City Council

Regular Council Meeting March 22, 2021 1. Mayor Scott Schultz called the meeting to order at 7:00. Present were Council members Kale Dankenbring, Amanda Milne, and Larry Finley. Also present were City Superintendent JR Landenberger, City Clerk Lila Whitmore, City Attorney Lauren Reyelts, and Sheriff Cody Beeson. Council members David Butler and Dara Carmichael were absent. 2. Minutes from the March 8 Council meeting were distributed and read. There was one spelling correction. It was moved by Amanda and seconded by Kale to approve the minutes as amended. Motion passed. 3. Visitors – none 4. Sheriff’s Report - Sheriff Beeson shared the statistics for March. Cody updated the council on recent activity. A motion was made by Larry and seconded by Kale to accept and file the Sheriff’s report. Motion passed. Lauren asked if everything had been moved out of the Police Department. Cody indicated that the only thing remaining is the evidence stored in the evidence rooms in the back. They are working on modifying some space in the old jail to be used for evidence storage so these will be moved at some point in the future. Sheriff Beeson left the meeting. 5. New Business: a. Alumni Association/Kale Yonkey – Mr. Yonkey did not attend the meeting. A Bandshell rental agreement was submitted but without the Special Event application. Lila indicated that at this time Mr. Yonkey was just looking for pre-approval to hold a beer garden in the park on June 19. There would also be a DJ. They are still working on finalizing plans. The Council indicated they could have the beer garden, but they will still need to submit a special event permit for Council approval. b. Dog Park Grant Request/Tom Smull – discussed during Clerk report c. Veteran’s Memorial Grant Request/Bob Ogden – discussed during Clerk report d. A motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Kale to approve the following trash waiver renewal applications: Chris Loyd - 1045 S. Quincy, storage building; Pete Jensen - 122 N. Quincy, storage building; JR Landenberger - 100 E. Washington, storage/garage; Dave Yost - 1009 Hangar Road, storage of airplanes; Scott Schultz - 709 S. Denison, storage building; Cynthia Sherlock - 109 W. Jackson, storage building; Marla Ross - 511 E. Fourth, storage building. Motion passed. Lila has created an updated Trash Waiver Application to be used next year which eliminates the need for signatures to be notarized, per the Council’s previous approval. e. A motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Kale to approve the Special Event Permit/Bandshell Rental for Western State Bank’s Easter Egg Hunt on April 2 and to waive the rental fee and liability insurance. Motion passed. f. A motion was made by Larry and seconded by Kale to approve the Mobile Home Park License application for Rosa Maria Dominguez for the mobile home park at 502 S. Valley. Motion passed. 6. Old Business: a. Rental of Police Department Space – The Council discussed the rental of the space to the CCKCF. Carla Lampe had contacted Lila and requested a decision be tabled until the next meeting so that they can come and speak with the Council. The Greater Northwest Kansas Community Foundation is working on gathering information from other communities and what they are doing which Carla would like the Council to consider. Lila had reached out to the League Counsel and had received a response back from Attorney John Goodyear which she shared with the Council. Attorney Goodyear stated the appearance of impropriety is such that he would be hesitant to rent the space to the Foundation. Based on his response and based on the public purpose doctrine Lauren recommended that at a minimum there needs to be rent charged at least in line with the fair market rent of other properties on Washington Street. This raises the question of the City competing with other properties currently available for rent on Washington Street. Lauren pointed out that the public purpose doctrine mandates that whatever the City does should benefit or serve some public purpose and the argument could be made that the funds raised from renting a space that is otherwise unoccupied could be considered a benefit. Lauren recommended that the Cheyenne  County Kansas Community Foundation (CCKCF) provide one or two proposals of what they would like for the Council to consider. Lila will contact Ms. Lampe. b. Industrial Park Property Sale – Lauren prepared a quit claim deed. She pointed out that this is a property that has not had a survey done and as a disclaimer stated that she does not do title work or surveys and cannot guarantee the legal description. The Mayor pointed out that in the past the buyer of the properties paid for the deed work but in recent sales of Industrial Park property this has not been done. Moving forward, this will again be the expectations. The buyer will be responsible for the cost of a survey and will reimburse the City for the cost of the deed preparation. A motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Kale to approve the Quit Claim Deed and sale of a tract of land in the North half of Lot #3 in the Industrial Park to Mike Frewen and Cindy Ham for $257.78. Motion passed. Dara arrived at the meeting. c. Property Cleanup – The Zweygardt property has a continuance with a court date in May. There has been no return of service on the Poulson property. A second letter will need to be sent. The Council discussed the ongoing issues with inoperable vehicles and junk/debris stored on city streets and sidewalks at 117 N. Quincy. A letter from the City Attorney regarding the code violations will be served to the property owner Kelly Lampe. d. Projects Pending – a) Lila let the Council know that Kelley Frewen has advised that the City have a policy or something in place that requires contractors to carry liability insurance equal to the City’s and list the City as an additional insured. The Council agreed. b) JR received an updated proposal of $58,305 to remove and replace the power plant boiler. This increased slightly over the previous proposal. A motion was made by Kale and seconded by Amanda to approve the purchase of the power plant boiler for $58,305. Motion passed. c) Lauren will provide an update from Jeter Law Firm on the KDOT/Access Road issue at the 2nd meeting in April. e. Streets Project – JR indicated there is no work schedule set up yet. The contract with McCormick Excavation has been received and is being reviewed by Attorney Reyelts. 7. Pool Report – Interviews for the pool manager position were held. Lifeguard interviews will be Thursday. A decision on assistant manager will be made that night as well. Larry requested 2 minutes of executive session for non-elected personnel for hiring. It was moved by Amanda and seconded by Dara to accept and file the pool report. Motion passed. 8. Building Permits – It was moved by Larry and seconded by Amanda to approve the following building permits and chicken permit: Noe Musquiz – 501 S. River, concrete slab; Noe Musquiz – 501 S. River, wood deck and picket fence; Chris LaBarge – 314 S. College, Chicken Permit. Motion passed. 9. Superintendent Report – a) JR spoke to Brock McAtee regarding the steps in front of City Hall. He requested the Council look at the steps and consider removing the two outside set of steps. b) JR has been in correspondence with Sunflower regarding the contract and the omission of emergency generation. They are not anywhere near an agreement. JR will work with Lauren for a legal interpretation of what the contract actually says. c) JR updated the Council on the recycling. Sunoco is no longer offering a proposal to transfer recyclables other than cardboard and chipboard so single stream is the only option. Glass and shredded paper could be taken to the dump as they have a use for it. JR has proposed to the County and is proposing to the Council that we use our own trash truck to transport the other recyclables to Stutzman in Hutchinson. This is what Colby does. Sunoco would pick up the cardboard and we would be able to keep the baler. The County will be getting reimbursed from a portion of the sale of the building at the Colby Regional Recycling Center which sold for $225,000, so any equipment needs would be on the County. JR recommended we move forward with Stutzman single stream recycling in Hutchinson and the Council agreed. Most City employees have a class B CDL license and Dave Flemming has indicated County employees could also drive if needed. Lila will check with Kelley Frewen on any insurance issues if a County employee drives the City’s trash truck to Hutchinson. The recycling center will no longer accept clothing and JR has notified the Thrift Store. d) JR and Scott spoke with Tom Keller regarding maintenance and upkeep of Keller Pond and the Riverwalk. The City does not have the resources to dedicate to the project. JR would like to consider using contract labor for a portion of the work such as watering trees, picking up trash and limbs, weed eating, some mowing, and identifying issues that need addressed. The City would be responsible for chemical application/weed control, taking care of the Eurasian milfoil, and larger areas of mowing. The Keller family has offered to help with the cost for year-round contract labor to maintain the  property. Lila will check with the Department of Labor for any regulations regarding contract labor. Some of the trees died and need to be replaced. A motion was made by Larry and seconded by Dara to approve up to $2000 to purchase trees. Motion passed. Kody Krien has expressed an interest in serving on the Keller Pond committee and Mayor Schultz appointed him to the committee. A motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Kale to approve the appointment. Motion passed. e) JR confirmed with Carla Lampe that the Community Foundation has no concerns with the City moving forward with the contract with the architecture firm through Miller & Associates for the Theater renovation project and it would not impact the application for the remaining grant funds from CCKCF that the City will be applying for. JR will sign the contract. A motion was made by Dara and seconded by Larry to accept and file the Superintendent report. Motion passed. 10. Attorney Report - With the transition from Kodi Workman to Lila Whitmore as Municipal Court Clerk, and from Attorney Day to Attorney Reyelts, Judge Keller and Lauren are revisiting outstanding warrants, delinquent payments, and other past municipal court activity. Judge Keller also reviewed the schedule of fees which had not been updated in a few years. The fees for traffic violations were increased but are still below what State Statute authorizes. The new fees will go into effect once the fee schedule is updated and available to the public. A motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Kale to accept and file the Attorney report. Motion passed. 11. Clerk Report – a) Lila shared information regarding the American Rescue Plan. She attended a webinar presented by the Governor’s office last week. All municipalities will be receiving funding, but the amounts are unknown at this time. It is also unclear at this time what the funds can be used for. The funds will be disbursed in two increments – half this year and half next year, and we will have until the end of 2024 to spend them. Guidance and more information from the Treasury should be coming out soon. b) The Shuttered Venue Operators Grant will be open for applications beginning April 8 and the City should be eligible to apply in May during phase 3. Lila will be attending a webinar on March 30 to get more information. c) Mijom’s Ice Cream Xpress out of Catharine, Kansas, has applied for a Peddler’s License. The background check has been completed and the license approved. d) Lila shared the CCKCF Theater Renovation Project grant award letter with the Council. She will be submitting a second application for the remaining $6,000 for the project. e) Rachel Morris is wanting to host a vendor fair. She will be renting the CSM Event Center at 214 W. Washington. The majority of vendors will be inside the building but there may be a couple outside on the street or sidewalk. Lila asked about vendor fees and permits. Lauren pointed out that the City code requires itinerant merchants/vendors to obtain a permit. After discussion, the Council agreed that the event organizer would need to obtain a permit which would cover all the vendors inside the facility, but that each outside vendor would need their own permit. Since the vendors will be part of an organized event background checks will not be required. f) Lila reminded the Council about the Community Cleanup on April 10. Lila has put the information on the City’s website event calendar. g) Lila and Jen are busy preparing for the 2020 audit. Documents will be sent electronically for the auditors to review and they will be onsite for 1 day on April 27. h) A local farmer who wishes to remain anonymous was the winning farmer in Cheyenne County to receive an America’s Farmers Grow Communities donation of $2,500 and has requested the donation be directed to the City for the Bandshell. i) There was discussion regarding New Business agenda items b and c. Dog Park Grant Request/Tom Smull – Mr. Smull did not attend the meeting. Lila indicated that he is planning to ask the City to apply for a CCKCF grant for the dog park. Veteran’s Memorial Grant Request/Bob Ogden – Mr. Ogden did not attend the meeting. Lila indicated that they were considering asking the City to apply for a Hansen Grant for the memorial. Lila had contacted the Hansen Foundation and was told that the City could apply for grant funding as long as the grant request is from the City, the funds would be payable to the City, and the project is on City owned property. Mayor Schultz shared some details about what they are planning for the Memorial. It was moved by Amanda and seconded by Larry to accept and file the Clerk report. Motion passed. 12. Council Comments: Kale – none Amanda – none Dara – none Larry – Requested a letter of support from the City Council for the grant application for the Concert in the Park. 13. Mayor Comments – none 14. At 8:46 a motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Kale for the Council along with Superintendent Landenberger and Clerk Whitmore to recess into executive session for the non-elected personnel exception for the subject of hiring, the open meeting to resume at 8:48. Motion passed. The open meeting resumed.  A motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Kale to approve the pool board’s recommendation of hiring Kelley Milliken as the Aquatic Park manager for the 2021 season. Motion passed. 15. Adjournment: It was moved by Larry and seconded by Amanda to adjourn the meeting. Motion passed. ___________________________________________ City Clerk