The Ava City Council met in regular session on Tuesday, Aug. 24 in City Hall.
The council adopted a conflict of interest ordinance, something that is a legal requirement and is done every few years.
The council also voted to enter into a voluntary compliance agreement with the Department of Natural Resources.
The agreement says that cities will stop discharges from their lagoons.
The wastewater treatment plant personnel have possibly come up with a way to not discharge out of the lagoon, but instead to run the wastewater back through the plant.
The city was waiting to see how this plan would work before signing the agreement, but DNR asked that the city sign the agreement then look into ways of working with the lagoon.
The city now has one year to submit a plan of how they will be fixing the discharges.
Helping with this project is Mike Pessina, senior project manager at Olsson Associates of Springfield.
Pessina attended the council meeting to provide information and answer questions from council members.
Janice Lorrain, director of planning & development, gave an update on the water project.
She said the line work is almost completed, except for the lines from the new well to the storage tank.
Some line testing is currently being completed.
The paperwork has been submitted for an additional $210,000 of funding from the Rural Water Program.
Lorrain also gave an update on the Planning & Zoning Commission.
The commission met to review the B4 designation. They decided to remove several businesses allowed in B4 that are already allowed in other designations.
The commission will then begin looking at the businesses that are left and how they should be handled.
The commission is also reviewing sign ordinances from other cities to work on Ava’s ordinance.
The council approved four re-zonings recommended by the Planning & Zoning Commission.
The properties are all located along Jefferson Street and were re-zoned from B2 (central business district) to B3 (general business district).
The properties were: 511 S. Jefferson, owned by James Clark; 501 S. Jefferson, owned by Rhonda Frye; 505 SW Second Ave., owned by Lisa Graham-Lakey; 505A and 507 S. Jefferson, owned by Rosezella Myers.
Council members present were Burrely Loftin, Judy Lovan and Billy Long. Ric Engelhardt was absent.
The next regular council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 14 at 5 p.m. in City Hall.
