REGULAR MEETING
Monday, July 9, 2007 – 7:00 p.m.
The governing body of the City of Coldwater met in regular session with the following present: Mayor Tony Smith, presiding, Council members Penny Bruckner, Klete Hackney, Chuck Salisbury, Tiffany Sowa and Richard Thompson, Public Works Director Danny Shaw, Water Operator, Joe Ceballos, City Attorney Skip Herd, City Clerk, Kristal Sherman, Lake Manager, Ron White, Prairie Plaza Manager, Darlene Caraway and City Marshal Doug Storie.
Guests included Rosanne Sullivan, Jim Volfeldt, Lisa Gales and Darren Konrade.
Mayor Smith called the meeting to order and led the flag salute.
Minutes were approved as written, motion by Penny Bruckner, seconded by Chuck Salisbury. Motion carried.
Roseanne Sullivan read a letter to the council regarding the condemnation and removal of her trailer from the lot at 305 N. New York, and in summary, asked that the cleanup charges be dropped, the City pay her a check to cover the mortgage left on the trailer in the amount of $2,216.40, and allow her to salvage all she can from the trailer or she will file suit against the City for damages.
Prairie Plaza Manager, Darlene Caraway, passed out a sheet of items she would like to have added to the City’s 2008 budget for Prairie Plaza. Included in the request was $3,000.00 for carpet, $3,500.00 for appliances, $875.00 for a heat pump, $600.00 for a shower unit. The council also discussed the 24 vs. 26 hour weeks to be worked by the maintenance man at Prairie Plaza. Chuck Salisubury made a motion to change the hours worked per week from 24 to 26, seconded by Penny Bruckner and the motion carried. Councilman, Richard Thompson advised Darlene that she needs to make sure Ken Pitzer actually works the 26 hours per week and doesn’t just write down 26 hours a week on his time card.
Jim VonFeldt with the auditing firm VonFeldt, Bauer and VonFeldt of Larned, Kansas, presented and reviewed with the council the 2006 audit report. Jim also gave the council the proposed 2008 budget which would require 216.994 mills, up from the current 2007 budget at 71.809 mills. After looking over the proposed budget, the council set a special meeting for Tuesday, July 17th at 7:00 as a work session to go through the budget and Jim will come back and meet with the council on Tuesday, July 24th to further work on the 2008 budget. The budget hearing was set for August 13, 2007 at 7:00 p.m.
Marshal Doug Storie gave a report of his activities for the past month. The Farmers Coop golf cart was discussed, it is being driven by an unlicensed driver and not only back and forth from the elevators, but also to run errands all around town. Mayor Smith said he would go talk to Jay Sherman, manager of the Coop, about the situation. The council discussed with Doug his job in handling skunk complaints in town. He was told that if he is called out for a skunk complaint, he needs to take care of it as best he can.
Richard Thompson made a motion to go into executive session for 15 minutes to discuss personnel, including Lisa Gales in the discussion, seconded by Tiffany Sowa, the motion carried. After returning to open session, no action was taken.
Water Operator Joe Ceballos reported he will do water pressure testing in July or August, he needs to work out a time with Larry Ellis. Joe also reported that for 2008 budget purposes, it will take approximately $4,000.00 in materials only to do the water line project at Cleveland and Philadelphia. Joe informed the council that Prairie Plaza has moved all their items out of the water shop building and said his offer of $500 still stands to buy the building, the address being 106 E. 1st. The council agreed that they should publish in the paper that they are accepting sealed bids on the water building until August 10th and will open the bids at the August 13th meeting. Joe also informed the council that the annual Mud Run is Saturday, July 14th and since he is in charge, is asking permission to fill the mud pit with water. Richard Thompson made a motion to donate Joe the water it takes to fill the mud pit for the mud run, seconded by Penny Bruckner, and the motion carried.
Darren Konrade, Protection Chief of Police, reported to the council he has brought Protection’s mosquito sprayer for them to look at and offered to do a trial spray one evening in Coldwater if the council wants him to. He said Protection owes Coldwater for some work done and would be happy to trade it out with the mosquito spray. After going outside to get a demonstration of how the sprayer works, the council agreed to discuss it further and let Darren know if they want him to come do a trial spray.
Penny Bruckner made a motion to go into executive session with Danny Shaw for personnel reasons for 15 minutes, seconded by Tiffany Sowa and the motion carried. After returning to open session, no action was taken.
Public Works Supervisor, Danny Shaw reported that the Comanche Estates committee consisting of him, Penny Bruckner and Linda Hart have been working on rewriting the covenants and zoning on the estates to try and do away with a lot of the restrictions that were there originally. Danny also recommended that Comanche Estates be resurveyed since they replotted the lots. After discussion, Tiffany Sowa made a motion to resurvey Comanche Estates with the cost not to exceed $5,000.00, seconded by Klete Hackney and the motion carried. Danny also discussed with the council the need to raise the $20 pick up fee and $7.00 per day boarding fee for dogs picked up and impounded, with no action taken. The council did, however, agree that the city crew should be more aggressive in enforcing the existing city dog ordinance by picking up dogs on the loose. Tiffany agreed to work on the dog ordinance and will try to have a rough draft of the ordinance for the next meeting.
Lake Manager, Ron White reported the concerns that were passed on to him at the June 27th lake committee meeting have been taken care of. Ron also reported that over the busy weekend, a breaker flipped on the hookups that are on the hill (sewer hookups) and wants to upgrade all those to 50 amp breakers. After discussing the situation, it was agreed the breakers were blowing because of “double stacking” on some of the hookups and they further agreed that the funds nor time are available at this time to make the recommended upgrades. Ron was told he will have to have single hookups there until they can be upgraded.
Opened the sealed bids on the steel trusses, accepting the high bid of $275.00 from Dwight Unruh. Other bids were $250.00 from Kent Trummel and $100.00 from Al Blagg.
City Clerk, Kristal Sherman, explained to the council at the advice of the auditors, the need to amend the health insurance portion of the employee handbook to offer health insurance benefits to retired employees. A portion of the paragraph reads “any employee who has resigned or retired and has worked for the city for a period of at least ten years may elect to pay the full amount for health coverage for the retired employee and his/her dependents.” Tiffany Sowa made a motion to accept the paragraph in the handbook, seconded by Chuck Salisbury and the motion carried.
Motion was made by Tiffany Sowa and seconded by Penny Bruckner to approve the Cereal Malt Beverage License application for Venture Foods. Motion carried, with Chuck Salisbury abstaining.
Penny Bruckner reported that by the end of July the County should have the 911 address numbering system throughout the county in place, she noted that recommendations would be made to change some addresses in the City. She also discussed the need for everyone to have their house numbers either on their house or on the curb in front of their house and ways that could be done. The council hopes for now everyone will do it on their own and will cross that bridge later on homes that do not have numbers.
Bills in the amount of $174,974.11 were presented for payment. Tiffany Sowa moved to approve the bills as presented, seconded by Penny Bruckner. Motion carried.
Tiffany Sowa made a motion to go into executive session for 15 minutes for personnel reasons, seconded by Richard Thompson and the motion carried. After returning to open session, no action was taken.
No further business was presented. Penny Bruckner moved the meeting adjourned, seconded by Klete Hackney. Motion carried.
SPECIAL MEETING
Tuesday, July 17, 2007 – 7:00 P.M.
The governing body of the City of Coldwater met in special session for the purpose of planning the 2008 budget with the following present: Mayor Tony Smith, presiding, Council members Penny Bruckner, Klete Hackney, Chuck Salisbury, Tiffany Sowa, and Richard Thompson. Public Works Director Danny Shaw, Water Operator Joe Ceballos and City Clerk Kristal Sherman.
The proposed 2008 budget increased to 216.994 mills, as compared to the current 2007 budget which is at 71.809 mills. In order to get the proposed 2008 budget down to the current budget, $403,857.00 needs to be cut. The council went through the budget line for line cutting what they thought they could, and at the end of the evening had cut a total of $147,400.00 from the proposed budget. After discussing other possible ways to cut the budget, the council adjourned the meeting and will meet again next Tuesday, July 24th at 7:00 with the City’s auditor Jim Vonfeldt to further work on the budget.
SPECIAL MEETING
Tuesday, July 24, 2007 – 7:00 P.M.
The governing body of the City of Coldwater met in special session for the purpose of discussing the 2008 budget with the following present: Mayor Tony Smith, Council members Penny Bruckner, Klete Hackney, Chuck Salisbury, Tiffany Sowa, Richard Thompson; City Clerk, Kristal Sherman; Public Works Director, Danny Shaw ,Water Operator, Joe Ceballos, and Jim Vonfeldt, auditor with the firm of Volfeldt, Bauer and Volfeldt.
Mayor Tony Smith, called the meeting to order and after discussing the cuts in the budget that were made at the special meeting on July 17th, the council knew they had a long road of cutting still ahead. Mayor Smith said he didn’t know how the City was going to be able to do it without raising utility rates and taxes both. After the discussion about raising water rates, Klete Hackney made a motion to raise the water rates to $16.00 for the base rate and $1.60 per thousand gallons of water used, seconded by Penny Bruckner and the motion carried. The old water rate was $6.00 for the base rate and $1.41 per thousand gallons. Sewer rates were then discussed, Klete Hackney made a motion to raise the sewer rates by $3.00, that would raise residential rates to $10.00, commercial to $12.00 and industrial to $13.00, seconded by Tiffany Sowa and the motion carried. The council then proceeded to make further cuts in the budget and after the extra income planned and further cuts made, Jim Vonfeldt told the council they were down to 79.8 mills, which is up about 8 mills from the 2007 budget. Tiffany Sowa made a motion to approve the proposed 2008 budget for publication and hearing, seconded by Richard Thompson and the motion carried. Budget hearing date was set for the next regular council meeting, August 13, 2007, at 7:00 p.m.
No further business was discussed and the meeting was adjourned.