City Council

Regular Council Meeting September 28, 2020 1. Mayor Scott Schultz called the meeting to order at 7:00. Present were Council members David Butler, Amanda Milne, Dara Carmichael, and Larry Finley. Also present were City Superintendent JR Landenberger, City Attorney Lauren Reyelts, City Clerk Lila Whitmore, and Sheriff Cody Beeson. Council member Kale Dankenbring was absent. 2. Minutes from the September 14 Council meeting were distributed and read. It was moved by Amanda and seconded by Dara to approve the minutes as written. Motion passed. 3. Sheriff Report – Sheriff Beeson reported that two deputies will be completing training in two weeks. One deputy has resigned, accepting a better paying position elsewhere. Cody commented that the wages Cheyenne County pays deputies are no longer competitive and he will be addressing this with the County Commissioners. Sheriff Beeson shared the statistics for September. There were 144 calls in St. Francis, but this includes the numbers for VIN inspections and other categories such as 911 test calls that should be categorized as County calls rather than St. Francis calls. Cody explained when the calls are logged they must be input with an address, and if the Courthouse address is used it will fall under St. Francis calls. They are working on a way to get these to be reported differently. They are still working on getting equipment removed from the Dodge Charger so it can be sold. He is also aware that there are things in the Police Department that still need to be moved out. A motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Larry to accept and file the Sheriff report. Motion passed. Sheriff Beeson left the meeting. 4. Visitors - none 5. New Business: a. Karen Knauer, Girl Scout leader, and Bill Dungan addressed the Council regarding making the Scout Hut handicap accessible. The building currently has steps at both doors to get into the building. Mr. Dungan shared his thoughts on what could be done to make it accessible. They offered to conduct fund raising if needed in support of making the building ADA accessible. Attorney Reyelts stated that she would need time to review the Americans with Disabilities Act and the requirements for municipalities and City owned buildings before she can advise the Council as to what should be done. Ms. Knauer also asked if the City could provide biweekly cleaning of the building. JR stated that the original agreement with the Scouts to use the facility was for them to maintain it in a clean and orderly manner. Additional cleaning by the City is only done after it has been rented. JR will check with Hinkle Pest Control to make sure the building is being sprayed for bugs. b. Lila shared house numbering ordinances from other communities and there was considerable discussion. The Council agreed that numbers should be required on all homes and buildings for 911 purposes. There would be a fine for non-compliance, but citizens would be given a certain amount of time to get numbers installed before fines would be imposed. Lauren will draft an ordinance for the Council to review. 6. Old Business: a. Property Cleanup – The issue with the serving of letters from the Sheriff’s office has been resolved. Lauren will be providing a subpoena for JR to sign for one of the properties and the Sheriff’s department will be delivering the first letter to the second property. b. Projects Pending – a) Tom Smull has contacted Lauren asking what they need to be doing to move forward with the dog park project. The Council asked Lauren to direct Tom to JR for any questions he has. b) Lila shared the information that Kodi had gathered from surrounding communities regarding transient vendors. Most of the ordinances are similar to ours. The majority require background checks and the primary difference between them is in the fees charged. At the August 10 meeting the Council had agreed on fees of $75 a year for Cheyenne County residents and $100 a year for out of County, the fee to include a background check, or $10 a day plus $25 for a background check. The Council also agreed that licenses should be renewed annually in January. Lauren will draft an ordinance to update the current code.  c. Streets Project – The final design specifications should be available for review at the next Council meeting. Lila pointed out that since October 12 is a federal holiday the next Council meeting will be on October 13. 7. Building Permits – A motion was made by Larry and seconded by Amanda to approve the following building permits: Ana Enfield – 231 Birch, shed; Bill Wilger – 700 W. Business Hwy 36 – storage unit; Noe Musquiz – 501 S. River, front deck; Motion passed. 8. Superintendent Report – a) The annual fall cleanup is scheduled for October. The original intent of the cleanup was to assist with cleaning up yards for those residents who have no means of transporting yard waste to the dump. Over the years it has grown to include other items such as furniture and appliances. However, JR pointed out that in recent years the City has been taken advantage of during the cleanup and it is no longer primarily a service to assist those in need. JR believes that most residents have ways to get things to the dump. After discussion, the Council decided that this year the cleanup will be only for yard waste, garden waste, and tree branches. There was also discussion regarding the recent abuses of the Goodwill Truck that was parked at the recycling center. People were observed removing donated items from the truck. There was a large amount of stuff left around the outside of the trailer once it was full. It was an embarrassment for our community. JR is working with Goodwill on possible solutions to prevent this from happening in the future. b) There was a failure in the boiler that was discussed at the last Council meeting. JR is still trying to obtain pricing but it will need to be replaced at some point. c) After a property owner installed curb and gutter along their property on Valley Street it changed the flow of water. JR has been working on the street. d) Ward electric has been in town working on the electrical improvements. It was moved by David and seconded by Larry to accept and file the Superintendent report. Motion passed. 9. Attorney Report – a) Attorney Reyelts requested 10 minutes of executive session for the attorney/client privilege exception to discuss imminent pending litigation. 10. Clerk Report – a) On behalf of Helen Dobbs Lila shared the updated sample of the ad for the Ultimate Guide for Northwest Kansas publication. The Council approved the changes. b) Many businesses have picked up packets for the CDBG-CV grant and the deadline for submitting them is 5pm Wednesday. Only 1 has been returned so far. The food pantry has been submitting invoices and have reached the minimum amount needed to receive reimbursement. c) At the last meeting Fire Chief Dan Blair had talked about the need for bunker gear. Lila let the Council know that during the 2020 budget workshop the Council had approved $6000 a year from the Equipment Reserve fund for the purchase of bunker gear. d) Lila has been contacted by a company called Archive Social which offers services to archive social meeting content to make it easily retrievable in case of an open records request. The City’s Facebook page is primarily used for information sharing only and public comments/remarks are not deleted unless they contain offensive language. The Council did not see a need for this service at this time. It was moved by Amanda and seconded by David to accept and file the Clerk report. Motion passed. 11. Council Comments: David – none Amanda – none Dara – none Larry – none 12. Mayor Comments – thanked the city Crew for helping with the Biketemberfest special event. JR left the meeting. 13. At 8:30 a motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Larry for the Council along with the City Attorney to recess into executive session for the attorney-client privilege exception to discuss imminent pending litigation, the open meeting to resume at 8:40. Motion passed. The open meeting resumed, and no decisions were made. 14. Adjournment: It was moved by Amanda and seconded by Larry to adjourn the meeting. Motion passed. ___________________________________________ City Clerk