City Council

Regular Council Meeting March 11, 2019 1. Mayor Scott Schultz called the meeting to order at 7:30. Present were Council members Amanda Milne, Roger Jensen, Dara Carmichael and Larry Finley. Also present were City Superintendent JR Landenberger, City Attorney Mike Day, Chief of Police Darrell Thomas, and City Clerk Lila Whitmore. Council member Kale Dankenbring was absent. 2. Minutes from the February 25 meeting were distributed and read. It was moved by Amanda and seconded by Larry to approve the minutes as written. 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 FNB CD # 18620; Permission for Clerk to pay NWKP&D Dues of $2,632. Motion passed. 4. Visitors – none 5. Police Report: a) Chief Thomas shared the statistics for February. b) The holding cell has been utilized quite a bit recently during District Court. c) Darrell was involved in a conference call with the NW Kansas Weather Service and updated the Council on the weather event that is expected this week, including a high wind watch, flood watch, and blizzard watch. d) Darrell showed the Council trauma kits that have been purchased for the officers, which will include first aid supplies and possibly Narcan. He is still looking into purchasing cameras and is leaning towards dash cams instead of body cams at this time. e) Amanda stated that she had heard some concerns from the public about the lack of police coverage on the weekends. Darrell stated that more coverage is going to require more people. He is still looking for another police officer. A motion was made by Roger and seconded by Larry to accept and file the Police report. Motion passed. 6. New Business: a. A motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Dara to approve Ordinance No. 615: AN ORDINANCE REGULATING THE SALE OF CEREAL MALT BEVERAGE AND BEER CONTAINING NOT MORE THAN 6% ALCOHOL BY VOLUME WITHIN THE CITY OF ST. FRANCIS, KANSAS AND REPEALING ARTICLE 2 OF CHAPTER 3 OF THE 2015 CODE OF THE CITY OF ST. FRANCIS, KANSAS AND ESTABLISHING A NEW ARTICLE 2 OF CHAPTER 3 OF THE 2015 CODE OF THE CITY OF ST. FRANCIS, KANSAS. Milne - aye; Jensen - aye; Carmichael – aye; Finley -aye. Motion passed. b. It was moved by Roger and seconded by Larry to approve the mobile home park license renewal for Tommie Peter at 502 S. Valley. Motion passed. c. It was moved by Amanda and seconded by Dara to approve the following trash waiver renewals: Doug Ross – 519 E. Fourth, Kody Krien – 1470 Rd. O, Alan Russ – 315 S. College. Motion passed. 7. Old Business: a. Property Cleanup – The Empire Motel demolition is nearly complete. The railroad ties will remain for erosion control. JR will check with Helen Dobbs regarding the sign. Roger identified 3 properties needing attention and letters will be sent. b. Projects Pending – a) The Washington Street beautification committee will meet next Wednesday. They are working on a game plan and possibly applying for grants. b) The following topics were considered to be either currently in progress or completed and will be removed from the projects pending list: Keller Pond Trail Grant, Electrical Infrastructure, and Pool Shade Structure. c) JR will put together specifications for the City Hall sidewalk repairs and Lila will place an ad in the Herald for bids. This topic will be removed from the list as well. d) There was some discussion about the band shell sail shades. JR will get the information that was previously gathered and share it with the Council for renewed discussion. e) Mike will look into what it will take to designate truck routes. 8. Keller Pond Committee – There was considerable discussion regarding the milfoil problem at Keller Pond and the effects of irrigation on the pond. JR has worked with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and they know what chemicals can be used and the best time for them to be applied, which is in June or July, but this interferes with when the pond is used for irrigation purposes. Possible solutions were discussed but it is a complicated issue. Larry will have a conversation with Tom Keller about the difficulties they are running into. They have a plan in place for maintenance of the area. The Riverwalk will be the focus for now until decisions are made on Keller  Pond. The cleanup continues at the Riverwalk and progress has been made. It was moved by Amanda and seconded by Roger to accept and file the Keller Pond committee report. Motion passed. 9. Theater Report – Neither Amanda nor Lila were able to attend the Theater meeting. Lila let the Council know that the board is considering offering “reusable” gift cards in place of the current movie bucks. It was moved by Dara and seconded by Larry to accept and file the Theater report. Motion passed. 10. Pool Report – The board will be conducting lifeguard interviews on March 18. Kevin Lampe has stepped down as a board member. The Council approved Shara Johnson as a replacement. The board has not yet decided on fees but are leaning towards $1 per individual for each event. The board is looking at other ways to generate additional income. The Council discussed the sale of concessions and Attorney Day confirmed that this needs to be run through the City and the appropriate sales tax collected. It was moved by Dara and seconded by Amanda to accept and file the Pool report. Motion passed. 11. Building Permits - none 12. Superintendent Report – a) JR has been working with Miller and Associates to create a map showing the city streets and categorizing them by condition and priority. They are actively working on compiling more information and factors that will affect the priority list which include water valve isolation, intersections, alley approaches, and curb and gutter conditions. JR updated the Council on the work scheduled during the 3rd week in March for the hot valves and isolation areas. There is grant money and low interest loan money available for doing street work. The Community Development Block Grants have an application deadline of November 1. We already have our LMI survey completed which indicates we qualify for the CDBG grants. Everything is in place for us to apply for this funding. How to repay loans or bonds still needs to be decided once the scope of work is completed and the cost of the project is determined. b) Previously the Council had authorized up to $20,000 for crack filling of streets. A motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Roger to authorize an additional $6000. Motion passed. c) Dave Yost approached JR about extending electricity to the airport improvements an additional 300’ beyond what the Council had previously approved. The cost for this would be $3,000. JR indicated that it can be done but in his opinion should be paid for by the developer. The Council denied the request at this time. Attorney Day recommended Dave Yost come to a Council meeting to discuss this further. d) Engineering firm RVW is still working on the creation of bid documents for the electrical infrastructure improvements on feeders 1 and 3. e) JR has requested Miller and Associates prepare a document to present to the State outlining the economic impact to the city if we were to be responsible for the service road and approaches as well as the islands, curb and gutter, and drainage of those areas. Roger has spoken to our State Representatives about the issue as well and will follow up with email to them. It was moved by Larry and seconded by Dara to accept and file the Superintendent report. Motion passed. 13. Attorney Report – Attorney Day requested 10 minutes of executive session to discuss a legal matter. 14. Clerk Report – a) Matt Grogan has not yet returned the paperwork required to allow him to run a photography business at 220 E. Webster. He has had a month to do so and was given a deadline of today. Running a business in a residential area without an approved variance is against City Code. Based on this the Council decided that the previously approved utility incentive for the business would be suspended for a month and then rescinded if the paperwork is not submitted. b) Clerk Whitmore was approached by Tom Smull requesting that the Amusement Authority be allowed to apply for a grant through the City since they currently do not have a 501(c)(3) designation. Tom withdrew his request, however Clerk Whitmore asked the Council to consider how they would like to handle similar requests in the future. Establishing guidelines would be helpful. c) Lila will be attending the CCMFOA conference this week in Manhattan. It was moved by Amanda and seconded by Dara to accept and file the Clerk report. Motion passed. 15. Council Comments: Amanda - requested 10 minutes of executive session for non-elected personnel, Roger – will be attending the commissioners meeting on Friday to talk about recycling. He updated the Council on the recycling for 2018. There was 212.5 tons of recycling for the County, with St. Francis having 173 tons and Bird City 39 tons. Of this amount, 111 tons was cardboard. The city will receive reimbursement from the County at $10 a ton and will also receive employee reimbursement of $17,599. Dara – none Larry – none 16. Mayor Comments – none 17. All bills on Ordinance #1024 were reviewed. It was moved by Amanda and seconded by Larry to approve the bills in the amount of $298,111.91. Motion passed. 18. At 9:02 a motion was made by Larry and seconded by Amanda for the Council, along with all those present, to recess into executive session for a legal matter, the open meeting to resume at 9:12. Motion passed. At 9:12 the open meeting resumed and no action was taken. 19. At 9:13 a motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Larry for the Council, along with Attorney Day, to recess into executive session for the non-elected personnel exception to discuss an employee’s hours, the open meeting to resume at 9:20. Motion passed. Chief Thomas and Superintendent left the meeting. At 9:20 the open meeting resumed and a motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Larry to go back into executive session for an additional 5 minutes. Motion passed. At 9:25 the open meeting resumed and no action was taken. 20. Adjournment: It was moved by Dara and seconded by Amanda to adjourn the meeting. Motion passed. ___________________________________________ City Clerk