Council discusses fish kill

Several items were on the Farmington City Council meeting agenda Thursday night at Long Memorial Hall.

During his report, City Administrator Greg Beavers explained to the council that a nearby fish kill is being addressed by the appropriate state agencies.

“We had a fish kill report on the St. Francis River, [below] the tributary from the sewer plant,” he said. “We notified DNR and the Missouri Department of Conservation, they were on site. We’ve investigated and cannot determine anything from our plant would cause that.

“We think that with the high temperature and low water levels, [there was] oxygen starvation in some of those pools, but we can’t find anything at this time that would result in a fish kill from our operations. We tentatively believe that will be the opinion of DNR, but we haven’t gotten official word on that yet. I will let you know if that changes.”

During the mayor’s comments section, Mayor Larry Forsythe mentioned he will begin writing an informational column about the city for the local newspaper.

“I have promised …that we will have the monthly mayor’s notes in the [Farmington] Press. I wanted to wait until after this meeting.”

Forsythe also wanted to change a part of how a bill is introduced to the council for adoption as an ordinance. He wants every proposed bill to have the sponsor’s name attached, similar to state and federal legislation.

“I would like to get a resolution that from now on whenever we have a bill– say I wanted to present a bill– that my name would be on that bill. I’m not saying ‘who to blame,’ I’m saying [it’s] for tracking that bill until it becomes an ordinance,” Forsythe said.

Forsythe asked Beavers to adopt the resolution after the council consented.

Mark Marberry is a reporter for the Farmington Press and Daily Journal. He can be reached at 573-518-3629, or at mmarberry@farmingtonpressonline.com