July 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, Ed Dye and Chris Hartnett. Also present were: City Administrator Dean Cordes and City Clerk Tiffany Neel. Visitors were: Tom Kuhns, Jim Woodruff, Mike Gillen, Kalani Spurgeon, Jamie Tettleton, Steve Rice and Loren Borger.

Mayor wanted to thank Loren Borger for taking the boy scouts to Colorado for camp.

Police Chief Loren Borger presented the monthly police report for the Council to review. Knott asked Borger why the speeding tickets were down to nothing, Borger replied that there will be a vast improvement in July. DeLissa asked if there was an increase in other activities, Borger replied there were more citizen complaints. Mayor said the criminal cases were up. Dye asked if the computer system is complying with the FBI, Borger said they have the new forms but they are not set up to send the reports electronically.

Second on the agenda was the utility hearing. Two citizens were given extra time to pay their utility bill.

Steve Rice, Meade City Auditor, presented the 2010 budget for the Councils review. Rice reported that the budget was fair for 2010 but the police revenue is down. This is causing a concern with funding the general fund. Steve stated there will be a 5 mill decrease. We are looking at not raising $30,000 in property tax that is being off set with sales tax. DeLissa asked if we will still receive the local sales tax portion that the city levies and also the part that the city/county levies, Rice replied yes we will still receive it. Rice said the only tax they can take away from the City would be the alcohol and gas tax. Rice reported that the cash carry over was in good shape. DeLissa asked if there are any funds out of whack, Rice said the City has bought more capital improvement than in the past but most of it has come out of the utility funds. Rice suggested lowering the amount the City transfers every month to the utility bond fund and put the extra into the water and light improvement fund. Rice stated the City is in good shape. Dye was unaware that the City gives the Library 13% of our property tax collected. Cordes was concerned about the park fund being budgeted only $40,000. He said we have improvements that we need to do to the bathroom and shelter houses. Rice said we could move money from other accounts to make up for it. The budget hearing is set for August 10th, 2009, with the approval of the Council.

The June 2009 Treasurers report was presented for the Councils review.

Building permits #9030, #9031 and #9032 were presented to the Council. Cordes said the Planning Commission did not approve #9030. Knott made a motion to approve permits #9031 and #9032, seconded by Hartnett with all in favor.

Mayor reported that we have not had a response from JAG or Klaver for the rental fees on the cement blocks.

Cordes reported that there will be a preconstruction meeting August 6th, 2009 at the airport to talk about the construction for the airport project.

Cordes reported that the cat shelter has been cleaned out and is basically ready to go. The Council would like Neel to check on more prices for cat cages.

Mayor said he has talked to Steve Rice about options for a new engine at the power plant.

Rice said the City could draw money out of our CD’s or start setting funds aside to purchase a new engine for the future. Mayor would like the present Council to do something about the situation and not pass it on to the next Council.

Mayor asked the Council to accept the appointments of Cheree Cordes and Jim Jenkins for the Rec Commission. DeLissa made a motion to accept the appointments made by the Mayor, seconded by Hartnett with all in favor.

Mayor would like to urge the Council and citizens to contact their legislators about the bills the State has on the floor. If the bills are passed they could cost the tax payers a great deal.

New Business:

Cordes was approached by Nancy Ohnick from the Historical Society and asked if the Council would let the Historical Society put up a rock post with a bronze plaque for the Jones and Plumber Trail. The Council agreed to let the Historical Society put up a plaque.

Cordes reported that Meade was declared a disaster for the snow storm at the end of March 2009. FEMA will be sending the City a check for $6,566.

Neel asked the Council if they would consider adding a strict penalty to the dog and cat ordinance. At this time the judge cannot penalize any citizen for not paying their court fines when they are brought to court on a dog or cat running at large. There are a few other problems with the ordinance that need changed as well. The Council agreed to let Cordes and Neel make changes and have the City Attorney review the ordinance.

Neel reported that the wheat at the Coop sold for $5.05 a bushel which was higher than the original price of $4.86 on July 13, 2009.

Hartnett asked if the Library air conditioner is working. Cordes replied that Eads Inc. has done a few repairs on the air conditioner last week but it is completely down now. Eads Inc. had the lowest bid for $5,900 and it will take about a week before the unit is delivered.

Hartnett also stated that he had received a phone call about the fair grounds speakers being too loud but it was just a jest from a citizen. He said he thinks the Council did the right thing by not proceeding with a loud noise ordinance.

Mayor’s Report:

Mayor said there was a good turn out for the Ranch Rodeo and ATV Rodeo.

Mayor was asked to put his dune buggy in the parade during Fowler Threshing Days. There were about 80 different entries in the parade and it lasted around 1 ½ hours. Mayor would like to know why Meade does not support their parade like Fowler.

Mayor asked the Council to consider going into executive session. Hartnett made a motion to go into executive session for personnel matters of non-elective personnel for 20 minutes, seconded by Hailey with all in favor. After executive session no action was taken at this time.

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

___________________________
Bud Doerflinger, Mayor

Attest:

_____________________________
Tiffany Neel, City Clerk