City Council - Regular Meeting

with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Now, Pastor Stephanie Wall Brown from Augusta United Methodist Church will lead us in prayer. And how long have you been there? Um, since July 1. Okay, welcome. Pretty new. Thank you.

Yeah, let us pray. Almighty God, we do thank you for this beautiful day. And for me personally and for my husband, we thank you for this community of Augusta, for the welcome here and all of the resources it offers, not just our family, but all who live here. And Lord, for the uping of community, of caring for all of your people, for all the decisions that it takes down to just the most minuscule of detail. We ask for everything to be done with discernment, with care, with discernment for the good of all your people, this creation, and for all of the goodness you've given us. It is in your name and precious, precious presence that you are with us now. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Thank you. brings us down to our first item, reviewing the minutes from our last couple of meetings. Mr. Mayor, I approve I move to approve the April 20th, 2026 city council meeting and April 27th, 2026 council strategic retreat part two work session. Second. Got a motion and a second to approve those minutes. All those in favor say I.

Any opposed. Motion carries. And it moves down to our appropriation ordinance number 4A for its review and approval. I move for the approval of the appropriation ordinance number 4A dated April 22nd, 2026. Second. Got a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Motion carries. Okay. It takes us down to uh our proclamations and visitors. And this week is public service recognition week. So, I'm declaring May 3rd through the 9th as public service recognition week. And public works week is May 17th through 23rd. And I just want to say that we have lots of people in the employment of the city that the only time they get noticed is if you're mad at them about something and you yell and scream at them over the phone. And uh they don't deserve that. And they do an excellent job of not yelling back. And uh I really appreciate those people because they make us as a council look good 99.9% of the time and everybody from our workers at the cemetery to our city manager and our council. We're servants, public servants. So, I thank you all for doing your job for us. Okay. Are there visitors here that aren't on the agenda already? I see none. So, our first that second one that now

Oh, we should. Yes. Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to add an item to the agenda for the for tonight. I'd like to add uh item number G9 entitled KDH consent decree to our agenda. Second. Got a second to add our KDH consent agreement as item G9 and our business. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. So, our first item of business, I will just turn over to staff to

Yes. Mayor and council, we do have our bond council Kevin Cowan here. So, I'm going to go ahead and uh invite him up to address some of the technical elements of these actions. Uh what I'd like to speak to is uh the reasoning and the purpose of the projects that you're considering tonight. Um there there's been a lot of um feedback from our community in recent years about our electric grid, about the issues with outages, how it's been impacting people's lives. And uh council has made a very concerted effort with budget after budget year after year uh to try to build in resiliency to to fix uh broken pieces of our infrastructure system. And uh that commitment to improving that system and trying to improve out the issue with outages and people's overall quality of life continues with the action item that you have here tonight. Um there are two specific projects that are included in the proposed actions tonight. Uh, one of them is an improvement at our uh, at our generating facility and it's a uh, it's a control system that impacts the efficient operation of our most efficient engine uh, that has frequent outages for a variety of different reasons, but a lot of them related to that control system that is essentially and functionally obsolete that leads to certain types of outages that ultimately cost us and our rateayers money. uh we have found a potential solution or what we believe to be a solution that's been implemented at other plants that actually have uh those types of generators. And uh so there is uh there is a uh a funding resolution tonight that includes that project in its scope. And ultimately we think that that

project is going to pay our community back over the long term with um with uh resiliency with efficiency with an actual functioning engine that can regularly dep be deployed that will not cost us when we're dispatched to generate for the electric grid. The second project is more widespread and and it in impacts the grid that spans throughout our community. Stretches all the way from the old electric plant um by the overpass on highway 400 goes all the way up to the Armory substation by the point I believe it extends over uh over to the Belmont area and most everything in between. And that is our low voltage grid. Uh we essentially operate two different grids within the city and uh uh this one is particularly problematic for us for a variety of reasons. And a lot of it has to do with the infrastructure itself, but also the fact that it's in a bunch of overgrown alleyways. uh and the the tree growth is routinely contributing to outages as well as um actual pole snapping uh different sort of failures that happen on the system. So there's a lot of outages caused by the overgrowth that's on the system. Some of it is obsolete equipment. Uh but the the point is is we would like to upgrade that and standardize it to match the rest of our system. And when that is all said and done, the 700 or so properties that are connected to that system, we believe we'll have a much more reliable experience of our grid that we will mitigate. Not not every outage that exists in the community because our grid is uh big, covers a lot of areas, and there's a lot of different causes, but you will mitigate a large chunk with a single project that impacts

a large segment of our community. this was the most impactful project that we could come up with to try to address those issues. Um, you implemented a rate structure years ago that has been able to rebuild our cash balances in the fund coming out of winter storm Yuri and recovering um from that bad scenario that's still impacting a lot of cities. we've paid all of those obligations off and you've actually rebuilt a cash balance that allows you uh to move into projects of this scale and start addressing your grid for these purposes and try to address that feedback that your community has given you. So that's a little bit of background on the two projects for the public if they haven't been following what's been going on in our strategic retreats or our budget work sessions. Uh we applied for grants to fund these projects a couple of different times. We were not selected, but the projects are still important enough and we're in the financial position uh that we said it's it makes sense for us to address that for our community. So we worked with our bond council Kevin Cowan who has come up with uh some strategies for us to finance these projects. you actually included the uh the financing for the low voltage grid in this year's budget. Um we're amending that original plan slightly which we discussed at our previous meeting. Uh but you you were already planning to do this project. Um we are looking at doing a financing that doesn't commit all of our money for decades and decades. Uh the plan we've come up with is hopefully the lowest cost option for the city, also for our rate payers that expires it as quickly as we can and gets that debt off our books as soon as we can uh without adding more interest cost and length to the term of that contract. So that's

that's the background. That's what we're doing. Now, for the technical elements of the types of financings and stuff that we're looking at, which to me is kind of how the hamburger is made sort of conversation, uh I I think what matters for the community to know is what improvement you're making and and why that's going to matter to their lives and why you're doing that. Now, it's mainly been off of the feedback that, hey, Augusta, you need to do something about your electric grid. Well, this is us doing that. So, that that's where the projects are coming from. So, uh, Kevin, can you, uh, speak a little bit to strategy? I know the council has walked through it in our retreat so they understand the, uh, uh, the different things that are on the table, but there's two action items tonight. Can you explain, uh, why there's two, why we're running a couple of different processes concurrently, and then uh, what the what the logic of the strategy was.

Sure. Thank you.

And I'll apologize at the outset. This is pretty technical stuff. Uh so as Josh has described, you have some electric utility projects you're considering and considering financing those with the issuance of bonds. And so when we started this discussion, we started uh with the discussion of the most efficient way for the city to borrow money through a bond issue is through a general obligation issue. That's the best pledge you can make. uh you can certainly use your utility system revenues to make the payment. Um that's part of what you have, but you're also promising more than that and telling bond holders, we pledge all of our revenue streams to make this payment even though we intend to just use our electric utility system revenue. So that's your lowest interest cost uh borrowing to borrow uh through a general obligation financing for electric utility system improvements. The statute which is very old requires an election. It's not a uniform statute. So it is subject to home rule charter ordinance. And so the way you would proceed without an election uh on this project or these projects would be to utilize this charter ordinance in an effort to get your lowest borrowing cost. Um so that's kind of the backdrop to all of this. How do you get authorized to do the lowest borrowing cost uh that you can for these projects? It's a charter ordinance. Uh the charter ordinance that I prepared and you have before you is very surgical and if you've looked at it at all um it doesn't change anything in the statute except it adds that in the election requirement there's an exception and it

says except as prescribed or provided in the next paragraph and elections required for all of this. So, you're not changing anything except what's in the next paragraph. And what's in the next paragraph, we're saying an election's not required for the projects that Josh just described as long as you as a governing body act to authorize the bonds and the projects in an amount not to exceed uh $7.5 million, which is maybe a little high. I talked Josh into rounding that up just hey this is a oneshot deal with this charter uh if you proceed with it. So I'd hate to get out a few months and find out we're a little bit short. Um so 7 and a half million those projects

I believe the charter is seven. I believe we did seven and a half on the electric revenue.

Yep. You're right. Sorry. So 7 million um as long as you proceed undertake the project and finance the project by December 31st of 2027. So not only do we have a specific description of the project, we put a maximum dollar amount in it and this all has to be done by December 31st of 2027. That's the only variance from the statute. Um, so in 2028, if you all are sitting here and we're talking about another electric utility system project, if this charter ordinance became law, I would say you can't use it. Um, that was a oneshot deal. We're not going to make it broad where you can use it for any project in the future on the electric utility side. So again, the the goal is to get general obligation authority for you all because that's going to be the cheapest way for you to borrow the money, but also make it really surgical and say we're we're only doing this one time and we're saying this project in this amount before December 31st of 2027 will not require an election in the city of Augusta to issue those bonds. So, the charter process is you pass the ordinance, it has to be published twice, and then there's a 60-day protest period. So, it's something close to a 90-day process. If you pass this tonight, it won't become effective until closer to August. Um, so we talked about all these things that led to the discussion of is that fast enough for the city to be doing the things it needs to be doing? Maybe signing some contracts on these projects and thinking about the cash basis law which would require you to either have bond

authority or the cash in the bank if you start making the financial commitments on all of these projects. And uh in the next again charter ordinance process 60 to 90 days. And one of the ways to address that and Josh referenced this earlier is to have concurrent action. Um and it's the second thing which would be to authorize your electric utility system revenue bonds for the same projects. And so you give your selfveselves a couple of options. either this charter ordinance becomes effective and we can use that authority uh or it doesn't but you know in May we adopted the resolution that authorizes electric utility system revenue bonds so we have different bond authority we can rely on both then if the charter ordinance doesn't become effective but also now if you need to start signing contracts and making financial commitments on the projects you'll have the bond authority sooner with the electric utility system revenue bonds. Um that resolution only requires a single publication also subject to protest notice and protest but it's a 15-day uh protest period and 20% of the qualified electors voter threshold. So pretty unlikely that would happen in the next 15 days. So that's again it's very technical and the the goal is twofold. Hopefully if you all agree and are willing um to pass the charter ordinance to get general obligation authority on this project and hopefully save you some interest cost if we get there. But also in the meantime, if you need to proceed and make financial commitments u that are beyond the cash that you've

encumbered and appropriated for this project, you would have the bond authority through the utility system revenue bonds uh authorizing resolution in the meantime. And again, that's just a cash basis law thing. you're not not by law uh supposed to enter into those sorts of contracts if you don't have the money in the bank or bond authority. Um, so utility revenue bonds kind of a fall back but also allow you to keep proceeding and and not worrying about hey if we approve this contract or this piece of it at the end of May or early June are we violating the cash basis law and the answer would be no because you have you will have that bond authority and you may not want to use it uh because as I said we want to get the charter ordinance uh implemented but that's again I know it's technical uh but the goal goal is to try to get lowest borrowing cost by later this summer and also have a little bit of fall back wiggle room in the meantime to keep proceeding with bond authority on the utility revenue bond side. Um I would suggest if you're wondering uh if hey if we have concurrent authority uh same project two different ways to bond it. If the charter ordinance is passed and becomes effective and you sell bonds or temporary notes in the meantime for the construction financing as part of that action, I would suggest you just repeal um the resolution for the utility revenue bonds. Once you know you're not going to use that and then that would address any of your concerns or a constituent's concerns about wait a minute, now you got all sorts of bond authority that totals to, you know, $15 million. um that it wouldn't be that you're only going to use one or the other and and we'll repeal the other one. So, I'll stop there. And again, I know

it's highly technical, but it's just Could you address the length the difference in length of terms and the cost savings in dollars one versus the other?

Not off the top of my Did Clayton run those numbers? Yeah, I so there are a variety of different scenarios. So the original scenario we looked at which was a a half a million dollar financing that was under the electric revenue bonds I believe what their amortization schedule showed was a 23-year payback uh ended up being over $12 million with interest cost on that. Uh when we made the modification to the $700,000 payment and changed to GEO bonds, it changed it to a 13-year payoff and ended up being in like the 8 and a half to 8.7, like somewhere in that range. So, it saved us uh on the from the original plan to the uh the bonded go plan uh several million dollars over the course of the project and about 12 years of debt. Uh making that switch, which is why the charter looking at it strategically made the most sense financially to the organization, to the rateayers. And so that's why uh that's the recommended pathway is ultimately to save all of those folks money.

And I should have mentioned this earlier. I I talked a lot about the general obligation, you know, the best security you can offer to bond holders. Electric utility system revenue bonds by statute are considered special obligations where the only thing you can pledge are electric utility system revenue bonds. So if you're a bond holder, um that's all you have. And if the utility system has a bad year because it's 75° every day during the summer unexpectedly, you've only promised to pay from those revenues. And if it's not available, I mean it I am certain you all would take necessary steps to make sure those bonds got paid. But legally, you can't pledge that. You can only pledge the utility system revenue. So, um, that's why you see the rate differential. It's just not quite the same pledge where as I mentioned earlier with the general obligations, you can certainly intend and use your electric utility system revenues. Uh but when push comes to shove, you've pledged more than that and that's recognized in the market that it's the best thing you can offer. Uh so that's the reason for the rate differential. The other thing is typically with electric utility system revenue bonds because you can have the bad summer, the cool summer, whatever it is, uh you typically build in a bond reserve and that's just not as efficient whether it's your own cash that you put in reserve that you can't use for anything else in the meantime or you borrow through the bond issue the reserve that adds to your principal amount interest cost over time. So, um I don't want to say uh it it never makes sense to issue the electric utility system revenue bond. You've got a strong utility and it would be pretty efficient. It's just in this case it wouldn't be as efficient as a general obligation issue if we can get there. And that bond reserve that uh

Kevin just mentioned, that is the reason for the issuance difference between the $7 million charter and the 7.5 for the electric bond is because you would expect it to have a reserve as well. So just holding on to cash in case you have one of those bad years. And so the presumption is you may have to bond that amount to have that cash available. And I I believe in our previous discussions or in some of theformational emails I had shared that was one of the explanations for why those numbers are different. U I was asked about the financing. So these were the amortization schedules that were discussed at your strategic retreat packets. People can download those at home and see them. Uh shows the comparison. So, what's up on the screen right now is the current uh recommended proposed plan, which is the general obligation financing. Um, and you can see that uh that was at the $700,000 payment level annually and the total was about 8.9 million with interest and that was about a 13-year payoff. the original plan that we were looking at um could doesn't look like they could get the payments down to the 500 that we had uh scheduled. Uh they could get them down to 550, but that went out to 2049. So that was a 23-year payoff with a total cost of 12.7 over that 23 years. So by modifying that annual payment and converting it to go, we were able to sa shave um about $2.8 million off the cost of the plan and 12 years of debt financing going with that strategy. And you can see here with the general obligation debt I I I don't know if you read this this way the I'm not perfect with all these terms, but the coupon rate I look at that the electric revenue was 5 a

half and then it was 4 and a.5% for the general obligation bond. So I'm assuming that's the interest rate or or maybe that's

it is and though we probably had this discussion before uh in the last year. So those coupon rates that's what would be printed on the bonds and that's what an investor would get. Your borrowing costs would be a little less than that. Uh and it's been this way for a long time. The bond market likes to pay a premium. Um, so where you see the four and a half in those early years, your effective borrowing cost or the yield as it was would probably be in the twos. Um, but that premium is paid. So the underwriter, the original investor can get a higher coupon rate printed on. So they they give you more cash um than you need upfront. Uh, but they give you a higher interest rate. So that's a little higher interest cost. it comes out uh in the wash. The yield takes into account all of that. But I I wanted to indicate that if if later this year we're issuing general obligation bonds, I would expect your overall borrowing cost to be better than that. Your all-in borrowing cost might be 3.8 or something. even with those same coupon rates because somebody gave you a couple of hundred,000 in premium to purchase bonds um with those higher coupon rates. So that goes to just sort of effective borrowing costs, but to your point Josh, that's that is the distinction and that's where you'll see the higher interest cost.

And so for anyone listening at home, you had already budgeted you being the council half million dollars to make an annual debt payment um in order to get up to the 700,000. We have another debt that is rolling off of our books in the electric utility this year and that is on our AMI smart metering system. And so essentially we just kept that in place. Add those together. That gets us close to the 700. So we're not changing um our operating costs. We're not changing rates. We're not asking for anything more from people in order to pay for this. We are utilizing the cash that we have on hand. and uh the the operating position of the fund financially to cover those annual $700,000 payments. So again, we're not asking for anything additional from rateayers in order to do this improvement project. Can you flip back to the other screen one more time? No, the um General Electric bonds rather than the

Yeah, the higher debt service. Yeah. Yeah. Can you go to the bottom of that? Okay. Thank you.

And so logistically, mayor and council, uh, whenever you're ready to consider the actions, the charter ordinance is a roll call vote and Kevin with a charter, uh, twothirds majority requirement. Yes. So, I believe we have to have set governing body including the mayor. So I believe what do we have to have six?

So it's not simple majority. whenever you're ready, council, or if you've got more questions. Kevin, does it Kevin, does our motion need to include that recommendation that you mentioned regarding the repeal if once a decision has been made on the choice of which direction to pursue? Do we need that in the motion? I I guess I'm asking Kevin and Josh Dulie.

I don't think you need it. I I would say no because if I understood what you were saying correctly because at some point you will have actual resolutions and things for the um for when you're you're issuing the debt. Yes. And when you're accepting the bids. And so there will be documents that go along with those. and and I I took it as when we get to that point, that's when you would include that language. Correct. Okay.

And I wanted that more just in the open discussion to indicate it's certainly your intent to use one or the other and you're I mean legally you wouldn't be authorized to do both. It's just a single project. But um just to avoid any confusion to make it clear, your intent is only to use one or the other. Yeah. And once you're using one, we'll repeal the other. But that for the charter using it, that would be three months from now.

And so the the action items tonight start at clock and then once the clock runs out, then you're able to take other actions. U you will have actual bids, you will have other financing resolutions. There there will be several other actions for you to fully execute all of this. But this starts the clock. And then also uh once those clocks run out, the 15 days on the one and then the 90 or whatever amount of days it was on the charter um they give you the authority to start incurring costs or to start entering into contract. And so we'll we'll uh we'll utilize whatever cash we have on hand right now if we have any contractual costs in the meantime before you have any uh uh before you have any uh bond proceeds available to you. Um but these these actions tonight will be followed by subsequent actions. It's not a it's not a finished project at this point. And for the taxpayers watching at home, this is to improve the reliability across approximately 700 plus residents in the community and to bring resources to repair improve the other engine. Correct.

Yeah. So not not residents as in you know per capita, it's properties, right? So however many people that is living in those properties, which can be a lot more people than that. Yeah. Josh, just for history sake, you said that Augusta operates on two different systems. How far back does that date? The electrical system going into the 70s. What? Which part? The oldest part goes way back, but the 70s is when they went to the newer voltage. Okay. Late 60s, early

Yeah. He would know some of the He would know some of those details better than I would. That they're they're older systems. Yeah. Other than taxes, this is the biggest issue that why people are frustrated with this are right

electrical g other than taxes. May I make a motion to approval charter ordinance number 22 exempting the city of Augusta, Kansas from the provisions of KSA 12-834 and providing substitute and additional provisions on the same subject relating to improvements gas water electric light heating and street railway or telephone service and the issuance of bonds for the purpose of paying for set improvements. Second have a motion and a second. America, may you call the role? Martin, no. Licklider, yes. Bailey, yes. Scott, yes. Richardson, yes.

Davidson, I'm sorry. Davis, yes. Whitey, yes. Mah, yes. Sorry, I'm blending names together. Motion carries. Mr. Mo, make a motion for approval of resolution. Real quick, does mayor have to vote on charter? He doesn't have to but or does he just count towards because you said something earlier about the mayor counts towards the total. How does that work? So the doesn't have to vote but to get to the 2/3 of whatever it is. It's 2/3 of nine counting the mayor and we got there already. Okay. So he doesn't have to then. He doesn't have to. If he'd like to. He certainly can. Rollins. Are

you good with that then? Yes. Okay. Motion carries. Mr. May make a motion to approve resolution number 2026-07 declaring it necessary to repair, alter, extend, reconstruct, enlarge or improve the electric utility system for city of Augusta, Kansas to issue electric utility system revenue bonds for the purpose of paying cost thereof and related bond reserves and financing cost providing for the giving of notice of set intention. Second. Got a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed.

Motion carries. 7 to one. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Kevin. Thanks, Kevin. Okay, we have item number two is a quit claim deed transfer property to USD 402. staff. You can go to the map. Open that one. That is Oh, the plat's okay if you want to.

Good evening. So, I'm going to have Josh pull up the plat. That's good. The final plat. So, it's the next agenda item, but there they need to go in conjunction, but the area we're talking about is off of Augusta Avenue. There's like a this is the high school. There's a small parking lot off of August Augusta Avenue. So, that's the area land that we're discussing in this agenda item before you. Um, so this item is a quick claim deed transferring a small portion of property currently owned by the city to USD 402. This area was originally held by the city as a feeowned land rather than dedicated rightaway and a portion of it is already being used as the high school parking lot. This action is prim primarily a cleanup to align ownership and how the property is actually being used. It also supports the high school plat that is moving forward in conjunction with the recent bond funded improvements. The deed needs to be completed prior to recording the plat so that the school district is reflected the sole property owner and the city will not be included as an owner on that owner certificate the first page of the plat. Um, so with the bond issue that was approved, they're putting some additions onto the high school property. Um, a portion of the high school has not been platted. Um, a portion of it is included on a different plat. So, we started working with our engineering firm to get this area platted because there are a lot of utilities around here, some drainage. Um, and we wanted to make sure we preserve those easements um for those utilities. There's also going to be relocation of some of our electric

lines. So, we needed to obtain new easements for that. Um but when we were going through when the engineering firm was going through all the deed documents which is part of the platting process um it was brought to their attention that the city owned a portion of the school district's property. So, I guess it's technically the city's property, but normally you would have, you know, your road that is platted and then you'd have rideway on either side um where utilities go or where the road could be expanded. In this case, there was no rideway dedicated. It was just the city owned the land. And since that time, the school district has put in a small parking lot over there off of Augusta Avenue. So yes, right there. So this quick claim deed will transfer ownership of that piece of land back to the school district. So then we can finalize the plat. Otherwise, the city would be a party to that plat and would need to sign the ownership certificate. um on the plat this has been revised to um dedicate a portion of right away for the future um instead of us just owning the land. I'm happy to answer any question. It is a little it is a little messy. Um and this is our process for trying to clean that up and get it properly recorded. So, Cammy, how much of the parking lot that's there currently is this land we're talking about.

How far in from Augusta Avenue does that I'd say about like the first half like those first the first row of parking? Yeah, it kind of cut through the middle. And so we'll see.

Yeah, it was 80 ft I believe. Is the city proper paying for I mean 40T it looks like on here that the measurement is 40T but I can't tell if that is that behind curb or is that 40 ft from what? And I probably have an old map I can look for if you'd like me to.

And so are city taxpayers paying for the relocation and reassessment of all of this or is this on the school district's side of the equation? That relocation is not in within this piece of property. Um but the city is not paying for that relocation. The school district um is taking on those costs as part of their bond issue. Good. It was actually approved at a recent school board meeting. Um there was a change order that was brought to them to um pay for those costs to the electric department. Good.

Mr. Mayor, I move to approve the quick claim dee transferring the subject property to the USD 402 and authorizing the mayor to execute related documents. Second. Got a motion and a second. Any other questions? Yeah. Will will be a city be obligated for anything on that? I mean, I know you say that they've got cost for the added in with their bond issues and things, but is a city obligated on anything on this that's going to be that's going to be obligated to no pay anything? No. Okay. Thank you.

Yeah, they're relocating the utilities that need to be relocated, paying for all those material and labor costs. Um, that'll all be assessed to them. Do we know where they're going to be moved? Are they going to be underground? Are they going to Any idea? Um, a portion of the line will be underground, a portion will still be above ground. So, um, I don't recall exactly how much of each, but we have worked with electric um, and their project managers to reconfigure the way that's laid out. Thank you. Any other questions? All those in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Motion carries. Item number three, onestep preliminary and final plat for Augusta High School.

Yes. So, this item is a one-step preliminary and final plat for the Augusta High School property at 2020 Ohio Street. The purpose of the plat is to establish the legal lot boundaries for the existing campus and support the bond funded improvements and expansions that are planned. Since the site is already developed and fully served by infrastructure, a one-step plat is appropriate and helps avoid delays in construction. Um, so typically with a plat, we would bring the prelim first that would get reviewed by the planning commission. Then we would bring the final plat before them. We ran the preliminary and final plat together through planning commission to help speed up um and expedite that process. This is not creating any new development lots but rather just formalizing the property as a single unified public school campus. As mentioned in the previous item, a small portion of the property is being transferred from the city to the school district. that transfer will be completed prior to recording the plat to ensure accurate ownership. Um, the planning commission did review this request and recommended approval. Um, and staff also recommends approval. So, I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.

There's no questions. I'd entertain a motion of approval. I move for the approval of case number 2026-05, a one-step preliminary preliminary and final plat for Augusta High School as recommended by the Augusta Planning Commission. Second. Got a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. moves us to item four, policy for the installation of street lights in existing neighborhoods. Staff,

yes, uh, mayor and council, I had a recent request from, uh, I think from citizenry, but also that came up to me from council that reminded me that this item was hanging out there and uh, hadn't been brought back to uh, council. And uh so we are trying to at least move forward a little bit and trying to close that thread. Um the process actually started back in August of 2021. There was a question in an existing neighborhood about installing street lights um in a neighborhood that either didn't have them or they had them but they requested more. Uh what was the process for that? And so at that time, um, staff prepared a, uh, a policy for consideration that, um, essentially put together like a petition process style of request for the adjoining property owners because you're you're adding a light to a neighborhood more than just the property where the poll sits are impacted by that because the light shines out, it impacts the neighborhood. And so the idea was um it came to us from uh other cities that had put together similar processes that um you designate an area of impact and look at how many properties that impacts and then you have to have a certain number of those people that are supportive of it rather than just have one person that is able to make the request and have something like that installed. So in that example that started everything in 2021, there was opposition and people in support. So there were folks on both sides and the question was well how do you as the city resolve that in when the adjoining neighbors impacted don't agree on on whether something should be done and so

we had prepared uh this rough policy at that time and uh but then there was some confusing actions with the council and how that conversation played out. Uh when the policy was brought to council, um at the meeting for adoption, I think a motion was made to not move forward in creating the process. I think it was proposed as a pilot process to start with since we didn't have anything. We were trying to create something quickly and if it if we were comfortable with that proposed process that we could implement it on a broader scale. The motion was to not move forward with the process and then uh I think it failed for lack of a second and then was not discussed after that. There was no other motion. there wasn't another vote and the meeting continued on got down to the matters from four section and then I think council at that point directed us to draft a policy and for us again it's the same policy as what we were proposing then um but we just we didn't bring it back I think the I think most of the council turned over in the upcoming election because this was right around election time and a good number of folks that were on the council when that discussion happened turned over in that election and I think we all may have forgot about or at least staff did and it didn't come back up again until a recent request was made and and uh going back through the research like well this is actually still hanging out there that council asked us to prepare a policy and so we are bringing that back for your consideration. So th this is an example of the situation that started everything where

a a midblock owner was requesting a street light be installed. And so when uh we put together a policy from other cities uh what we came up with was designating a distance. That distance I think was 200 feet in uh both directions uh along the impacted street. Those are the property owners that in order for that request to actually be taken up by the council. The property owners in that designated area would have to submit a signed petition form with enough signatures to merit your review to consider the ask. So basically it was a way of dealing with requests. If they came to you incomplete or before that work had been done then you don't consider them. you don't consider putting in additional infrastructure. So that was the idea and so the policy um there was a couple of different numbers that we had talked about for a threshold. We had talked about a 75% threshold of support and I think at one point we had settled on 67%. So similar to what the charter ordinance is is a 2/3 uh a 2/3 majority of the impacted property owners in order for the request to move forward. So that was the history back in 2021. staff hasn't changed our position because our recommended pilot program was based off of the policies we had seen in other cities. So what we're bringing back to you as a draft consideration or to uh reopen up the discussion is uh essentially a cleaned up formalized version of that recommended pilot program that we have. So, um the street light installation policy

acknowledges that um we have now adopted zoning regulations that speak uh towards the specific recommendations for spacing of lighting and types of lighting and and those sort of things. So, this is not meant to uh subvert any of those recommendations. This policy mainly recognizes that neighborhoods existed before those regulations were adopted and in some places um you know neighborhoods existed before our planning process was adopted. That's why you have developed properties like the high school and along the commercial corridor uh that weren't platted because they predate uh some of those planning functions. So, this policy is specifically meant to look at existing neighborhoods because new neighborhoods are spoken to in the zoning rigs and how that process happens. Um, so this spells out a petition process and then gives you a sample petition uh explains that the 67% majority of residents in support are required in order for you to consider it. uh creates a petition form that people can fill out and then bring to your attention when it's completed and then uh they can kind of map out their neighborhood showing where they're requesting the polls and things to be and then our staff can evaluate it uh within the context of our regulations for spacing and otherwise to make sure that it's not inconsistent with how we would otherwise install improvements. Um the other thing it does contemplate though and this is in the staff report I believe um all of these improvements are subject to appropriation and availability of budget. So um council can decide if you're going to implement improvements

uh like this if you're going to cover those costs if you're going to ask uh property owners to do it. I I think the the presumption in the policy if someone's asking for a street light in an existing area uh is that the city covers that you can you can do that differently. Um

Josh, can I interrupt just for a second? How much does the average street light cost? Uh I think with a wooden pole which is just our standard one and presuming that it's connected with an overhead line because that that's standard in a lot of older parts of town. You don't really get underground unless you're in the newer sections. Um I want to say somewhere between maybe 1,000 and 1,200 per light. Is that does that sound reasonable to you Tim? Okay. Maybe 1,500 all in is is what Tim is suggesting as a placeholder for a light. Okay. Thank you. I didn't mean to interrupt you. I'm sorry.

Uh no, that that's fine. And so that's that's basically where this process came from. It was meant to handle requests that come up in existing neighborhoods. Uh sometimes people ask for security reasons. These lights may have an ancillary security benefit. They are not intended for security purposes. They are meant for road traffic. They're meant for safety on the road. That may be uh that may include pedestrian traffic um because you don't want vehicles hitting people. And if there's uh if there's blind spots, if there's dark visibility issues, that can certainly play into it, but they are not meant to be a substitute for security lighting or anything else like that. That's not how they are to be used. Um, so anyway, you can use this as a starting point if you want to direct staff to to look at some other options. Um, but we had based the the uh the proposed pilot program off of existing policies in other cities. So, we felt pretty good that that's what um our regulations are final would be uh that they would look how we recommended the pilot program to look. So, uh, that's that's why this is coming back to you tonight. Um, like I said, we can open a conversation about it. Uh, you can table it. You can say it's not important at this time. Uh, you can go back and say you want to do it as a pilot, or you can say, let's go ahead and implement this. And then anybody that has requests pending that that want to get their uh, request submitted, they now have a process they can follow to get something in front of you for review. Um, so that that's why this is coming back to you tonight.

Any thoughts, council? I like the idea of having a process. So, kudos to you guys for outlining that. Um, I think there's a responsibility, I think, on the property owners if they want the city taxpayers to pay for utilities to be either extended, improved, or added in that space. So in my in my thinking as I read it, I saw a gap around specials, the opportunity to assess specials to cover costs as opposed to just as budget may allow.

So that there's a a cost analysis or a benefit or consideration when collecting petitions through neighborhoods. if taxpayers generally want that in their neighborhood, they're willing to pay the an the anecdotal specials that may come along with that to help cover the cost of that. And I think that would be an improvement that I would see in this. And I think that that sets a a pathway forward to maybe consider some of the other scenarios that are being discussed in other parts of the city as well at that point. So, if a neighborhood has a development where lights were put in and then asks the city to help cover the cost of replacing those lights, that special path forward makes sense. And then if a neighborhood didn't have lights put in and once lights put in or added, the specials provide a path forward for that as well. again with a majority of residents saying yes to those petitions, but they've at least acknowledged there's a cost associated and the other taxpayers of Augusta aren't just shouldering that indirectly.

Can I So, it's not the taxpayers paying it though. It's the electric utility customers. So those can be some of the same, but also you could have additional electric utility customers that are not necessarily property taxpayers for the city of Augusta. So I just want to clarify that language that we're using. So I think that would be needed to be clarified even in this at that point because specials would be assessed to property owners, not utility

subscribers. And I may be speaking out of ter I guess I would assume if the city was paying for it, it would come from the electric fund to put up those light poles in. I'm not proposing that the city pay for it without recovery through specials.

Yeah, you you can you can handle it different ways. So, one, under your ordinances, you always reserve the right to add lighting wherever you as city see fit if for safety reasons or other reasons. So, if our staff sees something out there that's of concern, they may go ahead and add it for for like visible traffic reasons um without a consultation necessarily with a joining property or something. I don't know that that happens a lot, but I I can I I think there's maybe been a couple of examples when you just have like excessive long stretches of roadway or or you have uh specific features with like a curving roadway with like a blind turn with no lighting on it or something like that. The u so that's just one thing to remember is that your laws enable you as the city to add something. So, it doesn't preclude that from happening. Um, if you would only want this done if the adjoining property owners are paying for it, then you would want to speak to that in the process so they're aware before they even start it.

Yeah. And I think the way this is written, if I just read the language, the intent of this policy is to evaluate all requests. So, assume they get 67% of the neighbors along both sides say yes. whether it needs it or not according to the municipal code, you're going to investigate it. So taxpayer resources are going to be used for any request that meets that threshold whether it's needed or not. So, I'm just I'm looking out for the overall expense and work of the city staff and making sure that there's a there's a check in place that says, do we genuinely need this or do we just want more lighting for security purposes? Because

I'm connecting multiple conversations over the years whereas you've said it's not for security purposes. That's an ancillary benefit, but it's not the primary purpose. Mhm. So, you may drive down a street where it seems really dim in the middle because there's a light on each end, but yet it meets the municipal guidelines for street safety. And so, a light's not needed, but the person in the middle prefers one. And the neighbors agree to it. They sign the petition. They come to the city. The city does the work to explore it. Says it doesn't meet municipal code for necessity. So, at that point, is that a no? If it's not needed per municipal code,

we talking about under this process or previously under this process what we're proposing. Sorry, you had a lot of different bullet point factors that I was trying had a fresh scenario lined up for you. Josh, shouldn't we do it like we were talking with the neighborhood up there that you know we give them the the opportunity the homeowners association or something they they can say hey we'll pay for it if we want to which they elected not to but that gives them the opportunity they one they vote on it they say we want it and we can pay for it if we want want to and would that be a case by case that was on Arnold Street wouldn't it

yeah but it's they have the opportunity to do that if they want to right the reason I my my uh consensious one who started this whole conversation why we have this here is because of the intersection at the at the end of of Kuster and Kell and it gets really dark down there and they've got seniors trying to pass through there on their scooters and they have kids playing on that corner and and it looked pretty dangerous and they heard a car screech and almost hit one when it was when the time change was much different than it is now.

So that's a completely different scenario than what we're kind of kicking around here. Did you see what I'm saying? So I I agree with both of you actually. I'm just this doesn't fit the mold that we're talking about. The one that instigated the conversation I think to your point, Josh, the city always has that authority to handle what Shane's referring to. If the city assesses that and says, "This does not meet or even satisfy the safety requirements that we would like for this intersection, the city can install one outside of this process." Mhm. Is that accurate?

Yeah. I mean, your your ordinances allow for that right now. Yeah. The the question is is um if is there a way for that to be initiated by someone outside of of the staff level or if a or if a request like that comes up, how do you even consider it or do you consider it? Yeah.

And so what you see in looking at other um cities with utilities is they create a process for some level of review to be completed. and most of the processes look like this in some way with that petition element. Now, what you're speaking to with um the financial obligation, I I think that's an entirely local decision on how you might want to handle it. This process largely resembles what you will see in most any city that has a process for it.

Now, what is the responsibility of adjoining property owners financially? that can that can be your choice how you want to establish that. And again, there there's different circumstances out there. So, there's that example where maybe it was a neighbor, maybe it was someone just driving through that intersection, saw somebody in a wheelchair almost get hit and then they look around and notice, "Wow, the lighting at this intersection is terrible." And they say, "City, you should look at that." Mhm.

And in that example, you don't even have a property owner initiating the ask. And so the city can look at that and and say, "Yes, we we agree with you." Um, but if we don't look at it, but the adjoining property owners see that regular enough that they want to initiate it and force the action, then this creates a process for that to happen. I guess it doesn't re it doesn't rely one simply on the good graces of our review or or our ability to review it. Um uh but it also doesn't rely on hopefully that just makes it up my concern just makes it up to the city and they find out about it. It it it creates a trackable process in some way. So I think it's needed regardless.

Yeah. No, I agree in that way. Um, you have the example like the the metallark example that started this in 2021 where there I believe there is lighting on that street but I believe it's at the intersections. Correct.

And I think that that's a curve linear street where the total length um exceeds the typical distance you would see uh between street lights by our own standard. And so by our own standard, we could go out there and put that in if we chose to and and say it doesn't matter what the property owners think because we're saying uh for the safety of of traffic or for the the use of that road um at nights where pedestrians and vehicles are not at risk, that should go in. Um in that case, uh that's not how it was initiated. It was initiated by the property owners and then adjoining property owners ended up disagreeing and it got messy.

So not I'm not really sure where I'm going with that. I guess my point is that things originate in different ways. And in that example, it was one post being asked about. In the in the Arnold example, you have a choice that was made during a development discussion to not install something and uh and that was done at their cost and then coming back later asking for it to be done like the rest of the subdivision. Um but but essentially that that action had already been taken where it had shifted that entire cost over to the city and that install is was a minimum like four light string. So that was an extension off an existing system. I don't know if that's parsing words or if you consider that nuance versus something like this where you you are adding something in the in the middle of that street that is already lit or if you look at that and say they're the same thing. If you say they're the same thing, then I say yes, you treat them the same.

Is is this something maybe we should kind of table so we can kind of get the particulars on it? You know,

yeah. Again, it was I I had an ask about it because there was a pending question that came from a council member and then the history was that this was hanging out there unresolved anyway. So that's why it was coming back to you. Um so you you can take whatever action you see fit if you want to table it if you have guidance on what you would like to see changed. But again, if you want it to come back, I would like some general idea or direction how you would like it to come back. if you need to spend time on it, if it's that critical enough to you that you need to spend like a session on it, I I'd like that guidance. Um, just so it doesn't just get left out there hanging the way it did for the last couple of years. We can try to move it towards a resolution.

I I I mean I I think there's everybody has a great ideas here. I just think we're kind of spinning our wheels. So yeah, Shane, you had constituents that brought it up, so that's why I'm looking to you. Are you ready to table it? Yeah, I I think we're good to table it as long as we address it, you know. I think

so. Josh, before you motion, I would just ask for Andrew's consultation. So, to my question that I asked you, if a process goes through this process and you do your municipality code verification and it verifies as adequate lighting, residents, random driver through the intersection, etc. have reported it previously. City's done their verification. Something terrible happens. Liability to the city at any point. We don't have to discuss it now, but that would be my ask for you to oneoff with Andrew as you go through that. That's fair. I can I can get with Jeff.

Yeah, I would I would prefer that based on the motion that's forthcoming. I just moved to table uh the installation of street lights and existing neighborhoods. Second. Who made the second? Okay. I have a question. How long are we going to table it? Great question. Be good on because we've tabled it since 2021, I think. Well, not not on purpose. That was my Josh, you and Andrew can visit and then let us know once you've discussed what those could look like.

So, so you you had asked So, I'm taking that as two things for us to do some work on. One of them is uh to be able to provide some information on on uh sorry I just totally spaced on my train of thought on the liability concerns about uh reviews of adequacy and alignment with city policy in making the decision and then a secondary question about uh requirements related to financial obligations of the petitioners. Yeah, that was a secondary component of whether you would want to build that into policy that the petitioners have some sort of financial obligations. Yes.

Okay. Okay. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. can say something Shaya that um on Kuster Lane that was one of the projects the things I've been working on for the last three years also with um and been trying to bring it up as part of our safe streets program from basically Kelly to Belmont. Yeah. All that area along there because um Kelly to Belmont. Hold on. Yeah. Gotcha. Yes. because of the the school kids going going towards Yeah. going towards the school down there. The sidewalk's real dark and stuff. It's totally dark down there. The kids are walking to school.

So that in the winter time that's another that's like one of four examples that have kind of been hanging out there. In that example, um you you have a weird dynamic going on with adjoining property owners because you have like one large property owner on the right side of the road and then you have Willowbrook, but then it's like the people that back up to it, then you have school district property and then the owner of the golf course. So that's the people along the stretch. It is a long enough stretch where you're potentially talking a 50 $60,000 project because there are there are no lights out there right now. And uh the the request at least how you worded it in that moment was about lighting the sidewalks.

So that there may there may be other ways of lighting the sidewalks that that aren't the street lights. um street lights may be merited, but again that that's an even different example than than the one in the middle of an existing residential neighborhood because in some ways now I I live out here so I'm not trying to demean where I live but like it's just big open expanse on the outer edge of the city and so you'd be lighting a lot of open expanse. Um, so Josh cutting. So in your example there, the the resident and then the open land, there's like one owner there and then the golf course,

would there be fees involved? Like let's say they want to do with the system we're talking about here. There going to be fees going to those land owners and the golf course to pay for the lights? I don't know that that's Well, that's with this system we're talking about here that you're wanting us to vote on is what I'm asking. I don't know under under would it be the city more or less that

well under this process um it would be interesting to see if you can get all the petitioners actually in support of it especially if there was a cost. So, um, if I understood the the the ask, um, from Councilman Maher, like if you have the petition built into the policy as a requirement, then yeah, and that that would be whatever the cost is of that project. And so, that that could be a very expensive one because you can see um there there isn't any infrastructure out here. This is the uh the main tie to our grid. I and I think that this is uh Tim, this is actually Everg's line. That's not ours, correct? The big one on Kuster. Yeah, that's

that's the main tie, isn't it? Or Or is that us, too? That's Evergy.

That's Evergy. So, I don't think we can build off of that. So, we would have to be building a whole new line system up there. And that is an exceptionally long stretch of roadway from Kelly Kelly to Belmont. Um, so if you're uh if you're going that that 400 feet for between lights and you're going over a mile, that could be 10 12 of them and then stringing that line. Uh, we would most likely, I believe, when I talked to Dave about it years ago, putting it on the right side, uh, facing back in that direction. Um, that that's actually a large that's a large project. It's a large expensive project. And so that's an interesting question is are you trying to have a policy that that can address all of those interesting examples because every one of them has kind of a unique dynamic going on. It's like a small oneoff or you have the the development where the development made a choice a while back and now wants to do something different or you have the safety ask like each one of the the the case pattern or the fact pattern around those cases of how they come up is a little bit different and so it's kind of hard to craft one policy that speaks to all of it because you you may feel differently about it when it comes to you. You can give them the same process, but you may have a different take on it and whether it's merited depending on why it's coming to you. If uh if that individual in a wheelchair was hit at that intersection, uh you may have a very different opinion on whether you just go out there and do something versus you go through a petition process or whether you do specials on it. It's like, no, that that shouldn't happen. We're going to fix that. So, um you always retain those rights. you want to make sure that you have that flexibility to address things and and we'll we'll do our best to try to give you a policy that speaks to as many of those examples as possible, but every one of those examples is a little

bit different. And I don't have a good answer for any of them on what you do. Okay, let's move down to item six, mayoral recommendations for appointments to boards and committees. Five. Oh, I I'm sorry. I wrote down the wrong thing. Item five, Sunflower Foundation grant letter of agreement staff.

Yes, mayor and council. I kept you updated on this opportunity. It was something that came up that city of Andover and Arty uh had told us they were also uh looking into and um and so we took our our shot at it as well. But Sunflower Foundation is a nonprofit entity we've worked with before to get grant funding. They helped us finance a portion of uh the Red Bud Trail that exists within the the city limits. And uh they implemented a new program that was about uh providing financial support to communities that are trying to figure out how to maximize the economic and social potential of their trails. And so they launched this grant program that was about Trail Town designation. And that's essentially what we applied for was to uh get a trail town designation. In our application, uh we put together a couple of different uh funding categories uh if we were awarded money that we could utilize the funding for. Uh one of them being the wayfinding. If you recall, um there's that that black wayfinding sign that says city hall that was put out there as an example that downtown Augusta uh or go Augusta had worked on and uh they had given us a a cost proposal for the uh the remainder of the signs. We have wayfinding money that was set aside from our um our convention and tourism bureau fund years ago that was for wayfinding all around town. uh we hadn't act on it because it wasn't sufficient to cover a lot of those costs. But for that particular project, if it's focused on an area of town that's down here around the trail and navigating uh kind of from the highway south, uh we we do have sufficient funding for that. And so uh we pledged some of that existing match

that you had already budgeted previously for wayfinding uh towards that project and then expanded the number of signs that we can get so we can make sure to get wayfinding all throughout uh the southern portion of our community with the grant. Uh the grant also includes funding for us to develop promotional and marketing materials related to the trail for us to partner with RD and Andover both on the uh large ride event that they want to do to market and promote the trail to try to get people moving back and forth between the communities. Uh there is a little bit of funding that was included for a a subgrant program that we can create and that was one of the recommended options or suggestions that if you wanted to create a mini grant program where like downtown businesses could make a grant ask for amenities improvements to be added um in their area that make their area more attractive to bicyclists. that that could be like water fountains, it could be bike racks or something that just makes their block more hospitable uh that they can make requests for like many subgrants for improvements uh outside of their business or to um there are some other bullet points on the list of of example projects that you could do like that. But the the point of the trail town designation is how do you make yourself ready to receive those cyclists and and to transmit those interactions into economic activity. So that's the idea behind the grant. Um so the the budget that was submitted is included in that letter. You can kind of see how uh those funds broke out. we have money where we can hire a contract service to help us do promotion and to help us develop some marketing materials. If that's brochures, if that's uh maps, so if if you wanted to do like points of interest mapping or

something like that, having those available where you know bicycle bicyclist ride into town and the businesses have a point of interest map they can hand out that points them to everyone else in town. um we're we're getting some funding that can potentially be used for that as well. So, the action item is for the letter of agreement. There's uh a couple of years that the grant would be in place until um all of the the uh all the money is expended and until we're fully reimbursed. You can see that this spans into 2027. Um I can't recall what the scheduled ride event was. I think the right event that Arty and Andover were talking about was in 2027, but maybe I'm wrong about that. Maybe they were looking at this year. I um I have a joint meeting with them coming up where uh we can start some joint planning on all of these activities. I don't have all of those details yet, but anyway, uh we applied for the grant. We did receive it and uh they are going to award us up to $25,000 for that those various categories of improvements to try to make our town um more accessible to bicyclists. The only other requirement is that we participate in their learning series. Uh so that's our staff participating in the learning webinars on trail town development where they're bringing folks in that are giving us education on how to maximize uh how to maximize those opportunities. Um so sat through the first one already and actually that that's the basis of our get together with Andover and Arty as we're going to sit through the other learning webinar the the second one together and start planning our project. So, uh, with that, I'll turn it over to council for consideration of the letter of agreement.

Can you explain how the auditing and the accounting is going to take place with this if we are awarded it? You said it like we would with any of our other grants as a project fund. Yeah. So, we're not intermingling anything. So, you have a dedicated project fund. we can put their proceeds in. Um, your match, which is the money that the council had already allocated towards wayfinding, is already in another project fund. So, we'll just expend our match out of that other project fund that was for wayfinding already.

And uh, these monies will just stay in here and be expended out of this project fund. So, you just keep it separate like that. There's not a whole lot of accounting that goes into it. We'll just track all those transactions and be able to provide reports on them as needed. Mayor make a motion to approve the letter of agreement with the Sunflower Foundation for a grant $25,000 to be extended on the roaded trail gateway activation initiative. Authorize Mayor Rawlings to sign. Second. Got a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed?

Motion carries. Now we can move down to item six or mayoral recommendations for appointments to boards and committees. Staff

uh staff report speaks for itself. Um, we do have a number of committees throughout the city and I believe on that committee list, Shauna has gone through and highlighted uh the folks or the positions that were expiring and I think potentially included uh the mayor's recommended names for appointment to fill those positions. So, you can essentially look at this as a slate of candidates u with mayoral appointments. That's the only thing that's really spelled out in your code of ordinances that um outside of the park board where there's a different process spelled out where the governing body uh has the ability to make appointments. All other appointments are um at the mayor's recommendation with the the council's vote like kind of advise and consent like the senate at the federal level. That's kind of how council functions on the mayoral appointment. So, uh, consider this a a slate of candidates and you can make a motion to approve the slate as presented if you wish. I will just say Shauna did most of the work for me on this. Uh, we ran names together, but she did all the calling and footwork to chase them down. Um, we also have uh, so I think strategically you have a couple of things going on. One, you have an open form where you're always accepting applications of names of people that are interested. So, we just hang on to those. And so, when positions come available, you have potential folks that are already interested. I also believe that some of these names were um folks that had applied to uh be considered for open council seats in the past with uh when you had vacancies or something like

that. And so the uh some of them had indicated they wanted to stay involved with the city. And so sometimes boards are a way of kind of getting your foot in the door and seeing you know seeing how some aspect of the city operates. And so we kept track of those folks as well. And I believe some of them we reached out to see if they had any interest in in uh doing board positions as well. Could we not find anybody to fill the convention and tourism board seat that's vacant? My next question. Yeah, I believe that that vacancy under it's supposed to be one of the

motel. That vacancy is what I'm what am I trying to say? It's an ordinance that actually governs the makeup of that board because transient guest tax is involved. So, I believe it's actually a charter ordinance and that charter ordinance has a requirement that I believe that seat has to be a hotel owner and uh they uh at least historically have never participated. The entire time I've been here, they never participated. Now, the hotels have also turned over in the past. Um I can't recall if we had reached Shauna do you know if we had reached out to uh comfort in or anyone else to

that one um in in the last year or so council had done that a new charter ordinance that expanded the definition of of who could fill those slots. So that did pass. That's right. Yes. So, that passed. Um, and so you're I believe it's this one they're asking about right here. Yeah. So, that one we haven't found anybody yet to fill that one. Um,

so yeah. So, if you come up with any names that you'd like to submit to the mayor, you definitely can. Is there is there um I I remember us doing it but I don't remember what the guidelines were. We had to do you mind I for I forgot that we had I I think the way we changed it. Um it doesn't preclude the hotel owners. It just worded it as um the the people filling the position can come from this grouping or this category folks including hotel owners. Uh I think it was any transitoriented a transient lodging oriented business was an option.

It was intended to include the Airbnb as well. Included Air folks if they have Airbnbs as well and it can also include people that are affiliated with organizations that promote.

Yeah. So I'll have I'll pull it out and I can send it to you guys so that you have the uh the latest version. And so if you want to look for folks to to make a recommendation to fill that one, you certainly And it can it can still have I think it's five members the general public. So like on that list that's up there um Paul Belt is affiliated with the motorcycle museum. So that's a tourism thing. And then Bob Sage is affiliated with the historical um society museum. So that's another touristy thing. So, um, it might just be I'm not sure what some of the other people on that board, how they are classified. It might be that a member of the general public could be that last spot. Now,

I'll look at that and I'll verify all of that so you guys can figure out how you want to fill it. So, I got another question. Do they so do most of those Josh um do they have a regularly set a time when they meet? They meet on the second Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. Planning Commission does, Augusta Housing Authority does, library board does. Um Main Street, we haven't established this. We haven't had anything come before us. So that one's as needed. And then convention and tourism

does, but is kind of as needed as well. So they don't necessarily meet unless there's action items. Um, so all of them except the one are are on a pretty regular schedule. Could could you send us out when you get time or if you have time a list of what when those are so that we could if we want to go just attend a meeting we could that possible?

Thank you. I'd like to make a motion to approve the mayor's recommendations for appointments to boards and committees. Second. Got a motion and a second to approve these recommendations. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? I. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Shauna, for your work on those. Motion carries. Park Advisory Board appointments staff.

Yes, Mayor and Council. So, this is one of the boards that is unique uh because in the past, council has taken action to make it an appointment for this board specifically an appointment of the governing body rather than a mayoral appointment. Um, so this was actually spelled out, I believe, by a standalone ordinance years ago that created this process, but the governing body uh makes the appointments. So the the uh um the recommended names can come from anywhere and then everybody gets to vote on them including the mayor as a member of the governing body. Uh so the park advisory board, I don't think we've met in a couple of years. Uh that one really is as needed. Uh the city doesn't do much if anything in terms of programming for recreation. So a lot of times the park board has been invoked when we have a project when we're building something. So when we built the playground in uh Garvin Park, when we had all of the the pride in progress sales tax initiative stuff, when we did Castle Park, the park board was active and had quite a few meetings. We haven't met since then. uh we don't have any projects that are being considered. So, it's not one that that has a routine meeting time or even has anything coming up that I can point to that we're going to be discussing. Um but it is governing body appointment. I believe that under the ordinance, you have a couple of council members that also sit on the board that have to come off or or rotate it off after a certain period of time. And I think the staff report speaks to that. So, uh, Councilman Martin has served one term and is able to be

appointed for another year. Uh, Council Member Whiteidy, let's see, was appointed January 2026 to fill a position that was vacated by Eric Burke. So, she's eligible to be appointed for her her first full year. So, she was replacing a former council member who has who has done it in the past. Uh, says Jamie Chapen has served her two terms and must step down for three years before eligible to be reappointed. So, uh,

so, Council Member Whiteidy had requested that I contact the candidates that had applied for counsel back in January. And so, I contacted the ones that had come to the meeting and had answered questions. And we had a couple of people that were interested in serving. So, you have two people, their application should be in there in your packet that had applied to fill that one vacant. um member I mean position on the park that was Kim Williams and Jodie Hefner.

Mrs. Williams is here tonight. So, do you make a motion for Kim? Yes, I'll make a motion for Kim Williams. Second. Okay, we have a motion or second to appoint Kim Williams to the term that Jamie Chapen had. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? I. Motion carries.

And so the next question would be for the existing council members. Would you be okay continuing for an additional year? That would be to Martin and to Whitey. So, are we able to be back on it or not? Yes, we are able to go around again if we want to. You two are. Yes. I'll make it easy and say I'll be on it if you want. Only if Allison does it. I'm not doing it unless she does it. So, I would love to be on this. Oh, it's going to be so fun. Yeah. You have zero meetings. Yeah. Some some move on both of them. Second. Okay. Okay, we got a motion in a second to reappoint Mr. Martin and Mrs. Whitey. All those in favor say I. Any opposed?

Too late. Too late, Mike. Yeah, you can't. Too late. You can't back now. Are we able to vote? Yeah. Ourselves. Well, I I Yes. Motion carries. I don't want to, you know, do anything wrong. Keep me straight here. Now we're on eight resolution authorizing the use of cemetery endowment funds to pay for the purchase in installation of two column for Elm Elmwood Cemetery staff.

So mayor and council I will give you a a quick element of background on where this process comes from and then I am going to turn it over to Eric and Latasha to speak on the specific item. uh but you have established an endowment fund for your cemetery. The way endowments work is uh you essentially have money that is put into the fund and that essentially serves as your principle that generates interest income over time and tries to build up the endowment. Uh you are able to spend the interest uh on cemetery related things for improvements and upkeep without having to take any specific action whatsoever. The nature of an endowment though is is different if you're going to be spending principle. And at at this point, we're we're pretty confident that anything that you're spending beyond maybe $1,000 a year because it doesn't generate a ton of interest because it's not a sizable pot uh is probably getting into principle. And so if you're going to utilize principle from the endowment, uh then you have to pass a resolution and have the council specifically authorize it. And so over the last couple of years, you have included funding in the endowment with the plan on spending down some of that principle in order to implement the Colombarium program. Uh so that that's the reasoning for it is you were actually spending some of the principle that is in that endowment to make these improvement projects. Now with that, I'll turn it over to Erica and Latasha to speak to this specific improvement and the background on this item. I'll start then if you have anything. Okay. Okay. Um so in the 2026 budget there were funds allocated in the amount of $15,000 for two Colombia. Um this is the second year that that has been funded. Last year the quote was for 15,000 and it actually came in closer to

13,000. Um and Latasha paid for the setting of the foundation and the concrete out of her operating funds as well as some of the other expenses. Um, this year the quote came in a little bit higher at the amount of $16,298 for the the two column barrier as well as she obtained a quote for $4,300 for the two foundations and she does not have those funds specifically allocated in her operating budget. So, she's requested that both of those come from the endowment fund. Um, as Josh spoke to, there is uh there are funds available there, but twofold. Number one, you're exceeding the budget authority if you approve either or the combination of these two purchases out of there. So, if you approve this, it will require an amendment at the end of the year, but there are funds available for those purchases. Um I believe she's in the process of selling the first one out of yeah the first the first niche out of the first set of colaria that have been um set out there and so she's had a lot of interest and I think we're going to continue to get interest we're seeing more and more cremations rather than full body burials and as you know we're running out of space out there so anything we can do to encourage um the additional burials in ways um that could replenish that fund and help with the long-term care of the cemetery That's ideal.

And council, if you remember, uh one of the uh the bullet point or one of the features of the the column barrier idea was that you would price them so that they would be um kind of self- sustaining that once you sell those out, you've essentially generated the income you need to support the next build. And then you just continue to build out that way and continue to grow it um as resources come in. So the the hope is and at least the interest is has been really high and the hope is that you sell those out very fairly quickly and then you're replacing a lot of this revenue uh but then spending it right back out on on the next one to continue to expand and put more out there. So, uh, that was that was some of the logic of how you price those column barrier and the and the feedback's been good from the first install so far.

And and I did voice some concern to Latasha that we need to kind continue to monitor those costs because as you can tell, um, it went up about $4,000 just in the matter of one year. So, we want to make sure that we're pricing those at such a rate that as those costs increase, we're making enough money for the future purchases. Um, so on the agenda tonight is just the authorization for the use of those endowment funds for either both Colaria and the Concrete Foundation or just the Colarial, whichever you choose. Um, but in the future, you'll probably also see uh we'll be presenting a fee schedule resolution to address some of the fees that we've we set this back last in I think October. And so there's some new things that have popped up. We're like, oh, we don't we don't have a fee for set for that. So, we're probably in the next month or so bringing back a fee schedule that will address some of those um as we start to sell them. We'll need to get that addressed. But with that, I will turn it over for any questions to the council.

So, Erica, thank you. Do you anticipate then that sales can commence without that fee schedule or do we need to wait for that fee schedule for disclosure?

No, it it can. Um I think there was a disinterment fee which hope we don't have anybody in there yet, so that's not something we're going to have to address, but we didn't think to address that. the current code speaks to full body and inground burial um disinterment but not into the column area. So that's I think that's the one fee that we were really looking at. And then there's also the fee schedule for um for the engraving the fe CVS or whoever whoever does the the engraving has recommended that we also offer people if they want to put a picture or a um some sort of graphic on there that they can do that. The way we've addressed it in the code was they get three lines for free. We found that they're actually recommending four lines plus the pictures. So, just kind of cleaning that up a little bit, but I think we're okay for now for the selling of the spaces, but we will have to address those other things soon.

Perfect. Thanks. We're looking at location the same place as the the north end on the east side.

Sorry. I've been working on this for the past 10 years. So, um it will actually be on the same end of the or on the east side of the sidewalk on the end as well, just diagonal from where the two are right now. So, and we posted them on Facebook for the residents to see them um to show where they're setting and we've had multiple people drive by and stop and look at them and stuff. So, I'm hoping as it's getting advertised more, we can actually work those kinks out with our ordinance and stuff and start selling multiples. So, and I did purchase vases. So, our residents do have the option of putting a vase on the side of that column for their flowers. So,

can I ask a question? Is the mausoleum full? So, we have 13 spaces that are open, but they're all sold. So, families already own all of that mausoleum. They just haven't used their spaces yet. No new Yeah, we don't sell anything in that mausoleium. Okay. And we are working with our um cemetery software people to have this it it's not going to be mapped exactly like the rest of the cemetery is. But we are going to add that feature with these and the mausoleum so that people can identify who's buried in which colarium. They may not see the actual photo, but and the information, it'll show which one of the four that the burials are in and what the numbers and spaces are and names and any genealogical information we have. So,

great.

And there there are flowers and stuff planted around them right now. So, we plan on doing more shrubs and stuff around them to make them more stand out. So, um, and to address the lines, um, that is the the four lines is what they recommend because it's the name, the the first and last name, the date of birth, and date of death. Um, the pictures just kind of included if they don't want their uh, spot to be blank. They want to add some kind of picture, but there are pictures that they offer us to show to the residents. So, they pick out what they're choosing, but at the cost to them. I would suggest for sure the cost to the resident. Yeah. And I think that what we had originally thought was they would put last name, first name on one line. And what they've actually recommended is they do the family last name and then three lines for each burial with the first name and the date of death.

Um so that the last name's just listed once.

Any other questions? No. Latasha, I know you've worked on this for a long time, so thank you. You're welcome. It's been Have you sold any yet or? So, I am in the process with the state of Kansas to sell my first one. Um, I can't disclose any of the information on on that burial. Um, but I have had another family that has asked to be the first ones to purchase the other two that you guys are actually voting on tonight. Um, they're ready to purchase two of them. So, that's why I'm trying to get started on it. I didn't know the niche but one column or one.

So it's the two columns and then it's two columns on the other side as well. So each column holds uh it can hold 24 burials um because there's 12 on each side. So actually you can double it. I'm sure you'll start selling a lot more since you I've had people from out of state call. Um at that time we haven't had it in the computer so I couldn't sell them because we don't we didn't have it in the computer but now that we're getting it um into our programming software we can start selling them. So cool. Thanks. I just like to say I think that Augusta can be very proud of the cemetery that we have. You've taken a very good Thank you. very very nice job out there. Thank you very much for what you've done. Every year we try to hire people that will do the job that we asked them to do. So

well kept. Yeah.

If I could add to that, I I um had a family member contact me this last week that um has been working with Latasha and things. Again, I won't re reveal who that was, but they were very, very complimentary of the work that she does out there and the work she did with them as a family and things. Very uh respectful, very they felt so good with what they did. Their exact words were that Natasha is a um is a a great example of Augusta and uh very much were very much appreciated to what she did and things. So, thank you Latasha for all that you do out there and stuff. It makes a big difference.

It's really filling up out there. I mean, hardly she helped me find my two spots. It Erica, we haven't voted on this yet, have we? No, there's not been a motion yet. I was getting ready to make one. K started talking. Do we do we need to I just got a quick question. Do we need to at any time think about this and put in your back your mind. I hate to I hate to do this, but a traffic a deterrent or anything. I mean, I would just hate for somebody to come through there sometime and run into one of those. That would be a mess.

Right. headston. Um it's going to take a lot to get that to knock over and you won't demolish your do if one know it's just one one headstone. If it's this has got 12 on each side that just like I said that would be a mess. That's why we want to do the stuff on the sides of it so we can have something that's more structured. Absolutely. An archway that we had proposed it would be structured. Thank you. Sorry. Go ahead.

They do have decorative ballards and things if you wanted something heavy. I mean, you think about like the round balls that are outside of Target. That's what those are for. They're they're not simply decorative. It's to stop cars from going into target. That's why you have like a 600lb concrete ball. Yeah. Now, cars can still hit those and send those things flying, too. But it's just meant to it's it's more so meant to stop some of the slower moving things than than really fast moving vehicles. But, um, they do have things that you could do like that that are maybe worth looking at at least right out by the roadway, right? And, uh, we we can at least investigate it for you and let you know if we find something.

I'm with Kip. I'm with Kip on that, though. I think that'd be worth looking into. You know, now that you brought it up, you shouldn't have. It's out there for ideas. True. I'm going to make a motion to approve resolution number 2026-08 authorizing the use of funds in the cemetery endowment fund fund 11 to pay for the cost associated with the purchase and installation of two column barrier for Elmwood Cemetery in the amount of $20,598. Second. Hang on. I think we got to change it to eight. Says seven. This one says eight. It says seven, but it's got to be eight. 2026-08. You said you said eight though, right? I said eight. I read it off the paper.

Okay. Thank you. Second. Got a motion in a couple seconds. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Second. Okay, that moves us down to matters from and for council and I'll go to the city manager first.

Consent decree.

Yes, mayor council. So, we've added uh you made a motion at the beginning of the meeting to add this item to the agenda. The reason being is we have a deadline coming up and we don't have another meeting uh before that deadline and I had the hard copy that was mailed to me that was sitting on my desk and I forgot to get it included in the packet that I had sent out on Friday. Uh so what this is is a consent decree uh um essentially an agreement with KDHE and what they're asking us to do to bring everything to a close is to pay a fine uh $3,750. What the fine is for is for renewal of one of our permits. our operating permit for the uh the power plant number two. Uh we were about a month ahead of the expiration date when our staff was working on uh the renewal for it, but the law says that it has to be renewed 6 months before the expiration date. And uh this is a permit that we only get every 5 years. So our our staff that is in these positions now had never done it before and hadn't been trained on that and was not aware of that requirement in the law. Um and so uh I think that's completely honest mistake. And the other interesting element of it is that's only a requirement because we're under the class one permit which based on our operations we do not even have to be under. And so we had asked about, hey, can we change to the class two permit? Uh but um that if we're going to do that, I think you have to have this cleared up first. They won't allow that to be done as a solution to this. Um so in the future, if we're able to get to that class two, then I don't think this ever comes up again in in that way. Uh but for right now, the resolution is for us to enter into the consent decree. Uh

the fine is $5,000. they've reduced it to 3,750 and in exchange they essentially uh say that covers all penalty for the uh the violation and again the violation was that we did not submit the renewal 6 months ahead of expiration. So, uh, uh, our staff is here if you have any questions on it. Again, we've we've obviously noted that so we don't make that mistake again. But I think if we go that route to the class two, it may not even be a mistake that we could make in the future. I I'm reading that where uh the state didn't contact you letting you know that it was due.

They they stopped. Our staff asked about that because there's other permits and things that we have to apply for throughout the year to KDHE and they asked why didn't we get a a renewal notice or an indicator uh that that was coming up and KDH said two and a half years ago they stopped providing reminders to to folks on those renewals. So KDH has stopped providing that and it's entire it's it's our responsibility to I was still getting them last year as a environmental and health safety specialist. Yeah. But uh

so that that's what they told us. They just they don't do that anymore. And it may just be a staffing issue for them or a tracking issue. Whatever reason they just type of companies, too. But all right, if you already asked about it, that's Yeah. Yeah. And we made sure to tell KP so they could share that with all the member other member cities so they can learn from our example and not make that mistake and in case any of them were waiting on the same reminders.

Yeah, I know like some of them that were even yearly they they said they stopped reminding them but they were yearly so that was easy to remember five years. So, I'll make a motion to approve the KDHE consent decree and authorize city manager to sign. Got a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Josh, did you have anything else? Did you have anything else under matters from and for

matters for from I just wanted to look at your schedule and see if you guys were okay with May 11th. So, our next Monday as a possible budget work session date. I won't be able to be here, but next Monday for work session

because I don't believe we're going to have any other Mondays this month. I think last Monday's holiday weekend and third Monday we're all we're here already. So, this is our only chance to meet this month unless you pick a date that's not Monday. council. Fine with me. I won't be able to be here that day, but that's fine. I'll be working to pick it all week. Everybody else okay with the 11th okay with it. Josh, is this like a strategic session starting early? No, this is the start of our budget meeting. So, these will be enterprise funds, special purpose funds. You're actually doing fun start time

at 5:30 if you're good with that. We we have been meeting at 5:30 instead of uh our normal 7:00 times. And if you're happy with that, then we are get out of here a little bit earlier. Mhm. We need a motion, right, to schedule it. Yes. Make a motion to schedule a budget work session on May 11th, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. at the city hall. Second. Got a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. Any opposed? Motion carries. So, Mr. Martin, do you have anything to add tonight? Two things, please. Okay. Hold on.

I wanted to compliment Go Augusta for the burgers on the bricks. It turned out really nice. It was a little chilly that evening. The wind blew a little bit, but uh there was quite a good turnout. I think they did a great job cooking the burgers and u they were good. And then I wanted to make a mention that uh this the uh the 7th of this week um is the day of national prayer. It's like the 75th year and um just thought I'd make a mention. That's all I have. Mr. Mayor, thank you. Okay. Nothing, sir. Bob,

were you able to look at or find anything else about uh handling the people asking for money on those street corners? I had not. I was in and out a lot this week, so I need to get back on that. All right, Mr. Scott, I've got a couple things. Uh number one, um had a great turnout for the putt putt that redbud and park park bench pen up. It was good to see beautiful weather and all the people going up and down the street. It was really nice to see. My second question, are those flower pots that used to be out there? Are they for sale? Not yet.

Okay. Just curious. I' I've been get blown up on that. Well, I know we're short-handed. I want to thank you for getting out and get that grass cut on Main Street. I appreciate that. They got that done. So, thank you for that. I don't know who that was, but they assumed it was the city. So, thank you and I appreciate it. And last, we got the flying coming in at the airport. Um, it's going to be a special special time. I've got a little fly here on I'll read it really quickly. And it's going to be maybe I won't, but it's going to be the it's going to be the seventh and the eighth. Eth,

excuse me, eth and the nth. And it's going to be on Friday night we're having the 80s night. It's going to be the country night on Saturday, but also we're having the airport. We There's a our new uh tenants out there. They're on Friday starting at 4:00. They're having a barbecue out there to show off their new place. And so, you need to get out and see it. It's really nice. It's first class. They're selling airplanes out there. And they're even had talks about the possibility of expanding out there. So, that's all they got. Is that this week? Yeah, that's Friday and Saturday. That's Friday and Saturday. Yeah. That new hanger door looks nice. Yeah, it's it's nice. They put a lot of money into the whole place. If you can get there, Jake, please do. Chip,

uh just a reminder to everyone in the especially public, uh this weekend or week, we're going to have the part of the 250th celebration. The Freedom Truck semi will be coming into on the 6th to the high school parking lot. They'll set up and then be open May the 7th and 8th from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 pm each day. And uh it really if you've gone out and seen the video and things on there, it really is pretty awesome. It's got some very interactive things in there. I've tried to invite all the different schools and different communities and things to come over to it and things as well as some of our kids that uh learn at home and things and uh so but I think it's going to be really really awesome. But you see the video on the screen up there. It's pretty pretty awesome. So, there's a lot going on with our 250th celebration that uh Priscilla and her group, which Kip's part of, have been planning. So, try and pay attention to Facebook uh to see all the stuff that's coming up.

It's going to be awesome. And also thank you to Erica and your group group for putting the uh the announcements or the the schedule in the uh city bills this month and stuff for that. So thank you. Yeah, David, nothing for me. Um a few things. One, there's a street sign that's gone missing in our neighborhood. It's not on the ground or anything. It's just gone. So we live in Stonegate. Um yeah, Stone Lake. And it's we have a pool house and across from the pool house there should be a street sign right there and it's just gone. So somebody

I think our it's possible I already know about that. It's possible we've already ordered that. I have a vague recollection of talking with Anthony already and I think that's ordered but

a few people brought up the fact that it seems to have gone missing. Um, the second thing is, and I'm not even sure that this is a city council thing that we could fix, but people have brought it to me, is that in our neighborhood, and also David, those surrounding neighborhoods, there is a group of kids on dirt bikes just riding on the sidewalks, speeding around the streets on them, riding into people's yards, and causing ruts. I know the police have been called several times. Um, I'm not sure what else there is to do, but I did say that I would uh put it out there that it is a safety a pretty big safety concern for that's the process. Continue to notify safety officers whenever we said so.

I did notice that last week there were two that were pulled over on Arnold by an officer. So, the officer has made contact and there was a parent. Yeah, I have seen him make them make contact as well. So, I know out there, but still seems to be an issue. Right. Jake, did you have one more? You said no, that was it. Okay. Nothing, sir. Make a motion to journ this meeting. Second. Second. Got a motion and a second to adjurnn. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Thank you.