City Council - Regular Meeting

Kansas, call the meeting to order. Please rise and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. Good evening, everyone. Councilman Baldwin is not calling in, correct? Not that I'm aware of.

Okay.

We have one missing this evening. All right. We have no presentations and no public hearings, so we can move right to public comments tonight. So members of the public are welcome to use this time to make comments about city matters or items on the agenda tonight. that are not part of a public hearing. If you wish to come forward, please submit your comments to five minutes or less. There is a time clock over here to your left. Please state your name and address for the record. With that being said, please come forward. And the podium is now open.

Good evening. My name is Ty Bingaman. I live at 652 North Pear Street in Gardiner at the new subdivision over there by the high school. And just a little history. I put 20 years in the military and been a lot of places where people tried to kill me and throw things at me that explode. So you can imagine what I want to bring up. I read the ordinance. Second, third, and fourth of July, people can shoot off fireworks, and that's fine and dandy. And I know you did that. try and let people have some fun. But literally, that was worse in my area, behind my house, and even in my own street. It was worse than any war zone I have ever been in. Any. The Gulf War. I mean, I could list half a dozen for you. I mean, I, you know, and it wasn't from, you know, they didn't even abide by the time. You know, what, 10 in the morning to 11 at night. It started at 8 and went till midnight or more. They did not adhere to the types of fireworks. On Saturday or Sunday, I went out, saw a whole bunch of rocket pieces out there. And lack of better words, the bottle rockets or the larger bottle rockets all over my yard, on my house, on my cars. The ordinance also says my neighbors, they were shooting off in the streets, the people behind me, the block on the other side that was there before we built. They had a, I don't know what it was, but it was constant mortar shells going off. My yard was just full of nothing but paper and so on like that. But I saw the bigger bottle rockets, the ones that are like this. The sticks, parts of them, because when they blow, the parts that get, they were all over. I mean, I enjoy people having fun, but three days of war zone is bad. I went out front. Couldn't see down the end of my street. It was so smoky. And then, of course, it infiltrated my house. So I mean, I'm just here to let you know that when I got back from the Gulf War and when I retired in 95, I had a little PTSD, and I kind of worked through that. Just loud noises bothered me, and that was really bad. It was really bad. So I don't know. You might be saying, well, what do you suggest? If you want me to suggest, I suggest zero fireworks. There's lots of cities and towns that do that. I moved up from St. Louis two years ago, and St. Louis has it. And of course, people do it anyhow. But they got their eyes out, and they try to stop all that. But at least cut it down to one day and not so late at night. It was just really bad. I mean, I'm sitting here, you know, flinching and jumping in my chair, and I haven't done that since, I don't know, five, ten years ago, I guess. But thank you for your time. I just wanted to give you my opinion as a new person here in Gardner.

Good evening. My name is Kevin Wright. My address is 20261 West 223rd Street in Spring Hill. I am the executive pastor at New Life Community Church here in Gardner. We have sent an email to both Mayor Winters and Councilman McNear. requesting that signage be put up on 188th Street at Vivian Road, letting the semi-trucks know that that is a dead end or a no-through street. or no semis, I'm open to all kinds of signage or what the recommendation would be. What we have encountered for the last two and a half years of being at that location is weekly we have trucks, semi trucks, that come down that street, turn into our parking lot, and turn around to go back out to Gardner Road. And while I would say the majority of them do not cause damage, We've had eight to 10 instances where it has caused significant damage and cost to the church. Trying to get restitution directly from the trucking companies is nearly impossible. If they will even acknowledge your call, email, letters that we've sent, most of them just ignore them. The few that have just strung us out until we gave up. But we're fastly approaching $50,000 worth of damage over the last two and a half years. So we respectfully ask that signage be put up there. Like I said, dead end street, it doesn't go through to anywhere right now. Said no through street, we're open for suggestions on what that signage would be. But we would love to have that deterrent Even if it stopped 50% of them coming through, it would help tremendously. So I appreciate your time and listening to me tonight.

Thank you, Mr. Ryan. And I think we have been working on this through staff, right?

Thank you. Appreciate it.

We'll be on top.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

All right. We will move forward to consent agenda. Is there items on the consent agenda council would like to remove?

Yes. Item number three, I'd like to move that down to the planning and zoning consent agenda between items two and three. And then I would like to remove item four as well.

Okay.

Any others? Nope. Is there a motion for items one and two?

So moved.

Second.

Motion, Deaton. Second, Johnson. We approve consent agenda items one and two. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Abstain. One and two pass. Councilman McNear, that's okay with me. We'll move consent agenda item three down. and planning. Two and a half. Two and a half, okay, perfect. And then consent agenda item four, consider authorizing the city administrator to execute individual purchase agreements and make payments for the acquisition of real property necessary to construct the planned Grand Street improvements project.

I just wanted to know, is this item part of where we didn't catch all the right of way that we had earlier?

So this is right-of-way and easement acquisition for the Grand Street reconstruction project.

Yeah.

So this is one that our engineer came back to us and said, hey, you need some more access or... More access land, is that correct?

Yeah, so the design for the street, it's a little wider. We have to put in some additional utilities and sidewalk, and so it requires a little bit of acquisition.

Just for clarity, Kellen, I'm wanting to make sure that 32,290, is that a hard number? Because it looks like it's also... the city administrator's authorized to go above that threshold?

So it's the aggregate estimate. Then those will all be individually negotiated with the property owners and basically it could go higher, it could go lower.

Do we have a feel for where that number is?

Our feel is it's right around that estimated number.

So this is the one that we missed, that we didn't really get, correct? This is the one that had a bunch of parcels that we didn't get to the engineer, is that correct?

No, this is separate from anything we've brought before. What's the total top end, do you think? What could it go to? We won't know that until negotiations are finalized.

I can speak to that. So there's a statutory scheme that lays out what fair market value is and what the different considerations are. What will happen is there will be a panel of three certified appraisers from Johnson County who will be appointed to hear testimony, and then they'll come up with the fair market value. It's usually... pretty close to the appraisal that we've got. So I think you can.

So you're talking about basically a blind appraisal?

I don't know what a blind appraisal is.

It's one that where they ask three appraisers to give them a number. They talk to each other. They throw out the high, throw out the low, and take the.

No. No? No, they have a hearing.

All three of them sit on the panel together.

They confer and arrive at a value, and the three of them run an opinion.

So it could go anywhere from 32 on down? It could be more.

It could be less. Throw a dart. It could be more. It could be less. Thank you.

However, in the motion, the maximum that it can go to before it can come back to you is $40,000 because that's the city administrator's.

Amy, that's what I was looking for right there. Thank you. I'm good with that.

OK. Is there a motion for consent to agenda item number three?

So moved.

No, it would be four.

Four. Four, I'm sorry. Four. So moved.

Second.

Motion McNair, second Johnson. We approve consent to agenda item number four. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Abstain. Number four passes. So we'll move to planning and zoning committee recommend. I'm sorry. We will move to committee recommendations. Number one, consider adopting an ordinance approving a conditional use permit for a short-term rental at 624 East Dogwood Street. Thank you.

The property owner of 624 East Dogwood Street is requesting a conditional use permit to operate a short-term rental. This property came to staff's attention when someone asked if a conditional use permit had been issued at this location. Therefore, this short-term rental is currently and has been operating. The home is located in the Willow Springs subdivision, which, to staff's knowledge, does not include a homeowners association. The property is zoned R1, which requires the conditional use permit. There are 10 criteria by which all conditional use permits shall be reviewed, and short-term rentals require compliance with five specific use standards. Per the 2024 International Property Maintenance Code, the maximum occupancy for this short-term rental is 10, and that is based on the number and size of conforming bedrooms. I will not read through these five, but I wanted to have them available if there were any questions. These are the specific use standards for short-term rentals. The next slide is the 10 criteria by which all conditional use permits are reviewed. The applicant did give a brief presentation at the Planning Commission meeting, which was held on June 22nd, and they described how they are managing the short-term rental. At the public hearing, which was also held at that meeting, one neighbor expressed concern relative to property values, the operation of a business in a residential neighborhood, and asked about oversight of the use by the city. As stated in condition one on the screen, city staff will perform an administrative review at the end of each calendar year to ensure that the short-term rental is operating in accordance with the land development code and the conditions of approval. You'll also note that condition two includes the five criteria by which all short-term rentals must meet their standards. On a related note and in response to comments from Councilperson Johnson, Moving forward, staff will be requiring proof from the short-term rental operators that they've applied for and received their tax reporting number from the state relative to the transient guest tax. This application actually went to the Planning Commission prior to that discussion. With that, I would conclude staff's presentation and state that the Planning Commission and staff are recommending approval, and the applicant is present tonight. So, if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

We will open this up to public comment for committee recommendation number one. Okay, seeing none, council questions?

Do we know, you're saying that this was operating kind of before we were made aware, so this is kind of a make good, let's call it that,

You could say that as soon as we reached out to the property owner, they did submit their application. So it wasn't a struggle in that sense, if you will.

Do we know how long it was operating?

I'm not sure you could ask the applicant that.

You're welcome to answer that if you...

I'm Jacob Fadjong and I'm the owner. I can't actually remember exactly how we operated, how long that we operated before we applied, but what happened is that we, We had been running other Airbnbs in Olathe and in Overland Park. So when we were moving to the new house, we did not know that we required a permit in the city of Gardner. And once we were called to let us know that we had to do that, we applied immediately. But I think we had operated for like two to three months, if I'm not mistaken. And sorry about that. We didn't know about it.

So I think you answered my question, which was, did you know about the ordinance when you first started doing your Airbnb? And it sounds like you did not, is that correct?

Can you say that again, please?

Yes, it sounds like you did not know or realize that you had to have a conditional use from it when you started your Airbnb. Yes, yes, we did not know. So you just didn't know you had to do it?

Yes. Okay, very good, thank you. Thank you.

And I think the other thing, you didn't have any complaints from your neighbors or any other concerns from them? I mean, obviously nobody's come to...

Yeah, we haven't had any complaints. And before we started, I talked to like three or four of our neighbors, letting them know that we would do that at the place, and they were okay with it.

Yeah. There is, I want to just make a note that in the agenda packet, there are a couple of letters expressing some concern from neighbors. And these, I guess, were sent to the Planning Commission in time for their meeting. Mm-hmm. The second one specifically is concerned about safety for their children because they have small children, and because Airbnb and VRBO don't do background checks on their guests. They do require government identification, so they do try to verify who you are, but there isn't any sort of background check, and that's what this second email here is referring to, concerns for safety.

Kelly, you're concerned about pedophile type stuff?

I am. I mean, that's always a concern for me because I have a kid, and so I'm concerned about safety for children. Let's ask him directly. But that would be a question. Have you had any complaints about safety issues or concerns expressed to you by the neighbors? Have the police gotten anything like that?

No, I haven't had any complaints.

Maggie, is there a process for that?

Yes, as part of the annual review, we will be looking to determine if there were any complaints throughout that year. We were not aware of any complaints based on this one. It was more of a call from someone saying, do they have one?

This has been a hot topic in the municipal government for the last several years. So Airbnb VRBO will not share any of their data about who operates VRBOs or Airbnbs in our community. They won't identify addresses. They won't identify who is renting. And when there have been ordinances that are purported to require that, they've gone to court and they've been successful. defending those types of things so right that could be very troubling what's that that could be very troubling the neighbor yeah i i you just have to be very careful like if you know communities that have outright banned them have some of them have had those outright bans overturned You just, if we're thinking, if where you're going with this is you're thinking about regulating Airbnbs or VRBOs, we need to be very careful about what we do in this space.

And I'm going to add to that quickly. And I think that's what's the unique aspect of requiring the conditional use permit is that we work directly with the property owner. We're not dealing with VRBO. We're not dealing with Airbnb. The property owner is well aware of these conditions. We're going to be watching residents who live around these properties. If there is an issue that comes up, need to make those complaints in a timely situation because the annual administrative review that we're going to do is not the only time that if there's an issue that it could be brought up. It just means we're going to make sure each year that we do that review to see if there's been complaints or anything filed on the property which could up in revoking the CUP or the conditional use permit so that's what's nice about this layer if you will of approval is we know who the owners are we know that they have some of that information and have privy to that information so we don't have to deal with those you know who the owner is to the extent they come forward like this gentleman operated for years and no one reported it no one knew and that issue is very common out there and

Working directly with the owner, the owner isn't addressing her concern. Right. Not running criminal background checks on who the resident or who's renting the place. So... That's not addressed through this process at all. Right.

I'm very impressed with the owner that once he found out that we have a process that came straight forward and complied with what we've asked. Sir, you should be commended for that. That's very good.

I want to add that I'm also impressed that you went around and talked to your neighbors and told them what you were doing. Without a background check, without that, at least they know that they're going to be people turning over there. So you did give them just a warning that they will not necessarily know their neighbors from week to week, which as a mom would make me feel better about keeping an extra eye on my kid or you know, anything like that. So thank you for doing that. We appreciate that too.

Thank you. And just to add, from my experience since we started operating, I would say like 98% of the residents that have come over there are mostly construction workers or health care. So people who just come in for work in the area and get up very early in the morning, go to work, come back late at night, crash and get back to work in the morning. So we haven't had any people that come there and cause any trouble or anything.

I saw in the notes too that you have rules set up that you won't even accept people who have history of being rated having had parties and things like that. So those are good steps to take too to help minimize. So you've done, it seems like you've done everything you can do from your end to make it as nice for your neighbors as you've been able to do.

And I was going to add that Airbnb also helps a lot with that. If you've had any history of partying in the past, Airbnb will not allow you book.

Thank you.

I did have – and I ran off a little spreadsheet here. I mean, most of the communities around us allow them in some form or another. But I did have a question. I know some of them do charge a fee, like an administrative fee.

Do we have a fee or are we – We simply have the application fee.

And that's – Well, they do pay transient guest tax. Oh, okay.

Do we have a transient tax as well?

Yes. All right. It's – That was the question that I asked that she had answered in her presentation. I had asked about the transient guest tax. I found out that Airbnb and VRBO collect that directly at the time of the booking. The only time it might be an issue would be if somebody was trying to do their booking outside of a group or outside of a company like Airbnb or VRBO. in which case they would need to be registered as a small business with Kansas in order to make that happen, which is what she was referring to.

And we could make that a condition that if they ever go off one of those platforms that does not collect the transient guest tax, that they are responsible for it as well.

Okay. Thank you, Meg. And thank you, Sarah, for coming forward. Thank you. Thanks for your time. So do I have a motion for this?

So moved.

It's a roll call because of ordinance. Yeah, but we need a motion at first.

So moved. Second.

Motion McNair, second Ween. We adopt ordinance number 2883, approving conditional use permit 26-305-02, allowing a short-term rental at 624 East Dogwood Street.

Council Member Johnson.

Yes. Council Member McNair. Yes. Council Member Deaton.

Yes.

Council Member Ween.

Yes.

Ordinance 2883 passes. Thank you. And the next item is going to be very similar. Consider adopting an ordinance approving a conditional use permit for a short-term rental at 351 West Mockingbird Street.

As you stated, Mayor, this is very similar to the previous application. They're both requesting the conditional use permit. Therefore, I will even make my presentation shorter. The property is located at 351 West Mockingbird Street. They are requesting the conditional use permit. The applicant currently resides in this house, but they anticipate being gone for periods of time and therefore would like to make the residents available as a short-term rental. They have not been operating. The home is located in the Sunset Ridge subdivision, which to staff's knowledge does not have a homeowners association. This property is also zoned R1, and per the 2024 International Property Maintenance Code, The maximum occupancy of this house is eight. At the June Planning Commission meeting, the applicant gave a brief presentation and described how they would propose to operate the short-term rental. No one spoke at the public hearing for this item, and the Planning Commission and staff are recommending approval with the same conditions that we had for the last item. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

And the applicant is also present for this one.

Is there any public comment on this item? Council, any other questions?

So since I didn't speak on the last one, I wanted to address the issue of safety that we had brought up. Keep in mind, yes, these are short term. So people are coming in weekly. But we have rentals all throughout the community. And not all of them do background checks. So even long-term rentals, you could have somebody that's a sex offender move in, and only if they are compliant, they have up to six months to register. So we should always stay vigilant. Also, people who purchase homes don't have criminal background checks, and again, if compliant, have up to six months to register. So, I mean, yes, it's a concern that it's – Often, or you know, it's revolving, hotels, we have two, about to have three, they don't provide background checks. So that to me, we should stay vigilant, but isn't a concern that should stop anything.

Thank you. Any comments? Is there a motion on this?

I have a question. Will the applicant be informing their neighbors that this would be happening? Just so that they're aware and can keep an eye out?

We have, before we made the application, we spoke to all of our surrounding neighbors and let them know, and they've been supportive. Thank you.

And Council Member Johnson, also in the application process, review process, public notices, letters were sent out in the 200-foot vicinity. So everybody who had property within the 200 feet of this property received that notice to invite them to the public hearing.

Thank you. Is there a motion? So moved.

Second. She seconded.

Motion McNair, second Deaton. We adopt ordinance number 2884, approving conditional use permit 26-305-03, allowing a short-term rental at 351 West Mockingbird Street.

Council Member McNair.

Yes.

Council Member Deaton. Yes. Council Member Lee. Yes. Council Member Johnson.

Yes.

Ordinance 2884 passes. Thank you, Meg. We're now gonna do two and a half. Consent to agenda item number three. Consider authorizing an addendum with HDR Engineering Inc. for an on-call traffic design services. Councilman McNair.

Yes, the reason I pulled this off is because I wanted to know It looks like back in January, if I read this correctly, that we had authorized $40,000 for HDR to do on-call traffic. Is that correct?

Yes.

And then it sounds like we've overshot that or are we going to overshoot that soon?

We anticipate overshooting it. So this is more of an additional kind of max cap, as it were, in the event that we see about the same amount of additional kind of development related and other traffic stuff this year that would cause us to go over the 40.

Okay.

And it looks like the majority of the, a lot of the 40,000 that has been spent so far was reviewing roundabouts for development near 167th and Kill Creek.

That's one item that they've looked at, but We do a review of traffic for every development process that comes through the city. We've had quite a bit of development as well as more highly technical development reviews than we've seen in some other situations.

I'm going to call your attention to a traffic impact study that the city administrator shared with me over a year ago. This is dated May of 2025.

Are you familiar with that traffic study?

I'm not specifically.

This is for the Gardner-Edgerton USD 231 Elementary School.

Okay.

It recommends specifically traffic signals at 167th and Kill Creek. In the longer term, if traffic demands to have them installed at Waverly as well. The reason I'm asking this in this order is is the flat that's coming before us tonight shows a conventional intersection. And if we're spending money on traffic circles, What is the intent going forward? Traffic circle or traffic lights?

Right now we have no final design for what that intersection will be in a future improvement. So typically we improve a intersection along with a section of roadway of arterial that we're improving to a kind of final city improved section. So that section of 167th that would include the, what is that, Kill Creek intersection, that is not scheduled for final design or improvement at this time. So we don't have a final design of that intersection.

Okay, I understand. To me that sounds like a lot of mumble-jumble because we have less than a year, folks. Less than a year. to have a solution for traffic management at this intersection. We're adding 30% more traffic. We're adding subdivisions. We're adding a ton of traffic. And all we have right now is a stop sign on Kill Creek. That's it. And what I'm asking very simply, very specifically, sir, is this. What is the final configuration? Are we talking about a traffic circle? Are we going to throw out the traffic study that we paid for in May of last year and approved in an elementary school based on this traffic study? Are we going to throw that out the window or are we going to live up to what we said we were going to do?

I will throw out there. That's phase three, though. what we're gonna talk about later.

Right.

It has to do also with the... We don't know the timing of the phases, do we? So phase one.

Phase one is coming up. We'll talk about that when that comes up. But right now, I'm wanting to address the issue of 167 and Kill Creek. Because we're asking for more money. We spent some over $40,000 on this. And I'm hearing lots of controversy as to whether or not it's going to be a traffic circle or a traffic light system. We have less than a year to make a final decision. And we haven't made that decision. And it has to get built.

How are we going to get to have this ready by the time school starts next year? So I'm going to interject on this a little bit. What's before you tonight is nothing more than the preliminary plan in PLAT. It is not the final for any phase. this point so just so you're aware that on this subdivision it's a little bit out of order but it's pertinent in the preliminary plat we are identifying the acquisition of additional right-of-way to be provided by this developer so that if a traffic circle is determined to be needed there we have already secured that right-of-way on the south side of 167th as part of the requirements for this development That is a requirement that we have within the plat and within the plan at this point in time. In the last, I'm gonna say within the last year, but it's probably been a little bit longer than that, we have actually had more than one traffic study done. This development had to provide a traffic impact study. The school district had to provide a traffic impact study. And I believe when Hilltop Ridge When the new developer came into that or the new builder and was looking at their phase two, I think they had to do a memo as a traffic impact study. So we've had three in the vicinity in recent times. Those elements are not conclusive as to what the real solution is going to be. What we're trying to do in the development is secure enough right away at no cost to the city at this point in case the traffic signal is the solution. If it is not and it is signalized, okay, we still have that additional right-of-way.

I'm going to ask that council gets a complete copy of this traffic study that you're doing so that we can have an input in the decision of the final configuration of that intersection. It is very important for the safety of our residents and the throughput of that intersection. I'm not convinced that a traffic circle is going to do that. And one last thing, Dave, just... It sounds like you've done a good job with this new developer and we'll find out more about that when we get to that item 3 and you get off 2.5, but are we going to require, there's several other subdivisions in that area that come up to that intersection, are we going to require or need land from any other existing subdivision to do the traffic circle if that's what you decide to do, or even this thing as a standard intersection? What's the plan there?

Potentially when we have a final design several years from now we may need I mean we typically need additional right-of-way depending on what the design is. So currently we do not have a project to design a solution for that intersection for its final configuration. What we do have is we are beginning the planning for what we know is going to be needed, which is at least temporary signalization of that intersection. Okay.

That was going to be my next question. How do we address August of next year for school to start? I mean, we're looking at probably even for temporary, probably six, eight months, ten months to get that, and you're going to have to come back for.

Temporary is not nearly as difficult as final design. You're really just putting up poles and stringing some wires. So we're pretty comfortable that we'll have that in place in time. So do we have to approve budget for that, or do we have to approve expenditures for that? When the project is ready to award, yes.

Okay, and when do we plan on going out to do that? Because it's gonna take probably at least six months to get that one, that set up, and we are already 12 months away from school. When are we doing this?

We're in initial stages of planning it, so we don't have a timeline yet.

Do we feel, are you saying when that school is opening that we would absolutely need traffic?

We're gonna need traffic management control of some kind, yes. You have a stop sign there, Todd.

That's it. But can we, I almost want to table this discussion because it has nothing to do with item three.

It does because we're showing an intersection.

Well, no, item three is an additional allocation of funds to do additional studies, not the litigation of the current study, right? Correct me if I'm wrong. So it's a question of, I mean, if we want to talk about what the final plat and whether this should be a roundabout or lights, we can do that, but that's part of... That would be a separate discussion. That would be part of committee recommendation number three, not the... Consent in general.

I guess what caught my eye, Mark, was the fact that we've already spent in early July, we've already spent the $40,000 we had allocated for the whole year. And a good share of that was spent on a traffic circle. And now we're going for $30,000 more when we're asking for more money next year. That's really my big concern.

Well, and more than just the traffic circle on there. Very little of it has been spent on that part of it.

And whether it's a traffic circle or not, the other point I was going to make is we have a traffic circle over here by Grand and Trail Ridge, and it seems to be okay. I mean, that should factor into whether or not we do one here or not, I think, can be part of that informational session. But again, that's part of... the plat and that design activity. Not a part of whether or not we should spend an additional $30,000 on additional traffic studies.

And the question here is the $30,000 actually.

Which, I don't know, Kellen, if you can speak to, is it just a kind of what we know is upcoming? for what we have on the, or what we have maybe requests for?

It's based on anticipating that there will be additional traffic reviews and additional traffic related studies that we'll need throughout the rest of the year.

Ultimately you may not spend it. Correct.

Okay.

So I'll add to this too because this is important to the development process. The service that HDR provides is not just traffic studies at the request of the city. They review the traffic studies that come in with new development. So what Kellen, I think, was stating, and part of this was, is that a good portion of the monies that was previously approved as part of our budget has been eaten up by the level of development that we've had as far as applications so far. That does not seem to be dissipating over the next six months. In order to retain this HDR service to help review the traffic studies that are coming in with development, we really do need those engineering inputs.

It's a canary in the coal mine. What's coming down the road for us for the rest of this year? Which is a goodness, I guess, if you look at it from that.

I guess the question I would have also is we have four staff engineers in public works. In your opinion, can that kind of work be done within our own people?

My opinion of I'm not a civil engineer.

Okay, I understand. I don't like spending outside money, but I think this is just part of doing business.

We don't have anyone with a traffic background specifically on staff. Most cities don't have one of those until they are much bigger.

And also, if it was a staff, it would cost us more than $30,000. It costs us more than 70.

But if we had, what do we have for engineers that can't do this ourselves? I mean, that's kind of an expensive process.

I mean, they all have different backgrounds and skill sets.

I'm starting to become, thought I'm starting to become very concerned about budget. We're going to have more conversations about this later.

Do you have any other questions about it? Nope, I'm good. Okay, do you want to make a motion on this one?

Or do I hear a motion? So moved. Second.

Motion Deaton, second Ween. We authorize an addendum with HDR Engineering Inc. for on-call traffic design services. All in favor? Aye. All opposed?

No.

Abstentions? It passes. Okay, we'll move to new business item number three.

Wait, are we still on committee recommendations?

I'm sorry, committee recommendations, thank you.

Don't skip that one.

uh consider adopting an ordinance approving a rezone rezoning from rur county rural residential district to rp2 plan two family residential district and associate associated preliminary development plan for a 218 lot detached single family subdivision on 81 acres located on the south side of 167th street at this intersection with kill creek road

The first thing that I want to point out relative to this subdivision is even though they are rezoning to RP2, which is known as our planned two-family residential district, this is for all single-family homes, so it's not going to be duplexes. There was some confusion with some of the neighboring property owners, so I wanted to make that point. Associated Preliminary Development Plan will govern how the property is developed, including the building types, street types, and minimum building setbacks. I've got two maps on this slide. The one on the left is an excerpt from the zoning map, and underneath that map, I've listed what the surrounding zoning districts are. You will notice that to the south, the Breckenwood Creek subdivision is zoned RP2 similar to this request. The map on the right is from our future land use map, which is part of the comprehensive plan. And the property is designated for low density residential, which corresponds to the estates, single family and two family zoning districts. So it is consistent with the comprehensive plan. On this slide, north is to the left so you've got 167th street on the left side and future madison street on the right side or south side kill creek road will go through this property and will connect to an extension of madison street madison street will be picked up on the west side from where the adjacent subdivision will be responsible for constructing it and it will be constructed through this property all the way to the east side of this property and connect to future extension on going eastward you'll see that there is proposed a traffic circle or roundabout on the connect at the intersection of madison and kill creek there are two areas for stormwater detention i've sort of highlighted those with the blue ovals one is along 167th street and one is on the far southeast corner or upper right corner as shown on the slide on the far east excuse me far right side south side of madison there are two open spaces and this alignment is based on how we anticipate those connections to either property on the east and west connecting and will also provide a buffer between the madison street and existing breckenwood creek subdivision There were three deviation requests. They are pretty typical for this type of development. One relates to the width of the driveway. The second one relates to the percentage of hardscape based on the increase of that driveway width. And the third one relates to that sidewalk connection. They're proposing, like a lot of the subdivisions, to go from the front entrance to the driveway as opposed to out to the sidewalk in the public right-of-way. The phasing plan shows three phases. The first phase is on the left, which would be the north, and they would be progressing southward until they complete all three phases. At the public hearing held at the June 22nd meeting, there were two residents from the adjacent Quail Meadows subdivision that spoke. They requested consideration be given to the establishment of a tree preservation easement along the east property line of this property adjacent to their subdivision protect some of the existing trees. The developer's engineer was amenable to this and a condition was added to the preliminary plat requiring a 10-foot tree preservation easement along the east property line. The applicant's engineer also responded to concerns regarding stormwater runoff and their traffic engineer spoke about traffic calming in the proposed roundabouts or traffic circles. The Planning Commission and staff are recommending approval of the requested rezoning and preliminary development plan with the four conditions as listed in the ordinance and shown on the screen. And the applicant's engineer is present this evening if you have any questions.

Thank you, Maggie.

Is there any public comment for this item? If you'd like to come forward, please.

My subdivision is a couple blocks over, but are these going to be rentals?

That's a question for the applicant.

Okay, I mean, I've been all over the world, and every time you see duplexes, they're rentals.

These are not duplexes.

Or two-family.

These are not detached. They're single-family detached.

Okay, so they're separated.

Yes.

Okay, because it sort of reads like they're

Easily confused, sir.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm not a smart guy, but I logically think, and that's what it reads like. Okay. I take that back.

Sorry.

I don't see no other public comment. Council, any questions?

Mayor, I'm just going to clarify on that point just so everybody knows. Again, Maggie's already made the point about the, development plan being the regulatory plan as adopted. The key in this is that the R2 zoning is required because it's a mixture of lot sizes. Right. And some of the lot sizes do not meet our R1 requirement. Because they are smaller than the 70 feet wide, that's what puts them in the R2 category. So we have single family detached houses and sites that qualify as an R2 even though they are single family. That's why it's important in the planned district that we're identifying these as single family lots. Right. Thank you.

And because it's a planned district, if they wanted to change it to duplexes, they would have to come back for approval.

Correct.

So they can't just change it because it's an R2.

Right. So even after this approval, if the developer goes, boy, we really want to change the configuration of this to include duplexes in that, they would have to come back through the planned district revision process, which would bring them right back through this process.

Do we know what the proposed square footage of the housing would be?

No, the districts are not based on square footage of housing. They're actually based on the sizes of the lots, so the density of houses is what counts. They will have to, in their final plans, reveal things like the elevations of the homes and different things that are there. We have a building envelope that's identified with those sizes, so those building footprints have to fit within those envelopes of setbacks and things like that.

And anything that would be less than the, was it 2,500 square feet would fit, would be under the new code that we voted with a couple of weeks ago.

Yeah. So they would still be subject to the IRC as adopted. So through the building permit process, that kind of element is the next step after final plan review. So what happens here, you all see this as a preliminary development plan and rezoning request. When the phase one, phase two, phase three, however they bring those in, come in as final plans and final plats at that point, then we do that review with the elevations. We check that everything meets the land development code at that point. The planning commission does that. You do not see those final plans. They only go to planning commission at that point because essentially you're giving your okay to move forward with it. At that point then, If they get approval from the Planning Commission on their final plans and the deviations that are associated with those, then they would have to go to public improvements, so they get a permit to put in the roads and the infrastructure. At the same time, we can review building permit applications, but they cannot build until those public improvements are in place.

Dave, I had three questions or comments. First one is, good job, guys,

preserving the trees, excellent job.

Because I talked to one of the concerned homeowners that was over in the School of Oceans subdivision that you heard from earlier, and she was just emphatic about how nice a job you guys did on, preserving the tree line along the 167th. So great job, guys.

That's my first comment.

Second one is, yeah, it's very difficult, and this is kind of a compliment, too. It's very difficult to put a public document out there that complies with the suburban zoning requirements for lot width without being able to do a planned development. The RP2 folks is just simply this. Like Casey said, it's a planned unit development. We both spent time on the planning commission.

I spent six years.

It is a planned community, meaning that the developer has any kind of a substantial change or actually a material change is what I think the way they've been driven. they have to go back to the beginning of the process. RP2 is just the fact that the lot widths at 68 feet are shorter than the suburban zone width of 70 feet, so we have to call it RP2 with suburban planning for single-family housing. It sounds very confusing, but it makes sense once you really understand the process. I understand there's two or more of us here on governing body that are going to be watching and understand that process. So no worries about duplexes. That's not going to happen. And now my last question, Dave. Can we go back a couple of slides, please? There, right there. Infrastructure, Dave. How's Madison Street getting over there?

So at the top of this, well, I'll go from west-east. Let's go from bottom through. So at the bottom of the slide, I'm going to say a few months ago, Hilltop Ridge, their later phases were approved, and as part of those phases, Madison would be built as they developed to the west. This development would then be responsible for the extension of Madison from that point all the way through the screen to the top of the screen. From there, we actually have a gap that's going to exist because when you look at the overall plan, the property to the east of this going upward, Madison Street kind of curves into it and comes across. As Breckenwood, which is on the south right now, when they do their next phase of development across on the other side of the creek, They will be responsible for extending Madison up to the same property as this extends and then the gap will be filled by a Development proposal potentially that would happen on that property at the top of the slide now the other part of this that's Influencing all of this is traffic studies again as we were talking about and understanding the traffic patterns because Eventually making that connection becomes very important that's part of it and kill creek road will be extended to obviously as part of the commission that's on the developer is that correct correct the madison street development and the roundabout is on the developer yes and the entrance at kill creek and 167th is on there as far as right-of-way at this point so what they are required to do as part of their development they pay excise tax and there's also a peripheral road element to this usually things kind of offset themselves there's a math calculation where they get credits for certain things, we would still be responsible for the actual design and implementation of this. But they will, through their excise tax payment and other things, have contributed to the cost of the improvements on the network.

I did some rough calculations based on density, based on probably swag, if you will. It's a super wild guess. But it looks like these lots are probably going to have to come in somewhere in the 130 to 150 range with all the development and the density. And if we're looking at $700,000, $800,000, $900,000 homes, and I doubt we are with 68-foot lots, that's doable. But with 130 to $150,000 lots, I don't I don't know a whole lot of builders that take those lots down.

Yeah, I can't speak to that directly. The performance, obviously what you're pointing to is the developer and the builders are the ones doing the performance and determining whether it can work or not. So at the preliminary stage, I'm assuming that they have done some of their homework. to get there, it'll be interesting to see on the final stages what this refines to.

If we're above 125 for a lot, it's going to drive the completed construction price above 170, or 570, 600, well into the 600s. And in these size lots and this density,

25 years in the real estate business, that's a tough sell. It's up to the developer. I hear what you're saying.

I agree. I'm just saying, we're depending on these developers to bring a lot of our infrastructure in, folks. And a lot of the infrastructure that's on this planned development is in phase three. And so what that concerns me is if you have a slow phase one or two, the cost of doing phase three is going to become astronomical and potentially cost prohibitive. We've seen that in our... Sub station four, we've seen that with the intakes. We're gonna see that again tonight, later on with the intakes and how that bloomed on us, just simply because of time. So in the construction business, the longer these improvements are delayed, the more it's gonna cost. and the higher those lots are going to be. We may or may not get this done. That's my point. Depending on the developer to do that, what would happen if those become cost prohibitive?

Well, one of two things. Either it does not happen, correct? I mean, that's one of the things. Let's assume that for just a second. The other, if it were not the developer's perspective on this, the city would have to look at How critical is that infrastructure to completing the system? And that would be a decision that would be weighed by whoever's on staff as well as on the council level at that point in time. The other element to this is if the performer's not penciling out because they're taking, let's say they get to phase one and phase two's delayed, phase three's delayed, in that situation, it's possible that they might say, gosh, we gotta find a way to increase the density to pay for this. They would have to come back through a revised process. They'd have to come back through the RP process and do that again.

Last thing I wanted to ask you about is, I might come back to it. It just dropped somewhere.

Does any council have any other questions on this?

I have one. So going back to the previous discussion we had since I was looking at the plan upside down, which I appreciated this view. So 167, the work that we're going to do first is between Moonlight and Center. And then, I don't know, however many years down the road, we're going Center to... Do you remember? I don't remember what it was.

It was Waverly to Kill Creek, and then the center to Waverly was the third phase of 167.

So it would cover this section.

Yeah, that was phase two, because phase one was that one. But then we were going to skip center to Waverly, because that had the least amount of traffic. People either come there and go down Waverly, or they are on center and go over to Moonlight. So it was kind of broken up.

Correct, yeah, this is the next major arterial project after the current one that is set to be, I mean, the first section is set to be done in 2027, and so the next one after that will likely follow three to four years later because it's heavily dependent on grant money. Okay, I remember the last item I had.

I think the question I had then is this is taking into account or at least a thought process of the work that we would do along the road to a certain extent?

Yeah, so, and just for everybody's edification, so when we do any preliminary and final platting with folks, we're looking at the adjacent roadways and we will acquire right-of-way based on our standards for arterials and collectors in anticipation of future work. So it's not just based on the need of the road that's in place today, it's the idea that we are working towards an ultimate right-of-way through the development process and the planning process, we require those kinds of dedications. So when you see the final, well, you don't actually see the final plat, but you guys have that action.

I can if I go to the planning commission.

Yeah. You see the final plat at planning commission. They approve that because it's a technical approval. But the acceptance of dedications and right-of-ways comes to you as part of that process. So when you're doing that action, usually it's on a consent item because you're accepting that dedication. That's what you're actually acquiring at that point in time is that right-of-way and those elements at that point.

No, it does. Thank you.

Two more.

Let's go back to this.

intersection up here it looks like if these guys are paying for the intersections and paying for this or that who's paying for this traffic circle or traffic signals or this intersection he's paying for the development intersection of this Is it the developers here in their first phase or what's the problem, who's paying for that?

So typically when a section of road is brought up to the city standards, that is wrapped up into that overall project. That's essentially the function of the excise tax that we collect on these, is to make improvements to the overall road network where multiple developments and multiple users contribute traffic to a particular intersection or road section. It's difficult when you're fragmenting development over a large number of years to pin any particular portion of a cost of those projects onto them. And that's really where the excise tax comes in. It goes to a kind of larger overall pot. And then those permanent final kind of configuration changes are done when we bring the road up to a city standard. I'm going to go back three or four years, Dave, put my planning commission hat back on, dust the dust off.

Excise tax is paid according to the first plat, is that correct?

It is paid with each final plat that comes in. So initially what would happen here, the preliminary plat does not trigger the excise tax payment, but their phase one, they would pay an excise payment based on that, and then a phase two and a phase three.

Excise tax based on phase one. Right.

geographic area.

So my question to you, sir, is this. What happens if these lots come in, as I'm concerned about, so expensive, no builder takes these down, and now what do we do about 167?

Well, it really doesn't matter if the lots are built or not, because a developer many times will plat in advance. So just so you're aware.

Let me rephrase my question. What happens if the final plat on phase one is never filed?

There is no collection of excise tax at that point. And then what happens?

Who pays for this? It'll be built and paid for the same way regardless.

Okay, but what is the same way, Kellen?

By various... various road funds that the city has, including excise tax.

The short answer is the city would have to pay for it?

That's a portion. That's been the pattern for all of our major architectural upgrades.

Can I ask, I mean, the decision that's before you right now is really consideration and approval of the development plan, which we're supposed to be looking at the golden factors under our code, and we're straying pretty far from that.

Just give me a minute.

You're doing an analysis of a pro forma, and that actually is not one of the factors we are to consider in reviewing and approving it. And we had developments in 08 and 09 that went bust, and somebody else came in later. They redid the plan. They redid the plat, and it ultimately got built. And if their pro forma goes bust and they can't make this thing work, well, then they can come back and replant it and replant it until it works.

Well, Ryan, I appreciate that. Where I'm going with all this is just simply this. We have a school that's opening in 12 months. We have an intersection that is not up to speed to even turn lanes, and none of that stuff is there yet. I still haven't got a clear sign as to who land is being taken from to build either this traffic circle, the intersection, or traffic signals. And I just want a commitment that no other existing developers are going to come back and have to pay or give up land to do this. Do I have a commitment on that?

There's no way to commit to that. I would never advise the city to commit that they would not be requiring to take right-of-way in the nature. Because you don't know what's going to happen down the road.

This may end up being a six-lane wide thoroughfare.

As long as I'm the city attorney, we will never make that commitment.

I understand. I guess what I'm asking for is just a general direction. What's your thought process at this point?

I think we're kind of straining. I think we're getting off topic. I mean, I think we're kind of drifting away into some other.

But that's just, to add to that, I mean, if it never gets built, who cares what happens at that intersection? There's no traffic that's going to go through there other than the head north.

Well, the problem, Mark, is going to be the school and the subdivisions to the north, east, and west. My concern is this traffic intersection at 167th and Hill Creek and the schools.

But there won't be an intersection at 167 to Kill Creek. It's already there. Well, but it only goes north. I mean, on to Kill Creek, it can't go south. There's nothing there.

No, I understand. What I'm saying is, let's assume for a second that this never gets built.

Okay.

Based on that assumption, Mark, we still have the issue that is a big issue and a pressing issue. of 167th and Kilcreek in the schools in the developments to the north, in the east, in the west.

Which we already have, which we just discussed. There's a plan to do that as phase two. Who's paying for all that? That's already part of a CIP, right? It has nothing to do with.

In the short term, we're reviewing that intersection for a temporary signal to handle the existing plus school traffic that is indicated. In between now and when a future major improvement project can be completed. And that has been the city's practice for signalizing new intersections.

i don't think this is any new ground i mean i think this has been how we've done this for typical right yeah if we had and that has nothing to do with this right rp yeah if we had the money and the time and the forethought of when the the the school district was going to do their plan and the speed of which they were going to do it then maybe yeah we would have said 167 all the way across would have been the right thing to do but

hindsight we only know this where school starts next year with the new elementary school this has been discussed he just said we're looking at temporary signals until we can get the roads if this doesn't get built then that's what we're going to do and then that's still in our cip of the improvements on 167th street that has nothing to do with this agenda item that we're discussing currently

motion motion motion Dean second Johnson we adopt ordinance number two eight eight five an ordinance changing the zoning classification of certain lands and located in the city of Gardner, Kansas, under the authority granted by Title 17 of the Municipal Code of the City of Gardner, Kansas. City Clerk.

Council Member Beaton. Yes. Council Member Wee.

Yes.

Council Member Johnson. Yes. Council Member McNair.

No.

Mayor Winters.

Yes. 2885 passes. Committee Recommendation Number 4, consider a recommendation to award a Progressive Design-Build Phase 2 contract to the joint venture Burns & McDonald, CIS Constructors for the Hillsdale Intake Structure Project, number WA2203.

Good evening, Mayor, Council Members. Instead of me standing up here giving you a big story, I invited our engineering team to give you a quick presentation on this project, maybe to refresh your memory and give you an update on how we're progressing with it and answer any questions you might have on it.

Good evening, Mayor, council members. I'm Jake White, representing the Burns McDonald and CAS joint venture. And with me tonight, I have two individuals, our construction manager, Ryan Rutkowski, as well as our design manager, Darren Huck. So if any questions get brought up that I'm unable to answer, hopefully between the three of us, we'll be able to address that. So I have a presentation tonight. for you all just to kind of let you know what we've been working on and the direction moving forward specifically related to this raw water intake. So I've already gone through introductions, and so let's just talk real briefly about the existing intake and just a little bit of a background here. This was built in the late 1990s. You can see in this map right here the actual location of your intake. It is worth noting that the city has one intake, one raw water intake, and it really provides all of the water, all of the drinking water supply for the city, right? So it is a very critical asset that does exist. This is a picture located at the intake, and one thing I would like to point out is there is a gravel road that goes down to the intake structure itself. So anytime there needs to be maintenance that is done, regardless of the time of year, it is a pretty steep incline that operators and maintenance crews have to drive down this slope to actually access the intake itself, right, the pumps and the pumping systems and the valves. This is a picture located from the reservoir side of things. You can see electrical conduit on the exterior of the intake itself, located next to some riprap, some gravel, and some rocks. And it's just another indication of what the existing status is out there at the intake. And this is actually the building that is located on site. This houses electrical gear and chemical feed equipment. And on the right side of this picture, I want to call attention to that concrete structure. It's not a great picture. But inside of that concrete structure is a storage tank that stores chemicals, right? It stores sodium permanganate. It's actually exposed to the environment, and recently that tank that stores those chemicals has failed, all right? Which has caused a leak in chemicals, obviously a safety, significant safety hazard, and an operational hazard as well. So in order to combat that, what the operational staff has had to do is inside of the building deliver totes of chemicals and moving those in and out based on how often they're used. So anytime you're moving chemicals around, obviously that creates an issue as well. So you can see just in these pictures right here, right, the workaround because of failed infrastructure associated with critical pieces of infrastructure and equipment that are located outside and exposed to the elements. Okay, so what is the actual need of the project? Well, since 2018, and this is specifically related to the reliability of the intake. Again, I talked about this is the sole source of water, drinking water for the city and the citizens and the users within the community. Since 2018, those pumps have been repaired over 20 times, all right? And again, that's a very significant issue when you have to drive down that sloped incline in gravel in all weather. to replace those pumps. So those pumps have had significant issues. There are routine repairs of the chemical feed systems. Outdoor equipment, as I mentioned earlier, leads to very frequent repairs just because it is exposed to the environment. Telemetry, which is the communication between the water treatment plant and the intake so operators can see what's going on out there. HVAC systems, the hoist, and a number of electrical repairs have happened over the last couple years as well. So all of this feeds into this reliability, right? The existing intake has really exceeded its expected life. It is no longer reliable for its intended purpose. And then finally silted in lower intake screen. So every intake needs three sources of water at different elevations within the reservoir. The bottom intake right now is silted in. So you're only operating with two intakes and not the necessary three. Talked a little bit about safety items, slope gravel drive to access the pumps, leaking chemical tanks and piping, and frequent maintenance. Anytime you're maintaining equipment, maintaining structures like this, that does create a safety issue, and it's something that is very much on the forefront of our mind and forefront of all the decision-making that has occurred on this project up to this point right now. And then finally, the capacity. So how much water are you actually able to withdraw? Right now the intake is maxed out at 6 million gallons a day. And what is proposed in this project is to increase the capacity from 6 to 9 million gallons a day with the ability to expand it to 13.5 million gallons a day. And that lines up with the expected growth within the community over time. So it gives you the ability to grow where you're not installing the larger pumps right now. You can wait until demands get to the point where you need to put in larger pumps and you go ahead and replace pumps and put in larger pumps. So it's that flexibility associated with that. And this project also aligns very well, obviously, with the transmission line project that is currently going on right now. The intake feeds into that as well. And just really quickly, this is from the city's most recent water master plan, where we're looking at water demands. Again, I mentioned the existing intake is a six million gallons per day intake. And in the year 2030, it is anticipated that maximum day demands are gonna reach about 6.38 MGD. I think you're trending slightly lower than that right now. But with that, that's an issue that is occurring, obviously, with growth in the community. I heard lots of conversations tonight about that, that you need to have that water supply. And so now is really a good opportunity and a good time to move forward with the project based on that demand exceeding that 6 MGD.

Okay, so what is actually the scope of the project?

This is an aerial drawing that shows what is actually being proposed. And so you can see in the middle there within this white box, there's a large rectangular box and three lines that are shooting out to the east. Those are the intake lines that actually go into the reservoir. The big, large concrete box is the intake structure, right, that is sunken down into the ground that allows water from the lake to enter the intake, at which point it is pumped out. You can see to the kind of the bottom right a little bit, that's the existing intake. So this is being constructed on the same site as your existing intake. This is a 3D model of the structure. So you've got the pumping systems located on the right side, electrical and chemical located on the left side, and obviously this whole structure is sunken down. This is a really good picture to show kind of what it looks like aerially. On the right side, again, is the pumping system. In the middle is the electrical system located inside. On the far left is the chemical feed system, also located inside and not exposed to the environment, not exposed to the weather and all of those things. Side view, lots of views. Okay, project cost and schedule. So our phase two project cost that is proposed to you tonight is $20,803,810. And I wanted to take a moment just to talk about some contributing factors based on some original budgetary numbers that were put together approximately two years ago to where we are at right now. So contributing factors that have led to us arriving at $20.8 million and some change. Obviously, the time value of money. So two years ago when budgetary numbers were put together, nothing gets cheaper over time. Things continue to get more expensive. And we see that with inflation all of the time. Um, clarity on construction means and methods. So when budgetary numbers were put together, we didn't have geotechnical investigation. What geotechnical investigation is, is we're actually looking at what the soils are and being able to design our structure around that. So obviously once we were under contract and working on the project, we had geotechnical information. that led to thicker construction, thicker walls in order, right, to be a secure foundation, right? And that also led us to fully understand what it would take to construct those lines that are going out into the reservoir itself. KDHE and code requirements. So a big item that we had to address was the storage of the chemicals and the need to sprinkle. So fire sprinkler, it's a very significant safety issue. The decision was not to move forward with getting a variance to not put sprinklers in there because of the type of chemical that's being stored, right? It can be flammable. So it's a fire protection and a safety issue. right it required installing a new pipeline from water district 7 to the intake structure itself and installation of sprinkler system and you know obviously within within kdhe working our way through those regulations and interpretation thereof and then finally improve safety and reliability making sure we've got eye washes in the correct locations and enough eye washes to protect and and to make sure people are safe as they're operating this facility You know HVAC systems making sure that those are robust and able to provide cooling so that the pumps can continue to operate Very very important and one thing I want to point out so of that twenty point eight million dollars Four hundred and fifteen thousand of that is what we call owner controlled allowances Okay, what these line items are is if that money is needed, right? We need to justify that and working with city staff to be able to justify using that right It will come out of this pot of money however If that is not used, it directly goes back to the city. So this is city-controlled allowance money that if not used, that money goes back to the city. And so what makes that up is we've got $225,000 in what we call market volatility and delivery delays. You've got special inspection and lab testing services. I can read through these, or you can look at the numbers, telemetry systems, dewatering of excavations. These are safety factors that are in place. If dewatering is needed, there's a pool of money that's there. And then protection of water quality at the existing intake, right? Carving out some money to accommodate that. Because again, this is the sole source of water for the city. That if there is an upset that, you know, there's money set aside to be able to access that to be able to remedy whatever sort of water quality issues may occur. All right, so where are we at within the schedule and proposing the schedule moving forward? Final design and permitting taking us up into the end of the first quarter of next year, right, and then actually breaking ground at the probably around March of 2027. There's a considerable amount of time that's spent on wet well construction. That is the heart of the project. We want to make sure that we get that right and that needs to be done really before we can access the site to do the balance of work. You've got cofferdam installation. So a cofferdam is a temporary dam that's installed to allow us to install those intake pipelines safely. And then that is filled back in. And really at the end of the day, the project is proposed to be complete in late 2028. So again, aligning with that expansion of the city and future demands and being able to accommodate that. So 2028. During this entire construction, the existing intake is going to be operational. It's going to stay in operation. A lot of planning has gone into making sure that that does occur during construction of the new intake as well. So with that, I will open it up to any questions you all may have.

Thank you. Is there any public comment on this item? None. Council, do you have questions on this item?

I have a question. Is it normal to need to do repairs 20 times, more than 20 times in eight years?

It is not. It is not normal. There's issues with the existing pumps. They're what they're called submersible pumps. So they actually sit down in the water. And that was a very early on. The decision was made. We don't want that type of pump. We want to put in vertical turbine pumps. So changing the pump type out. So no, it is not normal to have that amount of maintenance on pumping systems.

So there's no reason to think that the new pumps would encounter those same kinds of issues because they're not going to be.

Yeah, there is no reason to expect the new pumping system is going to have that level of maintenance for sure.

Sorry, were you going to say something? You started to say something.

Actually, those. were more than maintenance. Those were actually pump failures. They had to be brought in and completely overhauled. So it's really not a maintenance item like you wash your car or go out and change the fan belt. They were complete pump failures.

Dave, didn't we have a failure last year around November, December?

Shortly after I got here, we had a failure.

And we always keep one on the shelf, if I remember correct. It takes eight months to get them rebuilt. Have we got that one back yet?

Yep.

We're all back to full pump staff or pump capacity. I had one other question on the chemical storage. Potassium permanganate is a nasty little But highly effective.

Highly effective. That's correct.

Chemical for purification and treatment of water. Many farmers use it. We used it when I was a kid. Yes, sir.

Just don't get it on your skin. Oh, it turns purple. It'll turn a purple. It's like one of those Hema tattoo things or whatever.

And it's a highly effective oxidizer.

Well, incredibly effective, which is why it's used, which is why it's very, very important overall to the treatment process used by the city is having that chemical in use really provides very efficient cost-effective treatment.

Is that kind of what made up the storage areas? Is it oxidation factor?

Between that and age.

Okay. I'm good to that. Yes, sir.

Okay. No further questions. Do I hear a motion?

So moved. Second. Second.

Motion, Deaton. Second, Johnson. We authorize the city administrator to execute the progressive design build phase two contract for the Hillsdale Intake Structure Project, CIP project number WA2203 to the joint venture group of Burns and McDonald and CAS Constructors LLC not to exceed the budgeted $20,803,810.00. um all in favor aye all opposed abstain new uh committee recommendation number four passes thank you very much thank you all thank you thank you thank you um committee recommendation number five uh consider a recommendation to adopt a resolution authorizing the final execution of the contract modification to the power purchase agreement grand river dam authority power supply project number two between the city and the kansas municipal energy agency to secure seven megawatts of additional firm electric capacity

Thank you. We completed our negotiations through KMEA with the Grand River Dam Authority, and we have secured seven megawatts of additional power, which will bring our firm power capacity up to 11.5 megawatts. firm capacity plus we've secured the additional transmission line capacity for the seven megawatts so everything's all laid out in place we just need councils approval to sign the final contract and we can move forward and we'll firm up the 11 megawatts of capacity public comment for this item council we've kind of talked about this

Do I hear a motion?

So moved. Second.

Motion Johnson, second McNair. We adopt resolution 2196, a resolution of the city of Gardner, Kansas, authorizing the execution of amendment number one to the power purchase agreement, Grand River Dam Authority Power Supply Project number two, between the city of Gardner, Kansas and the Kansas Municipal Energy Agency, and making certain covenants and agreement to provide for the payment and security thereof, and authorizing certain other documents and actions and connections therewith.

City of Gardner.

Council Member Deaton. Yes.

Yes.

Council Member Johnson.

Yes.

Council Member McNair.

Yes. Resolution 2196 passes. Thank you. All right. That concludes committee recommendations.

Now we'll move to new business.

And Matt, I think the rest of the night belongs to you. So get your comfortable shoes on.

Now we've got to pay for it.

New business item number one, consider adopting an ordinance authorizing the issuance and delivery of $5,095,000 principal amount of general obligation bonds series 2026A taxable under federal law in the city of Garter, Kansas.

All five new business items are actually related to the same debt sale. So I have kind of a presentation, then I'll invite Baker Tilly's Ben Hart to basically give a presentation. But general overview is the purpose of the debt sale was to provide permanent financing for the gas turbine unit two project in the Lone Star Prairie Special Benefit District, as well as temporary financing for the Hilltop Ridge Madison Street Benefit District. The five agenda items consist of ordinances and resolutions necessary to authorize the issuance and delivery of series 2026A, taxable general obligation bonds, series 2026B, tax-exempt general obligation bonds, and series 2026C, general obligation temporary notes. Municipal Advisor Ben Hart with Baker Tilly is here this evening and will give a presentation on the city's credit rating from Standard & Poor's Rating Services and review the results of the competitive sale. Thank you.

Good evening, Ben Hart from Baker Tilly, your municipal advisor. So three issues were sold this morning, as Matt had said. The bonds, the taxable bonds, $5 million. We've got five bids on those, and they're taxable, so we expected 4.72% interest. At least that was our benchmark. They came in at 4.89% of those five bids. So it's right there, the 4.71 is a triple A. You're just above that number. The second piece of bonds, the 2026B, was just under $1 million, $935,000. There were three bids on that, 3.9%, 3.957%, which is a great rate we're seeing right now, especially with a rate market that's going up, that's looking good. The last one was a temporary note. We've got a 24-month term on it, so we'll take that out whenever, city will take that out whenever we go long-term on it. We got two bids on that one, 3.4%, 3.413%. Like Matt had said, the city underwent a credit rating and again they had a glowing recommendation for you guys at a double A minus and with the financial policies you got in place and the consistency within your budget both cash balances as well as fund balance I think also one of the pressing positives was the growth that Gardner experiences and the planned the planned nature of your financials. You've got forecasts that show what's, you know, your what-ifs and your forecast going forward. So overall, it was a really good sale this morning. We expected such. Any questions, I'd be happy to answer.

Thank you. We'll open it up if there is any public comment as we move forward. Council, do you have any general questions on

Kind of the whole lot of it.

Good rates. They are.

OK.

Thank you very much.

And if something else comes up, we'll let you know.

So we can start with the business item number one. Is there a motion?

So moved.

Second. Motion Deaton, second Johnson. We adopt ordinance number 2886, an ordinance authorizing the issuance and delivery of $5,095,000 principal amount of general obligation bonds, series 2026A, taxable under federal law in the city of Garner, Kansas. Previously, I'm sorry. Okay, there we go.

Council Member Wee.

Thank you. Yes.

Council Member Johnson. Yes. Council Member McNair.

Yes.

Council Member Deaton. Yes.

Ordinance number 2886 passes. All right. So the new business item number two, consider adopting a resolution prescribing the form and details of authorizing the delivery of $5,095,000 principal amount of general obligation bonds, series 2026A, taxable under a federal law of the city of Garner, Kansas, previously authorized by an ordinance of the city.

So I don't think we need to debate it. Okay. Okay.

So moved. Okay. So we've got a motion by Deaton, second by McNair, that we adopt resolution number 2197, a resolution prescribing the form and details of and authorizing the delivery of $5,095,000 principal amount of general obligation bonds, series 2026A taxable under federal law of the city of Garner, Kansas, previously authorized under an ordinance of the city.

Council Member Johnson. Yes. Council Member McNair. Yes. Council Member Deaton.

Yes.

Yes. Resolution 2197 passes.

This is for me to read a lot tonight. All right. New business item number three, consider adopting an ordinance authorizing issuance and delivery of $1,005,000 principal amount of general obligation bonds series 26B of the city of Gardner, Kansas.

So moved. Second.

Motion Deaton, second Johnson. We adopt ordinance number 2887, an ordinance authorizing the issuance and delivery of 1,000,005,000 principal amount of general obligation bonds, series 2026B at the City of Gardner, Kansas.

Council Member McNair.

Yes.

Council Member Deaton.

Yes.

Council Member Wade.

Yes.

Council Member Johnson.

Yes.

Ordinance number 2887 passes. New business item number four. Consider adopting a resolution prescribing the form and details of and authorizing the delivery of $1,005,000 principal amount of general obligation bonds series 2026B in the city of Gardner, Kansas, previously authorized by an ordinance of the city.

So moved. Second.

Motion Deaton, second Johnson. We adopt resolution 2198, a resolution prescribing the form and details of and authorizing the delivery of $1,005,000 principal amount of general obligation bond series 2026B in the city of Gardner, Kansas, previously authorized on an ordinance of the city.

Council Member Deaton. Yes. Council Member Wade.

Yes.

Council Member Johnson. Yes. Council Member McNair.

Yes. Resolution 2198 passes. And finally... New business item number five, consider a resolution authorizing the issuance and delivery of 940,000 principal amount of general obligation temporary notes, series 2026C of the city of Gardner, Kansas, for the purpose of temporarily financing the cost of certain internal improvements of the city.

Motion.

So moved.

second motion Deaton second Johnson we adopt resolution number two one nine nine a resolution authorizing the issuance and delivery of nine hundred and forty thousand principal amount of general obligation temporary notes series 2026 C of the city of Gardner Kansas yes yes yes resolution two one nine nine passes thank you everyone Thank you. Thank you.

Woo. Yay.

Now I have to sign everything. That's another.

You could delegate to.

Just look at it this way. Todd, you signed a $10 million credit card bill.

That's right. Yeah, pretty much. OK. So we'll move to council updates. We can start with Chief. I'll use the button this time.

Can you guys hear me OK? Okay, just real quick to update. We issued two conditional offers of employment to patrol officers. I'll be doing a third one this week. So we'll just have one vacancy there. And we did finalize our deputy chief process to hire someone. I haven't announced it yet officially to my people. So I was hoping to hold off the announcement publicly until I let my people know.

Okay. Thank you. Renee?

Nothing more tonight.

It's an attorney. Nothing further. Okay, Dave.

Yes, I do. Cedar Nile's lift station, the fourth main has been completed on that project.

The grabby line portion of the project, we only have 500 feet left to go.

Kill Creek Water Treatment Plant construction is still on schedule and Scheduled to be completed this October.

Great. Excellent.

Thank you. Thank you.

Jason? Nothing for me. Dave?

Nothing for me.

Kelly?

Nothing for me.

So yeah, just wanted to remind the governing body to please submit any agenda questions that you might have in advance. So the reason that we ask for this is so we can always be sure to give you the most complete and correct answer possible, especially when we're talking about some of the things like we were tonight where there's complex issues with lots of moving parts. This gives staff the opportunity to collect the appropriate information, put the complete picture together, and give you all the necessary context to make sure that you can always make an informed decision. Thank you.

Council Member Johnson. Just real quick, I want to say thank you to the two gentlemen who spoke during public comments tonight, and also just remind everybody that the polls are now open for primary voting, so please go do that if you are registered to vote. There is a very important question on there about electing whether we want to change our Kansas Constitution to elect Supreme Court justices, and that is on every ballot, Republican, Democrat, any party, unaffiliated, it's a So if for nothing else, make sure you get there to vote before August 4th, because it's important.

Very good, thank you. Council Member McNair.

Ditto. Yeah, a couple things. Number one, I want to reiterate, I invited New Life to come to speak this evening.

Thank you for coming.

And... It's a problem that's indicative of the whole area over there. On Gardner Road, we had a fatal motorcycle accident a few months ago. But at that same intersection, a lot of trucks, semis, come in and out of that little roadway, or not even a roadway, between Culver's and Quick Trip. causing a lot of problems. I've seen two accidents because people couldn't see around the trucks and pulled out in front of folks when there's a light about a half a block up that could make safe turns and is set up to make safe turns. And I'd like to see if I can ask to maybe see if we can have public works while they're working on this for the church. Also take a look at the issue between maybe trying to encourage the tractor trailers to go up and use the light as well.

So that section of Gardner Road is actually going to be reconstructed in the bridge project. It's in the later phase, but that's actually getting a median through there. Okay. That'll help a lot. That's going to do about as much as we can there.

Sure. And it's not as bad as it has been in the past with the closure of the two lanes, or the exit and entrance. Right. And I also heard from some people over at Quail Meadows regarding the traffic circle and some of the stuff that we resolved earlier. I do want to extend an apology. I had been in Omaha, had planned to be there the entire week. We made a decision last night to drive back to Kansas because I viewed that there were several items on this agenda that were extremely important for me. I made the decision to cancel a vacation. It was our son's 45th birthday yesterday. He turned 45. That kind of tells you how old I am. But yeah, mine and I came back this afternoon, so if there was an edge on me this evening, I didn't get much sleep, I'm eight years into Parkinson's guys, I was having a very, very, very bad day. So please accept my apologies for any edge that was on me this evening. Thank you.

uh just a couple things so uh tended the uh kind of the nature bingo out at uh on the green um really appreciate um jason staff for being out there it was a really um interesting and uh fun time to wander around and actually see the different trees that we have on there i really appreciate Erica Krause, her willingness to come out there and teach us. I mean, she doesn't work staff. She's just a very knowledgeable naturalist out with the Kansas State, wherever she has, whatever. I don't know it either, but really appreciate everything that she was able to do for us and continues to do out there on the Greenway. I know we put up fences around the park. Maybe you know, but I don't know what the plan is there or how it's going.

So we were having people using the playground already and it's not finished. So obviously that's not very safe. We have some vandalism on the basketball court already as well. So yeah, we decided to put fencing up to deter people from using it until the projects are complete.

Disappointing. Okay. Well, good to know, in case anybody asks. Is there a time frame?

So the family is out of the country until August. Okay. So really the last thing we have to do with the basketball court, other than the repairs, is finalize the memorial thing that we're going to do. Not sure what we're doing yet. And then for the playground, we're waiting on some parts to get in. And then once those get in, they'll be able to do the surf.

Yeah. I'm hoping a couple weeks. It was a nice splash pad right now. Yeah, lots of mine. And other than that, yes, I voted. Everybody should go out and vote, whether you're Republican, Democrat, unaffiliated. I think it was surprising to me or eye-opening that some folks didn't realize that they could go vote, and they need to go vote no matter what.

New Century is open, correct?

New Century is open. That's where I want it.

New Century is open, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.? every day except Sunday, and on August 3rd, it's 9 a.m. to noon. So there's lots of opportunity there, and it's generally a short line.

It's an excellent opportunity.

Yep.

And you get a cool sticker. Yeah, you said I voted today. I did. Where's your sticker at, man? Cool.

Sorry. Yeah, I just wanted to thank Parks and Rec PD Fire District for coming out, helping with our duck parade. We did 5,614 ducks in the lazy river last Friday. It was a lot of fun with our parade. And I just want to thank everybody and especially the PIO team who came out and streamed it. So anybody who couldn't be really hot out at the pool and in the parade could watch it. So thank you guys.

Council Vice President was very appropriately dressed for the parade, I'll just say that.

I had a lot of ducks in my ensemble. Anything? Nope.

I don't have anything else tonight, so I will entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. Motion, Deaton. Second, McNair. We adjourn. All in favor? Aye. All opposed?