April 27, 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, and Ed Dye with Chris Hartnett absent. Also present were: City Administrator Dean Cordes and City Clerk Tiffany Neel. Visitors were: Bobbie Allison, Heather Moore, Kathy Novinger, Shannon Conway, Ted and Rose Winter, Jim Cruise, Mike Gillen, Larry Classen, Jim Woodruff, Mickey Thomas, Loren Borger and Brian Kroth.

Kathy Novinger was present to ask the Council to consider heating the pool for the adult swim. They would like to swim and exercise but the pool temperature is too cold. Shannon Conway was present to support the adult swim time. It is very enjoyable for adults in the evening and she would like to help keep it that way. DeLissa asked if they would like to keep it from 5:00 P.M. to 6:00 P.M. Conway asked if it could stay open after 6:00 P.M. Knott asked how many nights a week would be enough. Conway would like to see it open Monday through Friday and Rose Winter would be willing to teach water aerobics 2 to 3 nights a week. Novinger said there would be more adults if the water was a little warmer, just to knock the chill off. Cordes said they did find 2 holes in the pool and they will be fixed before the pool opens, which will prevent the City from having to add more cold water to keep it full. Cordes called Paddock Pools to get a ball park figure on the cost of heating the pool, Paddock Pools will call back Wednesday. Mayor suggested the pool stay open for adult swimming from the hours of 5:00 P.M. to 6:30 P.M. Monday through Friday and see how it goes. Conway told the Council that we have a phenomenal staff at the Meade City Pool.

Mickey Thomas was present to represent the Artesian Valley Health Center. They have made a proposal to Meade County to take over the operations of the EMS. It will still be known as Meade County EMS but operated by the hospital. Dye asked if there was anything else we need to know about the operation. Thomas said nothing will change with the ambulance runs but they are looking at providing advanced life support transfers on short notice. Mayor wanted to know if they were anticipating putting a helicopter landing at the hospital, Thomas said they will not land at the hospital unless it is an emergency. Knott asked if we needed a contract between Artesian Valley and the City. DeLissa stated that we have an agreement with Meade County and we need to get a copy to Thomas. The Council agreed to house the EMS vehicles under the Meade County agreement.

The April 13th, 2009 minutes were approved as presented.

Building permits #9012, #9013, #9014, #9015 and #9016 were approved on motion made by DeLissa, seconded by Dye with all in favor.

Old Business:

Dean talked to Dane Parcel earlier today and Parcel asked if it would be okay to hire 6 lifeguards and work 3 lifeguards at a time. DeLissa said it would be fine with him as long as they keep a tighter rain on the kids. Dye would like to see an accountability sheet brought to the office of all attendances, parties and adult swimmers. Cordes asked if the Council wanted to keep it open the same hours as last year. Knott said it is available so use it as much as possible. DeLissa suggested having the adult swim from 5:00 P.M. to 6:30 P.M. and close the pool down at 7:30 P.M. during the month of June. During July and August they could stay open until 8:00 P.M. Cordes updated that the walls are being painted, the loose concrete is out and the 2 holes need patched still.

Neel updated that the USDA grant application for the water project is filled out but we are waiting for the engineer to fill out his portion.

Cordes received a quote for a new storm siren but the quote was higher than Blue Valley. Mayor asked if the Council would like to purchase another siren this year. DeLissa said they needed to make a decision. Dye asked if we should purchase one or wait another year or two. Cordes said Blue Valley did will give us the same cost as last year but the shipping went up a couple hundred dollars. Hailey asked where we would put the siren. Dye asked if the new sirens rotated. Cordes replied they do not rotate but they do have six speakers. Dye made a motion to buy one more storm siren and place it in the South West corner of Meade City, seconded by DeLissa with all in favor.

Mayor asked Cordes if he has looked into the price for water department maps. Cordes has spoken to Leon Reimer and they may be willing to go in with the City for purchasing a map but they will not be able to do anything until July or August.

Mayor asked if the Council would like to go ahead and get bids for a new police vehicle. Mayor said the cost to use one truck per year would be about $1,100 including the insurance. The police officers would like to keep 3 vehicles if possible. DeLissa said if you only have 2 vehicles you will still use the same amount of fuel and maintenance as having 3 vehicles plus we have 3 officers we should have 3 vehicles. Cordes suggested waiting until the 2010 vehicles came out. DeLissa said we could take bids on 2009 now and we don’t have to buy anything if we don’t want too. Mayor would like to get the mileage on the trucks that we have now and talk about it at the next meeting.

Mayor reported that he had spoken to Curtis Campbell about the cement pile west of town. Curtis sent a letter to 2 different companies telling them that we want the pile removed or we will have to start charging them. He will follow up with a letter in 2 weeks.

Mayor reported that Campbell recommended changing the weight limit in our ordinance for semi’s to park on City side streets. DeLissa said there are a lot of truck drivers in the City limits and he does not want them to move out of town. Cordes reported we will have to break out the asphalt and replace it on South Springlake. This project would take 1 to 2 days, we can make our own asphalt, plus materials and wages the cost would be anywhere from $5,000 to $6,000. Cordes said the only place we have for truckers to park would be at the truck stop or at the industrial park area at the airport, Dye was worried about the liability for the City. Jim Cruise said the truck drivers carry their own liability if anything happens. DeLissa suggested looking for a place to park semi’s in the City limits. Cordes said Plains put in an area for their truck drivers to park. Mayor would like to work on this some more.

Neel reported that she has been to the Beam Center and went door to door last week to conduct the LMI survey. She has had about 130 surveys completed so far.

Cordes presented 3 bids for the replacement of the sidewalk and curb from the 100 block of South Fowler St to West West Plains and to replace the curb from the East side of the Post Office to the drive way in front of the Fowler State Bank. Cordes said there was a late bid that came in and wanted to know if the Council would like to accept the bid. Dye said he would like to see it. The bid was from Knott Construction and DeLissa said we have had cement work done by that company before and asked if it was adequate, Cordes said yes. DeLissa asked if there is a certain time frame for the finish date, Cordes said mid summer. DeLissa made a motion to accept the low bid for $30,751.00 from Knott Construction for the replacement of the sidewalk and curbs, seconded by Dye with 3 in favor, Knott abstained.

Neel informed the Council that in order to have liability insurance for the fireworks display the City would have to file for a special event policy that would cost approximately $1,000 for the fireworks event only. The Council requested to call Brad Ackerman to talk about the situation.

DeLissa asked what should we approve and not approve when citizens come to the Council for donations. Mayor asked if the Council could set some guidelines. DeLissa commented that a written guideline would be hard to follow.

Cordes reported that the City will have a pre-bid meeting on May 5th, 2009 for the construction on the airport parking and access road and on May 21st, 2009 the bids will be open for construction. DeLissa asked how much of the grant the City will have to pay, Cordes replied only 5%.

Mayor asked Cordes if he had found an insurance company to cover the liability for City employees using City equipment. Cordes said our insurance provider is still looking. Mayor suggested that the Council request the employees to stop using the equipment until we get coverage. Knott does not see anything wrong with the situation. DeLissa did not realize there was that big of a liability, Mayor said he was just questioning “what if”, do we gamble that or protect the City. Dye can see both sides of the situation and would like to get insurance coverage if we can. Hailey asked if the City would have to stop doing things for the citizens when they need to use the equipment. Knott is afraid the citizens do not realize that the City will be taking this privilege away from the citizens also. DeLissa said if we get rid of the use of equipment then the City will not be able to provide for the City wide cleanup. Dye said we are going to have to take some risks.

New Business:

Cordes informed the Council that the electric pole that was damaged during the last snow storm is not covered by insurance.

Cordes wanted the Council to know that they need to start looking ahead and decide if they want to add an engine at the power plant or buy peak power. The engines we have now are nearing there limitations. The last time the City bought an engine was back in 1971. Mayor would like to know some prices on new or used engines. Cordes said if we loose an engine during the summer time we will either have to go on peak or shut the customers off. Our engines can not handle the summer supply. Mayor said this is an issue the Council needs to look at and act on now, he does not want to put it off for the next Council to deal with.

Neel reported that City auditor, Steve Rice, will be here to complete the audit for 2008 next week.

Knott wanted to know why the Council was no longer receiving the detailed agenda. Mayor said he is being criticized by the citizens that he was giving the Council members questions or comments to bring up during the meeting.

DeLissa reported the City does not need to adopt a trespassing ordinance because the state already has one in place.

Dye wanted to thank the citizens and employees for coming to the meeting. He was glad to see people interested in the pool and he would like to see more citizens come to the meeting.

Hailey said he has not come up with a solution for projects for the children. He has some adults wanting to do some things but will present it when he has all the information.

Mayor’s Report:

Mayor asked the Council to bring in their goals for the 2009 year.

Knott would like to see the City cleaned up. He would like the City to enforce the clean up of weeds and junk cars.

DeLissa would like to see more businesses come to town. He would also like to see a better map of the town so citizens moving into town can see where they can build and have access to water and sewer lines.

Hailey would like to see the town cleaned up, more businesses come to town and more activities for the kids.

Dye would like to see the Chamber, County and the City work on more projects together. He would also like to see more beautification.

Mayor would like to change the citizens attitudes so they will want to come to the city Council meetings and voice their opinions. He would like to build a stronger trust between the Council and the citizens so the Council is not questioned on every decision they make.

Jim Cruise asked the Council if there were any regulations against holding a street dance in the City. Hailey asked if we had any regulations on closing down a street for this to take place. Mayor said back in the 70’s they closed streets down for this purpose every year. Haley wanted to know how much of the street Cruisers would like to close off. Cruise is open to any suggestions or ideas. This matter was tabled.

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

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Bud Doerflinger, Mayor

Attest:

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Tiffany Neel, City Clerk