Pineville Discusses Sign Permits, Christmas, Water Grant

PINEVILLE — Pineville’s city council, at its regular meeting on Tuesday, discussed with the mayor the increasing cost of permits for city signage, the Christmas parade and light contest, and a water grant to repair Mountain Ridge well and tower.

Pineville’s “Welcome Center” signs, which have cost $800 for permits in the past, are increasing in cost to $1,120. The council voted to pay for the signs for an additional year to see if many visitors stop inside the Welcome Center, with council members saying the center sees about 1,000 visitors per year. Mayor Gregg Sweeten said, without the signs, the Welcome Center, located in the city hall building, may become unused.

The mayor and board discussed the upcoming Christmas Parade, which is set to take place at Pineville Square on Dec. 4, at 5 p.m. Each year the parade hosts about 20 to 30 entries, with city council members always participating in the parade. Any group or organization can sign up to be in the parade. Each entry can contact the city hall for further information.

The annual Christmas light contest, in which any homeowner can participate, is set to be judged on Dec. 19 by individuals who live outside of town, keeping homeowners anonymous. Last year the light contest had seven entries in the city.

Pineville received a grant/ loan combination from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to fix Mountain Ridge’s water and well and build a new water tower on Mountain Ridge. The combination, which is $1,349,100 in a grant and $449,700 in a loan, will allow a new well to be built because the previous well had a high number of radionuclides present, which can cause health issues.

According to Mayor Sweeten, the combination offers an extremely lowinterest rate and is able to be paid off over the course of several years through yearly payments. The new well will allow the city to fill the new water tower and offer greater water pressure for Mountain Ridge residents and backup water for the city. With the new well, the city will have about 900,000 gallons of water storage.

In other business, the council approved the payment of bills in the amount of $37,230.88.