TRUMAN– On Monday the Truman City Council heard from City Attorney Derrick Greiner who was present to review the land sale to C & B Operations.

About a year ago, the council moved forward with a proposal from C & B operations and sold 6.71 acres of city/EDA land for a cost of $26,840 with the understanding that the buyer intended to develop the property for storage and show space related to adjacent property.

Greiner said the deal was originally scheduled to close in May, but several road bumps have come up that have pushed it out. He said that under the EDA statute, the land needs to be put to its intended use and begin construction within a year.

“They (C & B) have concerns or issues with their ability to do that and they asked if the city or EDA would extend that to five years,” Greiner explained.

He said that the statute allows for them to extend the deadline for good cause.

“I would like to work with them. They’re a great company to have here,” said Council Member Jake Ebert.

Council Member Patty Truax pointed out that if they grant the extension to one company, they’d have to do it for every one that asks. Ebert said they could consider it on a case by case basis.

Greiner said if five years is too much, they could extend it to two or three years and re-consider when the time comes, if needed.

Council Member Brian Nickerson made a motion to extend it three years with the caveat that the council is provided updates on the progress. The motion passed.

Mayor Terry Bentele asked Greiner to keep the council updated on the matter.

Moving to other business, the council heard some brief quarterly reports from the police and utility departments.

Police Chief Justin Jobe said that the new squad car is still on order and on schedule, though he doesn’t have a delivery date yet.

Jobe also said that so far they have 600 calls for the year, which is slightly more than they’ve typically had at this point in the year previous years.

“The last month has been really busy. Generally we’re between 800 and 900 calls a year,” Jobe said.

Utility Foreman Brent Brown said they’ve had 22,000 ft. of sanitary sewer jetted. He also said they’ve been putting the downtown well online once a week and that it seems to be working fine.

Brown said that they hope to send out the bids for the filter rehab project later this week.