April 3
CITY OF HIAWATHA
CITY COMMISSION MINUTES
MONDAY, APRIL 3, 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, April 3, 2006 at 5:35 p.m. at City Hall with Mayor Trant, Commissioner Collins, Commissioner Shamburg, Commissioner Gamble and Commissioner Schmitt in attendance.
2. Approval of minutes of the March 27, 2006 city commission meeting and the March 28, 2006 special city commission meeting.
Mayor Trant commented that on the minutes of the March 27 meeting, on page 2, item 5, the last two paragraphs need to identify the nay voter. Commissioner Schmitt made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Shamburg, to approve the minutes of the March 27 commission meeting with the correction. Motion carried, 4 ayes. Commissioner Gamble abstained.
Mayor Trant said that two paragraphs were omitted at the end of the March 28 special commission meeting, and must be revised to include the last discussion and motion pertaining to possible interview schedules and possible tours of the town for the candidates. Commissioner Shamburg made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Collins, to approve the minutes of the March 28 special commission meeting with the corrections. Motion carried, 3 ayes. Commissioner Schmitt and Commissioner Gamble abstained.
3. Presentation of petitions, public comments, memorials
Fair Housing Month Proclamation
Mayor Trant explained that the Fair Housing Month Proclamation is generally done on an annual basis. He presented the proclamation for Fair Housing Month for the City of Hiawatha, and directed that it should be run in the Hiawatha World.
Northeast KS Enterprise Facilitation Update
Mayor Trant introduced the facilitator, Janet Griesel, who updated the commission on the accomplishments of the Northeast Kansas Enterprise Facilitation Initiative.
Commissioner Schmitt asked her if they continued to get interest from clients. Griesel said that they did, and felt confident that the trend is upward.
Mayor Trant thanked them for their work, and offered the city’s continued support.
Old Business
4. New Fire Station Status Report.
Interim City Administrator Tom Armour told commissioners that the VFD had decided to commit $75,000 from their association relief fund to this project as a loan to the City of Hiawatha at 1% interest for five years. City administration will begin working with other agencies to use those funds as a basis for assessing other grant and loan programs that might be available for this project such as USDA Rural Development and similar programs.
Cost estimates for the project and volunteer contributions will be updated. Interim City Administrator Tom Armour will be asking for confirmation of the donated or cost reduced donated contributions to the project. Cost figures at this time are out of date, but a total cost of $135,000 plus is the estimate to be used for planning only, assuming previous donations and contributions remain valid.
No action is necessary at this time.
Commission Shamburg left the meeting at 5:50 p.m.
New Business
Interim City Administrator Tom Armour suggested that we not approve the payment at this time due to the fact that after checking further into the situation, he felt that the city had already been more than generous with Mr. Gatz.
Commissioner Collins suggested that they should review the situation further before making the payment.
No further action was taken.
6. Consider approval of Curb & Gutter at 1st & Oregon.
Interim City Administrator Tom Armour reported to the commissioners that Dennis Hartter, city street supervisor, had suggested that we hire the contractor who is doing the work on the new car wash to put in the new curb and gutter at First and Oregon Streets. The contractor offered to do the work at a cost of $5100, and could complete the work in three days.
If the city crew were to do it, the minimum cost would be $4200, plus whatever costs were incurred by having to meet state requirements along First Street. Also, city time would be nearly double that of the contractor.
Interim City Administrator Tom Armour told the commissioners that it would be a “city plus” for the new businessman. The continuity factor also guarantees that the work will match the rest of the job.
There are funds available in the street department budget for this. Interim City Administrator Tom Armour recommended that we go ahead and hire the contractor.
Commissioner Gamble wanted clarification on the cost, if it would include both labor and concrete. He also said that he thought all we would need for KDOT requirements would be just one sign to indicate the lane was closed.
Commissioner Collins questioned that the contractor could do it cheaper than the city crew. He felt that since we have to pay the city crew anyway, the labor wouldn’t actually cost anything. If they did decide to have a contractor do the work, they should put the job up for bids.
Commissioner Schmitt argued that the contractor would be faster and would have the available personnel to do the work. If the city did the work, they would probably have to put on an extra person to flag traffic.
Mayor Trant said that the labor needs to be figured as part of the expense. With the differences being quoted between the contractor and the city of only $900, he doesn’t see the need for getting bids. Also, this is a major intersection in the city. He felt that we don’t need to expose our personnel to first street traffic {to the danger.} He also said it would probably take more than just one sign to discontinue use of the lane. He thought that it would also probably require some concrete barricades to narrow the traffic down to one lane, and that the City of Hiawatha does not have any of those barricades.
Mayor Trant was in favor of hiring the contractor to do the First Street section of curb and gutter.
Contractor Schmitt made a motion, seconded by Mayor Trant, to hire the contractor to build the curb and gutter and pay for the job with funds to come from Fund 29, Street Department. Motion failed, 2 ayes, 2 nays. Commissioner Collins and Commissioner Gamble voted nay..
7. CONSENT AGENDA
a. Appropriation Ordinance #1088 in the amount of $7,580.33.
b. Payroll Appropriation Ordinance #1055 in the amount of $38,468.78
Commissioner Schmitt made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Collins to approve Appropriation Ordinance #1088 in the amount of $7,580.33 and Payroll Appropriation Ordinance #1055 in the amount of $38,468.78. Motion carried, 4 ayes.
8. Interim City Administrator Tom Armour.
a. KDHE Loan Fund – May 5th application deadline
Interim City Administrator Tom Armour said that he needs any information on items needing KDHE funding by next Monday, April 10. He recommended that they consider the debt load of city of Hiawatha carefully before requesting funding.
Mayor Trant asked the commission to keep in mind how they would like to use the remaining funds from our current loan.
CDBG 2006 Workshop – Salina, May 3 & 4, 2006
If anyone wishes to attend, enrollment information is in the commissioners packets.
b. Verna Goodman Assistance
Interim City Administrator Tom Armour stated that he had been contacted by Verna Goodman, who is looking for assistance in starting a business out of her home. He had directed her to the Northeast Kansas Enterprise Facilitation program.
c. Standby Generator – Fire & Police
Opportunity to purchase. Please note that Gary Shear is obtaining current information and will report to me or be at the meeting this evening.
Fire Chief Gary Shear said that the fire station does not currently have a generator, and that the generator at the Hiawatha Police Station is very old and that the voltage on it has to be adjusted manually. During power outages, the heavy doors at the fire station have to be raised manually, and the furnace does not work.
Fire Chief Gary Shear told commissioners that he had located a 25kw 120-208 volt, 3 phase, 60 hertz, diesel powered generator that is completely self contained. This used unit has on it only two hours of run time. The unit is in excellent shape according to State property officials. They have agreed to hold the unit until the City of Hiawatha has a chance to look at it and make a decision on purchasing it. The cost on this unit is $7,500, as opposed to a cost of $15,000 to $20,000 on other units he had checked on. This would be a cost of only $3250 each to run both buildings – the fire dept. and the police dept.
Fire Chief Shear suggested putting the unit inside the fire house to keep it out of the weather. He would like permission to go down and look at it this week.
Commissioner Collins said that he thought it was too late to ask for homeland security funding. He indicated that he doesn’t have a problem with this if we have enough money in the budget.
Interim City Administrator Tom Armour said that there should be funds available, although the Police Department might need to do some shifting of funds in order to do this.
Commissioner Gamble agreed that it would be a good deal.
Commissioner Schmitt asked about the cost of the wiring and switches.
Commissioner Collins wanted to know how many switches would be necessary.
Fire Chief Shear said that the switches are around $1200 apiece, unless the unit already has a switch on it. If not, they would need one for each facility.
Commissioner Collins was concerned about the additional costs necessary to hook up the units.
Mayor Trant advised Fire Chief Shear to go ahead and look at it.
Interim City Administrator Tom Armour brought up that we need to update the representative list authorizing people to look at and purchase these surplus items, and asked for advisement on who they wanted to put on that list.
Mayor Trant asked if an additional person not on the list, an expert who could offer advice, could accompany the listed representative. He indicated that Rick Koenig, Water Department Supervisor, is on the list already, and recommended that Dennis Hartter, Street Department Supervisor, Police Chief Evans Woehlecke, and Fire Chief Gary Shear would be good choices to put on the list.
Commissioner Collins said they should check on the generator, and then check prices on additional switches and wiring to hook up the generator.
9. Mayor Leon Trant
A Homeland Security Grant has been submitted for the purchase of a new fire truck. Mayor Trant had a letter provided by the county commission available for the city commissioners to sign as a letter of support. The commissioners signed the letter and passed it to the city clerk to be mailed.
Mayor Trant reviewed what was listed in the grant, and indicated that the total of the grant amount was $253,000.
Commissioner Shamburg returned to the meeting at 6:38 p.m.
Mayor Trant told the commission about a discussion with Bob Boukal, with Summit Software, concerning changing the appropriation ordinances to every other week (as had been done at some point in the past), to be done on the opposite week that the payroll appropriation was done.
He explained that most municipalities only do appropriations every other week. He asked how the commission felt about changing the schedule for the city of Hiawatha. He said that originally the change for an appropriation to be done every week was driven by payments due on projects which are now behind us, and to keep from getting late charges on invoices not received in time to pay on a two week interval. He said that Boukal suggested that we might be able to get out of late fees since we are a government entity by merely calling the vendor and explaining our pay dates.
Commissioner Schmitt said that she didn’t have a problem with the bills being paid every other week.
The commissioners agreed that we could do appropriations every two weeks on the off week from payroll.
Mayor Trant also brought up that the Neighborhood Revitalization Program has undergone a revision. Brown County is to accept this revision on April 10, 2006. The revisions were cosmetic only and did not change the intent. He stated that the city needs to make sure that we have a copy of the revised program available for public. He also noted that the plan that was in the packet a couple of weeks ago needs to be revised.
Budget and capitol improvements-
Mayor Trant advised that the field has been narrowed for the city administrator position at last week’s special meeting. The commission has set a tentative interview schedule, and therefore need to set special meeting times. We need to inform the public of the special meetings to conduct interviews. The first will be Wednesday evening at 5:45 p.m., with the first interview scheduled for 6:00 p.m. The second will be Saturday afternoon at 1:45 p.m., with the first interview for Saturday at 2:00 p.m., and the second at 2:30 p.m.
He also noted that there will be a brief tour of the city for candidates by Police Chief Evans Woehlecke.
The Mayor also reminded everyone of election day on Tuesday. April 4.
10. Com. William Collins
11. Com. Curtis Gamble
12. Com. Marianne Schmitt
Commissioner Schmitt brought back the issue discussed in Item 6.
Commissioner Collins and Commissioner Gamble said that our city crews could do the work on the curb and gutter at the intersection of First and Oregon Streets at any time.
Mayor Trant said that it needs to be done post haste.
Commissioner Schmitt reminded the commission that it was not on the city’s present work schedule.
Commissioner Shamburg asked what had been discussed during his absence about the project. He asked if the city crew’s schedule is already filled up for the summer season, do they have time to do the work? He stated that if the contractor does it, it will be a continuation of the project he is working on at this time. He also wondered what the contractor’s schedule was.
Interim City Administrator Tom Armour did not have any idea of the contractor’s schedule.
Commissioner Schmitt motioned, seconded by Mayor Trant, to hire the contractor to do build the curb and gutter and pay for the job with funds to come from Fund 29, Street Department. Motion carried, 3 ayes, 2 nays. Commissioner Gamble and Commissioner Collins voted nay.
13. Com. Steffen Shamburg
Commissioner Shamburg apologized for his absence.
14. Adjourn
Commissioner Shamburg made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Gamble, to adjourn. Motion carried, 5 ayes. Meeting adjourned at 7:05 p.m.