Log in

City Council votes to approve annexation of portion of Highway 63 into city limits

Posted

The West Plains City Council met in-person in council chambers for their regular meeting on Tuesday.

Council members approved a resolution authorizing participation in the state’s highway safety program through the Missouri Department of Transportation during the meeting.

Council members also annexed property into the city and approved a bill to annex a portion of Highway 63 and Business Route 63 into city limits on its first reading. 

The City Council first discussed and approved the city’s participation in Missouri’s Highway Safety Program. 

West Plains Police Sergeant Joshua Wichowski said while introducing the resolution to the City Council that the department is involved in the hazardous moving vehicle and the driving while impaired enforcement grants each year. 

Wichowski said to participate in the program, the department is required to submit a sign-up sheet with the signatures of each city council member and the mayor, showing the council has agreed that the Chief of Police will investigate the financial assistance available under the Missouri Highway Safety Program for Traffic Enforcement and report back to the council his recommendations. 

Wichowski said the form will be due March 1.

Wichowski said, “This year for the grant, we are putting in 150 hours of overtime, that’s paid at twice the normal pay rate.”

“We are also putting in for two officers to attend a weeklong traffic safety training that is usually held in the Lake of the Ozarks area,” Wichowski said. 

The department also put in four new stalker radar units that are approximately $1,200 for the four and $4,000 for a new speed trailer with an onboard computerized type system that tracks different speeds at different times that the department can download to address specific complaints throughout the city. 

Wichowski said, “We then have the driving while impaired enforcement grant, which we have 120 hours of overtime we put in there, which was approximately $4,000.”

The City Council, in a unanimous vote, passed the resolution.

The City Council then held the second reading of a bill to annex property located north of Sunset Terrace and currently owned by Kem Friga.

West Plains’ Building Official Zoning Administrator Dustin Harrison said the bill was presented to the City Council last month to annex the property for utilities. 

A verified petition signed by all owners of the real estate to be annexed into the city of West Plains was filed with the City Clerk and is contagious and compact to the existing corporate limits of the city. 

According to Harrison, the Planning Commission reviewed and recommended approval of the annexation request and held a public hearing on Dec. 9. 

At the public hearing, all interested persons, corporations, political subdivisions, and other entities were afforded the opportunity to present evidence regarding the proposed annexation. According to Harrison, the annexation was deemed reasonable and necessary to the proper development of the city. 

The city also has the ability to furnish normal municipal services to the area to be annexed at a reasonable time. 

The City Council approved Bill 4697 to become Ordinance 4697 on its final reading, altering the boundaries of the city to include the real estate. 

Harrison introduced the next bill to the City Council for its first reading that would repeal and replace Ordinance 4663, to annex a portion of Highway 63 and Business Route 63, from existing city limits to Creamery Road into the city limits of West Plains. 

Harrison said, “This is some clarification for the county. We used station numbers when we worked with the Missouri Department of Transportation in annexing the property to the west of Cedarhurst through that intersection for clarification for city services.”

“What we did is we went back and re-submitted a better legal description. That is what we are doing, repealing and replacing that for clarification,” Harrison said. 

On its first reading, the City Council approved Bill 4698 to become Ordinance 4698.

The City Council will hold the final reading on the ordinance at their next council meeting in March. 



X
X