Aside from the latest revisions to the data center ordinance, a number of amendments passed and were discussed during the Perryville board of aldermen’s September 1 meeting.
Police Chief Dustin Miller approached the board with a suggestion to update the city’s seat belt laws.
Currently, Perryville’s seatbelt laws are “secondary seatbelt laws” meaning that while minors can be ticketed solely for not wearing a seatbelt, police can only issue a ticket to an adult for not wearing a seat belt if they are already pulled over for a different traffic violation first.
Miller said the idea to change the city’s laws on the subject came when a detective realized that signage already exists suggesting that Perryville is a “primary seatbelt city” meaning that laws exist allowing officers to issue tickets solely for not wearing a seat belt, which currently is not the case.
Miller told the board that upon learning this, the police office started researching what it would take to change the city’s seat belt laws from secondary to primary, and thought it was a good idea to present the idea to the board.
“Something as simple as fastening a seatbelt takes only a few seconds, but those few seconds can make a difference between someone walking away from a crash, suffering a life-changing injury, or never making it home at all,” Miller said. “If adopting this ordinance encourages one additional person to buckle up, it hopefully saves even one life, I believe it would have been worth doing.”
The board supported the chief’s suggestion, and will present an official ordinance to update seatbelt laws at a future meeting.
The Board approved a major simplification and streamlining of the City’s business license code, fee schedule and general process. According to city administrator Brent Buerck’s notes on the agenda, city staff found several specific and unique references throughout the city code providing specific requirements for specific industries including pawn shops, homeless shelters, firearm ranges, and other businesses throughout the city. These amendments will remove those references and instead make everything subject to the general business license code that the Board has previously considered and approved.
The final plat for the Industrial Park 8th Addition was approved. According to Buerck’s notes, the proposed development will include four housing units intended to serve students attending Ranken Technical College. The City also anticipates future expansion of the site to accommodate up to four more additional housing units as needed.
One new ordinance was introduced on first reading, to amend the city’s prohibited parking schedule, adding the Bank of Missouri Soccer Park driveway (Star St.). According to Buerck’s notes, the board had previously expressed concerns with people parking haphazardly along the entry way to the soccer park’s big parking lot. Staff have already posted signs, but this ordinance is required to make enforcement possible.
The board approved the school board to charge admission for any sporting event taking place on school property, this will be at the schools discretion and is not required.
A request from the Community Counseling Center to promote awareness of Suicide Prevention Month in September by placing information and ribbons in Miget Memorial Park near the water tower was approved. The proposed dates for this advertisement are September 14, 2026 – October 1, 2026.
A request to rename and dedicate the Emergency Services Building in honor of Bill Jones was approved.
