The Stuart City Council met in regular session Monday night.

The Council tabled a decision on a new hire for the Public Works Department, as Public Works Director Jim Henderson was unable to attend the meeting, then heard from resident Steve James on needed maintenance for a platted street north of 818 North Main Street, and approved a contribution of $5,200 for the Stuart Depot Manager Salary. They also approved the 2025 marketing proposal from Main Street Marketing as presented, and heard about a strategic plan from Stuart Chamber President Paige Witte.

The Council then approved a revenue purpose statement for franchise fees established by proposed electric franchise ordinances. The first reading of those ordinances were approved, and the second through final ordinances were waived, adopting the electric franchise fees with Guthrie County Rural Electric Cooperative and Farmers Electric Cooperative, all in 4-1 votes with Councilman Cory Kirkpatrick as the lone no vote in each case.

The Council tabled a decision on the building inspection hourly contract proposal with Veenstra and Kimm and approved the 2023 Sanitary Sewer project fifth pay estimate of $24,462.50. After hearing from Stuart Police Chief Dave Reha, they also approved the purchase of police body cameras, vehicle cameras and tasers (with batteries and cartridges) from Axon on a five year contract. Reha shares with Raccoon Valley Radio why it’s important that the cameras were purchased.

“In today’s day and age, it’s just super important to have that technology for collection of evidence. There’s very few police departments that don’t have the capabilities of recording things on video and audio. It just helps in a wide range of things. It’s also safer for the officers to have access to that stuff. You know, it keeps everybody honest. It keeps the officers honest. It keeps the citizens honest. And so it’s just a good thing to have.”

The Council also approved to leave the tax levy as is, and set a public hearing for the purpose of considering the maximum tax dollars from certain tax levies for the proposed 2025-26 fiscal year budget for March 25th at 7pm, heard an update from Stuart Economic Development Director Matt Funk, and Mayor Dick Cook proclaimed March as Problem Gambling Awareness Month in Stuart.