Osage Beach Weighing New Rule For Contractors, But Business Owners Have Concerns

OSAGE BEACH, Mo. — The City of Osage Beach on Thursday night will consider a new ordinance that would require all contractors who operate within the city to add Osage Beach as a co-insured party on their liability insurance.

The idea was proposed by Alderman Jeff Bethurem, who is an insurance agent with Golden Rule Insurance in Osage Beach. https://www.facebook.com/Lakeinsurancegroup/ At the board’s last meeting, in August, the first reading of the ordinance passed with two aldermen—Marose and Rucker—voting against.

According to City Administrator Jeanna Woods, Bethurem told the board if the city is listed as a co-insured party by any business, then it would be notified if that insurance policy was terminated. Woods noted the city generally requires contractors to have liability insurance in order to obtain a contractor’s business license within the city, and businesses are required to inform the city if they no longer have that insurance policy. Osage Beach also requires contractors performing work for the city to list the city on the contractor’s insurance policy.

Woods said the city had received feedback from some business owners since the ordinance’s first reading passed; many of them are not happy about the new requirement.

“I can see both sides of this,” Scottie Martin, of Scott’s Concrete, told LakeExpo.com. He did not anticipate it would incur any significant cost for his business, and would likely amount to a phone call to his insurance company. But Martin questioned why the city needs to actually be put on a business owner’s policy when that business is not even performing a service for the city—but simply within city limits. He also wondered how the requirement would be enforced. In the end, he called it “one more hoop the good guys have to jump through to do stuff in Osage Beach” — a city, he pointed out, that wants to be business-friendly.

Aldermen will vote on the second (final) reading of the ordinance on Thursday, Sept. 6 at their meeting at Osage Beach City Hall, which begins at 6 p.m. Woods noted citizens who want to speak for or against the bill will have the opportunity to do so at the beginning of the meeting.