By JACKIE TAYLOR | May 3, 2023

The city of Pleasanton council opened their meeting hearing from STARS welding instructor Shane Kern requesting use of the Community Building for a “turn-out” party. He said juniors enrolled in the trade school will host a cook-out for the seniors and asked the city to donate the room for Friday, May 12 at 6 p.m.

The council approved Kern’s request.

Multiple executive sessions were held including a 10-minute session for personnel for the purpose of employee performance. Following that, the council approved a list of city appointments with the only change being approving attorney John Purvis for the city judge position; he will replace Doug Barlet.

The next session for five-minutes was for legal; after which the council approved surplusing the 2014 Ford Taurus and donating it to the city of Parker Police Department.

A 10-minute session was called for trade secrets for preliminary acquisition of real estate; following that the council found they could not go into executive session for multiple reasons and waited for 10 minutes to resume their meeting.

A 10-minute executive session was called for data relating to trade secrets and included Wayne Ellis. Another 10-minute session was called for trade secrets with no action taken.

The last 10-minute executive session was called for preliminary acquisition of real estate. No action was taken.

During council comments, Councilman Jake Mattingley read a post concerning a bus accident and comments from USD 346 patrons praying for kids, hoping for a good outcome, etc. He commented that he did not think such positive comments would have come if the bus accident had occurred in Pleasanton. He said the negativity they face in Pleasanton is “pretty stark” with a big difference in attitude between Mound City and Pleasanton.

City Administrator Teresa Whitaker explained the Soldiers for Jesus motorcycle jump and said the jump will run north to south from the Community Center to the bank. The rider of the Harley will jump the bike into an air bag at the end; it will not be allowed to careen into the crowd with use of an air bag and crowd control barriers.

She said the jump opens for many monster truck rallies and said emergency personnel have heard of the safety precautions and are working with the city on the jump.

Whitaker commented on a vicious dog picked up and said five different city employees have taken care of the dog and it seems not to be vicious. She said new Codes/Animal Control Administrator Candy Houtman has started her new job and already has picked up a dog.

Public Works Administrator Joey Morrisey thanked the PHS community service workers for all of the help at the water plant and elsewhere cleaning up.

He said he is watching manganese levels in the East Lake and said the level could go up with the rain event coming this weekend.

Morrisey said they fixed several water leaks in lines and picked up a load of cold-patch road material to fill potholes.

He also said James Beltz starts June 1 helping the city mow.

The council approved one-half of Charles Stokes’ bonus for completing police academy at $500 and a $1 per hour raise.

They also approved $1,000 to the Pleasanton Fire Department to help pay volunteers to shoot off fireworks July 1.

The city audit by Diehl, Banwort and Bolton was approved for 2022.

Police Chief Tristan Snyder said they’ve made seven arrests and new officer Stokes is doing a great job.

Council woman Kimberly Herring asked that the police patrol 13th Street in front of the Annex more as she witnessed kids almost get hit by cars and mentioned kids walking in the street. Snyder said they’d post police there as their working schedule allowed.