Sturgis City Council members approved a bid to replace the roof of the police department. Mayor Mike Hardesty recommended council accept the submitted bid of $27,500, one of two bids received.
However, Councilman Dr. Jeremy Baker asked why they were choosing the bid from Danny Guess when the other bid was cheaper. Mayor Hardesty said the Danny Guess bid was a set price while the other was an estimate, plus Guess has looked at the roof.
The bid passed by a vote of 4-1 with Dr. Jeremy Baker casting the lone nay vote. Councilman Nicky Holeman was absent from the council meeting.
In other business, Sturgis Fire Chief Chad Cullen recognized members of his staff and Union County EMS after they responded about three weeks ago to call of an unresponsive man. Chief Cullen indicated it’s nice to see the same man now driving around, because 90 percent of these types of calls have a bad ending. He also stated they were recognized by the American Heart Association for saving a life.
Chief Cullen also informed council he received on Monday the new ISO rating for the City of Sturgis, which is now classified as a 4th Class City.
After the new business on the agenda, Councilman Dr. Jeremy Bakers mentioned he had received several complaints about people digging through resident’s garbage and said the city needs to look into adopting an ordinance, because right now Sturgis doesn’t have anything on the books that makes it illegal. City Attorney Ben Arnold said he would do some research on the matter.
And a group from New Salem Baptist Church attended the meeting. Spokesman for the church, Ron Burkins Jr., addressed council with a letter asking for the city to condemn an old dilapidated home next to the church’s property.
He said removing this property would not only benefit the church but the entire community. In addition, Burkins said if the property is condemned the church would tear it down and the city would not incur any costs. He noted he even tried a different route to get the house but found it had about 15 years of back taxes and the city hasn’t been paid taxes on it for the past 20 years.
Mayor Hardesty said the problem they run into is the number of liens taken against the homeowner, and the liens have to be cleared before the city can do anything. Attorney Ben Arnold stated about the only way anything can be done is to declare foreclosure which typically costs $1,000 to 15-hundred dollars.
Code Enforcement Officer Chad Cullen said he would look into it and go to the property with Burkins. However, he stated to council they still have not been able to fill the two code enforcement board positions due to lack of interest.
Following the discussion, Councilman Pete Brown made a motion to adjourn the meeting.
