April 13, 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, Bobbie Allison, Elly Blasi, Tom Kuhns, Brad Ackerman, Darcy Golliher, Dane Parcel and Jim Woodruff.

Mayor announced that the election results had been certified. Neel then swore in Lance DeLissa, Chris Hartnett and Ed Dye for their four year terms as Councilmen. All signed the loyalty oath.

Mayor asked if there were any public comments, with no comments made the Mayor proceeded to ask the Council what could be done about the liability issue for citizens to park on private land at the Lakeway Hotel parking lot. The hotel owners are concerned with the new restaurant customers using their parking lot and want to know what their rights are concerning trespassing and liability issues. There have been confrontations in the parking lot late at night and also unattended kids climbing on the Lakeway roof and fire escape. The City of Meade does not have a trespassing ordinance in effect at this time. Knott stated that the owners of both businesses should work it out between each other. DeLissa asked if Neel could call the League to see if we could get a copy of a trespassing ordinance. Hartnett asked if the Lakeway has worked anything out with Michele Batman CPA, they are using the parking lot during the day. Dye stated that when the Lakeway was operating as a restaurant he had to park on other private land and in the alley way across the street. Dye wanted to know what the difference is between then and now.

Elly Blasi presented a “More Colorful Place” proposal to the Council members. Elly met with the Chamber of Commerce last week to present the same proposal. She went to an eight week enrichment school program and is now working with the 2nd grade classes at the Meade Elementary School to get things started. The program is to make a more colorful City. She has four flower tubs that will be filled with flowers and positioned at all four corners of the stoplight intersection. Mayor informed Blasi that we have compost at the sewer plant for her to use. Golliher asked Blasi if she has thought about asking the businesses down main street to do a “City Challenge”. Mayor told Blasi to call Cordes if she needed any help from the City.

Brad Ackerman was present to ask the Council if they would like to be involved in the fireworks display with the Chamber of Commerce. Ackerman asked if the City would be willing to take all donations and any other funds that may be accrued so they can avoid having to pay for an ATF license. Ackerman also asked if the City has a place that we can store the fireworks tubes. Cordes suggested the sewer plant for storage. Ackerman would like to purchase more tubes and asked if the Council would be willing to donate $1000 this year. The City gave $1800 last year for tubes, metal and racks. It will cost $100 for each shooter to take the shooters test to be renewed every 3 years. Last year it cost about $2500 to present the fireworks display. Mayor said this is something he would like the City to back 100 %. Hartnett wanted to know if the Cities liability insurance would cover everything. DeLissa made a motion to donate $1000 to the Chamber for the purchase of fireworks, seconded by Hailey with all in favor.

Dane Parcel was present to talk to the Council about the pool contract and changing the hours that the pool would stay open. Parcel agreed with the addition to the management responsibilities but asked if the Council would be willing to change the hours from 1 P.M. to 7 P.M. Parcel explained that as a lifeguard there is no need to close from 5 P.M. to 6 P.M. and most kids end up going to the park until the pool is opened again. Cordes asked if he would be willing to change the hours in June and July during baseball season, Parcel was in favor. Hailey was in favor of staying open late 2 nights a week. If the pool closed at 7 P.M then they could start the swimming parties earlier and not have to stay so late. Parcel also told the Council that he is having a hard time finding lifeguards that want to work for $6.00 an hour. He has only had 2 employees from last year ask for their job back this year. Parcel had to turn down 3 parties last year because the lifeguards did not want to work that late for only $6.00 an hour. Minimum wage is now at $6.55 and will go up to $7.25 in July. Hartnett would like to think about the cost of the parties and the changing of the hours before they make a decision. Hartnett made a motion to raise the hourly wage to $7.25 an hour for beginners and $8.00 an hour for experienced lifeguards, seconded by DeLissa with all in favor.

Darcy Golliher was present to update the Council on the walking trail. They have received a grant for $20,288. With all the money they have received so far, they will be able to complete phases 1 and 2 within the next month. They would also like to put a hold on the lighting that the City was going to donate. They have seen the Plains walking trail and are hoping to raise enough money for decorative lighting poles. Golliher then proceeded to ask if the Council had made a decision to donate the $5225 that was needed for 284 feet of sidewalk on the west side of the drive. Hartnett commented that we did get the sales tax increase and thinks we could fund this. Hartnett made a motion to donate $5225 to the walking trail, seconded by Hailey with 4 in favor and Knott opposed.

The March 23rd, 2009 minutes were approved as presented.

The Appropriation Ordinance dated April 13th, 2009 in the amount of $309,189.97 was approved on motion made by DeLissa, seconded by Hartnett with all in favor.

Building permits #9006, #9007, #9009, #9010 and #9011 were approved on motion made by Hailey, seconded by Hartnett with all in favor.

Old Business:

Mayor asked if Cordes has heard anything from APAC on the Circle O Camp Ground railing project, Cordes talked to the State and it is in the process of getting painted.

Cordes updated the Council that the swimming pool has been sand blasted, the caps on the walls have been poured and some loose concrete has been removed from the pool area.

Cordes has talked to Curtis Campbell about the concrete pile west of town. Campbell said he will talk to the other attorneys and give them a deadline to remove the concrete or the City will start charging rent. Campbell also advised that the City changed the weight limit on Ordinance 738 to a lesser amount to discourage semi trucks to park on City side streets.

Mayor asked Cordes if he has heard back from the insurance underwriter on the employees using City equipment on personal time. Cordes said our insurance underwriter will not cover liability for the City if anything happens. Knott thinks it is wrong to take this benefit away from the employees. There are employees that use their own personal tools and cell phones for City use with no reimbursement. Mayor suggested we listen to our insurance provider and our City Attorneys advice. Hartnett asked that we look at another insurance provider to see if there are companies that will cover this type of liability. Dye asked Cordes how long we have had this policy in place, Cordes reported it has been in place since he started working for the City. DeLissa asked Cordes to call other insurance providers and see what he could come up with.

Mayor asked Cordes if he could get more quotes on storm sirens, Cordes said he would do some checking.

Mayor asked the Council if they would like to purchase another police vehicle. Dye asked if we really needed 3 police vehicles. Hartnett suggested that we still rotate trucks, this matter was tabled until the next meeting.

Mayor asked Cordes if we have distributed new maps to the City Police Officers. Cordes informed the Council that he has and he also spoke to Mark Thomas for GSI mapping. The City can put sewer, water and electric lines on this map the only problem is the City would have to have a high resolution map before we could create the GSI map. Cordes will talk to the appraisal office and see if they will help with the cost. Hartnett would like to know how much it would cost to get the whole City mapped, approximately $8000 and that doesn’t include the map. Hartnett would like to know who would maintain it and is there grant money out there. DeLissa wanted to know what we would gain from it. Dye suggested that over a long period of time it would pay for itself.

Cordes presented 3 quotes for a small bucket truck for the electric department. The electric employees recommended the Terex truck. It has a bigger oil tank to run equipment and smoother controls. Hartnett said he would like to get the employees the equipment they want. Knott made a motion to buy the Terex bucket truck for $79,285, seconded by Dye with all in favor.

Neel reported that the Meade High School students will start helping with the survey on Tuesday 14th, 2009, she also left a message with the Beam Center to see if she could come down for a couple of days to have the seniors fill out the survey during lunch. Hartnett wanted to know if people could come to the office to fill out the surveys as they pay their bill.

Cordes presented the rate sheet for Ordinance 811 for consideration:
AN ORDINANCE RELATING TO WATERWORKS AND ELECTRIC UTILITIES OWNED AND OPERATED BY THE CITY OF MEADE, KANSAS; PROVIDING THE RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR THE OPERATION, MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL THEREOF; DEFINING CERTAIN PUBLIC OFFENSES AND FIXING PENALTIES FOR THE VIOLATION THEREOF; AND REPEALING ORDINANCES NO. 102, 215, 276, 322, 483, 487, 488, 495, 595, 635, AND 639 OF THE CITY OF MEADE, AND ALL ORDINANCES IN CONFLICT HEREWITH.
Hartnett made a motion to approve Ordinance 811 and the separate rate sheet, seconded by DeLissa with all in favor.

Cordes updated the Council on the curb and sidewalk situation in front of the Post Office and Fowler State Bank. He does not have any quotes yet. DeLissa would like to know if we could just replace the curb without disturbing the sidewalk and save some money.

New Business:

Cordes informed the Council that J&J replaced a pole west of town that was damaged after the snow storm 2 weeks ago. A cable line hung low enough that a semi truck hit the cable which knocked the cable into our phase line and took out power and damaged the pole. Hartnett wanted to know if our insurance would cover the damages, Cordes will look into it.

Cordes asked the Council to approve the removal of an underground fuel tank at the old Alley building. There is an individual that would like to take the tank and if there is any contamination at the site the State will step in and pay for any problems that need addressed. DeLissa made a motion to pay APAC $2,250 for the removal of the fuel tank, seconded by Hartnett with all in favor.

Cordes asked the Council if the City could put a 1956 air compressor up for sealed bid, the Council agreed.

Neel presented Ordinance 812 for consideration:
Ordinance 812
AN ORDINANCE LEVYING A CITY RETAILERS’ SALES TAX IN THE AMOUNT OF ONE-HALF OF ONE PERCENT (.5%), IN ADDITION TO THE PRESENT TAX, IN THE CITY OF MEADE, EFFECTIVE APRIL 7, 2009.
DeLissa made a motion to approve Ordinance 812, seconded by Hailey with all in favor.

Knott asked when the house across from the Baptist Church would be cleaned up. Dye said when the trash has been sorted through and taken to the dump then the City can tear it down. Cordes will talk to Rodger Degarmo about the situation.

Dye explained to the Council that he has had many phone calls from concerned citizens about the way the City is spending the sales tax income. Dye said he will be more conservative on saying yes to a lot of spending this year. Dye also said we all need to work together as a community, he is on a fixed income just like many in our town. Mayor said we need to watch our spending, we just passed a donation for the walking trail at the Lonetree. Dye said the people in the nursing home will use it. DeLissa wanted to know what we should approve, he said half of the citizens in Meade do not use the swimming pool so what are our boundaries.

Hartnett wanted to extend a thank you to the City employees that helped weather the storm and power outages. He would also like to thank all the citizens that voted for him in this election.

Hailey asked the Council if they had any ideas on how we could get more activities or places for the children to go in town. Hartnett suggested another committee like the PARC committee to help out. DeLissa wanted to know if the places would need adult supervision. Hartnett suggested a movie theater. Hailey reported that the doctors on call could not get out of there driveways when the snow storm hit, what can we do to fix this? Cordes suggested the doctors call the plant to let us know where we need to clean. Dye wanted to thank Dale Rosenbury for helping clean a path to the EMS and Fire Department buildings when they had an emergency.

Mayor’s Report

Mayor wanted to thank Dye and DeLissa for writing up an article on the sales tax increase and getting it out in the mail.

Mayor mentioned that last year at this time he asked the Council to think of some goals they would like to see accomplished by the next year. Those goals were: a new storm siren, new businesses, for the city to keep moving in the direction of growth, have maps to hand out that indicate areas available for new construction, curb and guttering repairs, the Chamber and Eco Devo working together with the City, the golf course deal completed, upgrades to the electric lines, annexing, street signs fixed and a good City web site. We have accomplished the following: new storm siren, new businesses; Rusty Nail, ALCO, Fantasia Imaging, Tips & Toes, Cruiser’s, Tops & Tees, and Dollar General. The Chamber and Eco Devo are working together. The golf course project is completed. We have replaced some old electric lines and will continue to replace more. We have a City of Meade website, www.cityofmeade.org. We have accomplished almost every goal the Council wanted to see accomplished. It’s been a successful year, now lets show the voters they made the right choice for their Governing Body.

The Eco Devo had a dinner meeting on Thursday, the topic was “Building A Public Square”. What this means is getting the whole County to work together. The Chamber met Monday, they are a very open minded group and would like to work with the City more.

With no further business to come before the Council a motion was made by Hailey to adjourn, seconded by Dye with all in favor.

___________________________
Bud Doerflinger, Mayor

Attest:

__________________________
Tiffany Neel, City Clerk