The Record of the Proceedings of the Governing Body

UNAPPROVED MINUTES

THE RECORD OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE GOVERNING BODY CITY OF CHETOPA, KANSAS April 21, 2015 The Chetopa City Council met in regular session on Tuesday, April 21, 2015 at 7:00 p.m. at City Hall.

PRESIDING: Mayor Ron Wood.

PRESENT: Council Members/Gary Bryant, Terry Robison, Pat Blaich, Jim Cooper, Carthen Nash and Joey Midgett.

ALSO PRESENT: Clerk/Toni A. Crumrine, Police Chief Scott Feagan, Attorney Ed Dosh, Fire Chief Doug Moses, Lucile Canada, Jerry Dye, Jim Blundell, Debbie Darnell, Tammy and Lee Bushong, Geraldine and Danny Castle, Linda Seaman, Jason Dugan, Undersheriff Steve Higgins, Jacob Scales, Derek Morris, Kay Wolfe, Brenda Fry and Charlotte Cooper.

Mayor Wood called the meeting to order and asked Robison to open the meeting with prayer. Motion by Blaich, second by Nash to approve the Minutes of the last regular meeting. Motion carried. Motion by Nash, second by Midgett to approve the Municipal Court Report. Motion carried. Robison questioned if the excess money from each fund was going to be invested in CD’s. This will be looked at. Motion by Bryant, second by Blaich to approve the Treasurer’s Reports. Motion carried. Motion by Nash, second by Robison to approve the Warrant Register. Motion carried. APPROPRIATION ORDINANCE # 3484 as follows: Payroll Funds $ 26917.41 Other Funds 126247.07 Total of all funds $153164.48 Mayor Wood asked if it would be appropriate to go ahead and swear the new council in before the visitors and old business. It was decided to wait until after the old business was done. VISITORS Motion by Nash, second by Robison to enter into executive session to discuss non-elected personnel with mayor, council, legal counsel, Police Chief Feagan, Undersheriff Steve Higgins, Geraldine Castle and Linda Seaman for a period of 10 minutes with session ending at 7:16 p.m. Motion carried. Entered: 7:06 p.m. Returned: 7:16 p.m. Mayor Wood called the meeting back to order and the following action was taken: Motion by Cooper, second by Bryant to not take any action at this time and let the county attorney file any charges at their discretion. Motion carried.

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Brenda Fry presented the Library Board’s recommendation for a board position; Debbie Darnell to replace Sandra Fleming who has missed 3 or more of the library board meetings. Mayor Wood appointed Debbie Darnell to the Library Board. Motion by Bryant, second by Midgett to confirm the appointment. Motion carried. Council Member Cooper stated that the mayor is a member of the library board and if had been in attendance of the library board meetings would be able to answer the questions that the council has had. While members of the library board were present, the bid for the library wall repair was opened. Mayor Wood read the bid from B&J Lawn and Maintenance that totaled $4,208.00. Motion by Cooper, second by Midgett to accept the bid from B&J Lawn and Maintenance. Motion carried. Robison voted no. Derek Morris was present and discussed their venture and reported that they had had some equipment stolen. As soon as they got the money, they will pay for the air conditioner. Robison asked what they will be doing on the old city hall building. Cooper stated that the condition of the building makes it eligible for condemnation consideration. Mayor Wood expressed his concern with the safety, being next to the grocery store and the braces on the sidewalk. Morris reported that they would be contacting Mid-Continental Restoration in Fort Scott to get it fixed as soon as they could. Debbie Darnell discussed the issue of reading the dates on the first and how it affected the city’s sales tax remittance. Midgett asked how other cities were handling the billings with reading dates of the 1st. Discussion followed. Motion by Cooper, second by Bryant to have the reading dates between the 27th – 29th of each month. Motion carried. The electric fund balance income and disbursements were discussed and it was reported that there would be two software demonstrations: on April 27th and May 7th at 1:00 p.m. Steve Gilmore asked permission to use the East River Park again for their Brush Arbor. Motion by Bryant, second by Robison to allow the use of the park for the Brush Arbor. Motion carried. Jim Blundell asked about the status of the water intake with all the engineering fees that have been paid and nothing being done. Mayor Wood gave an update on his conversation with Holly Powers and the clerk reported on the balance of the remaining USDA grant funds. Fire Chief Doug Moses gave an update on the two recent fires and thanked all the different agencies and people that were involved. Lola Fire Department had contacted him regarding a mutual aid with Chetopa. Motion by Bryant, second by Blaich to allow the signing of the mutual aid agreement with the Lola Fire Department. Motion carried. Training on wildfire was attended and in June there will be a firefighter school. Two firemen do not have boots and two sets of bunker gear have been included in a grant application. The clerk reported that the Fireworks Distribution Permit had been received from the Kansas Fire Marshal and Fire Chief Moses added that he had signed up for the fireworks training in Topeka.

The nuisance, junk vehicle and condemnation discussion started and Midgett asked since the new council would be involved in this, if the new council could be sworn in and Blaich concurred. Discussion was stopped until the clerk could swear the new council in. COUNCIL/OATH OF OFFICE The clerk swore in the new governing body members: Mayor Ron Wood, Council Members-Terry Robison, Geraldine Castle and Linda Seaman and they took their seats vacated by the outgoing council members: Joey Midgett and Pat Blaich. Midget and Blaich were thanked for their service to the city. Oath of Office forms were signed by all new members. COMMITTEE APPOINTMENTS/ELECTION OF PRESIDENT OF COUNCIL Committee Listings had been put in the council packets and were as follows: Industrial- Castle and Bryant; Property-Nash and Seaman; Ordinance-Castle and Robison; Police-Nash and Seaman; Street/Alley and Sanitation-Bryant and Robison; Water and Electric-Nash and Robison; Parks-Nash and Castle; Building Inspector-Gary Bryant; Civil Defense Directors-Fire Chief Moses and Police Chief Feagan; Bank-Chetopa State Bank; Newspaper-Labette Avenue and Parsons Sun and Christmas Decorations-Mayor and Clerk. Motion by Castle, second by Nash to elect Terry Robison as President of the Council. Motion carried. Cooper discussed not being put on any committees. NUISANCE, JUNK CARS AND CONDEMNATION The listing of nuisance and condemnation properties along with dog and junk vehicles was discussed. The council wanted to clean up city properties and discussed the building on city owned property at Locust and 6th. Motion by Robison, second by Nash to tear building down as soon as the city has the man power to do so. Motion carried. Other properties were discussed and the following properties were prioritized from the listing for condemnation: 13th and Franklin; 111 Maple and 4th and Delaware. Motion by Cooper, second by Seaman to start condemnation proceedings on all three properties. Motion carried. Discussion followed on the enforcing of junk vehicles. Motion by Cooper, second by Bryant to let the Chief of Police/Enforcement Officer deal with the junk vehicle violations. Motion carried. Dogs were also discussed. MUSEUM INTERNET DISCUSSION Installation of the internet in the museum had been put on hold as AT&T had bundled the phone and internet at a total cost of $130. The internet would cost $65 a month and a discount had been applied to the cost of the phone resulting in an overall increase of $37 in the museum billing. The board had approved paying the $37 but the previous motion was to have the board reimburse the city the cost of the internet not the difference in the bill. Discussion followed. Motion by Bryant, second by Seaman to charge the museum the $65 if they wanted to have the internet. Motion carried. Robison and Cooper voted no. THE ASYLUM DISCUSSION

With the recent fire destroying the Asylum, discussion was held on whether to start condemnation proceedings. Also asked was if it was determined why the water tower had went down so fast and it was reported that no one was at the water plant at the time. Police Chief Feagan said they needed to look into a better way to communicate with the water plant because at the last three fires, he or dispatch had not been able to get in touch with Caleb Scales. Discussion followed. Motion by Nash, second by Cooper to start the condemnation process on the Asylum property. Motion carried. CITY OFFICE AIR CONDITIONER REPAIR/REPLACEMENT The clerk reported that Cooper had checked the air conditioner at the city utility office and the compressor was out of it and the unit was approximately 15 years old. A new compressor would be $1650 and a new unit would be in the range of $4200. Information had been given to the council concerning a council member performing work for the city. Discussion followed. Motion by Seaman to have Commercial and Residential Service replace the air conditioner unit. Motion died for a lack of a second. Motion by Robison, second by Bryant to put out for bid replacing the air conditioning unit and have the bids for the next meeting. Motion carried. Cooper abstained. CLERK’S MISC For the 2015 grant year, the Kansas Department of Commerce has made a special round of CDBG Funding for Sidewalks, Community Storm Shelters, Playground Equipment and City Owned Park Improvements not to exceed $350,000 or $2000 per beneficiary. The minimum is $100,000. The City of Chetopa is already considered eligible to apply as they meet the Low-to- Moderate qualification and a Preliminary Engineering report would also need to be submitted with the application. Discussion followed. Motion by Bryant, second by Cooper to proceed with the grant application to apply for funding to build a community storm shelter. Motion carried. Mayor Wood asked if City Supervisor Jason Dugan could discuss his department at this time. Dugan informed the council that they needed a mow man and asked that Jacob Scales be hired back. The clerk asked if for the seasonal positon or full-time and was told full-time. Discussion followed. Mayor Wood appointed Jacob Scales as City Department Helper. Motion by Cooper, second by Nash to confirm the appointment. Motion by Nash, second by Seaman to start Scales pay with the step raise he would have gotten January 1st if he hadn’t been temporarily laid off. Motion carried. Results from the meter that had been sent off to be tested had not been received back and it was discussed if the policy to charge residents for meter testing or digging up the sewer if it turned out not to be a city problem, had to be put in ordinance form, as the charging had been approved at the last meeting.

Motion by Cooper, second by Nash to have the clerk work with the attorney to draft an ordinance to charge resident any fees associated with meter testing or digging up sewer. Motion carried. The Church of God’s meter had not registered any more major water usage since the last meeting. Discussion followed. Motion by Robison, second by Cooper to charge off ½ of the water bill and give them 10 months to pay the balance with them signing a payment agreement. Motion carried. Permission was requested to purchase two weed eaters at $330 each. Motion by Cooper, second by Nash to allow the purchase of the two weed eaters. Motion carried. The John Deere and Altoz mowers both broke down and loaners had been borrowed from Bartlett Coop. A list of the repairs and parts will be given to Dugan on what service had been done on the mowers during the off season. Mulch for the parks will be picked up either Thursday or Friday. Holes in the streets will be fixed either by hot lay or concrete. Dugan asked that the cost of the chip and seal be refigured. The pool will be uncovered on May 13th. Dugan requested that a gas tank be put in at the city complex and that it be done by Coop. Discussion followed. Motion by Nash, second by Robison to get a gas and diesel tank from the Bartlett Coop if there is only a minimal charge for the tank. Motion carried. The trash truck was discussed and after discussion Dugan will get prices on a new larger truck and poly carts and report back at the next meeting. The stump grinding contract was discussed as to whether it included cleanup and several council members said in normally doesn’t. Dugan asked why the city was mowing a portion of the Oak Hill Cemetery and was told that the city has been mowing it for a long time. No action was taken to change. POOL DISCUSSION The clerk had typed out recommendations that Shawna Clayborn had talked to her about (Opening day, admission prices, returning and new lifeguards and new assistant manager and pay rate changes). The pay rates had been set in 2012, and Clayborn would like to see the rates changed to $8 for manager; $7 for assistant manager and $6 for lifeguards. Last year it cost the city $17,760.75 to operate the pool and the payroll was $13,931.02. Discussion followed. Motion by Robison, second by Castle to leave the pool wages as is. Motion carried. MAYOR, COUNCIL & EMPLOYEE MISC. Mayor Wood informed the council that the county would be taking care of Jason Simpson’s driveway expansion. The former Frontier Charcoal Plant is now owned by Royal Oak. Wood would like to contact Don Osenbaugh and see if he could come to Chetopa to do a presentation to the Governing Body as he had before. Osenbaugh will be contacted. Robison had a question on the alleys but it was covered earlier. Cooper thanked Robison for bringing cookies. POLICE MISC. Police Chief Feagan reported on the police officer applications that that of the ones he had received, there were two that were Kansas certified, but one of those had accepted a job

April 21, 2015 Page 5 UNAPPROVED MINUTES elsewhere and had withdrawn his application. Jason Donfris had applied and had worked for Chetopa PD previously and currently was working part-time for the department. Discussion followed. Mayor Wood appointed Jason Donfris as Patrolman. Motion by Cooper, second by Castle to confirm the appointment. Motion carried. Motion by Cooper, second by Nash to go with the recommendation of starting Donfris out at Step 5 wages. Motion carried. Chief Feagan asked how they were to be able to get in contact with Caleb Scales at the water plant in a timely manner. The mayor will contact Scales and discuss the issue with him. Wave Wireless has been contacted concerning providing wi-fi for the parks and ways to finance this were discussed. Motion by Cooper, second by Nash to allow Chief Feagan to work with Wave Wireless on getting this done. Motion carried. Motion by Nash, second by Robison to adjourn. Motion carried.

City Clerk

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