May 22
CITY OF HIAWATHA
CITY COMMISSION MINUTES
MONDAY, MAY 22, 2006
5:35 P.M.
HIAWATHA CITY HALL
723 OREGON ST.
1. Pledge of Allegiance/ Call to Order
The Hiawatha City Commission met in regular session Monday, May 22, 2006 at 5:35 p.m. at City Hall with Mayor Gernon, Commissioner Shamburg, Commissioner Collins, Commissioner Schmitt, and Commissioner Gamble present.
2. Approval of minutes of the May 15, 2006 City Commission meeting and the minutes of the May 16, 2006 Special City Commission meeting.
Commissioner Schmitt made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Gamble to approve the minutes of the May 15, 2006 Commission Meeting and the May 16, 2006 Special City Commission Meeting. Motion carried, 5 ayes.
3. Presentation of petitions, public comments, memorials.
a. Nancy Gafford with the Rural Development Association of Northeast Kansas.
Mayor Gernon presented Nancy Gafford, Director of the Rural Development Association of Northeast Kansas, who told commissioners that her purpose in being here was basically to give them information about the RDA. She stated that the RDA serves both Brown and Nemaha Counties. Gafford told commissioners that the RDA came into existence in 1992, when the economic development committees came together and decided that they would have more viability as a two-county organization. She said that since 2000, they have added 13.5 million dollars and 140 jobs to the two counties.
Gafford went on to say that the RDA is supported jointly by the Brown and Nemaha County Commission, each currently contributing $25,000 per year to the RDA budget. For that they do two grant applications for each county per year free of charge. They also offer reduced reduced rates to all the cities located in those two counties for services conducted for them. Additional support comes from grant writing and administration which they do and the private contracts they sign with other communities to do work for them.
Gafford said that while they do both grant writing and administration, they also do other areas of community development and leadership development. This fall they are planning to have a leadership class to help younger people develop leadership skills. They also serve as liason with a lot of economic development groups, with the Kansas Department of Commerce, and with other economic development organizations within the seven county area, including Jackson, Jefferson, Doniphan, Brown, Atchison, Nemaha and Marshall.
They have been actively involved in a tourism development group in the last year and one-half.
She indicated that they are
currently short two board members from Brown County, and said that if anyone from Brown County would like to serve on their board to let her know.
Mayor Gernon thanked her for coming.
Old Business
4. Kevin Cowan, Gilmore & Bell
Mayor presented Kevin Cowan from Gilmore & Bell. Cowan reported that Hiawatha National Bank and First St. Louis Securities, Inc. was the selected bidder. The total dollar figure is actually the basis of the award.
He explained that an underwriting discount was not allowed, so the banks bid a higher interest rate to compensate.
Cowan told commissioners that in terms of action, we need to accept the low bid, we need action on the bond ordinance and action on the resolution.
He also explained that the Notice of Sale did not appear in the local newspaper on May 12 due to the fact that when his office e-mailed the notice to the Hiawatha World, it had not been received do to an incorrect e-mail address they had on file. By the time the this was discovered, the earliest date for publication of the Notice of Sale was May 19, 2006. Therefore we did not meet that component of the public sale requirements. In order to get around this, he said that we need to use approximately $1000 of this issue and apply it to the principle of one of the earlier bond issues.
Commissioner Collins made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Shamburg to accept the low bid of First St. Louis Securities, Inc., St. Louis, Missouri. Motion carried, 5 ayes.
Commissioner Schmitt made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Gamble, to adopt Ordinance No. 962, an ordinance authorizing and providing for the issuance of $1,025,000 principal amount of general obligation refunding and improvement bonds, series 2006, of the City of Hiawatha, and authorize the mayor to sign. Motion carried, 5 ayes.
Commissioner Gamble made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Schmitt to adopt Resolution 2006-04, a resolution for describing the formal details and authorizing and directing the sale and delivery of $1,025,000 principal amount in general obligation, refunding, and improvement bonds, series 2006, for the City of Hiawatha, and authorize the mayor to sign the necessary documents. Motion carried, 5 ayes.
New Business
5. Request from Allan and Terri Stevens for water use abatement.
The request from Allan and Terri Stevens for water use abatement has been withdrawn.
6. Emergency Traffic Light Purchase.
Interim City Administrator Tom Armour told commissioners that the traffic signal at First and Iowa Street was not working, apparently caused by lightning strikes several weeks ago. He had tried to contact the commissioners concerning an emergency purchase to repair the traffic signal. He admitted that although he had only heard back from two commissioners concerning this purchase, he went ahead and authorized the purchase of the parts in order to get this light back in working order as soon as possible. The amount of the purchase was $2,318.75.
Commissioner Collins reminded Interim Administrator Armour that he should have asked a quorum of three in order to make a decision, and to not let this happen again. Interim Administrator Armour said that it would not happen again.
Commissioner Schmitt asked Armour to repeat the amount and the name of the company.
Interim City Administrator Tom Armour replied that the amount was $2,318.75, and the name of the company the part was ordered from was the Gades Company.
Commissioner Schmitt made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Shamburg, authorizing the purchase of the replacement for the controller at First and Iowa in the amount of $2,318.75 from Gades, Wichita, Ks. Motion carried, 4 ayes. Commissioner Collins voted nay.
7. CONSENT AGENDA
a. Appropriation Ordinance #1092 in the amount of $143,454.14.
b. Utility Refunds in the amount of $71.16.
c. Monthly Report of Municipal Judge.
d. Application for License for Contractor for Rustic Homes and Remodeling, L.L.C.
Commissioner Schmitt made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Shamburg, to approve the consent agenda as presented. Motion carried, 5 ayes.
8. Interim City Administrator Tom Armour.
Interim City Administrator Tom Armour indicated that he had five items to discuss this evening. Item one was concerning a letter he had received from the CPA firm of Cochran, Head and Co, expressing interest in becoming auditors for the city. Armour did not recommend a change.
Item two was concerning the EMS/Law Enforcement Appreciation Reception, which is scheduled to be held on Monday, June 12, from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m., which conflicts with the regular city meeting. Armour asked how this was handled in the past, if the meeting was set back to 6:35 p.m. or change the meeting date. The commission answered that it they had either set back the time for the meeting, changed the meeting to Tuesday, or cancelled the meeting for that week in the past.
Commissioner Collins said that if the agenda was not too heavy, he would like to just move the meeting back to 6:35 p.m.
Interim Administrator Armour said that they should make a motion to change the time, that it could be done the week before the meeting.
Mayor Gernon asked that it be put on the agenda for the June 5, 2006.
Item three is the Certificate of Completion on the Schuneman Addition. The request for final payment to the contractor (A.H.R.S.) was submitted to the City of Hiawatha along with a Final Lien Waiver three weeks ago. Interim City Administrator Tom Armour said that he had held payment until he had verification from architect or engineer that substantial completion was in fact done, and that the building was satisfactory. Since he had not found any evidence of a completion report, he had called the architect and advised them that he would not sign off without a satisfactory statement. This statement was faxed to the city Monday, May 22, 2006. Interim City Administrator Tom Armour recommended approval of A.H.R.S.’s final payment request in the amount of $77,134, to be included in next week’s consent agenda.
Interim Administrator Armour asked to clarify at this time if large invoices such as this one needed to be presented for individual approval or if they could be a part of the regular consent agenda. Commissioner Gamble indicated that they should be submitted for individual approval.
Interim City Administrator Tom Armour suggested that the A.H.R.S. invoice be either submitted on next week’s agenda or approved tonight, whichever the commission wanted to do.
After much discussion on the proper way to have presented the letter from the engineer to the commissioners, they decided to approve the payment at tonight’s meeting.
Commissioner Schmitt made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Shamburg, to approve the final payment to A.H.R.S. Construction for the Schunemann Addition in the amount of $77,134. Motion carried, 4 ayes. Commissioner Collins cast the nay vote.
Item number four was an advisory item for the Streetscape Engineering Contract. Interim Administrator Armour said that the agreements for construction administration are here. The estimated cost is $105,076. Brian Kingsley, of BG Consultants, will be here for the next meeting to review this. There will be an action item on the agenda for the May 30, 2006 meeting.
Interim Administrator Armour mentioned that he was going to try to meet with the auditor on the budget work this week, but that the auditor is out of the office the rest of the month.
Interim Administrator Armour reminded the commissioners that they need to announce and schedule a special meeting for Friday, May 26, at 5:00 p.m. to continue interviews for the last two administrator applicants.
9. Mayor Crosby Gernon.
Mayor Gernon asked if the meeting scheduled for Tuesday after Memorial Day could be moved to 6:35 p.m. due to a conflict.
Commissioner Shamburg made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Gamble, to change the time of the May 30, 2006, meeting to 6:35 p.m. Motion carried, 4 ayes. Commissioner Collins cast the nay vote.
Mayor Gernon brought up the Sesquicentennial. He said that they need to know if the city is going to help with it. He said that it was important to the community and felt that the city should help with the funding. He asked Interim City Administrator Tom Armour if he had had a chance to look over the budget to come up with some funds.
Interim Administrator Armour said that we have the money but that we would have to cut back on something else in order to budget money for the project. He is going to recommend that in next year’s budget we set up a contingency fund to cover things of this type. At this point he could show a list of items in the budget where the money could come from.
Commissioner Collins felt that it is essential that the city help with the project, and that we need to appropriate the funds from somewhere. He thought that $5000 would be an appropriate figure.
Commissioner Schmitt said that she was comfortable with that amount.
No further action was taken at this time.
Mayor Gernon introduced Jon Daeschner from DMS Insurance. Daeschner told the commission that the reason why our insurance rates went up was because of some accidents the city had had last year He told the commissioner that also we had added the new wastewater treatment facilities as well as adding the north and south sewer plants which had not been insured in the past.
Commissioner Collins asked Daeschner if the city bid was put out. Daeschner said that he had, but that our current carrier, EMC, still offered the lowest rate. He mentioned that EMC specializes in cities under 10,000 population, while St. Paul insurance only likes to work with big cities. Commissioner Schmitt asked about the north and south insurance plants not being on our policy before. Daeschner explained that we have now insured each of the plants for $250,000 on the buildings and $750,000 on the contents. The new treatment facility was insured for $1,000,000 on the building and $2,000,000 on the contents. The water tower rate also went up after the insurance people looked after it, as they would cost much more to replace than what they had previously been insured for.
Commissioner Collins asked Daeschner if he writes any other municipalities. Daeschner replied that he did, Robinson, Reserve, White Cloud, most of the smaller municipalities in this area, also school districts, Hiawatha, Elwood, and Wathena. Collins wondered if we were over-insured.
Daeschner explained that lightning can cause a lot of damage to equipment, and that this area does have a lot of lightning damage.
Rick Koenig, Light Department Supervisor, mentioned that they do believe that lightning caused the damage in the traffic light at First and Oregon. Also, the loop sensor is not working on that light. The company is supposed to come up and look at it this week.
Daeschner indicated that there is a $1000 deductible on the policy to repair but not replace unless the controller was not repairable. That would need to be presented in writing.
10. Com. William Collins.
11. Com. Curtis Gamble.
Commissioner Gamble reported that the railroad had sprayed along the tracks, but have not mowed.
12. Com. Marianne Schmitt.
Commissioner Schmitt mentioned that the League of Municipalities website offers a publication list, asked new mayor if he had received any those publications. She said that she had made copies of the resource list for the mayor and other commissioners. She wanted to make sure that we had new resource lists.
Commissioner Schmitt asked about Code Enforcement Compliance Officer Malcolm Grier’s training that he had attended in Dallas, Texas last week. Interim City Administrator Tom Armour said that it had to do with a lot of procedures, legal matters, and so forth.
Commissioner Schmitt mentioned that the municipal code and authority for city administrator spending of a $1500 limit is a very low figure for today’s business. She felt like they may want to revise and raise that dollar amount. Several surrounding cities have a $5000 limit for emergency situations.
No further action was taken.
13. Com. Steffen Shamburg.
14. Adjourn.
Commissioner Shamburg made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Gamble to adjourn. Motion carried, 5 ayes. Meeting adjourned at 6:57 p.m.