Gabe Stark
Reporter

The Trenton Administrative Committee advanced several recommendations to the full City Council Tuesday evening, including the creation of a full-time code enforcement position, a proposed animal control contract, a title change for city employee Wes Barone and the addition of an employee at the city’s wastewater treatment plant.

The committee met Aug. 18 in Trenton City Hall.

City officials recommended creating a full-time code enforcement officer position that would report to Barone as part of what would become the Community Development Department. The employee would handle complaints involving tall grass and weeds, junk and other nuisance violations while also working with Barone on dangerous buildings and learning building and property maintenance code inspections.

City administrator Matt Harline said the city is currently without an employee dedicated to those duties and has a number of nuisance cases needing attention.

The city has also received guidance from municipal attorney Holly Dodge on ways to speed up nuisance abatement. Officials said the court process for assessing fines would remain largely unchanged, but the city may be able to act more quickly when mowing properties or removing certain nuisances.

Police officers could still assist when necessary, particularly when city employees or contractors encounter potentially hostile situations.

“We’ll still be working with the police department on these things when necessary,” a Harline said.

The committee unanimously recommended forwarding the new position to the City Council for approval.

Committee members also advanced a proposal to contract with Affordable Vet Care for animal control services. Under the proposal, the business could respond to stray animals and provide a location to house and care for animals picked up within the city.

Authority would remain with the Trenton Police Department. Officers would still determine when enforcement action is necessary, while witness statements could be used in cases where officers did not personally observe an animal running at large.

Mayor Jackie Soptic said one of the city’s recent challenges has been finding available space to take stray animals. Affordable Vet Care is also considering the future creation of a nonprofit and a larger facility capable of housing animals.

The committee then separately recommended changing Barone’s title from Code Enforcement Officer/Airport Manager to Community Development Director. His responsibilities would continue to include zoning, demolition projects, Community Development Block Grant projects and oversight involving the airport.

Officials said the title change would not include an immediate pay increase.

The committee also recommended hiring an additional employee at the wastewater treatment plant.

Wastewater supervisor Bob Hutchinson said the plant previously operated with four employees plus a supervisor, a staffing level recommended by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. The plant has operated with three employees plus him for the past several years.

Hutchinson told the committee he expects to retire within approximately a year to a year and a half and believes bringing in another employee now would provide time for training.

“I would just like to go ahead and bring somebody on now to start learning this plant,” Hutchinson said. “There’s a lot to it.”

Hutchinson also said an additional employee could help reduce overtime associated with covering vacations, weekends and holidays.

A proposal to change the starting time of City Council meetings was also forwarded to the full council for further discussion.

Council meetings currently begin at 7 p.m. During the meeting, committee member Lindsay Stevens, who participated by Zoom, suggested an earlier starting time could make meetings more accessible to council members, city staff and residents with young children or early work schedules.

“I feel like maybe more people could participate, and there might be more options for people even running for City Council, if the times were a little bit different,” Stevens said.

Possible starting times of 6 or 6:30 p.m. were discussed. Committee members noted that any change would also require consideration of the Building and Nuisance Board, which currently meets before council meetings.

Rather than recommending a specific time, the committee voted to send the issue to the full City Council for additional discussion.

The committee also discussed updating city code to more accurately define the responsibilities of the Administrative Committee. Mayor Soptic noted the committee has traditionally served as a place to consider issues that do not clearly fall under another standing committee, even though the city code currently gives it a more limited list of responsibilities.

City officials plan to develop a more specific proposal for a future meeting.