City Council

Regular Council Meeting March 12, 2018 1. Council President Roger Jensen called the meeting to order at 7:30. Present were Council members Kale Dankenbring, Amanda Milne, Dara Carmichael, and Larry Finley. Also present was City Superintendent JR Landenberger, City Attorney Mike Day, Police Chief Darrell Thomas and City Clerk Lila Whitmore. Mayor Scott Schultz was absent. 2. Minutes from the February 26th meeting were distributed and read. There was one correction and one spelling error noted. It was moved by Larry and seconded by Kale to approve the minutes as corrected. Motion passed. 3. Consent Agenda – It was moved by Amanda and seconded by Dara to approve the following items on the Consent Agenda: Permission for Clerk to pay insurance at time of billing; Permission for Clerk to pay utilities at time of billing; Permission for Clerk to pay utility incentives before the 25th of the month; Permission for Clerk to pay theater bills when due; Permission for Clerk to pay Payment Service Network bills when due; Permission for Clerk to renew First National Bank CD# 18620. Motion passed. 4. Visitors – None 5. Police Report – a) Chief Thomas reported that the new server was installed on Friday. b) Matt Hill spent 2 days last week at the Municipal Court Clerk conference in Wichita. Judge Taylor from Goodland has been here providing training as well. c) Matt Grogan is on vacation this week. d) Matt needs to obtain 36 hours of training and Darrell needs 40 before the end of June. e) One of the bids for the evidence room door was retracted. The remaining bid is from Brentwood Renovation for $495. Darrell will move forward with having the work completed. f) Darrell’s work anniversary is coming up in May and he may have some vacation time that will need to be carried over. g) Darrell requested 10 minutes of executive session for non-elected personnel to discuss overtime and on call issues. It was moved by Kale and seconded by Amanda to accept and file the police report. Motion passed. 6. New Business: a. Lacey Grogan requested permission to address the Council. Mrs. Grogan read a statement in support of hiring a third police officer. The Council thanked her for her input. b. Carol and Doug Sloper, the owners of the property at 112 W. Spencer, addressed the council regarding the curb and gutter repairs discussed at the last meeting. The repairs have been completed and they expressed concern that they had not been notified that this was going to be done and also asked who was responsible for paying for it. JR indicated he had verbally notified the tenants, Rheilley and Karen Knauer, but the Council agreed that communication with the property owners should have occurred as well and committed to keeping them in the loop with regards to any discussions and/or decisions that are made on the payment for the repairs. The actual cost of the repairs was $1050. There was discussion about ordinances that restrict snow removal by other than city crews. One does not exist at this time but it could be considered. The Council agreed that people just want to be helpful but that liability and responsibility for damages need to be addressed as well as guidelines established for removal of the snow. c. Airport Commission members Kody Krien, Dave Yost and Devin Conley were present to advise the Council of improvements that are being planned at the airport including development and construction of additional hangars on the northeast area of the airport property and creating an access road to the site, as well as ensuring that utility service is available. The Council gave their approval of the plans and asked that they continue to coordinate their efforts with City Superintendent JR Landenberger. Attorney Day will draft a letter of support to the County Commissioners. JR will gather data and cost estimates for the utilities that will need to be brought in. d. There was no open discussion regarding the third police officer at this time. e. A motion as made by Amanda and seconded by Kale to approve the renewal of the Chicken Permit for Margaret Lister. Motion passed. f. A motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Larry to approve the renewal of the Trash Waiver for CLAS Family LLC for the property at 216 ½ W. Webster. Motion passed. A motion was made by  Kale and seconded by Amanda to approve the Trash Waiver for Kody Krien for the property at 1470 Rd O which is a building next to his home that is used for storage and as a shop. Motion passed. 7. Old Business: a. Property Cleanup – Another letter will be sent to the property owners of 419 E. Washington and 308 W. Washington. The Council and JR will begin the process for this year of identifying properties in need of attention. b. Projects Pending – a) JR indicated that prewatering will begin on the trees at Keller Pond. Brock McAtee will be installing the benches as well as the rails and decking on the bridge. b). JR indicates that he found that the curb & gutter in Sunny Hill could be done separate from the sidewalk and at a cost of $25 per foot. This area of town is the best candidate at this time for street improvements to be completed as the water infrastructure beneath the streets does not need updating. Curb and gutter replacement would need to be done before street improvements. JR will determine the measurements to obtain a cost estimate. There was further discussion about prioritizing other areas in town that need curb & gutter and street improvements. Kale asked if a special fee could be added to utility bills and a fund established specifically to pay for improvements such as this. Clerk Whitmore will find out if a special improvement fund could be created. It may be possible that a set amount could be added to the 5 year plan for this. There was a lot of discussion but no decisions. Clerk Whitmore will add the Special Project Fund and Snow Removal Ordinance to the pending projects list. c) There was some discussion about the electrical hookups at the roadside park. The transformer has been received and we are waiting on Heartland. 8. Theater Report – Amanda and Lila reported that the Theater board has been considering accepting MoviePass, a program where movie patrons can purchase a charge card which allows attendance to multiple 2D movies for one monthly fee. The theater would still receive full ticket amount for each sale. This company makes its money by selling movie goer data to other companies. The board feels it makes sense to try it out but they have not heard back from MoviePass about setting up the Theater to accept the cards. 9. Building Permits - none 10. Superintendent Report – a) JR received an estimate from Yost Farm Supply on trading in a grasshopper mower. The retail price is $11,925, but with a selling price of $10,150 and a trade-in allowance of $1,650 for the 2001 mower that we have, the purchase price will be $8,500. A motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Dara to approve the purchase. Motion passed with Larry abstaining. b) The recently purchased pickup has not yet arrived. c) The city crews are still working on isolation of water valves. JR shared a map showing the progress that has been made and the areas that they know can be isolated. Once this process is completed he will contact Miller & Associates for their recommendations on valve placement. Valves will cost between $2000-$4000 per valve. d) McCormick Excavation is expected to provide a cost per square yard for street resurfacing. e) The Nordberg mechanic found a starter problem on the 12 cylinder engine. The engine itself is fine. The remaining 3 engines are useable as well. They are still working on the cooling tower pump issue. f) The Council gave approval for department heads to bring wage recommendations within budget constraints to the next Council meeting. g) Dan Blair, Fire Chief, asked the Council about the County burn ban and if the city also has a burn ban. The Council agreed that if a burn ban is in place in the County it should also be in place in the City. City Code section 7-204 addresses open burning. h) Work needs to be done on some of the intersections in town. JR would like to designate $50,000 for intersections. It was moved by Amanda and seconded by Kale to accept and file the Superintendent report. Motion passed. 11. Attorney Report – Attorney Day requested 10-15 minutes of executive session to discuss a legal matter. It was moved by Dara and seconded by Kale to accept and file the Attorney report. Motion passed. 12. Clerk Report – a) The Alumni Association submitted an application for the Sawhill Park/Bandshell rental. The application included requests for the City to provide extra power hookups, porta johns, and blocking off of the streets (TBD). The Council decided they could not approve the requests for the porta johns as these are not something the City would normally provide for a special event. These would be up to the event organizers. JR is already looking into additional power hookups at the park but does not believe they will be installed by the time of this event. It was moved by Larry and seconded by Amanda to approve the application with these items removed and also waive the rental fee of $25. Motion passed. The Alumni Association and others who are planning this event will need to bring plans back to the Council for the beer garden and blocking the streets. Kale indicated it would be similar to the Octoberfest that he helped organize  last fall. b) Lila let the Council know that she had driven thru the Roadside park and it appears that Dallas Staples has made progress on removing the tree stumps and branches, although there are still some branches on the ground. Once everything is completed the City will need to pay Mr. Staples the balance of his contract which is $200.40. The cleanup grant was closed in January so this will need to be paid for out of the general fund. c) Lila shared a thank you from Options for the donation the Council made to their organization. d) Clerk Whitmore will be attending the annual Clerk’s Conference in Wichita March 20-23. She will also be out of the office March 14-15. e) Beginning in April Lila and Jen will be busy updating the address list in preparation for the 2020 Census. It was moved by Amanda and seconded by Kale to accept and file the Clerk report. Motion passed. 13. Council Comments: Kale – none, Amanda – none, Dara – none, Larry – the pool board will be meeting on March 13 to make some decisions regarding the upcoming pool season. Lila will add “Pool Report” to the future agendas. Darrell mentioned to the Council that there is a possibility that card skimmers may have been placed on local debit/credit card machines and recommended everyone just be aware of the possibility when using their cards. 14. Council President Comments – Roger shared a plate of cookies and a note from Solid Rock Baptist Church thanking the Council for their service. 15. All bills on ordinance #1012 were reviewed. It was moved by Dara and seconded by Amanda to approve the bills in the amount of $195,858.83. Motion passed. 16. At 9:12 a motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Kale for the Council along with City Attorney Day, City Clerk Whitmore and Police Chief Thomas, to recess into executive session for the non-elected personnel exception in order to discuss police department employee hours and overtime, the open meeting to resume in the city council chambers at 9:20. Motion passed. At 9:20 Roger declared the open meeting resumed. A motion was then made by Kale and seconded by Amanda to go back into executive session until 9:30. Motion passed. At 9:30 Roger declared the open meeting resumed. No action was taken. 17. At 9:32 a motion was made by Larry and seconded by Amanda for the Council to recess into executive session for the legal matter exception in order to discuss enforcement of statutes and City Ordinances, the open meeting to resume in the city council chamber at 9:50. Motion passed. At 9:50 Roger declared the open meeting resumed. A motion was then made by Larry and seconded by Kale to go back into executive session until 10:00. Motion passed. At 10:00 Roger declared the open meeting resumed. No action was taken. 18. Adjournment: A motion was made by Kale and seconded by Dara to adjourn the meeting. Motion passed. ___________________________________________ City Clerk