Regular Meeting
April 9, 2012, 6:30 p.m.
City of Oswego, Kansas
Present: Councilmembers Ty Lewis, Jane Rea, Dee Brown, Darren Tynan, Bill Owens and Terry Edwardswith Mayor Glenn Fischer presiding.
Also present: Pastor Bob Conway, Carole McKinley, Juanita Johnston, Dale Spaht, Larry Richardson, City Clerk Cheri Peine, Deputy Clerk Carol Eddington, Police Chief George Elliott, Bill Cunningham, City Superintendant and Fire Chief Donnie Allison and Attorney Rick Tucker.
OPENING PRAYER AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Pastor Bob Conway, FirstUnitedMethodistChurch, opened the meeting with a prayer.
Councilmember Jane Rea led the group in the Pledge of Allegiance.
PROCLAMATIONS AND PUBLIC HEARINGS
Arbor Day Proclamation
The annual proclamation recognizing Friday, April 27th as Arbor Day was included in the packet and will be published in the Labette Avenue. The Tree Board plans to have an activity that day (more information will be posted on the city’s website and Facebook page when it becomes available). Oswego has been named a Tree City USA for the 22nd year which is quite an accomplishment for the Tree Board.
Fair Housing Proclamation
As part of the city’s utilization of Community Development Block Grant funds, the city is required to conduct a fair housing activity each year. This year, the city has printed up business cards,containing information on fair housing, that are available to the public in City Hall and at the Oswego Public Library.
PETITIONS AND DELEGATIONS
Kitra Cooper – Leadership Labette
Mayor Fischer heard information on this program presented at a Rotary meeting and asked if they could provide the City Council with information on the program.
Leadership Labette is a nine month community leadership development program that follows the Kansas Community Leadership Initiative curriculum created by the KansasLeadershipCenter. The program is designed to develop leadership skills useful at personal, business and community levels.
This year, Letha Thompson, from Oswego, is in the program and they may be working on a Boy Scout Trail grant. Leadership Labette provides seed money to begin the project and the class does the follow-up themselves.
Conditional Use Permit – Dale Spaht – 119 Second St.
Clerk Peine reported that the Planning Commission held a public hearing on this matter on March 19, 2012. There were none in opposition that attended the meeting. After discussing the issue and asking questions of Mr. Spaht, the Planning Commission voted to recommend Council approval of his conditional use permit request.
“AN ORDINANCE GRANTING A CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A COMMERCIAL USE WITHIN A RESIDENTIAL BUILDING AT 119 SECOND STREET, OSWEGO, LABETTE COUNTY, KANSAS” was presented. The ordinance grants a conditional use to allow the establishment of a commercial business in a residential building subject to these conditions:
- The commercial use is for digital design embroidery and alterations of clothing only.
- The conditional use permit shall cease upon cessation of the business or with a change of ownership of the property.
- Sufficient off-street parking will be provided for customers.
Owens made a motion and Brown seconded to adopt the ordinance as presented. Motion carried. Clerk assigned it Ordinance #1286.
Tennis Court Litigation
Attorney Tucker reported that the consultant is not ready to make a recommendation yet and the city will have to have a special meeting after Tucker receives the report.
Carole McKinley
Mayor Fischer asked if McKinley was in attendance in order to address the Council. She expressed concerns about the water project contractors leaving a washed out place in her driveway. She is afraid they are not coming back to fix it since they have already seeded the ground and put down straw. Mayor said that city staff is keeping a list of calls and the items on the list will be given to the contractors to take care of before they are finished with the project.
McKinley also said there was a chug hole in front of Ruth Rife’s house. Allison said they would get some rock put in there. McKinley asked about recycling also. Mayor told her that the city was working on getting plastic recycling here in town and Supt. Allison let her know the location of both paper recycling bins.
CONSENT AGENDA
The Consent Agenda includes minutes from last month’s regular meeting and any special meetings held since then, accounts receivables report, monthly revenue report for all funds, monthly expense reports (accounts payable and payroll), petty cash listing, fund balance, revenue and expense reports for water, sewer, refuse and golf course, water loss report, expense report for general fund by department breakdown and total budget used, and monthly reports on franchise fee, sales tax receipts (both city & county sales tax), overtime, vacation, water, growth (households in/out), building permits, and municipal court.
Also on the Consent Agenda were appointments:
Planning Commission – Reappointment of Danny Chapman to the Planning Commission for a three year term.
OswegoAirport Board - Charles Stone. This appointment was pulled from the Consent agenda for further discussion.
The GAAP Waiver Resolution (#04-09-12A) for the year 2012, was also included in the Consent Agenda. This Resolution requests the Director of Accounts and Reports to waive the requirements of K.S.A. 75-1120a(a)as they apply to the City Of Oswego for the year ending 2012 and states that the financial statements and reports will be prepared based upon the cash basis laws.
Lewis made a motion and Brown seconded to approve the Consent Agenda. Motion carried.
Discussion was held on the number of Airport Board members and how many of them live in the city. Clerk Peine reported that there are five board members and two of them live within the city limits, one lives outside of town and two of them live in CherokeeCounty. Councilman Owens expressed concerns about the Board being made up mostly of individuals that do not live in Oswego and therefore do not have a vested interest in how the tax dollars are levied and spent. He noted that the porta-potty out at the airport has been on its side and therefore unusable, yet still being paid for and that there is an outside trash service being used for the trash at the airport instead of the City picking it up. It was noted that that service had been discontinued. Councilmember Rea felt it was just as important for the individuals on the Board to really be knowledgeable and care about the airport.
Rea made a motion and Lewis seconded to approve the re-appointment of Charles Stone to the Airport Board. Councilmember Edwards entered the meeting during the vote of Lewis – yes, Rea – yes, Owens – no, Tynan – no and Brown – no. Edwards asked to be brought up to speed on the discussion before she cast her vote. Mayor Fischer pointed out that Mr. Stone has served on the Board for a number of years and has the airport’s best interest at heart. Councilman Owens stated he was not against Mr. Stone, just that there should be more than 40% of the Board from inside the city. After further discussion, Edwards voted yes. This created a tie vote. Mayor Fischer broke the tie with a yes vote. The motion passed. Owens asked that the Airport Board be discussed at the next regular meeting.
OLD BUSINESS
Water Project Updates
Pay Requests
LaForge Construction – Pay Estimate #12 - $113,101.45
Shafer, Kline & Warren – Pay Request - $5,388.76
Supt. Allison reported that most of the mains are done and that LaForge has 348 services in. The contractors are doing finishing work in yards on the northwest part of town. There will be a construction meeting Wednesday and the list of items the city has received complaints on can be discussed with the contractor and engineers then. Brown made a motion and Lewis seconded to approve both pay requests. Motion carried.
Change Order #5
Peine included a revised Change Order #5, along with a copy of the one adopted at the March 12 meeting in Council packets and provided the following explanations:
The reconnect fees were incorrect on the change order approved on March 12. A copy of the bid tabulation sheet showing prices for the Base Bid reconnect fees was also included. #36 and #37 provides a unit price for reconnecting existing Main 6” and smaller, and existing Main 8” and larger with the unit price. These changes were reflected on the revised Change Order #5, which results in an increase of $120.00.
In addition, even though the Council has already approved the purchase of shut-off valves and installing them on all water services where one does not currently exist, the installation fee for an additional 300 shut-off’s needs to be included in a change order. Change Order #4, which was also included, only approved the installation fees for 400 shut-off valves. This brings the total of shut-off valves within change orders to 700.
An explanation for reconnecting existing services was also provided. Item #32 on the Base Bid has a price of $300 per service. 872 connections was the estimated number of existing service reconnections. This should be a high number for ¾” meters, or residential meters. This is the total number of active meters the city has on a monthly basis. However approximately 120 meters were changed out in the water project completed in 2007.
It recently was noted there was not a line item in the budget to reconnect larger water meters (1” and 2” meters). On Change Order #5 under Misc. LaForge has provided a quote for the reconnection of larger meters based on the size of the main. It appears there will be approximately 35 large meters. Between removing the 120 residential meters, and adding in the 35 large meters we should actually come out a little ahead on this line item. We wanted to explain this and why a new price for connecting some meters is higher than what is listed in the base bid.
The revised Change Order #5 is $47,355.00. Rea made a motion and Lewis seconded to approve Change Order #5 as revised for $47,355.00. Motion carried.
Contingency Funds
Clerk Peine prepared a spreadsheet showing contingency funds available through Change Order #5 and included it in the packet. At this point, the estimated contingency funds remaining are $38,790.85.
Phase II – Rural Development-Intake, Streambank and Dam Repairs
Engineering reports were submitted to KDHE, FEMA and Rural Development. KDHE has already reviewed and approved the plans.
HOME Grant
Clerk Peine reported that two additional amendments to the Housing Plan have been recommended for Council consideration. The first amendment recommendation is to reduce the total grant dollars available for each house from $25,000 to $20,000. This may allow for more homes to be repaired. Once it has been determined which properties are eligible, an inspection must be made. The inspector will determine whether the house can be repaired to the required Housing Quality Standards for that amount or not. If it cannot, the property owner is given a time frame to come up with the additional funds needed (or if it is a small amount, they can sometimes assist with some of the work such as painting or small improvements instead). Otherwise it would be determined a walk-away and the inspector would move on to the next property eligible for funding.
The second amendment recommendation is in regards to matching funds – if the match isn’t there then the house will not be funded. The water distribution project and street overlay project were used as the city’s match for this project in anticipation that most properties would benefit from one of them. However, once all of the properties were rated, it was discovered that not all of them fall into this category due to the fact that some properties were included in the 2007 water project. At this time it is believed that only one of the top six properties will benefit from the street overlay project as the streets in the areas of the top 6 properties are in pretty good condition. This will result in a potential total deficit in match of approximately $7,000 that the city will have to make up if these houses with no match are selected.
Owens made a motion to approve the first amendment and reduce the max amount for each house to $20,000. Motion carried.
Brown made a motion and Owens seconded to cap the amount the city would pay in matching funds to a $7,000 total for all of the houses selected for funding and if it looks like it will be more than that, the issue needs to be brought back before the Council. Motion carried.
Golf Course
Included in the packet are: a financial report for the month of March, a revenue/expense comparison report for previous years and year to date as well as a cash report showing cash on hand as of March 31, 2012.
City Hall, Police & Fire Dept. Rehab Update
Clerk Peine reported that Terry Hardman will have preliminary drawings and cost estimates for the Council meeting in May.
Swimming Pool
The city will meet with the pool consultant, Jeff Bartley on Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 6:00 p.m.
Break
Mayor Fischer called for a five minute break. Councilmember Brown had to leave the meeting at this time.
Craig Cook – Request to Purchase lot on 7th St.
Clerk Peine reported that Craig Cook provided an offer of $200 for the lot the city owns at 106 7th St. The property was donated to the city after a home on it burned several years ago. The lot is small and it would be difficult to construct anything but a very small home on it. Cook is in the process of purchasing the adjoining property. Rea made a motion and Lewis seconded to approve the sale of the property for $200 contingent upon him purchasing the adjoining lot. Motion carried.
2012-2013 Employee Health Insurance
MPR (Midwest Public Risk), the company that has provided the city’s health insurance for the past couple of years has submitted renewal rates for the city’s policy. The overall increase is 9% (last year’s increase was 6%). The city budgeted for a 10% increase. Staff recommends renewing with MPR for the upcoming plan year that begins July 1, 2012. Peine noted that this company’s focus is on wellness and improving the health of the individuals in the pool.
Lewis made a motion and Rea seconded to renew the health insurance coverage with MPR. Motion carried.
Earthquake Insurance Coverage
Former Mayor Blair inquired if the city had earthquake coverage after the earthquakes were felt here in town some months ago. Clerk Peine checked and earthquake coverage is not part of the city’s policy. After discussing it with Mayor Fischer, Clerk Peine obtained a quote from the city’s current insurance company. To add earthquake coverage for all of the city buildings, it would cost approximately $730 annually for approximately $5,000,000 in coverage with a 10% deductible. No action was taken.
2013 Budget Schedule
Clerk Peine provided the estimated schedule for the 2013 budget preparation process.
Boundary Resolution
Whenever the city annexes property into the city limits, a revised boundary resolution should be adopted. The airport was annexed in 2012. Jeanette Graue, Cartographer with the Labette CountyMapping Dept. has prepared the new boundary description. Attorney Tucker has reviewed the resolution and said he trusts the description that Graue has prepared. “A RESOLUTION DECLARING THE BOUNDARY OF THE CITY OF OSWEGO, KANSAS” was presented.
Owens made a motion and Tynan seconded to pass Resolution 04-09-12B. Motion carried.
Emergency/Disaster Planning
Chief Elliott said that he and Supt./Fire Chief Allisonwill meet next week to begin working on the City’s Disaster Plan.
Storm Siren Activation
At last month’s regular meeting, Larry Steeby presented a policy for the siren activation. At that time, the Council did not take official action in adopting the plan. Owens made a motion and Lewis seconded to make the new storm siren activation plan a policy for the City. Motion carried.
Emergency Shelters
Chief Elliott said his department does not have enough staff to man storm shelters and he would like to see if the churches or civic groups would want to be responsible for opening their buildings. He wants to see the city get out of the business of providing shelters, especially since none of the buildings have been rated for safety during a tornado. The Governing Body instructed him to work on this but they said that information on whether or not there will be designated storm shelters needs to be conveyed to the public well before the next spring storm season.