City Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call our meeting to order. It's Monday, August 17th of 2026. And would you join me in the flag salute?

I pledge allegiance to the flag

so pastor paul andrews from freedom church was supposed to be here tonight but the fish must be biting since he's not here so join me in prayer please father god we come before you and we thank you for the freedom that you've allowed us to grow up in in this country and we just come to you tonight and ask for wisdom and usually there's a lot of knowledge given to us and we ask for wisdom to discern it correctly and help vote on it correctly and guide the city correctly we thank you for the opportunity that we have to live here in this great land and then father just we would ask for a couple inches of rain over the next week if we could get that here in augusta and the surrounding close area and uh We just thank you again for your mercy and your goodness. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. With that, that moves us down to looking at approving the minutes from our last city council meeting. Council?

I move for the approval of the minutes of the August 3rd, August 3rd, 2026 city council meeting. Check it. Got a motion and a second.

All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion carries. It moves us down to our appropriation ordinance number eight, dated August 12th.

I move for the approval of the appropriation ordinance number eight, dated August 12th, 2026. Second.

Got a motion and a second to approve that ordinance. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion carries. Moves us into our visitor section and Jamie Barton of the Daughters of the American Revolution is here for a presentation, so I'll turn it over to her.

Make sure my mics on this time.

Can you hear me OK?

Okay. So I was here in February. Last time I was here was presenting on behalf of the America 250 Committee. We hope you all enjoyed the events that we had leading up to that. So today, what was part of that discussion was the veterans banners that we had. And you all approved that we could do that along Ohio Street and potentially on 7th Street. So today we're back and I'm asking to add an additional 30 polls potentially. Those polls would be on the second and third block of Main Street. And then, of course, along 7th Street. 7th Street only has, I believe, we have seven polls available there. And then in the second and third blocks have six polls on Main Street. And then if you approve of that, we'd like to additionally add to go along Kelly West from Ohio, if that's something. So we're asking for an additional 30 polls. Frank with the parks department has given us a link to the clamps and brackets that are needed. They were at $37. It looks like the price has gone up to about $38. So the cost is going to be over a thousand dollars. So it'd be, it looks like 11,000 or sorry, excuse me, $1,140 potentially. So we're asking the city to pick up that cost for those brackets and the clamps. Those of course would stay on the polls. They could be used for anything additional besides the veterans banners as well. And I do want to also let you know that we already have a wait list of 18 additional banners right now. We have three polls left on Ohio Street, but again, we'd like to add those additional polls, but Main and Seventh Street would not cover the 18 we have waiting.

Yeah, Mayor and Council, I wanted to bring this back to you because I'm trying to remember back to the original ask because I don't know that in the original ask that the city had a cost other than the labor for install, but we did end up having a cost. A lot of the poles that we needed to put the banners on didn't have either the right brackets or didn't have brackets. And so we did end up spending money the first time around. And so when the additional request came in, I didn't feel comfortable doing more unless we came back to the council and asked. I don't remember the total we've spent already on brackets, but maybe in the 500, 600 range, does that sound about right? And so this adds 1,100 to that, plus whatever the labor is to install. I don't know if the labor on these poles is much different than the others. Okay. Can you, staff, can you speak to, what did you say there was 30?

We're asking for 30 additional polls.

30 additional polls. Any idea on timeframe on how long that takes to install? So that's the workload that you're approving in addition to the $1,100 cost. So I just wanted you to be aware of it because I don't believe there was a cost asked with the initial request.

We have had a lot of positive feedback from the city. We've made posts about it and the community is very appreciative of these banners. The DAR has gone and talked to the VFW and American Legion as well. So it is something that we'd like to see that we could continue to happen along with all that's already up. We're getting a lot of great feedback from that.

Are you going to allow us to take those down and put up the Christmas banners?

Absolutely. So, um, the initial agreement and we still stand by that was to do it in may and in November. Um, so of course they're up right now, which is wonderful. And I know that the city is enjoying having those up and, and that's fine. As long as we, what our agreement is with the people who are purchasing them is that they would be displayed twice a year, may and November, and they would be displayed for two years, um, for, so they would get it up four different times in those two years. and then they receive those banners back.

Okay. Thank you. Frank, did you have anything that you want to add to this?

Well, I want to thank you, Jamie. I think it's a fantastic program, and I think it really gives guests of the hometown feel that it really deserves.

Yeah, we think so, too.

I'll make a motion to approve the request for $1140 for brackets, clamps for the poles on 2nd and 3rd block of 7th, Main and Kelly avenues west from Ohio.

Second.

Got a motion and a second. Any other questions? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jamie. Jamie, while you're there, would you kind of give a little bit update of our last meeting, what we discussed? Sure. Do you mind?

Put me on spot here.

I did.

So we had one last America 250 committee meeting. Well, what I thought was maybe one last. We had a lot of positive feedback from the things that we did in the community. And so we kind of discussed a little bit some of the The people on the committee would like to see some of these things continue. A couple of things were the reenactors that we did have in the community church service that led up the weekend prior to. And so potentially we'd like to continue with the committee and maybe see some of those things happen again so that they continue and it become kind of something that we do here in Augusta. I'll kick off the weekend before the 4th of July to lead into the events that happened and of course the parade.

that the chamber would be in charge of awesome thank you very much thank you and just an fyi we've got just enough council people for a quorum in case anybody's wondering so we are legal tonight let's see are there any other visitors here that aren't already on the agenda OK, let's move into our business items. An item one is the public hearing regarding the 2026 CDBG application resolution certifying authority to apply for CDBG program and the resolution assuring funds will be provided for sidewalk maintenance. So staff.

Yes, Rosemary, do we need to open the hearing first or can I give a staff report?

We need to close the council meeting and open the public hearing.

And then I give my staff report during the hearing?

Yes.

So turn it over to you, Mayor. So we normally don't close the meeting. We just open the public hearing. So I declare the public hearing open.

Okay. Mayor and Council, the action item here tonight, as you're aware, is related to our application that we are putting into the Community Development Block Grant Program for sidewalk rehabilitation repairs in our existing neighborhoods. If you go back to the sales tax vote that the community voted on, the primary change in that sales tax vote was wording related to use of the sales tax funding for sidewalk rehabilitation, sidewalk repairs. And as you're aware, we have not had dedicated revenue sources for sidewalk repairs in the past. And so when the community voted on that, they gave us authorization to start utilizing revenue to make those improvements. Rosemary and her firm did surveys to verify that we would qualify under the low to moderate income requirements to meet all the CDBG regulations, just to verify that we were eligible. Started off with, I believe, a mail survey that did not get the numbers that we needed, and so that turned into a door-to-door survey. Subsequently, we presented our Our pre-application, we presented our estimates to the state, got clearance to move forward to preliminary engineering report, which our engineer had been working on up through this point. And so the next step in the process is this public hearing where we get to take any comment, feedback from the public regarding the proposed project. And then we can submit the transcript of those communications along with our application when we turn that in to the state. There's no guarantee that we get the grant, but we've followed all of the steps and have gotten this far along, and we'll actually have the chance to be considered for award. The scope of the project has previously been discussed with the community through our social media, through our website. I believe that there is a graphic map showing the area that was identified, surveyed, and we have engineering estimates prepared to take us as far as the money would take us. We don't expect that there's enough money that we could get from the grants to do the whole area. So we're going to have to likely focus on a smaller area. So the engineers have adjusted their cost estimates accordingly to try to maximize the available grant dollars. And then you are proposing to utilize your street sales tax money as the local match portion. And yeah, from there, I think Rosemary is gonna continue helping us with the application process to try to get it all the way through submittal. And then we just cross our fingers and hope we have a chance at getting a positive award letter. With that, Rosemary, can you describe the rest of the process through the hearing tonight?

the resolutions and then maybe what comes next once they've taken public comment all right good evening mayor and council i'm glad to be back in front of you to discuss this project um as josh has said is we have a basically a target area in the city that we're looking at doing these sidewalk improvements on After the public hearing tonight, there is a new caveat that we have a 10-day waiting period in case there is any public comment off of the public hearing tonight that we would need to address before we submitted the application. The due date of this application would be September the 20th or any time before that. is we are looking at a project cost of $1,874,948 with a grant request of $1,406,211. The balance of that would be what the city would provide off of the sales tax, which is $468,737. Once we close the public hearing, the council would need to consider two resolutions to move forward on the application. One states that you have the legal authority to submit the application, which is resolution 202612. The other resolution is stating to CDBG that you will maintain those improvements once they're done. We know that you have a budget item in your city budget to take care of the sidewalks and that under the sales tax. so we can show that the city will continue to maintain those sidewalks afterwards. There is some other forms that the mayor will need to sign, but that first resolution gives him the authority to go ahead and sign the potential environmental review determination, the disclosure report, which covers our dollars and cents that we're talking about. anti displacement resolution, which we are not asking anybody to move or be relocated due to this project. Once the application is submitted, they have 30 days to review the application. If any additional information is required, they will let us know. So hopefully by mid October, we will know whether or not we are funded.

Okay. Well, with that, I will close the public hearing and ask the council to vote on resolution number 2026-12. You want to inquire if anyone in the audience wants to make any comments? Is there anybody in the crowd that wanted to make comments? Okay. So officially now the public hearing is closed.

Go ahead.

I move for the approval of resolution number 2026-12, certifying legal authority to apply for the 2026 CDBG program and authorizing the mayor to sign and submit the application. Second.

Got a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye.

aye any opposed motion carries and move down to the resolution number 13. i move for the approval of resolution number 2026-13 assuring the kansas department of commerce that funds will be continually provided for the operation and maintenance of improvements to the sidewalk system financed with cdbg funds second got a motion and a second

All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. That's a good question. Rosemary. Mr. Richardson has a question, so you might want to answer it from there.

I will try and answer it, sir.

I was going to get in between there, but sorry, I didn't get in time. I just want to know how long is the city indebted to maintain those sidewalks? Is that forever? Is this for 10 years, 20 years?

Pretty much indefinitely is I know at least at a minimum of five years because that is basically, it's been a cutoff point that if something has transpired in those five years, you have to repay a portion of the grant back to the state. So at minimum, at least five years, but hopefully they will go a lot longer than that since they're concrete sidewalks.

and i can't see it's not taken care of but i just right now it's a very good question sir all right thank you very much you are welcome thank you okay number business item number two the one step preliminary and final plat for jnn headquarters edition staff

All right, thank you, Council. So the plot we have before us today is a property that's owned by J&N Leasing LLC. It's the current site of Allen's Excavating. The total property is just under 21 acres and is located within city limits. The plot request was initiated to facilitate construction of a new larger headquarter building. There is a current existing headquarter building kind of lower as the kind of in the southeastern section, what is known as lot one. That building will be removed and then rebuilt with a slightly larger footprint. The plat request is going to create two lots from the existing parcel. The boundary between the two is going to reflect the absorption of the former railroad right of way after it was disclaimed by the county. So lot one is going to be the smaller lot there where the mouse is just under three acres. That's the site of the current headquarter building where they will remove it and rebuild. The larger section is the existing site of the industrial land use operations anticipated on location there. The plat is primarily intended to dedicate utility easements that will allow for proper development of the site. There will be a private utility easement as well as multiple public utility easements. It will be a lot easier to see on the color coordinated image there. Yes. the plat boundaries and easements aligned with the city's comprehensive plan and supports development along key corridors in accordance with long-range planning goals and then on august 12th the planning commission met and unanimously recommended approval of this plat so that's kind of a quick overview there i will stand for questions i think my only question i know we've always had drainage issues is this going to hinder any of the projects that we got going on to fix the drainage It won't hinder anything. The additional 900 square feet of impervious surface is going to be less than 1% of strictly lot one. So once you factor in the fact that lot two is roughly 18 acres, it's really going to have no impact on drainage. There is a potential KDOT plan that the city's kind of working with. to maybe add some drainage over along the eastern side of the property. But since that's kind of an ongoing project, we didn't want to get too involved with that in order to not goof up that process.

So the culvert going under the highway that KDOT is studying, we didn't want to interfere with anything they do. And since like Sam said, there's not a lot of impervious surface that's being added for this project. They're really just wanting to build in the same footprint. We had a drainage memo submitted, but if there are any other additional buildings that are built on either one of these lots, there will need to be the actual drainage plan and study. We just thought if they went ahead and did a drainage planning study, it's gonna all change when KDOT comes in and does improvements to that east side and then puts a culvert under the highway. So we didn't wanna interfere with any of that process right now.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions, guys? I'd entertain a motion.

I move for the approval of case number 2026-09, a one-step preliminary and final plat for J&N Headquarter, in addition as recommended by the Planning Commission.

Second. Got a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Okay. Resolution of support for Redbud Ridge Housing Investor Tax Credit. Staff? Yes.

Mayor and Council, before you is a resolution that is related to Redbud Ridge. THIS RESOLUTION WAS PREVIOUSLY APPROVED BY CITY COUNCIL LAST YEAR ON SEPTEMBER 5TH, WHICH SUPPORTED TINNOCK INVESTMENTS, WHO IS THE DEVELOPER OF RED BUD RIDGE, TO APPLY FOR THE HOUSING INVESTOR TAX CREDIT PROGRAM. SINCE THAT TIME, THE PROJECT HAS ADVANCED THROUGH THE CITY'S DEVELOPMENT PROCESS AND THROUGH THE RHID PROCESS, AND THEN WE HAVE ADDITIONAL ITEMS ON THE AGENDA THIS EVENING AS WELL. The developer is requesting that this resolution be updated since it is a year old so they can resubmit it to the Housing Resource Center. So I'm happy to stand for any questions. I know we have the developers here too. Otherwise, I'd recommend approval of the resolution. Council.

make a motion to approve resolution number 2026-14 authorizing the preparation and submission of an application against housing resources corporation for the housing investor tax credit program in support of ten oak investments llc spreadbud ridge housing development second second got a motion and seconds all those in favor say aye aye any opposed motion carries

Item 4, approval of quote from no walk for the water line repair underneath the highway out here. Staff?

Yes, Mayor and Council, in recent weeks we had notified you that we were not done with all of our work trying to get the transmission line to Mulvane leak free. There was another leak that was discovered under Highway 77. And we've just been waiting for it to be evaluated enough to determine a cost. And that cost came back from NOAC. So NOAC, just for historical reference, they're a company that we have used quite a bit that specialize in the boring projects. They have done work for us under both rivers. on water lines. They have done work, I believe, on a large storm sewer line that went under the railroad. They've done work on another line that I'm blanking right now on what it was, but it's something that they specialize in. And they have routinely won those bids from us in the past. There's not a lot of companies in the area that do that type of work. And so on an emergency basis, a lot of times We contact them and work with them directly. They came back with a quote of $250,900. The location of that line is part of the issue and why the cost is so high. It is down here at the Highway 77 railroad crossing. in Railroad Right-of-Way, but it goes under the state highway. And in that location, the line is somewhere between 30 and 36 feet deep. And so their proposed project is to bore in an encasement pipe and then have another pipe that runs through that encasement pipe. The reason you add the encasement, which does add cost, is If you ever have to get to that in the future, then you're able to remove the inner pipe easy and the encasement pipe stays in place. So if you ever had to repair that again, then it's an easier repair. So that's generally recommended at all of those various crossings, the river crossings, highways, railroads, you get similar recommendations. The staff report walks you through the proposed financing plan. As you recall, we had to do rate adjustments to try to stabilize the water utility recently. And those rate adjustments haven't been in place long enough to generate money to pay for this project. And so we have to come up with a way to cover that cost to NOAC, which will likely incur within the next 60 to 90 days. The recommendation that we had is essentially utilize your existing budget structure and your capital improvement fund 16 has two different revenue sources that go into it. That is part of the local sales tax, but then also part of your electric revenues go into that as well. And that supplements your various capital projects throughout town. Our recommendation was to go ahead and increase the amount of the electric revenue transfer into that fund. And then, as you recall, through our rate process, we were going to be going through a rate study with a consultant to establish final rates for the water utility. And once those are established, we recommend that you build these costs into that with whatever other rate adjustments they recommend and essentially reimburse that electric transfer over time so that they're not out that money. So it utilizes the existing structure you have in your budget. There's nothing different there. It's just a different amount. But then the recommendation is you have the water utility reimburse electric for those costs over time. So that's essentially two actions is one would be approving the quote from NOAAWC so they could get the work started. And as you saw in the recommended action, it's approving that quote of $250,900 plus the cost for the statutory bond. We just had the conversation with council and with our auditors about the statutory bond on a previous project. And so this This project also exceeds that $100,000 threshold, so there's a statutory bond that comes with it, and as of the writing of the staff report, we didn't have the dollar figure from NOAC yet. Normally, it can be as low as a few hundred max, maybe a couple of thousand dollars that it adds to the total cost, but that statutory bond is your performance protection on the contract, so That's why the wording is written as it is for $250,900 plus the cost of the statutory bond. In addition, with your motion, you would essentially be approving the proposed financing plan that I've laid out. So you're essentially authorizing us to do what I've suggested with increasing that transfer and then building back the repayment over time with your future water rate adjustments. With that, I'll turn it over to council for any questions that you may have.

Council.

Is there any estimate on the statutory bond, what that's going to cost? Just an estimate. I would say with no walks record, it's probably about 2% at the max.

2% of the contract? Yeah, I think it'll be a few thousand.

Josh, is this the last water line that goes to Mulvane that we're going to have to mess with for a little while?

Is this the last water? I mean, there's only one water line. It's the last leak that we know of. Okay. So, yeah, I mean, that's the best way I can answer it. That's good enough. What I can tell you is, yeah, what I can tell you historically, you have done repairs at a lot of the major crossings. So the The river was recently repaired. We did a repair on, I want to say it was at the Andover Road crossing in Rose Hill. That was a major line. We did that one a few years ago, and now you're doing Highway 77. So, I mean, I can never tell you that an underground line is not going to break somewhere else, but I can tell you you've done repairs at a lot of the major crossings on this one in the last few years. Did the one down on Thunder too, didn't we? And again, these recent issues, we relate back to that situation that we had with the railroad and with the permitting and that line sitting not pressurized for the better part of a year. And we think that that's what led to kind of a cascade of multiple repairs that we've been chasing. Any contact with them about this at all?

Contact with them in what way?

them about this leak no like you did with the other one i mean no i mean in the other one we came up with a joint financing plan and and we've kind of we are still working our way through that one getting all of that stuff paid off so i did not propose that again but again that that was not them financing the project that was them fronting some of their payments we're still on the hook for all of the costs for that contract. So.

I'll make a motion to approve the proposal from NOAA in the amount of $250,900 plus the cost for statutory bond to repair a leak in the Mulvane water distribution line beneath highway 77 near the railroad crossing and authorize a supplemental transfer to the capital improvement fund 16 to pay for the project and to replenish that fund back out of the new water rate plan.

Second got a motion and a second any other questions. All those in favor say aye aye any opposed. Motion carries. Item number five the fee schedule resolution establishing certain fees for Elmwood Cemetery staff.

Mayor and council, this is the proposal to the changes to the fee schedule resolution are just pertaining to the cemetery itself. The first has to do with the opening and closing fees for the mausoleum. We rarely have burials that take place in there. but there was one coming up and we got to looking and it's not actually in the fee schedule resolution. Some research showed that it was in the original city code, but when we changed from having the fees in the code to the fee schedule resolution, that fee was not included. So the request is to include a fee for that. And the amount is based on where the burial is. Sorry, I had it on a separate page. If it is on an end cap, it would be 500 and a side cap is 600, which is the same fee that it was set at before, which the cemetery sexton agreed that that's still a sufficient fee to cover our costs. The second fee that we're requesting be added is the disinterment of a call of burial. You'll recall two years ago you authorized the purchase of two of them, and then this year you authorized the purchase of two additional ones. The first burial occurred in July, and with that very first burial, the question was, okay, if at some point in the future we decide we want to disinter, what does that cost? and we had not established a fee for that so um the cemetery sexton reviewed what their costs would be associated with that and then looked at what some other communities were charging and they proposed the disinterment fee of 500 along with the disinterment if they do that they may not want to reuse that space they may want to sell it and we do allow other people to sell the rights of burial within the cemetery there's some paperwork that has to take place but that's a private transaction and the city does not buy those spaces back And so we thought it would be fair to offer them that opportunity as well for these. However, there's additional cost because with a disinterment of a burial space, you just refill the space and that's the end of the cost. the niches, we have to actually remove the permanent placement of the cover. And so that would have to be replaced as well in the future if someone wanted to reuse it. So the request was to add a fee for that to replace that niche cover and then whatever the engraving costs are. The problem is we don't know what that cost is going to be in the future. So if we set a fee now, it can change multiple times moving forward. And so the recommendation was just to set that as the actual cost at the time of engraving and replacement of material. So it'd be just the materials and actual costs. And then we've also had Latasha, the cemetery sexton said she'd had some requests for vases to be placed on the columbarium. And that is common in some areas. And so she checked to see what other communities were using and what that cost is. And she compared it to what we do with our shepherd hooks, where we will sell the shepherd hooks to ensure that they're at the right height installed properly. And they charged $10 for that. And she thought that $10 was a sufficient, excuse me, sufficient fee for a vase as well. so all of those if approved will be the only changes on this fee scheduled resolution and the revenue generated from those go to the general fund to reimburse our operating costs and so with that i will turn it over for any questions council i have one um have we always and why are we involved in the engraving fee or why why are they why are we having them why i guess we don't do that on other but i why we're down these so with that was when we established a fee for the columbarium that in the that fee includes the niche itself the cover and then engraving up to a certain number of lines so that's already laid out in the fee schedule resolution that the cost when they buy that space they're pre-paying for all of those costs and we established that fee based off of what the um the companies that do that work for is what they recommended we have so that we could cover that cost to ourselves.

So, so do we have a certain standard set so that they're all written out so that they're all, they'll are standard or?

Yeah, it's one company that we will work with specifically. And that's part of the reason why we include that because then we can make sure that's consistent. If they're paying different people to come in, it could be inconsistent and be different and, They can add additional lines and they can add an image to that if they want to for an additional cost on some of that stuff. But they still have to work with the vendor that we work with and they've actually prepaid for that. So that's the only reason why if they decide to resell their space, we're asking that there be a fee because that has not been paid for it. That first engraving already happened. And so we're requesting that they pay for it again.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Scrum act motion approve the fee scheduled resolution number 2026 dash 15 establishing fees for the opening closing Muslim spaces disinterment of columbarium burials engraving of columbarium niche following disinterment and the purchase and installation of columbarium basis second.

Got a motion and a second all those in favor say aye aye any opposed motion carries. Item six, ordinance updating municipal court costs and fees, staff.

Mayor and council, the request before you is to consider increasing the cost of municipal court fees. This is a fee that the judge assesses whenever there's someone who violates a city ordinance, unless they're found not guilty and then they don't have to pay those fees. And this fee is the cost court costs are used to defray the costs associated with the operation of municipal court, as well as any fees that we have to pay to the state of Kansas. Work costs were last reviewed and increased in 2015. Previously they were 35 and increased to $70 by ordinance 2075. which the council approved in January of 2015. Of that $70 that we now collect, the state of Kansas, we are required to remit $23.50 of that to them, which means we only receive $46.50 per case. And it's insufficient to cover the operating cost of the court. The staff time and resources required for each case, including the judge, the prosecutor, any of the law enforcement officers, the court clerks, public defenders, it varies from case to case. However, like I said, that 4650 really isn't sufficient to cover those costs. Since 2015, our court operation expenditures have increased by more than 250%. The increases include salary adjustments, the addition of a part-time court clerk position to help with the load of cases, and the more recent appointment of a new municipal judge who is at a significantly higher rate than what we were paying the previous judge. I asked the court clerk to survey several of our surrounding communities to compare their court costs with the ones assessed by the city of Augusta. The survey indicated that our cost of $70 was significantly lower than the most comparable communities. The average cost across those communities were $90. and notably and over in el dorado both of their fees are set at ninety dollars and they share the same municipal judges we as the city of augusta does and i did provide a breakdown of what those communities are charging we are the lowest on the list wellington was at 71 but all the others were significantly higher Based on that survey and the evaluation of the actual costs associated with operating municipal court, staff would recommend increasing the fee from $70 to $90. The court clerk did discuss that with the municipal judge and the city prosecutor, and both approved the staff's recommendations. We also intend to review this on a more ongoing basis instead of letting it go 11 years like we did this time. It's probably going to be every couple of years to look at those costs. Staff also, when we were looking at the fees, buying some fees, it was found that we had been charging $15 for a failure to appear letter that they sent out. The current court clerk is not sure when that changed or how that changed or why it changed, but it's more in line with the time that staff spends, the cost of postage. and all of that that goes along with that. So she felt that that $15 fee was sufficient. So the change in the ordinance formalizes what we have been doing for a number of years. Staff is also doing a more comprehensive review of all of our fines and fees for the violations that are established in city code. see if there are ones that are lower than other communities her preliminary check there's some that are lower there are some that are higher in different communities set their fees different um even el dorado and andover are drastically different and then she looked at johnson county and their court costs which what we're proposing are closer to like 100 and 200 but their fines their fines and fees are i'm sorry i said that backwards their fines and fees are significantly lower but they they put all of that up front on the court costs as well. So it's not really apples to apples, but trying to look at what the comparable communities in this area are doing just to make sure that we are actually covering our costs that are associated with everything that goes into those court cases and YOU'LL RECALL DURING THE BUDGET CONVERSATIONS THAT WE'VE DISCUSSED THE FINES AND FEES FOR A NUMBER OF YEARS. AND AS PART OF THE BUDGET RECOMMENDATION FOR NEXT YEAR, THERE'S AN INCREASE OF $45,000 IN ADDITIONAL REVENUE INTO THE FINES AND FEES LINE ITEM. And this proposed change based off of what we received last year would increase that by about $10,000. So there's still $35,000 that we would have to look at. But this fee or this court cost change would generate an additional $10,000. And really it's not revenue, it's not profit, it's to recoup our costs of what we put into the cases themselves.

but with that i will turn it over to the council and this is an ordinance so it would require a roll call vote council my first thought is we're penalizing us for people that are breaking the law because we're making taxpayers make up the difference that's just

nuts is there any way to to re to get that back come back in through the fines and stuff that's what this does this comes back to us directly so this is regard regardless of what the fine is for the infraction they have to pay this to the city to cover our costs okay so then why if we're covering those fees then why do we have a budget increase for that

It's not a budget increase. It's a revenue increase. Right. That this is increasing your fines and fee line item in the general fund by that estimated.

I think that note up there said, I think the note you were on previously said a budget increase.

So it's a budgeted revenue increase, but it's to offset the expenditure increases that we've seen occur year after year, about $250,000 or 250% increase that we've seen in the last 11 years. that increase in revenue gets us closer to exactly what the mayor was saying is having the people that are using our court or in our court system help cover those costs instead of the taxpayers.

But fines and fees for you is a revenue line item. So if you increase this as recommended, you are generating more revenue. The purpose of the revenue is to help offset the higher costs that we've experienced. Okay.

I just want to make sure that we understood, everybody understood that because it It looks like the taxpayer, more that the taxpayers coming out of work.

So not taking this action puts more on us back on the taxpayer. This puts it back on the fines that the folks that are involved in municipal court have to pay. Perfect.

All right. Thank you.

At the end of the recommendation there, it says it talks about a conflicting ordinance. Can you give me an example of a ordinance is conflicting to this?

It's standard language. So what happens anytime you adopt an ordinance, especially if you're just updating like certain provisions within it, you normally have language that basically just says that here are the changes and this repeals anything in the existing ordinance that may be in conflict with these changes. It's actually pretty standard language. It's saying whatever's in conflict with this version of the ordinance as it previously existed. So it's not saying it conflicts with other ordinances, per se. It's saying you are replacing language in an existing one, and anything that was in conflict from this change takes care of itself with this passage.

You said all other conflicting ordinances and part of ordinances. If there's part of an ordinance. Some kind of definition there.

Thanks. My definition would be the same, Andrew. I don't know if you've got a better way of explaining it, but I see that language in every ordinance that we

It's a way, and if you read the next sentence, then it says, however, any section of an existing ordinance not in conflict herewith is not repealed and remains in full force. In fact, it's a way to, if there is any ordinance out there, it's a way to say, look, this ordinance is more recent. And so it trumps any prior ordinance. But any prior ordinance that is not conflicting with this ordinance also stays into effect rather than have the entirety of the prior ordinance be repealed. It saves any part that isn't indirect.

And in this specific incident, this ordinance completely replaces another ordinance. But in some instances, we do replace just a section of the ordinance and not a full ordinance. So it may be that we just change one little part of it. And so that's where that standard legal language is included.

Any other questions?

Mr. Mayor, I make a motion to approve Ordinance Number 2269, updating court costs and fees and mileage for witnesses for the Municipal Court of the City of Augusta, Kansas, by amending Section 9-111 of Article 1, Chapter 9 of the Code of the City of Augusta, Kansas, repealing Ordinance Number 2075 and all other conflicting ordinances or parts of ordinances. Second. Second.

Got a motion and some seconds. Erica, do you want to call the roll? Yes.

Martin?

Yes.

yes richardson yes davis yes whitey yes motion carries thank you okay item seven resolution establishing the augusta trail town committee staff yes mayor council as you're aware we submitted and were awarded a grant through the sunflower foundation trail town program. This is a new thing that they're launching and what we submitted under was a category where we're actually working towards something called a trail town designation. As part of our requirements in the grant, we're going through training webinars and training process on what it means to be a trail town. Basically, all of that material that they're working through with us is to try to teach us, you know, how do you take the biggest economic advantage, the quality of life benefit? Basically, how do you maximize your trail for your community? That's what the webinars and the trainings have been on. We had a scope that was outlined in our application that included the way finding signage, the micro grants for downtown businesses, the event, the co-sponsored event that we're working on with the city of Andover. And the requirements of that grant in terms of getting that designation is one of them is that you establish essentially an advisory committee. It's a committee that you work through some of these various issues with, that you take recommendations and suggestions and gather input regarding your trail, including, and I can't think of what they call it, they call it an assessment, that's what they call it, working with folks that can help you assess the current condition of the trail amenities and then make recommendations for changes that then come to this body. So the recommendation is that you establish a committee. The committee is advisory in nature. It means they don't have any authority other than to give you advice. So you have several committees that are like that in the city. You have committees for the airport, you have committees for parks and other groups. this committee specifically will focus on the development and trying to maximize the trail. And so what this resolution does is essentially just gives you a generic overview of the committee. It doesn't specify the number of members or anything like that, but it does establish that you're going to have one. It does establish that they'll provide you advice and feedback on the trail and development and enhancements and those sort of things. and then there's a bullet point list of potential places where you can draw upon from your membership so staff's thought with this was you pass the resolution we satisfy our first level requirements with the grant to establish the committee and then in the upcoming meetings actually kind of formulate recommendations and you guys as well in terms of appointments who you might want to serve on that committee and then we will work through the rest of the grant with their feedback we will work with that committee to complete the the trail assessments that they want us to do and then kind of determine from there how you would want to use them going forward. So relatively simple action tonight. It just makes the committee exist, establishes them in an advisory capacity, and then the detailed makeup of who you want to have on it, we'll decide at a later date. So with that, I'll turn it over to Council if you have any questions regarding this resolution.

move for the approval of resolution number 2026-16 establishing the augusta trail town committee second got a motion and a second any questions all those in favor say aye aye any opposed motion carries item number eight acceptance of redbud ridge petitions developers Subdivider agreement and resolution of advisability. And that's going to be three separate actions, but staff.

Yes, Mayor and Council, the city has received petitions and a developer's agreement for paving and drainage, water, electric and sewer improvements for Redbud Ridge. The petitions request that Redbud Ridge improvements be made by the city and that the cost be specially assessed against the landowners within the addition. bond council has prepared a resolution determining advisability of the red bedridge improvements tin oak investments has presented the developers agreement and their obligation to provide the city with 30 percent letters of credit to support the city's undertaking of those improvements The City Council does have three items in front of them. The first is to accept the petitions requesting the improvements. So these are the cost estimates. They're broke down by each infrastructure line. OF WHAT WE BELIEVE THE ENGINEER'S BEST ESTIMATES AT THIS TIME FOR THE COST OF THOSE IMPROVEMENTS. THE SECOND ONE IS TO APPROVE THE DEVELOPER'S AGREEMENT, WHICH OUTLINES THOSE 30% LETTER OF CREDITS THAT WE'LL NEED FOR EACH OF THE INDIVIDUAL IMPROVEMENTS. AND THEN THE THIRD IS TO ADOPT THE RESOLUTION DETERMINING THE ADVISABILITY, AND THAT'S IN ORDER FOR THE CITY TO SPECIALLY ASSESS THE COST TO THE BENEFITED PROPERTIES. The debt service, so the city is intending to issue temporary notes initially to cover the expense of the improvements, and then that will eventually go through the issuance of our permanent financing through a general obligation bonds. The debt service is intended to be paid through the rhid district so as you call this is the rhid where we can collect the property tax and use it to pay the debt service on those infrastructure improvements so that is the intent if that district is not generating enough property tax revenue we are able to specially assess those costs back to the property owners on an annual basis to cover that bond issue So I'm happy to stand for any questions. Now this might be a new process, so.

Will the homeowners know that process before they ever, I mean, so that's not surprised you're getting this tax, is that a tax or?

So the developer will be required to show these agreements during any of those sales of the property. So they'll have this development agreement and the one that was previously approved for the RHID district as well.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

We're making motion approval of the petitions for bed, red Ridge.

Check it got a motion and a second to approve the petitions of red, but rich second. All those in favor say aye aye. Any opposed? That motion carries.

Make a motion to prove proof of the developer subdivider agreement with 10 Oaks Investments LLC for Redbird Ridge second.

Got a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.

Lastly, I make a motion to approve for resolution authorizing the Redbird Ridge improvements.

Second. Got a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.

Thank you. And just an update. The next STEP IS TO APPROVE THE ENGINEERING CONTRACTS, SO THAT'S WHAT WILL BE NEXT. THE STAFF WILL BRING ENGINEERING CONTRACTS FOR THE DESIGN OF THE INFRASTRUCTURE AND THEN ALSO FOR THE INSPECTION AND OBSERVATION PART. SO THAT WILL BE THE NEXT STEP.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU. NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU. THANK YOU, ALL, AND TIM. OKAY. MATTERS FROM AND FOR COUNCIL, WE'D LIKE US TO CONSIDER council members to serve on the safe streets for all steering committee but would we rather wait till the other people are here i think that's appropriate okay okay let's move down to we have a council work session regarding the housing action plan scheduled for next monday august 24th at 5 30 here Remind you of that. And then we'll go to the call for other matters. Mr. Martin, do you have anything tonight?

Yes. I had a few people call me about the 1100 block of Euclid, specifically on the east side, that properties are a lot of stuff in the yards and stuff like that throughout the block.

Okay. Okay. 1100 block of Euclid people.

Yeah, I know. Trash in the yard. I don't know the specific address, but we did discuss a property on Euclid this morning and it's recently under new ownership. So we're going to try and we know who that purchaser is. So we're going to try and coordinate with them to get at least one of the properties I know have cleaned up, but we can go take another look.

That's all I have, Mr. Merz. Thank you. Okay. Bob, you got anything tonight?

We'll have anything, Mr. Mayor. Kip? Erica, could you check with our SECs in and see? I spoke to them about, or we spoke in our meeting a couple months ago about some protection poles out there at the cemetery for the Columbines. Columbariums, I'm sorry. just to make sure we don't have something happen with traffic there and we have a mess. And then if we had any kind of update for the patrol cars at the station.

I did get updated paperwork from them last week for me to submit to them. So I just, I'm pulling the titles and getting everything so that we can schedule that pickup.

Thank you, ma'am. That's all I got. Okay. Sean. Nothing tonight, sir.

Alison. I think tonight, Mr. Mayor.

Okay. Mr. Mayor, I make a motion to move an executive session from 8.05 p.m. to 8.15 p.m. for 10 minutes to discuss a developer's agreement pursuant to consultation with an attorney for the public body or agency, which would be deemed privileged in the attorney-client relationship, justification for executive sessions on the Kansas Open Meetings Act, KSA 754319B2. and to invite in City Manager Josh Shaw, Assistant City Manager Kami Shroff, and City Attorney Andrew Marino. The open meeting of the Council will resume in the Council Chambers at 8.15 p.m. Second. Got a motion and a second.

All those in favor say aye and move to the other bill. Aye. We'll be back in 10 minutes.

okay we're back samara make a motion to exit executive session where no action was taken second got a motion and a second to return from executive session where no action was taken all those in favor say aye aye any opposed that motion carries mr merrill make a motion to enter an executive session from 8 16 p.m to 828 p.m. for a total of 12 minutes for the preliminary discussion of the acquisition of real property pursuant to the preliminary discussion of the accusation of real property exception KSA 754319B6. I ask that City Manager Josh Schultz, Assistant City Manager Kami Shope, and City Attorney Andrew Marino join the council executive session to open meeting of the governing body where we can reconvene in the council chambers at 828 p.m. Second.

Got a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Be back in a little bit. thank you for making the motions absolutely okay we're back tomorrow make a motion to exit executive session where no action was taken second got a motion to exit executive session where no action was taken all those in favor say aye aye any opposed motion carries mr merrimack motion to adjourn this meeting second got a motion and a second to adjourn our meeting all those in favor say aye aye any opposed motion carries remember next monday night 5 30 work session terrible like a migraine will there be food there okay