City Council

Regular Council Meeting August 23, 2021 1. Mayor Scott Schultz called the Revenue Neutral Rate (RNR) Hearing to order at 7:00. Present were Council members David Butler, Kale Dankenbring, Amanda Milne, Dara Carmichael, and Larry Finley. Also present were City Superintendent JR Landenberger, City Clerk Lila Whitmore, and City Attorney Lauren Reyelts. There were no visitors present and no public comment. A motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Dara to adopt Resolution 2021-7: A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF ST. FRANCIS, KANSAS TO LEVY A PROPERTY TAX RATE EXCEEDING THE REVENUE NEUTRAL RATE. David – yes; Kale – yes; Amanda – yes; Dara – yes; Larry – yes. Motion passed. A motion was made by David and seconded by Larry to close the RNR hearing. Motion passed. 2. Mayor Scott Schultz called the Budget Hearing to order. There were no visitors present and no public comment. A motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Kale to adopt the official budget for 2022. David – yes; Kale – yes; Amanda – yes; Dara – yes; Larry – yes. Motion passed. A motion was made by Kale and seconded by David to close the Budget Hearing. Motion passed. 3. Mayor Scott Schultz called the regular council meeting to order. 4. Minutes from the August 9 Performance Public Hearing and Council meeting were distributed and read. It was moved by Amanda and seconded by Dara to approve the minutes as written. Motion passed. 5. Sheriff’s Report – none 6. Visitors – Bernadeen McLaughlin 7. New Business: a. Gary Hill with Hill Trash Pickup was present to talk about the changes that are being made with the trash service. The automated trash trucks will require new trash cans and Mr. Hill brought one to show the Council. They are sturdier cans and should withstand winds better. The placement of the carts will require 3’ on each side and 2’ behind away from other objects such as telephone poles, fences, and cement walls. There can be no wires, bungee cords, chains, straps, etc. holding the carts in place on trash pickup day. They must be facing the right direction, which will be labeled on the new cans, and they must be in the correct location by 7AM. The same trash rules still apply including no cardboard and all trash needs to be bagged in bags meant for trash containment. There are cameras on the truck with DVRs so the driver will be able to see what is being dumped. Problems will be addressed as they arise, and citations could be issued for violations of the trash ordinance. Lauren will review the ordinances to make sure they fit with the contract. On Tuesday, Hill Trash Pickup will be placing the cans in the locations that they need to be for pickup, and they will be marking that location with paint. An audit of all carts needs to be done. The current rate structure also needs to be updated. Customer rates have not increased since 2012. The current price that the City pays to Hill Trash Pickup is based on the City’s billing practice and is $16.56 per service. The Council discussed the contract prices and also the new trash cans. After considerable discussion, a motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Kale to approve $70,000 for the purchase of 1,000 trash containers, and to approve a 5-year contract with Hill Trash Pickup to include a 5% increase to the per service rate the first year and a 3% increase to the per service rate the following 4 years. Motion passed. Lauren will prepare a contract for the Council to review at the next meeting. b. Fire Chief Dan Blair let the Council know that several hydro air pack cylinders need to be replaced. He discussed a couple of options. A motion was made by Kale and seconded by David to approve up to $2,000 for the purchase. Motion passed. c. A motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Dara to approve Ordinance No. 628: AN ORDINANCE REGULATING PUBLIC OFFENSES WITHIN THE CORPORATE LIMITS OF THE CITY OF ST. FRANCIS, KANSAS; INCORPORATING BY REFERENCE THE “UNIFORM PUBLIC OFFENSE CODE FOR KANSAS CITIES”, EDITION OF 2021, AMENDING SECTION 101 OF ARTICLE 11 OF THE 2015 CODE OF THE CITY OF ST. FRANCIS, KANSAS, AND REPEALING ORDINANCE NO. 623. David – yes; Kale – yes; Amanda – yes, Dara – yes; Larry – yes. Motion passed.  d. A motion was made by Kale and seconded by Larry to approve Ordinance No. 629: AN ORDINANCE REGULATING TRAFFIC WITHIN THE CORPORATE LIMITS OF THE CITY OF ST. FRANCIS, KANSAS; INCORPORATING BY REFERENCE THE “STANDARD TRAFFIC ORDINANCE FOR KANSAS CITIES”, EDITION OF 2021, AMENDING SECTION 101 OF ARTICLE 14 OF THE 2015 CODE OF THE CITY OF ST. FRANCIS, KANSAS, AND REPEALING ORDINANCE NO. 624. David – yes; Kale – yes; Amanda – yes; Dara – yes; Larry – yes. Motion passed. 8. Old Business: a. Property Cleanup – The status on 118 W. Emerson is that some debris remains to be picked up and is late per the proposed timeframe, but the owner indicated to JR it would be done this Wednesday. Other clean up on the property has been completed. JR noted that the Zweygardt property is in compliance. Mr. Zweygardt still needs to pay the court costs and fines. Lauren will follow up with Ted McCoy regarding the property at 417 E. Jackson. There is another property JR is working on gathering pictures and data for Lauren. The Poulson property is off the cleanup list now as the property has changed ownership and is under construction. b. Projects Pending – There has been no contact made yet with Michael Baxter with Jeter Law Firm regarding the access road and crossover issue. Scott will follow up again with Greg Kite regarding the bandshell grants. Larry asked what would happen if the bandshell were removed from the historical society registry so that improvements could be made as the Council would want without having to obtain approval from the historical society. It could mean more options and less cost. Scott will ask Greg. c. Streets Project – The contractor was originally scheduled to be gone during the month of September but that has changed, and they will not be leaving until the end of September. Tyler Hillmer with Miller & Associates has been in touch with Justine Benoit at NWKP&DC and confirmed that the construction delay will not affect the CDBG funding. There is no need to amend the contract and it will just be a change order process if the deadline is extended. There is still a shortage of oil which is causing some issues with obtaining asphalt so the work may not be completed as quickly. Work on Parkway Drive will begin next week. Residents will be notified that access will be restricted for 3-4 weeks. 9. Pool Report – August 29 will be the last day that the pool will be open. Pool Painting will start on September 7. JR met with Brock McAtee and he will be providing an estimate to pour concrete up against the fence/retaining wall on the east end, leaving a strip for the utilities, and then either concrete, carpet, or something else to cover the rest. A motion was made by Kale and seconded by Amanda to accept and file the pool report. Motion passed. 10. Building Permits – A motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Dara to approve the following building permits: Rita Keeker – 120 W. Spencer, privacy fence; Connie Page – 114 E. Jackson, concrete driveway; Connie Page – 114 E. Jackson, fence; Mike & Trisha Zweygardt – 219 N. Frances, garage and fence; Kurt Bucholtz – 610 S. Frances, fence. Motion passed. 11. Superintendent Report – a) JR has received the annual report that Sunflower provides showing what their current capacity is. Our contract with Sunflower provides that they have excess capacity and therefore the City does not have to pay for it. In the event that they would sell their entire excess capacity, we would then have to pay them for that firm capacity as part of the purchase agreement. However, current projections are that they will last into the 2030’s. b) John Hathaway, the architect for the Theater renovation project, along with JR are working on a scope of work and setting priorities for the project. c) The electric outage on August 15 was due to extreme wind and we lost all 3 main fuses at the power plant at the same time, which is very odd, along with multiple phase to phase hits within town. Everything seems to be working properly now except Sunflower’s metering. The storm hit during the night and power was restored by 9:30AM. d) There was a water break that has now been cleared up. We were able to isolate the valve issue and we did not have to use the emergency valve service out of Denver. e) Ward Electric has been called off on short notice to assist with storm work elsewhere but will return as soon as they can. They have approximately 3 more weeks of work to do here. A motion was made by David and seconded by Kale to accept and file the Superintendent report. Motion passed. 12. Attorney Report – a) Attorney Reyelts reported that there has been an abundance of municipal court cases. She also recently learned that she was not on the City Attorney Association of Kansas listserv. Lila contacted  the League and she is now enrolled. There are also meetings and training offered for City Attorneys that she had not been aware of and may be asking the Council’s permission to attend upcoming training in October. A motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Dara to accept and file the Attorney report. Motion passed. 13. Clerk Report – a) Scott let the Council know that the Biketemberfest vendors will probably be on North Scott Street instead of on Jackson. b) The LMI survey is completed. Lila thanked the Council members and JR for their tremendous efforts in getting the surveys completed and returned. We had a 73% response. Our final LMI count is 633 and we needed at least 612. Dan Steffen with Northwest Kansas Planning & Development Commission will be picking the surveys up on Wednesday and taking them back to Hill City for final tabulation. b) A motion was made by Kale and seconded by David to approve out-of-cycle payments of invoices for the street project as they become due. Motion passed. c) Lila requested 10 minutes of executive session for the non-elected personnel exception for employee status. A motion was made by Larry and seconded by Dara to accept and file the Clerk report. Motion passed. 14. Council Comments: David –none Kale – none Amanda – requested 10 minutes of executive session for the non-elected personnel exception for job duties and performance. Dara – none Larry – reminded everyone of the Concert in the Park Saturday. 15. Mayor Comments – none 16. At 8:43 a motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Kale for the Council and Mayor, along with Clerk Whitmore, to recess into executive session for the non-elected personnel exception for employee status, the open meeting to resume at 8:53. Motion passed. The open meeting resumed. A motion was made by David and seconded by Amanda to advertise for the City Clerk position. Motion passed. 17. At 8:58 a motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Larry for the Council and Mayor to recess into executive session for the non-elected personnel exception to discuss job duties and performance, the open meeting to resume at 9:08. The open meeting resumed. No action was taken. A motion was made by Larry and seconded by Kale for the Mayor and Council, along with Clerk Whitmore, to recess into executive session for the non-elected personnel exception to discuss job duties and performance, the open meeting to resume at 9:23. Motion passed. The open meeting resumed, and no decisions were made. 18. Adjournment: It was moved by Larry and seconded by Amanda to adjourn the meeting. Motion passed. ___________________________________________ City Clerk