REGULAR MEETING
Monday, October 8, 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, Charles Salisbury, Tiffany Sowa and Richard Thompson, Public Works Director Danny Shaw, Water Operator, Joe Ceballos, City Attorney Skip Herd, City Clerk, Kristal Sherman, and Lake Manager, Ron White.
Guests included Linda Hart, Mike Baldwin, Nancy Schultz, Wayne Kindsvater, Debbie Affeldt and Shirley Uselman.
Mayor Smith called the meeting to order and led the flag salute.
Minutes were approved as written, motion by Tiffany Sowa, seconded by Penny Bruckner. Motion carried.
Linda Hart and Mike Baldwin representing the Comanche County Economic Development Foundation, reported on activities of the foundation and asked the council for its annual donation which in the past has been $3,500.00. They also asked the council to appoint a member of the city council to the board of directors of the CCEDF for a one-year term to begin in February and would like to know their decision by January.
Nancy Schultz explained to the council that the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts are having a camporee at Deer Trail Camp the weekend of October 20th and asked the council if they could borrow picnic tables from the lake to take to their camp and also requested that the Scouts be permitted to go fishing and do some activities at the lake without paying lake fees on Saturday evening. The council agreed to both requests.
City Attorney, Skip Herd told the council he had received a letter from the Kansas Board of Tax Appeals saying that the properties the City asked to be tax exempt were accepted and will be designated as tax exempt in the future. He also reported he has sent Rosanne Sullivan a letter asking her to pick up her belongings that are being stored and she called him saying she has since had another surgery on her eye and didn’t know when she’d be able to come down to pick up her things. After the council discussed the situation with Skip, Klete Hackney made a motion to give her 30 days from tomorrow’s date (October 9th) to collect the rest of her belongings and if she hasn’t picked them up by November 9th, they will be discarded.
Water Operator Joe Ceballos reported that the KDHE inspection he had at the end of September went pretty good, with only minor details to correct. One detail that needs to be taken care of is the City needs to approve a cross connection control ordinance, it requires back-flow preventers be installed at a number of businesses in town. Before they approve the ordinance, the council instructed Joe to find out the following information and report back at the November meeting: who is required to install the back-flow preventers and how long they have to get them installed, how much it will cost and where he will need to go to get certified to inspect the back-flow preventers.
Discussed with Joe Ceballos and Danny Shaw, the fact that a new requirement will go into effect that all new sewer and water lines will have to have tracer wires buried with them.
Public Works Director, Danny Shaw reported that he had an OSHA inspection last month and only minor corrections are needed. Danny also reported to the council he has had an individual tell him they are concerned that the City will build new camp sites just across the road from Comanche Estates, blocking the view of the lake. After discussion, Tiffany Sowa made a motion that the City will not build new camp sites to the North of camp site number C-1 at the lake, the motion was seconded by Klete Hackney and the motion carried. Danny let the council know he will need to replace a hose on the sewer machine sometime this fall and the cost will be approximately $1,600.00. Danny reported on a meeting that Richard Thompson, Klete Hackney and himself had gone to at the hospital with Wayne Woolfolk, a county commissioner, Nancy Zimmerman, the hospital administrator and two of the architects of the hospital renovation project, about the sewer problem at the hospital. Danny reported that the architects basically said it really wasn’t their problem and also explained that they discussed a few options to remedy the situation. He recommends the installation of a lift station for approximately $10,000 to fix the problem and they asked Wayne Woolfolk if the County would pay half the cost to install it. Wayne told them he would have to go to his next meeting and ask the other two commissioners. Danny told the council that the lake restroom at the dead end road has had the skylight broke out of it and will be replacing it. Danny asked the council how they wanted to handle campers at the lake in the winter time, whether they should all camp “on the hill” with the sewer hookups or just where ever they would like to camp. The council agreed it would be best if they were all grouped together on the hill with the sewer hookups, but didn’t have a problem with someone camping along the lake as long as they signed the utility agreement saying they have to fix the pipes if they are damaged due to a freeze and they discarded their sewer in the proper place. The council reviewed the proposed R-1 zoning amendment, Danny explaining the changes made were to accommodate the Comanche Estates. Chuck Salisbury made a motion to approve ordinance 2007-7 Amendment to Zoning Ordinance 626, seconded by Tiffany Sowa and the motion carried.
Lake Manager, Ron White reported there are 19 campers left out on the lake at this time and 16 are expected to be long-term winter campers. Mayor Tony Smith then asked Ron about the “double-stacking” of campers on the west hill of the lake. The Mayor said it was his brother-in-law that was one of the campers and because of the double-stacking, he lost power to his camper and therefore, lost all the food in their refrigerator and needless to say was not very happy about it. Councilman, Klete Hackney explained to Ron that he has been told over and over again about not letting the double-stacking of the campers go on because the outlets are not capable of handling two campers at a time, but he chooses to do it anyway, Richard Thompson explained that if Ron would tell them no they couldn’t do it, and they do it anyway, then call any one of them or the Marshal to help back him up. At that point, Ron told the council he thought he was doing the best that he could and offered his resignation. Mayor Tony Smith told Ron his resignation was accepted and Ron then left the meeting.
Penny Bruckner asked the Mayor if he felt he had time to do the monthly maintenance on the City’s website, noticing that the meeting minutes hadn’t been updated since June. He said that if someone else would want to do it, that would be fine with him. City Clerk, Kristal Sherman, offered to do the maintenance of the website with Penny saying she would help if needed. The council agreed.
City Clerk told the council she has $600.00 in donations towards the purchase of an ice machine for the Veteran’s Building and with the price of the ice machine at $2,000.00, $1,400.00 is still needed. The council suggested trying another advertisement in the paper telling how much is needed to see if more donations will come in.
Discussion was held on the matter of the annual donation to the Comanche County Economic Development Foundation. Penny Bruckner made a motion to donate $3,500.00 to the Foundation, seconded by Chuck Salisbury and the motion carried.
Bills in the amount of $89,862.60 were presented for payment. Penny Bruckner made a motion to approve the bills as presented, seconded by Chuck Salisbury. Motion carried.
Mayor Tony Smith asked the council for a motion to accept the resignation of Lake Manager, Ron White. Klete made the motion to accept Ron White’s resignation, seconded by Penny Bruckner and the motion carried.
Tiffany Sowa made a motion to go into executive session for twenty minutes for personnel matters, seconded by Klete Hackney and the motion carried. After returning to open session, no decisions were made.
Richard Thompson asked the council to discuss the matter of the City cell phones and the fact that some of the users are using them for personal reasons also. The council asked the City Clerk to put out a memo to Danny Shaw, Joe Ceballos and Doug Storie asking them to use the cell phones for City business only and no text or picture messaging, just for calls only.
No further business was presented. Tiffany Sowa moved the meeting adjourned, seconded by Chuck Salisbury. Motion carried.
SPECIAL MEETING
Monday, October 15, 2007 – 7:00 P.M.
The governing body of the City of Coldwater met in special session for the purpose of discussing personnel with the following present: Mayor Tony Smith, presiding, Council members Penny Bruckner, Klete Hackney, Tiffany Sowa, and Richard Thompson and City Clerk Kristal Sherman.
Mayor Tony Smith called the meeting to order, Tiffany Sowa made a motion the council go into executive session to discuss personnel matters, seconded by Klete Hackney and the motion carried. After returning to open session at 11:00 p.m., no decisions were made. Richard Thompson made a motion to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Klete Hackney and the motion carried.