from MoDOT’s Aviation Division to conduct an Airport Master Layout Plan. The grant is a 90/10 grant, meaning the city would provide 10-percent of the funding, or $18,000, with the rest coming from MoDOT. Springer told the board they would need to do a request for qualifications for a consultant if they accepted the grant.
 Springer also told the board the computers in city hall and the police station need upgrades so they can run Windows 10; currently, the computers run Windows 7, which Microsoft will stop supporting on Jan. 1, 2020. The board voted to purchase upgrades for the city computers at a cost of $6,839.62 and the police computers at a cost of $14,296.52.
In other business, the board voted to pass an ordinance authorizing a contract between the city and the Mt. Vernon School District for the city to provide the district with a school resource officer. In return, the district will pay the city $32,880. The contract will renew automatically every year until August of 2022.
Also, the board voted to approve the purchase of a new pump for the lift station for $13,845; voted to give city employees with 20 or more years of service a fifth week of paid vacation every year instead of once every five years; signed a service contract with TREKK Design Group for on-call engineering technical assistance; and voted to pay $50,056.22 to K & B Equipment for work done on the Gibbs Project.