City Council

Regular Council Meeting July 24, 2017 1. Mayor Scott Schultz called the meeting to order at 7:30pm. Present were Council Members Kale Dankenbring, Amanda Milne, Roger Jensen, Carla Lampe and Bruce Swihart. Also present were City Attorney Mike Day, City Superintendent JR Landenberger, Police Chief Darrell Thomas and City Clerk Lila Whitmore. 2. Minutes from the July 10 Council meeting were distributed and read. It was moved by Amanda and seconded by Carla to approve the minutes as presented. Motion passed. Minutes from the July 17 Special Council meeting were distributed and read. It was moved by Amanda and seconded by Carla to approve the minutes as presented. Motion passed. 3. Visitors: Helen Dobbs with the Cheyenne County Development Corporation let the Council know about a community intern initiative funded by the Dane G. Hansen Foundation. The initiative would allow for two summer interns per community who would be employees of Kansas State University. They would be hired to work on community improvement projects. The deadline to apply is August 15. The City would need to provide lodging for the interns. There was discussion on what community improvement projects could be considered. Mike offered to check with Carol Sloper for ideas on what might be considered appropriate projects. Helen also shared the design for the City’s advertisement in the Ultimate Guide to Northwest Kansas. The Council gave their approval. She also shared statistics which showed Highway 36 daily traffic counts for 2016. There has been a considerable increase in traffic over the previous year, possibly due to the Motorcycle Museum and also the Scenic Byway. 4. Police Report: Chief Thomas let the Council know that they have been helping the Sheriff’s office while they are short an officer. The police department may start helping with VIN checks on Mondays and Fridays to help out. Darrell has been talking with contractors regarding installing a door between the police department and the room that is between the police department and city hall. The room used to be a kitchen and is used for storage and file cabinets at this time but could be a shared common area between the two departments. It was moved by Roger and seconded by Carla to accept and file the Police report. Motion passed. 5. New Business: a. A motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Roger to approve Ordinance No. 609: AN ORDINANCE REGULATING PUBLIC OFFENSES WITHIN THE CORPORATE LIMITS OF THE CITY OF ST. FRANCIS, KANSAS; INCORPORATING BY REFERENCE THE “UNIFORM PUBLIC OFFENSE CODE FOR KANSAS CITIES,” EDITION OF 2017, AMENDING SECTION 101 OF ARTICLE 11 OF THE 2015 CODE OF THE CITY OF ST. FRANCIS, KANSAS AND REPEALING ORDINANCE NO. 605. Dankenbring-aye; Milne- aye; Jensen-aye; Lampe-aye; Swihart-aye. Motion passed. A motion was made by Bruce and seconded by Carla to approve Ordinance No. 610: AN ORDINANCE REGULATING TRAFFIC WITHIN THE CORPORATE LIMITS OF THE CITY OF ST. FRANCIS, KANSAS; INCORPORATING BY REFERENCE THE “STANDARD TRAFFIC ORDINANCE FOR KANSAS CITITES,” EDITION OF 2017, AMENDING SECTION 101 OF ARTICLE 14 OF THE 2015 CODE OF THE CITY OF ST. FRANCIS, KANSAS AND REPEALING ORDINANCE NO. 606. Dankenbring-aye; Milne-aye; Jensen-aye; Lampe-aye; Swihart-aye. Motion passed. b. Fire Chief Dan Blair let the Council know that the fire department has received a grant to be used for radios. The grant total was $9,735 with the fire department share being $4,868 which would be split between the County and the City. It was moved by Carla and seconded by Amanda to approve paying the City’s share of $2,434 for the purchase of the radios. Motion passed. 6. Old Business: a. The Council further discussed Brent Rueb’s proposal to purchase a section of property in the industrial park. He would like to place shipping containers on the property to be rented out as storage units. This type of structure is not allowed in the city limits per Article 12 Chapter 4 of City Code. The Council agreed that they would not want them in residential areas but modifying the code so that they could be allowed in the industrial park area of the city might be considered. There would need to be restrictions as to the color and type of shipping containers allowed. Attorney Day will work on an ordinance to present to the Council for review. The Council also discussed and agreed that based on previous sales of property in the industrial park, $1,200 an acre would be a fair price along with Mr. Rueb paying for the cost of publication of the new ordinance. Mr. Rueb will decide on how much of the property he wants to purchase and will submit a building permit with detailed plans showing size, color and placement of the containers for the Council to review.  b. Clerk Whitmore shared the County’s purchasing policy and requested the Council review it and use it as a starting point for discussion in order to create one for the City. c. Property Cleanup – There was further discussion regarding the property at 417 E. Jackson. A letter was sent to Ted McCoy regarding the property being in violation of city code. Mr. McCoy responded with a request for a hearing before the governing body. The Council reviewed Mr. McCoy’s correspondence and set the date for a hearing to be August 28. Attorney Day will send a letter of notification to Mr. McCoy advising him of the hearing along with procedures that will be followed. JR indicated that some of the bushes that were causing a blind corner at the property on River and Webster were removed but it is still a problem. JR will follow up on this. There are several property owners who have not responded to the letters of violation that were sent and summons to appear in court will be issued. Valerie Clark has filed a building permit to raze the garage for which she had received a violation letter. d. Pending Projects – a) Clerk Whitmore let the Council know that the HW36 signs are scheduled to be installed this week. b) A Request for Proposal will be in this week’s St. Francis Herald to request bids for installation of the library flooring. Clerk Whitmore prepared a scope of work for the project which was reviewed and approved by Attorney Day. 7. Public Building Commission Report – The St. Francis Aquatic Park will open on August 25. Saturday the 29th will be the grand opening and ribbon cutting. The PBC did a walk thru today. Carrothers will shut the pool down this fall and will come back in the spring to assist with starting it back up. The Council talked about moving the Van Allen Shelter that is at the old pool to Keller Pond since there is no space to put it at the new pool. With the improvements being made at Keller Pond it would be a useful addition. JR spoke to the Van Allen’s for their input. It was moved by Bruce and seconded by Amanda to accept and file the PBC report. Motion passed. 8. Pool Report – The Council discussed compensation for the lifeguards for the two weeks that the old pool was closed and they were unable to work. Clerk Whitmore prepared a report showing average hours per week that each of the guards had worked previously and estimated what they might have worked during the outage. A motion was made by Carla and seconded by Roger to approve paying the lifeguards a bonus equivalent to 75% of what they likely would have earned based on the average of past hours and to pay the pool manager 100%. Motion passed. It was moved by Amanda and seconded by Roger to accept and file the pool report. Motion passed. 9. Building Permits – It was moved by Roger and seconded by Amanda to approve the following building permits: Gabriel and Cherish Born – 316 N. Denison, wood and metal fence; Kelly Simmonds – 115 W. Webster, wood and metal fence; First National Bank – 203 W. Washington remove raised planter and put in cement; Gary Wickwar – 510 E. Whittier, wood fence; Joshua Hasart – 520 S. Benton, wood awning; Don Gamblin – 404 W. Webster, wood awning; Megan Brown – 222 S. Scott, remove and replace driveway; Valerie Clark – 320 N. College, raze garage; and to approve the following pending JR’s inspection: Bill Wilson Accounting – 520 W. Business US Hwy 36, fence; Steve Adams – 301 W. Spencer, wood and shingle driveway cover; Kelly Simmonds – 115 W. Webster, wood and metal fence. Motion passed. 10. Superintendent Report – a) the Council discussed the sale of the trash truck and set a deadline of August 28 for bids to be received. Clerk Whitmore put the information out on the clerk link email and has received some interest. She will request formal bids be submitted. b) A 3 phase transformer has been ordered to be installed for the new construction for No-Bull Enterprises. In the past this type of transformer has been provided at the city’s cost. c) There was considerable discussion regarding issues with shared dumpsters and people putting trash in dumpsters that are not theirs and putting items in the dumpsters that the trash service will not pick up. Mike and JR will try to come up with a solution, but it is a complicated issue. It was moved by Bruce and seconded by Amanda to accept and file the Superintendent report. Motion passed. 11. Attorney Report – None 12. Clerk Report – a) A motion was made by Carla and seconded by Bruce to approve an out of cycle payment of two restitution checks in the amount of $500 each. Motion passed. b) A motion was made by Bruce and seconded by Kale to approve an out of cycle payment of funds that were received from the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation to be paid to the Public Building Commission in the amount of $73,288.08. Motion passed. c) A motion was made by Bruce and seconded by Roger to approve the Eagle Communications contract for Internet service for the city clerk’s office, the police department, the power plant and the theater for $239.80 a month. Motion passed. Eagle Communications requested the Council’s  permission to have another advertising insert placed in next month’s utility bills. The Council decided against this. d) A motion was made by Carla and seconded by Bruce to approve a tree trim license for Second Chance Ranch. Motion passed. e) A motion was made by Roger and seconded by Amanda to pay Roof Pros the balance of $679.59 for the library roof/cupola repair. Motion passed. f) A motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Carla to approve a Cereal Malt Beverage license for Flatiron Restaurant/Jett Fromholtz. Motion passed. g) The Council approved an additional $100 be disbursed for the theater’s cash drawer. h) As they have done in the past, the Council approved the afternoon of August 5 as a special holiday for the City employees to enjoy the fair. It was moved by Amanda and seconded by Kale to accept and file the Clerk report. Motion passed. 13. Council comments: Kale – will be applying for a special event CMB license for the motorcycle rally, Amanda – none, Roger – none, Carla – none, Bruce – expressed his thanks to the City employees and council for their work and support during the building of the new pool 14. Mayor Comments: none 15. Adjournment: A motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Kale to adjourn the meeting. Motion passed. ________________________________________________ City Clerk