City Council

Regular Council Meeting June 11, 2018 1. Council President Roger Jensen called the meeting to order at 7:30. Present were Council members Kale Dankenbring, Dara Carmichael, and Larry Finley. Also present were City Superintendent JR Landenberger, City Attorney Mike Day, Police Chief Darrell Thomas and City Clerk Lila Whitmore. Mayor Scott Schultz and Council member Amanda Milne were absent. 2. Minutes from the May 29th meeting were distributed and read. It was moved by Kale and seconded by Dara to approve the minutes as written. Motion passed. 3. Consent Agenda – It was moved by Larry and seconded by Kale 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. Motion passed. 4. Visitors – None 5. Police Report – a) Chief Thomas and Attorney Day received emails from Tammy Hunter regarding the dog issue. Attorney Day pointed out that the Department of Agriculture will only issue a kennel license for a legitimate kennel which is not her intention. The Council determined that the Hunters will need to comply with city ordinances regarding the number of dogs that can be kept as well as vaccinating/registering the dogs. They will be given 30 days to comply. Attorney Day will draft a letter of notification. b) Matt Hill is attending NCIC Certification training in Hays this week. c) Darrell reported that there were two vehicle thefts this past weekend. Both were recovered. It was moved by Kale and seconded by Larry to accept and file the Police report. Motion passed. 6. New Business: a. Angela Ketterl – 2017 Audit Report – Ms. Ketterl was not present. Clerk Whitmore will contact her to reschedule. b. Kevin Morgan – Variance Request – Mr. Morgan was not present. Clerk Whitmore will contact him to reschedule. c. Dan Blair – A motion was made by Larry and seconded by Kale to approve Kevin Trembly’s request to attend Technical Rescue Academy in Goodland. Motion passed. The class runs from June 14 through August 2. The Cost of the class including fireman meeting pay and mileage is expected to be approximately $679.70, with the cost to be split between the City and the County. d. After discussion, a motion was made by Larry and seconded by Dara to approve Charter Ordinance 2018-1: A CHARTER ORDINANCE REPEALING CHARTER ORDINANCE NO. 3 ADOPTED APRIL 3, 1990 AND PROVIDING A ONE-HALF MILL INCREASE IN FUNDING FOR THE OPERATION OF THE ST. FRANCIS LIBRARY. Kale – Aye; Dara – Aye; Larry – Aye. Motion passed. 7. Old Business: a. Property Cleanup – Attorney Day gave the Council an update on the four properties that were previously identified as needing attention. The Council discussed the condition of the Empire Motel. JR indicated the city will mow the property and it will be assessed to taxes. Attorney Day has been in touch with Attorney John McClymont, who represents Pioneer Development. Attorney Day will find out what can legally be done to clean up the property. b. Projects Pending – a) Clerk Whitmore gave an update on the Keller Pond Trail Project. The project is complete with the exception of the benches still needing to be installed. The City should be receiving the remaining grant funds of $6,096.35 from the Sunflower Foundation and the balance of expenses, $2,247.05, should be reimbursed to the City from the Community Foundation. The next phase of the project is the ADA parking which will be funded by the Community Foundation. We do not yet have a timeline from McAtee Construction for this. b) Clerk Whitmore spoke to Larry Kleeman with Ranson Financial, a municipal financial advisor. He indicated he could provide consulting services to assist the City with financial planning for curb/gutter and street improvements. The Council asked Clerk Whitmore to arrange a special meeting for him to visit with the Council. Corina Cox with NWKP&D indicated the City could apply for Community Block Development Grants for street improvements as well. Attorney Day left the meeting. c) The Council discussed a letter that was  received from Kim Kapoor regarding the condition of the River Walk trail. The County had received a grant to remove invasive trees from along the River Walk. The project has not yet been completed and there is quite a bit of cleanup that still needs to be done along the trail. Some of the trail is not currently passable. JR will contact Tom Keller, property owner, for his input. d) JR updated the Council on the electrical infrastructure improvements. It is still in the planning stages but the next section will likely be one side of Washington Street. e) The Council approved putting out a request for proposal for a content manager for the website. f) The Council talked about the Washington street beautification project and what had been done in the past as well as options for improvements that had been considered. 8. Theater Report – Clerk Whitmore reported that one employee has resigned from the theater and they have hired one new employee and intend to hire another. The attendance at the Thursday movies has been low so far. The marquee sign has a power supply problem which is causing some lights to blink. Robert Grace will be contacting Commercial Sign to get it repaired. It was moved by Kale and seconded by Dara to accept and file the Theater Report. Motion passed. 9. Pool Report – A lot of progress has been made with getting all of the lifeguards up to speed on their responsibilities. Average attendance has been around 125 per day. There is a concern with the astro turf area that is extremely hot. The pool board is still trying to determine how to take care of that. The pool will be open from 7 pm to 11 pm on Friday for the Alumni celebration as well as Saturday from 1 pm to 11:30 pm. There have been many positive comments about the pool. It was moved by Kale and seconded by Dara to accept and file the pool report. Motion passed. 10. Building Permits – It was moved by Dara and seconded by Larry to approve the following building permits: Jennifer Austin – 511 S. Quincy, dog chain link fencing; Carl Jenkins – 110 E. Spencer, 20x25 metal carport; St. Francis Housing Authority – 200 N. Ash St., storage building; Gilbert Carol – 610 S. Frances, concrete cut out for shop; Kale Dankenbring – 314 W. Washington, addition to residence; Brett Petersen – 710 S. Denison, metal commercial building; St. Francis Equity – 105 S. River, concrete to fix draining issue; and, pending JR’s approval, Larry Parker – 214 E. Jackson, storage shed. Motion passed. The Council also approved the use of corrugated tin as a decorative accent along with wood fencing material for Lyle Cook’s property at 121 W. Spencer pending JR’s onsite approval. The building permit had previously been approved on April 23. A motion was made by Kale and seconded by Dara to approve the following chicken permits: Dianna Padgett – 411 E. Washington; Kim Zweygardt – 314 E. Jackson; Chris Labarge – 314 S. College; Tyler and Trist Lauer – 509 S. Frances. Motion passed. 11. Superintendent Report – a) JR has submitted drawings to Shaw Construction and Sporer Land Development for the intersection work at College and North Street but has not yet received bids from them. The intersection will likely not be completed before the work that McCormick Excavation will be doing on College Street. b) Terrence Lamb will begin work on the Courthouse Park electric pedestal installation after the alumni weekend. c) The water tower will need to be drained before McGuire Iron will be able to complete the painting of the tower. d) Wade Krien approached JR regarding installing a water line along Royce Peter Road just outside of city limits. Krien Steel Buildings would put in a 2 inch water line to the city’s specifications running a distance that could serve multiple locations. JR indicated that typically the city will take ownership of infrastructure improvements like this after completion so that meters can be connected for use at other properties along the line. Mr. Krien will bring plans to a future Council meeting. e) Construction is moving along at the Airport. Prairie Land is not interested in doing the electrical work and JR indicates the City could look into possibly doing that work and he will prepare a cost estimate. The Council discussed the water/sewer/electric infrastructure improvements for a private enterprise at the airport. Improvements such as these are typically the cost of the developer and once the improvements are completed the City would take over ownership and maintenance. Nothing has been requested of the City at this time. It was moved by Larry and seconded by Kale to accept and file the Superintendent report. Motion passed. 12. Attorney Report – none 13. Clerk Report – a) Clerk Whitmore shared a diagram of a payment center for the Roadside Park that she and Carla Lampe had come up with including registration information and campground rules. The rules were based on current city ordinances regarding city parks as well as rules that apply to most state park campgrounds. The Council made recommendations for changes to be made and approved the following:  check out time 1pm, camping limited to 3 day stay, two vehicles per campsite, quiet hours 11pm to 7am, pets must be on a leash at all times, no fires, no littering, no fireworks. Roger also suggested adding information about the tornado shelter. Clerk Whitmore will contact Hot Brush to create the metal signage and once it is completed will put out a bid request to have the frame for the sign built and installed. The Council discussed what to charge for camping and decided on $20 for the electric sites only and all other sites are still no cost. Sewer and water hookups are not available at the roadside park, only electric. There is currently no method for campers to pay a fee. The Council approved providing the electrical hookups at no charge for campers attending the Alumni/Summerfest celebration on June 15-17. Clerk Whitmore will hang up signs at the park to notify campers of this. There was some discussion about patrolling the park and who would be responsible for collecting the payments but no decision was made. b) A motion was made by Kale and seconded by Larry to approve the firework’s license for Johnnie’s Poppers/Anita Amack. Motion passed. c) The Council confirmed that during employee travel, lodging and meal expenses are paid for but not snacks. d) The Council signed a thank you for Pat Yost for painting the flag in the park. e) It was moved by Kale and seconded by Dara to approve renewing the support agreement with Computer Information Concepts for $3,135. Motion passed. It was moved by Dara and seconded by Kale to accept and file the Clerk report. Motion passed. 14. Council Comments: Kale – requested the city crew block off the streets for the alumni celebration, Dara – none, Larry –none 15. Council President Comments – none 16. All bills on ordinance #1015 were reviewed. It was moved by Kale and seconded by Dara to approve the bills in the amount of $247,780.12. Motion passed. 17. Adjournment: A motion was made by Dara and seconded by Kale to adjourn the meeting. Motion passed. ___________________________________________ City Clerk