March 23, 2009 City Council Minutes
Meade, Kansas

The meeting was called to order in the Council Meeting Room, by Mayor Bud Doerflinger at 7:00 P.M. Council members present were: Richard Knott, Lance DeLissa, Cliff Hailey, Ed Dye and Chris Hartnett. Also present were: City Administrator Dean Cordes and City Clerk Tiffany Neel. Visitors were: Mike Gillen, Tom Kuhns, Jim Woodruff, Bobbi Allison, George Martin and Heather Moore.

First item on the agenda was the utility hearing. One customer was given additional time to pay their bill.

Chief of Police Loren Borger presented the monthly police report for the Council to review. DeLissa asked Borger if all the officers carried a current map of the city limits in their vehicle. Borger informed DeLissa that they do not have current maps and they will get copies. Borger asked the Council if they would allow 2 young cub scouts to do community service for the City. The cub scouts have an adult willing to pay for their scout camp if they will do some kind of community service around town. The Council agreed that it would be okay as long as they were supervised.

Our special guest for the evening was George Martin. Martin had asked the Council to adopt a burn ban ordinance at the last meeting. Curtis Campbell has drawn up an ordinance but Martin does not believe it will work for a small community like Meade. It was designed for a larger City with a full time fire department. Martin would like to see fines involved and more restrictions with the exception of letting the High School have their bomb fire once a year. The Council is concerned that we are putting too many restrictions on the citizens. The Council asked for copies of the open burning restrictions and a copy of the Meade County burn ban ordinance for the next meeting.

The March 9th, 2009 minutes were approved as presented.

Building permit #9008 was approved on motion made by Hartnett, seconded by Hailey with all in favor. Building permits #9006 and #9007 were tabled.

Old Business:

Cordes informed the Council that the Meade City wide clean up is scheduled for the week of May 4th, 2009.

Curtis Campbell has not got back with us on the street repairs. Dye asked if there was anything we could do about the sidewalk and curb in front of the Post Office and Fowler State Bank. Cordes said he will get a bid on the cost to replace the curb but the new style of curb design is different.

Mayor asked Cordes if he has checked with the Cities insurance to see if we are covered for employees using City equipment on personal time. The insurance adjuster has not gotten back with Cordes at this time. Mayor asked if Cordes had checked with other cities to find out their regulations. The City of Jetmore and Johnson allow the employees to use equipment but the City of Lakin, Cimarron, and Ashland do not. Some of the Cities allow employees to use the shop and tools if needed. Mayor would like Cordes to keep checking.

Neel asked the Council to look over the additions to the pool contract and approve them. Dane Parcel wanted Cordes to ask if the Council would consider changing the hours of operation to 1:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M. Monday thru Friday. The Council would like Parcel to be present at the next meeting to discuss further. DeLissa would like to have the pool managers go through a training check list for the new additions to the contract.

Cordes informed the Council that the employees have had time to work on the dedicated lines and Mid States was here last week to do some of their part. Over spring break the City was able to get the Grade School off of the dedicated line.

Cordes informed the Council that the Zoning Commission approved the new zoning book. Dye wanted to know if we should get a second opinion on the book. DeLissa said if we have someone else look at it they will go with the most conservative legal opinion.
Hartnett would like to know if we wanted to change a line in the book do we have to have the whole book redone. Cordes said we would have to adopt an ordinance to change the line item. Mayor would also like the public to know that we do have a Board of Zoning Appeals, he would like the citizens that are applying for an application to come to the meeting in case the board has any questions on the application.

Cordes informed the Council that they have viewed 3 bucket trucks but are still not ready with the quotes.

Neel informed the Council that Justin Pike is no longer employed with the USDA Rural Development Programs. Dave Barber is the new representative and he will be working with the committee to get the applications going for the grant process.

Trash and Treasure day has been changed to April 25th, 2009.

Mayor asked the Council if they would consider making a motion to donate $500.00 to help with advertising in the Ranch Rodeo pamphlet. Dye made a motion to donate $500.00 for the Ranch Rodeo program insert, seconded by DeLissa with all in favor.

New Business:

Cordes asked the Council to grant extensions for Dave Lynn for 1 week and Ron Lynn for 2 weeks to get their vehicles in compliance. The Council agreed.

Neel presented papers on the legislative updates for the State of Kansas on the tax deductions we will have taken away from us in the next year. Neel also presented an item listing of things that will need to be done by the City in case we ever have a natural disaster. We need to find an offsite storage building and get our ordinances digitalized.

Knott asked Cordes for information on the airport. Cordes said we did get a grant to update the airport. The grant surveyors were here and we are still on track for the project to start this summer.

Dye would like to thank Jim Woodruff and Mike Gillen for coming to the Council Meetings every week and for giving their input on the City projects.

Hartnett wanted to know why the City was out of electricity Saturday. Cordes said the 2400, south, uptown, north and park loops were all down because of a breaker in the sub that needed to be re-closed. The regulators were tapped out.

Mayor’s Report:

Mayor Doerflinger wanted to make a comment referring to an ad in the paper. It was a campaign “vote for me to return council business to the City Council Meetings”. Mayor thought the comment was referring to the Financial Committee Meeting held every 6 months. The Financial Committee Meeting is held to discuss what future projects the City needs to accomplish and if we have the funding to do these projects. There is no decision made at the meeting, only the Council can approve funds spent at a regular City Council Meeting. The City auditor requested we form this committee and the League has agreed. The reason for only 2 Council members, City Administrator, City Clerk and Mayor is so the City does not have to call a special meeting and pay the Council members to appear.

Mayor wanted to encourage the citizens to get out and vote on Election Day. It is your vote that counts.

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Bud Doerflinger, Mayor
Attest:

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Tiffany Neel, City Clerk