The Sedalia City Council meeting on Monday night began with a recognition of children's librarian Amy Elvers for 10 years of service to the Sedalia Public Library.

She was presented with a certificate of appreciation from Sedalia Mayor John Kehde.

The other award recipients were not present Monday night, including David Gerken, collection system foreman for the WPC Department, for 15 years of service, and Courtney Blaszczk, pre-treatment storm water coordinator for the WPC Department, for five years of service.

The meeting then continued with a budget amendment pertaining to the cost share for Missouri Main Street Connection, Inc., for a “People Energizing Places” grant program.

The City is partnering with MMSC and agreed to a 75-25 split of expenses of the PEP grant, with Sedalia paying 25 percent, or $9,600, for a downtown revitalization effort.

The PEP grant was agreed to by Council on Nov. 2, but the cost of the project was not previously anticipated at the time, it was noted.

Blue Tree Technology, LLC, (formerly Velocity Computer Tech) was approved for $15,964.95 for a one-year renewal of Sophos firewall licensing, support and endpoint protection for City of Sedalia servers and desktop computers.

Blue Tree was the lowest of four bidders, including CDW-G at $25,798, Enterprise AV at $27,345 and Corporate Armor at $23,512, according to the City's IT expert, Monte Richardson.

After a strategic planning presentation from Sedalia Police Chief Matt Wirt, the Council approved change orders for the Nucor Rail Spur project.

A $53,318.36 change order was okayed for Capital Railroad Contracting, Inc., to allow for rail spur component storage, and a $159,281.70 change order for Phillips Hardy was approved for debris removal near the Washington Street Bridge, and for removal of unsuitable soil north of Saline and east of Mill, and for removal of unsuitable soil south of Saline and on each turnout for rail spur tracks A and D.

An agreement with ACRT, Inc., (Stow, Ohio) was approved for a tree re-inventory of about 1,950 trees on City park and right-of-way properties, at a cost of $7,410, or about $3.80 per tree.

A total of four bids were received for the tree inventory project. The Missouri Department of Conservation awards grants through a Tree Resource Improvement Maintenance, or TRIM, cost-share program.

The City is required to match the cost of the $3,790 grant, which will take the form of in-kind labor such as tree planting and tree care maintenance, work that the City already performs.

Notably, this is the 11th year Sedalia has received such a TRIM grant.

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