City Council

Regular Council Meeting January 27, 2020 1. Council President Amanda Milne called the meeting to order at 7:00. Present were Council members David Butler, Kale Dankenbring, Dara Carmichael and Larry Finley. Also present were City Superintendent JR Landenberger, City Clerk Lila Whitmore, and City Attorney Lauren Reyelts. Mayor Scott Schultz and Sheriff Beeson were absent. 2. Minutes from the January 13 Council 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 the following dues: Kansas Municipal Utilities (KMU) - $2,659.00; City Attorneys Association of Kansas - $35; Northwest Kansas Planning and Development Commission - $3,216.00. Motion passed. 4. Visitors – none 5. Police Report - none 6. New Business: a. Nathan Fiala, Library Director, presented the annual Library Report and went over the financial information and activities report. He gave an overview of the programs that the Library currently offers and possible future programs. The Council discussed some of the exterior building maintenance needs. JR will follow up with Nathan. b. The Council reviewed the Water Emergency Plan. At the recommendation of Ryan Murray, Cheyenne County Emergency Management Director, additional information was included in Section III regarding the utilization of local emergency management resources. Section VIII was also updated with current contact information. A motion was made by David and seconded by Dara to approve the Water Emergency Plan as amended. Motion passed. c. A motion was made by Larry and seconded by Kale to approve the Peddler’s License applications for the St. Francis Girl Scout troops 10057, 10076, 10124, and 10155 and to waive the peddler’s license fees. Motion passed. d. A motion was made by Kale and seconded by Dara to approve the trash waiver application for Cynthia Sherlock for the building at 109 W. Jackson that is used only for storage. Motion passed. e. A motion was made by David and seconded by Larry to designate JR Landenberger as Director 2 of the KMEA Board of Directors for a two-year term beginning May 1, 2020. Motion passed. 7. Old Business: a. Projects Pending – a) The Empire Motel property was discussed. The Council approved having JR reach out to Miller & Associates for a quote to provide engineering services to collect data in order to determine what an appropriate size and cost for a motel would be so that this information could be provided to potential investors. Tom Keller has indicated that the local community foundation would likely pay for the engineering services. b) JR has been working with Jerol Deboer with Penco Engineering regarding the crossovers and frontage road. Mr. DeBoer has not yet provided a cost for services as requested but has been in discussions with the State. The State would like to change the 4 lane highway to a 3 lane and bring the crossovers and frontage road up to a given standard and then, after that point, it would become the City’s responsibility. The City could apply for funding by the March 9 deadline and if approved the funding for the initial project would be provided by the State. There would be no cost to the City. However, JR believes the ongoing maintenance could become a substantial burden to the City in the future. As a next step, and to make sure the City’s best interests are being looked after, the Council approved having JR engage Miller & Associates for their opinion and assistance in determining what the long term costs of maintenance would be. c) Larry indicated that the Recreation Commission has been discussing potential uses for the old pool property if the City were to go ahead and fill in the pool and bring it back to ground level. There could be potential grant funding to develop a park that might include a walking path, sand volleyball court, and horseshoe pits. They will continue to research options. Whether or not to keep the bathhouse was discussed but  no decisions were made. JR will talk to Dave Flemming about using County equipment to fill in the pool. d) Kale shared information regarding Chromebooks that could be purchased for Council members use. Google Drive could be used to share documents thus eliminating the numerous paper reports that are needed at Council meetings. He will continue researching to find the best option. e) The Council discussed special event liability insurance and listing the City as an additional insured. There was some discussion as to whether or not all special events should be required to have liability insurance or if it should be based on risk factors. The City does not have an existing policy but the practice has been to require special events to carry liability insurance if alcohol is served. Attorney Reyelts suggested an indemnification and hold harmless clause be included in the applications for use of public property and facilities even for gatherings and events with no associated risk. Lila will request an opinion from League Council. f) Special Project Fund will be removed from the projects pending list. This fund will be created soon for the 1% sales tax. Library Improvements will be added to the list. b. Property Cleanup –no updates c. Streets Project – The CDBG Grant was awarded to the City but has not yet been officially announced by the Department of Commerce. There is a workshop on February 5th in Hays and Clerk Whitmore will be attending as the City’s representative. She invited Council members to join her if interested. JR has also notified Miller & Associates of the grant. The immediate step in the project will be the tree removal. 8. Building Permits – A motion was made by Kale and seconded by Dara to approve the following building permits: Gabriel and Cherish Born – 215 W. Whittier, lean-to add on and new roof; Drew Fleming – 109 E. Webster, raze building. Motion passed. 9. Superintendent Report – a) Miller & Associates looked at the theater and will be providing a design plan. b) JR explained that chip sealing or fog sealing is going to be needed on College Street. This is to protect the investment that we have in the street and is required maintenance and upkeep. Whittier Street will need to be chip sealed as well. JR will get cost estimates. c) JR has analyzed the invoices since the new Prairie Land contract was put into place and has determined that the City should see significant savings this year as anticipated. d) There was a water main break recently that the city crew was able to quickly isolate and repair. e) The Scout hut needs to be restained. This should be done every 2-3 years and the last time was in 2016. A motion was made by Kale and seconded by Larry to hire Melvin Confer for $1000 to apply two coats of stain to the Scout Hut. Motion passed. f) There has been a problem with people dumping Styrofoam at the recycling center. JR clarified that Styrofoam is not recyclable, it is trash, and it should not be taken to the recycling center. Mande Moberly will make sure something is put in the paper about this. It was moved by Kale and seconded by David to accept and file the Superintendent report. Motion passed. 10. Attorney Report – a) Attorney Reyelts met with Attorney Day, JR, Lila and Municipal Court Clerk Kodi Workman on Friday to discuss ongoing matters and the transition of files. Documents that are less than 5 years old will be transferred to her office and anything older than that will be brought to City Hall. Lila and Kodi will determine which documents need to be kept and will destroy the rest. b) Lauren let the Council know that she has a new email that will be used for City Attorney use. c) Lauren requested 10 minutes of executive session for a legal matter to discuss a prospective conflict of interest. It was moved by Dara and seconded by Kale to accept and file the Attorney report. Motion passed. 11. Clerk Report – a) Lila shared an inventory list of the computer equipment in the Police Department showing the equipment that has been moved for Municipal Court, the equipment that Lila feels could still be utilized by the City, and that which the Sheriff’s department may be interested in. Some has already been moved to the Sheriff’s office and Cody has kept an inventory of that. Lila will get with Cody to go over the list. b) There is an outstanding bill owed to the County for the 800 MHz radios. In 2012 the County entered into an agreement with KDOT to purchase an 800 MHz radio communication system for all emergency responders including the Police Department and Fire Department. The cost of the equipment was shared between all entities in the county and the payment period was for 12 years. The City’s Police Department share was $2,638.19 and the Fire Department share was $1,025.96 per year. The County sent an invoice to the City in 2012 and 2013 and $3,664.15 was paid each year. After that time there was turnover in the County Clerk’s office and also in the City Clerk’s office and the billing to the  City did not continue to happen and so no funds were paid to the County from 2014 thru 2019. This was recently discovered. Lila has been working with County Clerk Scott Houtman to resolve the issue. The amount that the City currently owes the County is $21,984.90. A motion was made by David and seconded by Kale to approve payment of the amount due out of the equipment reserve fund. Motion passed. With the Police Department being dissolved and those radios now going to the Sheriff’s Department, the payment amount for the remaining years should be only for the Fire Department radios at $1,025.96 per year. Lila will confirm this with the County Clerk. c) A motion was made by Larry and seconded by Kale to approve the renewal of an RV Park License for Clay Zimbelman/Zimbelman RV Park. Motion passed. d) A motion was made by Dara and seconded by Kale for Kodi Workman to attend the Municipal Court Clerk Conference in Wichita March 4-6. Motion passed. The Council gave permission for Lila to attend the City Clerk Conference in Manhattan March 11-13. e) Lila let the Council know that the first payment to the County for the law enforcement agreement was $6,916.67. The payment was due January 15th and was processed as an out of cycle payment. f) The 2020 budget will need to be amended for the sales tax revenue and the new infrastructure improvement fund, the changes in the police department, the reduced expenses in the utility fund and corresponding increase in budgeted transfers. Lila will be working with Angela Ketterl and JR on this. g) The Council gave approval for Lila to carry over 34 hours of vacation. It was moved by Larry and seconded by Kale to accept and file the Clerk Report. Motion passed. 12. Council Comments: Larry – Will bring the quote for the Expedition to the next meeting. The Council discussed ATV’s being used on the trails at the Riverwalk and the need for additional fencing. Larry will get with Tom Keller to see how best to address the issue. Dara – none Kale- none David – asked if there were any updates on a possible conflict of interest with him serving on the CCDC board. Lila has reached out to Helen Dobbs, CCDC Director, for the bylaws but has not yet received them. 13. Council President Comments – none 14. At 8:24 a motion was made by Larry and seconded by Kale for the City Council along with the City Attorney to recess into executive session for the legal exception to discuss a prospective conflict of interest, the open meeting to resume at 8:34. Motion passed. At 8:34 the open meeting resumed and no action was taken. 15. Adjournment: It was moved by Larry and seconded by David to adjourn the meeting. Motion passed. ___________________________________________ City Clerk