City Council

Regular Council Meeting June 26, 2017 1. Mayor Scott Schultz called the meeting to order at 7:30pm. Present were Council Members Kale Dankenbring, Amanda Milne, Roger Jensen and Bruce Swihart. Also present were City Attorney Mike Day, City Superintendent JR Landenberger, Police Chief Darrell Thomas and City Clerk Lila Whitmore. Council member Carla Lampe was absent. 2. Minutes from the June 12 Council meeting were distributed and read. There was one correction. It was moved by Amanda and seconded by Roger to approve the minutes as corrected. Motion passed. 3. Visitors: none 4. Police Report: Chief Thomas let the Council know that he has received the new patrol car. He informed the Council that he had hired Jason Showalter from Goodland as a part-time Police Officer to fill in while he was on vacation. He shared the statistics for June and talked about a couple of major cases they have been involved with. Chief Thomas requested 5 minutes of executive session for non-elected personnel. It was moved by Bruce and seconded by Amanda to accept and file the Police report. Motion passed. 5. New Business: a. Eagle Communications – Elizabeth Jaeger updated the Council on the Phase 1 installation of the fiber. The “Fiber to the Premises” Facebook page has a map that shows the areas where the drops have been run and updates on which area is scheduled next. They expect connections to houses to begin in approximately two weeks. Nolan Smith will be working quadrants ahead of time going door to door to make sure people are aware that in order to receive service during phase 1 they must sign up now. Otherwise the next opportunity to get connected will be during phase 2 in 2018. Dennis Weese shared information regarding a Washington Street Wi-Fi Hotspot partnership plan for the Council to consider. b. Troy Zweygardt and Grant Brown, representing the Cheyenne Cruisers Car Club, were present to request the Council’s permission to host a Show & Shine/Cruise Night on Saturday July 1. They let the Council know that some of the cars could be noisy but they assured the Council it would be over by about 9PM. The Council gave their approval. c. Miller & Associates – Chris Miller and Ashley Weesner, with Miller & Associates, presented to the Council their analysis of funding options for water infrastructure improvements. Water rates would need to increase significantly to qualify for grants. Funding via a state revolving loan fund may be the best option, which would require a minimal increase to the current rates to service the debt. Mr. Miller went ahead and submitted an application for St. Francis for loan consideration of $300,000. This number was based on a previous study/analysis that was completed in 2007. The city is not under any obligation for this but in order to qualify for a loan anytime in the next year the application had to be submitted by a specific deadline. Following the analysis in 2007 some work was completed including fire hydrants and valve replacements. The Council requested Miller & Associates submit a scope of work to provide an updated analysis of the infrastructure, including the water tower, reservoir, water mains, valves, etc. in order to identify where improvements need to be made, along with recommendations and cost estimates. d. Cheyenne County Development Corporation – Helen Dobbs introduced intern Bergan Bock. Helen updated the Council on various Land & Sky Scenic Byways promotions in which Cheyenne County has been featured. Helen shared the current city brochures and the Council gave approval for Helen to create new updated brochures. A motion was made by Roger and seconded by Kale to approve purchasing a full page ad in the Northwest Kansas Ultimate Guide for $1600. Motion passed. Helen will bring design ideas back to the Council for approval. First Impressions has requested a community meeting be organized to discuss the report that was presented in November and develop plans to address the suggestions that were made. Helen asked the Council to come up with some possible dates that would work. She will get with Clerk Whitmore to discuss this further. e. Fire Chief Dan Blair presented two bids for replacing tires on the fire truck, $1,060 from St. Francis Tire and $1,419 from the Coop. It was moved by Bruce and seconded by Amanda to accept the lower bid. Motion passed. Chief Blair requested 10 minutes of executive session for non-elected personnel. 6. A motion was made by Bruce and seconded by Roger for the Council, along with all others present, to recess into executive session pursuant to the non-elected personnel exception to discuss the Fire Chief position, the open meeting to resume at 9:13pm. Motion passed. At 9:13 the open meeting resumed. No decisions were made. 7. Old Business: a. Property Cleanup – A letter has been sent to Mr. Poulson and he has been in contact with Attorney Day indicating he is working on the property. Several unsuccessful attempts have been made to reach the owner of the property at the corner of River and Webster regarding the bushes which are creating a blind corner. The Council prioritized the list of properties that are in violation of city code and identified the following they feel are most in need of attention and letters will be sent: 402 E. First, 203 S. River St, 118 W. Emerson, 600 S. Adams, 410 E. Jackson, 320 N. College, 104 W. Whittier, and 308 W. Washington. b. Pending Projects – a) Superintendent Landenberger indicates Nuckles Tree Care will begin work on trimming the Washington Street trees July 5. Their bid was $3000. A motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Kale to approve this. Motion passed. They will still need to get their tree trim license from the City before the work can begin. b) The Council discussed payment to Matt Grogan for the design of the Highway 36 signs. Attorney Day clarified that there is not a state statute requiring the job to have been put out for bids. A proposal was never presented prior to the work being done but Amanda spoke to Mr. Grogan and received an estimate of $347.50. The Council approved payment of this. At the last meeting the Council had approved up to $700 per sign to purchase the signs. However, Clerk Whitmore indicated that quote apparently did not include travel or installation. A motion was made by Bruce and seconded by Roger to approve the new quote in the amount of $2013.92 which includes two 10’ x 20’ signs and travel and installation. Motion passed. 8. Public Building Commission Report – Roger indicated they still expect the pool to open on time, but not everything will be cleared out of the construction site. They have been discussing landscaping design and costs. The automatic vacuum and chlorine/chemicals have been ordered. There will be a construction meeting Wednesday at 9am and a PBC meeting Wednesday at 5pm. It was moved by Amanda and seconded by Bruce to accept and file the PBC report. Motion passed. 9. Pool Report – Attendance has been good. Bruce reported there was a minor personnel issue that was quickly resolved. He acknowledged that having Forrest Burr as the manager for several years has helped to ensure smooth operation of the pool. It was moved by Roger and seconded by Amanda to accept and file the pool report. Motion passed. At 9:45 Bruce Swihart left the meeting. 10. Building Permits – none 11. Superintendent Report – a) A motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Kale to authorize the purchase of a 60” deck Hustler mower from Cochran Farm Supply for $7,135.57. Motion passed. The blade design will improve the efficiency of mowing the islands and other areas. b) JR discussed the issues they have been having attempting to clean up the Eurasian milfoil at Keller pond. A motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Kale to authorize up to $1000 to purchase a larger boat motor to make it easier to maneuver which will help with the removal of the plants. Motion passed. c) There was some discussion regarding the offer received from Downing Sales & Service for the trash truck. It was decided that Clerk Whitmore would put a request for bids out on the clerk link email to see if there is any interest. d) The City crew is still working on the library landscaping. It was moved by Amanda and seconded by Roger to accept and file the Superintendent report. Motion passed. 12. Attorney Report – Attorney Day discussed the details of the Hill Trash Pickup contract. A motion was made by Roger and seconded by Kale to approve the contract. Motion passed. It was moved by Roger and seconded by Kale to accept and file the Attorney report. Motion passed. 13. Clerk Report – a) Clerk Whitmore let the Council know that because of a delay in receiving the property valuations from the County Clerk which were due June 15, the auditors have not had an opportunity to complete the initial budget for 2018. The plan is for Angela Ketterl to be at the July 10th meeting to present the audit report along with a draft budget. b) Per the input received from Ralph Wolaver and Natasha Wilson at the last meeting, Clerk Whitmore has reviewed existing policies for late payments and payment arrangements on active accounts and found no issues. To address their concerns regarding payments on terminated accounts she will create a procedures document to define how terminated accounts are handled  and how late fees are assessed so that the process is clarified and there are no misunderstandings in the future. c) Clerk Whitmore reported that she was reviewing the PBC documents and discovered that the two at-large members, Kelly Frewen and Penny Gienger, had terms which expired in April of 2017. The Mayor re- appointed both to 4 year terms on the PBC. A motion was made by Roger and seconded by Amanda to approve these appointments. Motion passed. Clerk Whitmore also shared the auditors’ recommendations to have the PBC make the loan payments to the state per the lease agreement. All tax revenue that the City receives from the recreation commission will be disbursed to the PBC, who in turn will make the payments. The PBC will establish a debt service account to hold the funds. The City Clerk could be appointed to the PBC to serve as an advisor to assist with the payment process. d) Clerk Whitmore asked if the Council wanted to disburse the funds currently held in the Pool Building Fund, in the amount of $1416.03, over to the PBC. The Council decided to keep the funds to be used for potential expenses for the new pool that may be incurred by the City. e) The City was awarded a Hansen Cleanup Grant to be used for cleanup of the Roadside Park. Clerk Whitmore will advertise for bids for the tree trimming portion of the project. She and Carla will work on organizing volunteers for the painting and other cleanup. f) A motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Kale to approve the following fireworks licenses: Julie Brunk, Donna Stevens, and Anita Amack. Motion passed. g) Clerk Whitmore let the Council know she received a suggestion from a concerned citizen that “Children Playing” signs be installed near the City Parks and also stop signs be put at the intersection of Denison and Washington by the new pool. There was some discussion about this. Temporary stop signs will probably be installed during the summer months at this intersection, but removed during the months when the pool is not open. It was moved by Amanda and seconded by Roger to accept and file the Clerk report. Motion passed. 14. Council comments: Kale – none, Amanda – none, Roger – mentioned that since Bird City will soon have their own recycling center, a portion of the funds that the County gives to the City for the recycling employee will need to be divided between St. Francis and Bird City, based on tonnage. 15. Mayor Comments: none 16. At 10:20 a motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Roger for the Council, along with the Chief of Police and the City Clerk, to recess into executive session pursuant to the non-elected personnel exception to discuss wages for the new part time police officer, the open meeting to resume at 10:23. Motion passed. 17. At 10:23 the council returned to open meeting. A motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Kale to approve the wage of $17.00 per hour for Jason Showalter. Motion passed. 18. Adjournment: A motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Kale to adjourn the meeting. Motion passed. ________________________________________________ City Clerk