Duenweg holds open house for new City Hall
The City of Duenweg, located on 7th street just east of Joplin, opened the doors of its new City Hall Monday night to allow interested parties to take a tour.
Mayor Russell Olds (pictured) has held Duenweg’s top job for the last 24 years.
He says the newly bought and remodeled building was purchased through the aid of a Capital Improvement Sales Tax that was approved by Duenweg voters.
City workers did much of the work, including the Mayor himself.
The building, on the north side of 7th street, includes a new City Council Chamber, City Clerk’s office, rooms dedicated to documents and archives, computer room, Administrative Director for the Mayor’s office, Court Clerk’s office, Water Clerk’s office, Public Works and Water Facility Director’s office, conference room and a kitchen.
The Duenweg area has a long history. In the year 1855, two brothers, Elijah C. and James C. Webb, from Overton County, Tennessee, came to Southwest Missouri and settled in the area. The city was named for Otto Duenweg and his father, Louis, of Terre Haute, Indiana, who became interested in the area in the 1890s.
The city was finally incorporated in 1954.
What are the big concerns for the citizens of Duenweg today?
“One of their biggest concerns and mine is the cost of sewage treatment,” Mayor Olds says.
“Some years ago, we made an agreement with Joplin to treat our sewage. We are now engaged in an effort to move from Joplin to the Center Creek treatment facility.”
He says another primary issue for the city’s approximately 1,500 people is growth.
“Good police services, smooth operations of city and city services are all part of the reason I came here,” he says. “But growth is what was what on everybody’s mind.”
The city has definitely grown.
Olds says when he was first elected, the city’s total size was only about 430 acres – less than a square mile.
Today, that size has more than quadrupled.
Following the tour Monday night, citizens and other guests enjoyed hot dogs, chips and soft drinks outside the City Hall, itself another landmark in the continuing growth of Duenweg, Missouri.