City Council

Regular Council Meeting August 9, 2021 1. Council President Amanda Milne called the Performance Public Hearing 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. Justine Benoit with Northwest Kansas Planning & Development Commission (NWKP&DC) joined via phone. Justine talked about the CDBG-CV covid relief grant that was awarded to the City from the Kansas Department of Commerce. At the end of every CDBG project it is a State requirement to hold a public hearing to let the public know what the funds were used for. The total grant award that the City of St. Francis received was $173,600. $123,600 was distributed to 9 eligible businesses, $35,000 was provided to the Cheyenne County Food Pantry, and the remaining $15,000 was for grant administration to NWKP&DC. Justine asked for comments or questions from the Council. There were none. She then asked for comments or questions from the public. Zona Potter with the Cheyenne County Food Pantry thanked the City of St. Francis and the block grant program for the food grant they received. The food pantry operates solely on grants and donations, and she spoke of the significant impact these grant funds had on the community. During Covid the number of families the food pantry served nearly doubled and because of this grant they were able to meet that need. The amount of nonperishable items they were able to purchase will be able to help the food pantry for at least another year. It also freed up other donations and grant money they received to be able to use for other necessities such as utilities and non-food items that they try to have on hand for families. The majority of the grant funds were spent locally. 2. After public comment the Performance Public Hearing was closed, and Council President Amanda Milne called the regular meeting to order. A motion was made by Kale and seconded by David to approve the St. Francis close out of project 20-CV-116, to authorize the Mayor to sign all documents and forms, and to authorize the final drawdown of $1,500. David – yes, Kale – yes, Dara – yes, Larry – yes. Motion passed. Justine left the meeting. 3. Minutes from the July 26 Council meeting were distributed and read. It was moved by Kale and seconded by Larry to approve the minutes as written. Motion passed. 4. Consent Agenda – It was moved by David 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. Motion passed. 5. Sheriff’s Report – none 6. Visitors – none 7. New Business: a. A motion was made by Kale and seconded by Dara to approve Resolution 2021-6: A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF ST. FRANCIS, KANSAS APPROVING A TEMPORARY PERMIT ALLOWING FOR THE CONSUMPTION OF ALCOHOLIC LIQUOR ON CITY STREETS. David – yes, Kale – yes, Dara – yes, Amanda – yes , Larry – abstain. Motion passed. This is for the Concert in the Park on August 28. b. The Council reviewed the application from the St. Francis Motorcycle Museum for the rental of the bandshell and a special event permit for Biketemberfest on September 18. A motion was made by Larry and seconded by Dara to approve the application and permit pending receipt of proof of insurance and to waive the bandshell rental fee. Motion passed. c. A motion was made by Dara and seconded by Larry to approve the Special Event CMB Permit Application for Kale Dankenbring for the Biketemberfest. Motion passed with Kale abstaining. 8. Old Business: a. Property Cleanup – a) JR and Amanda inspected the property at 417 E. Jackson and will send updated pictures and a list of improvements that need to be completed to Attorney Reyelts who will then email them to the property owner. JR went over the list with the Council. Lauren indicated that the owner of the property at 118 W. Emerson has until August 15 to complete phase 1 of the plan for improvements he had provided. Lauren stated she would drive by and see if that’s been  met and if not she would send a property cleanup letter. JR pointed out it would not be her place to check and report on that. JR will follow up. b. Projects Pending – a) Neither Amanda nor Lauren have had an opportunity to follow up with Michael Baxter with Jeter Law Firm regarding the access road and crossover issue. c. Streets Project – There has been a lot of activity on the street project. Much of the concrete has been poured. They will have all the concrete done and hopefully a 1st layer of asphalt down before the contractor leaves for the month of September. JR has spoken to Tyler Hillmer, the engineer with Miller & Associates who has spoken to Justine Benoit with NWKP&DC and there should be no problems with extending the deadline. There are modifications being made to some of the corners to make them ADA compliant as required by the grant funds. This may complicate the drainage of storm water at some intersections, particularly Spencer and Benton, but JR and the engineer are studying it to determine the best solution. David asked if there were any plans for the intersection of Quincy and North. At this point there is not a plan other than to keep the drainage open, but it can be discussed in the future. Dara mentioned that there are a lot of weeds growing in the cracks in the streets and JR indicated the City crew has been spraying them. With regards to the work needed at 4th Street and Parkway, the engineer agrees that on a street that is not heavily used the better and less costly option of asphalt with a concrete backing would be the way to go. The cost for this is $26,714. A motion was made by Kale and seconded by David to approve this. Motion passed. 9. Pool Report – The last full day of the pool to be open will be August 13. It will be open on the weekends during the remainder of August. Laps and aquacise will continue as well as private parties. There will be a pool board walk thru meeting Tuesday and there will be another meeting in a few weeks to discuss some of the issues that have arisen this year and how to handle lifeguard training next year. The board would like to be able to have the pool open some evenings throughout August but it’s difficult for the guards to juggle that with school commitments. There was some discussion regarding lifeguards using the pool after hours and Larry will address this with the board. It was moved by Kale and seconded by David to accept and file the Pool report. Motion passed. 10. Building permits – none 11. Superintendent Report – a) With the surveillance system at the recycling center there will need to be conduit put in for underground power along with hardware and a box to house equipment, as well as electrical work inside the recycling building. JR received an estimate from T&L Electric to do that work for $2,207.12. Amanda asked if it had been put out for bids. JR stated that because of the timeline in which the work needs to be completed he did not go through the bid process, but he felt this was a fair price. Amanda indicated that we should be using the bid process whenever possible but acknowledged that with the short timeline it would not have been feasible for this. A motion was made by David and seconded by Kale to approve the work. Motion passed. b) As soon as the pool has been drained and prepped for the end of season Baker Painting will complete the pool painting. c) The County thought they might have someone to help drive the recycling to Hutchinson but that is not going to work out. JR believes we will be making the trip every 6 to 8 weeks depending on volume. We will be going to Bird City this week to compact their recyclables because they are overflowing. JR is still trying to iron everything out with the County and Bird City. d) Ward Electric has completed quite a bit of work and continues work on feeder 3. e) JR heard back from American Boiler and they will be here next month for the power plant boiler. f) Sometime this fall JR will be looking into the purchase of a digger derrick truck. g) There is a structural issue with the fence on the east side of the pool that will need to be addressed along with any improvements made to that area. A motion was made by Kale and seconded by Larry to accept and file the Superintendent report. Motion passed. 12. Attorney Report – Attorney Reyelts updated the Council on Municipal Court cases. It has been especially busy this year with cases. It was moved by Kale and seconded by Dara to accept and file the Attorney report. Motion passed. 13. Clerk Report – a) Lila stated that she had heard from League Counsel regarding whether or not it was appropriate for the City Clerk to create resolutions and ordinances. They indicated that it is not an uncommon practice among cities for city staff to do preliminary work on standard resolutions and ordinances before passing it off to the city attorney to review and make changes as needed or approve as  written. Some common ordinances are the UPOC and STO and common resolutions are GAAP and the Alcoholic Beverage Resolutions. It would be more cost effective to do this and Attorney Reyelts agreed that there would be no fee for her to review these after Clerk Whitmore has created them. b) The City was approved for the Shuttered Venue Operator’s Grant in the amount of $31,171.73. These funds will be used to reimburse the Theater department in the general fund for expenses. c) The City received the grant award notification letter from the CCKCF New Generation fun for $3,170 for the Roadside Dog Park. Lila notified Tom Smull who is heading up the project. d) Lila confirmed with the Council that she is not expected to send the approved minutes to the paper for publication unless the paper asks for them as they are already 2 weeks old by the time they are approved, and they are available on the website and in City Hall for public view at any time. e) Lila placed an ad in both the St. Francis Herald and the Milesaver Shopper seeking bids for the painting of the bandshell and received no responses. f) With Jen being on vacation bills were processed early and several came in today which need to be paid. A motion was made by Kale and seconded by Dara to approve an out of cycle payment to Ward Electric for $34,022.83. Motion passed. A motion was made by Dara and seconded by Kale to approve an out of cycle payment to Compliance One for $188.50. Motion passed. A motion was made by Larry and seconded by Kale to approve an out of cycle payment to Airmed for employee membership in an amount up to $716. Motion passed. Employees pay the City for the cost of the membership and the City writes one check to Airmed. g) Lila updated the Council on the LMI surveys. There have been 243 no responses. Current LMI count is 488 and we need at least 612. The deadline is August 20. The Council discussed going door to door to reach as many residents as possible. The survey will not be successful if this is not done. Lila will provide an updated list to Council members. Zona Potter volunteered to help with the surveys. It was moved by Kale and seconded by Dara to accept and file the Clerk report. Motion passed. 14. Council Comments: David – CCDC will soon be recognizing new businesses with ribbon cuttings. Kale – none Dara – none Larry – The Long Run will be playing the National Anthem at the beginning of their concert and Roger Neitzel has asked if he could set off some fireworks. The Council approved. 15. Council President Comments – none 16. All bills on Ordinance #1053 were reviewed. It was moved by Kale and seconded by Larry to approve the bills in the amount of $159,416.81. Motion passed. 17. Adjournment: It was moved by Kale and seconded by Larry to adjourn the meeting. Motion passed. ___________________________________________ City Clerk