January 15, 2007 Lecompton City Council Minutes
Roy Paslay opened the meeting at 7:00 P.M. .
Councilmember’s Mark Tunstall, Tim McNish, Chuck Folks and Bruce Liese were present. Councilmember Ed Smith was absent. Justin VanWinkle City Superintendent, City Attorney Larry Hendricks, Georgia Wingfield City Treasurer, and Sandy Nichols City Clerk were present. Residents Pastor Ken, Jennifer Smith, Mike Coffman, Mike Coffman Jr. and Insurance agent Patrick Gottstein were also present.
Tim McNish made a motion to approve the January 2 & 9th minutes. Chuck Folks seconded the motion and the vote was unanimous.
Chuck made a motion to approve the bills. Mark Tunstall seconded the motion and the vote was unanimous.
Patrick Gottstein was present and requested to be the city’s agent of record to work on the renewal with their insurance policy with EMC. He would also like to give them a bid for insurance with Continental Western Group that also insures public entities. The council requested Patrick to get a proposal from Continental Western and bring to the council.
Mike Coffman was present to discuss clean up of his property. Mr. Coffman stated he had tried to work with the city to get the clean up done. Mr. Coffman stated clean up had been done by the city when he was not present. Bulldozing had been done. Some burning had been done and he is requesting EPA to come and check the area where the burn took place. Councilmember Chuck Folks stated the hole had been dug where Mr. Coffman had suggested. Mr. Coffman denied this statement. Councilmember McNish stated the work was to have been completed prior to installation of a heating and air conditioning system funded by monies recaptured from a Housing Grant. Councilmember Tunstall stated because of weather coming up the council had approved the installation. Clean up work has not yet been completed. City Attorney Larry Hendricks explained that this issue had been on going for several years and in order to remove the code violation the city had gotten a court order to get the work completed. He also stated the city was still trying to work with him and had not gone on the property as soon as the court order was granted, trying to give Mr. Coffman more time to get the work accomplished. Mr. Coffman requested assistance in the clean up. Councilmember Bruce Liese gave Mr. Coffman his phone number and asked Mr. Coffman to call him and he would bring a trailer and a couple of people down to assist before Feb. 5, 2007. Councilmember Tim McNish expressed concern of council members being involved in the clean up. Councilmember Liese stated he would be volunteering to assist as an individual, not as a councilmember. Bruce made a motion for a date to be set for after Feb. 5, 2007 to follow the court ordered judgment for the clean up. Mark seconded the motion and the vote was unanimous.
Jay Robertson was unable to attend and had left information for the council regarding the necessity for the township to install a fence.
City Attorney said he would be starting his judgeship with the district court February 16, 2007. Larry gave his resignation effective after tonight’s meeting. Mayor Paslay appointed Lee Hendricks for the City Attorney position. Bruce made a motion to accept Mayor Paslay’s appointment as City Attorney. Tim seconded the motion and the vote was unanimous. Lee will be present for the February 20th meeting.
The council requests City Engineer Kenneth Shetlar to be present at the February 5 meeting. Donna Crawford, City Grant Administrator will be present at the February 20 meeting.
Jennifer Smith informed the city council she would be speaking with Planning Commission Consultant John Riggs Thursday afternoon. She would like to discuss the following subjects: lot split, fencing regulations, light industrial occupation area, number of members on the PC, and zoning enforcement officer. She reported the change of ownership for the Big Springs Quarry. She is trying to stay informed by the Douglas County Planning Commission.
(OVER)
City Attorney Hendricks reported there would need to be a 2/3 vote from the council for a sales tax to be placed on a ballot. Bruce made a motion for a 1% commercial sales tax to be placed on the April ballot and the money to be used for infrastructure. Chuck seconded the motion and the vote was unanimous.
It was reported the property owner of the residency code violation on E. 7th had called stating the residents would be moved out by January 15 and he would not be connecting water or sewer.
Georgia asked if it would be okay to have Tiffany Ball come in and help with the year end report. Georgia stated she had been told by the City Clerk that she couldn’t just ask for someone to come in. The City Attorney stated that if money was to be spent it had to be approved first.
Chuck asked the City Attorney what the legal issues could be if he wanted to put a bid forth on some of the work to be done on the new water plant. The city attorney will check on this and report back for the February 5th meeting.
The City Clerk asked permission to have the KRWA compile the water report as they had done in the past. It was stated it wasn’t necessary to have the council’s permission as it had been done this way in the past years.
A letter from the Lecompton Masonic Lodge was delivered by Marvin Grandstaff requesting the use of the Community Building Saturday morning of the Territorial Days for the Pancake Feed. Bruce made a motion to rent the Community Building to the Territorial Committee for the use of the building and they can decide who will rent the building. Mark seconded the motion and the vote was unanimous.
A letter of appreciation from the Friends of Sobriety was read.
A letter received by all councilmember’s and the mayor from Paul Bahnmaier was discussed. Bruce made a motion to budget $50 per week to pay someone to water flowers. Mark seconded the motion and the vote was unanimous. Mark will see if he can find anyone interested.
Bruce presented information for a ¾ Ton truck. Tim McNish and Chuck Folks stated they felt a ¾ ton was too small. No action was taken.
9:00 P.M. Tim made a motion to adjourn. Chuck seconded and the vote was unanimous.
Sandy Nichols, Clerk