City Council - Regular Meeting

is 7 o'clock in Gardenner, Kansas. We'll call the meeting to order. Please rise and join me for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right. Good evening. We started off uh the night with a a really great item and really great presentation and I am super excited for the basketball court in Windwood Park. So, I can't wait for that. Uh so our our first presentation tonight uh Councilman Wean and myself a couple weeks ago, two or three weeks ago, I guess it was, um we were invited to uh pose a a question uh to uh student council or student uh speech class. And uh our our question that we chose basically was um we were looking for entertainment options that were cost effective for kids in the community ages 10 to 18. And so their their job was to come up with u an idea and then to present it in a speech format to us. And so we had some really great presentations and some really great ideas. I think there was about six or seven. Sorry, six. I didn't really do that on purpose. six or sevenish maybe eight uh presentations and they're all great. Um and so we we did chose the very first one we received. Um so Valerie Weaver is here tonight. She did a great job and we asked if she could come and give the presentation uh to the council. She had a great idea. So Valerie, if you'd like to come forward,

welcome.

Thank you for having me. Like many other teens, I had a hard time finding things to do here in Gardener. Yes, I could go to a park or a pool, which are both great options, but what happens when the weather starts getting colder? There's not really any indoor activity spaces here in Gardener besides the library and New Century Sports Complex. It's kind of an inconvenience to have to drive all the way to Altha just to go to a place to hang out with friends. My challenge was to think of something that we could make to improve the quality of life for the citiz sins of gardener while also entertaining people aged 10 to 18. Now I can't speak for all teens. So I decided to make a Google form reaching out to high schoolers to see what they would like to be able to do in gardener. I got a ton of amazing responses. The top two most popular ideas were a bowling alley and an activity space. I think both of these options would be really fun, but building a bowling alley would cost us a pretty penny. And I realize gardener doesn't have an unlimited amount of money. According to QTO estimating, a professional cost consulting and estimating firm, building a bowling alley would cost between two and $6 million depending on the size. I feel like this wouldn't be the best option, at least for now, even though

many people want one. According to Mayor Winters, if we increase the average homeowners who live in gardener's taxes by $40 a year or one mill, that would give us about $370,000 a year. That is about 1if the amount needed to build a bowling alley. And that doesn't even cover maintenance costs associated with owning the business. But the second most wanted idea was an activity space. The $370,000 would be enough money to cover the cost to build one of these with everything included in it. But what would be included and what would it be used for, you may ask? Well, an activity space could be used for many different things, such as a place to study for school, doing various crafts, hanging out with friends, or even meeting up for a club. There could also be parties, events, events, and so much more. The variety of things that we could do here is endless. I wanted to put my vision into perspective for you. So, I decided to use my interior design skills and come up with a a design of what it could potentially look like. As you can see, I want it to be colorful and fun. There's an area for exciting gameplay while also having a space for chill study time. Now that we have an idea of what we could make, we need to find a place to put it. That place would be the quasi hut. It is located on North Elm Street, right across the street from the library. The quasi hut is already built, which would lower costs, and it's big enough for the thing we want to make out of it, but not too big that we have extra space we don't know what to do with. According to Mayor Winters, they're hoping to move equipment out of the quasi hut. Moving equipment out of the hut would open opportun up an opportunity to make something great. It would be great because it would

improve the quality of life for the people of Gardener. It would give teens a space to hang out close by. that's not their house. After all, kids are tired of being home having nothing to do. Another reason is that it would open up job opportunities for the people of Gardener. It could be a mix of both teens and adults who'd work there. To pay them, there could be a fee to enter the activity space as well as food for sale. In the end, I want everyone to be happy. Even though this isn't a bowling alley like many people want, an activity space would still have great benefits to the city of Gardener. It would be costefficient. It could be used for many different purposes. And it could be put in a central already built space. My challenge was to think of something that we could make to improve the quality of life for the people in gardener while also entertaining people aged 10 to 18. And I believe an activity space would do both of those things. I'm here for you and I'm deeply invested in making this partnership a success. I would love to hear your thoughts on my proposal and address any questions you might have. I'm confident that my plans align closely with your goals and I'm more than happy to refine any details to ensure it delivers maximum value. Your feedback is essential and I'm excited to move forward towards the results I know this collaboration can achieve.

Thank you. Well done. HAVE any questions? Great job though. Uh really really well well thought out and I do like the concept. I think there's definitely some potential. So we will we will uh kick that around a little bit. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Excellent job. Thank you. It's good that they didn't go with the bowling alley. Ironically, we're in the bowling alley. This is where the old bowling alley was before it became city hall. That's irony.

Bit hard to follow. But our next presentation is 2025 animal control update. I'm hoping he made a Canva presentation. Right. Yeah. um the social I also had the privilege on sitting on those CCP um presentations um and our high school um kids were very very impressive with their ideas so um yeah it was a great a great project and you guys did a great job so looking forward to that um so don't judge me based on what you did not so don't don't worry we'll judge you

okay sweet so late 2024 before um we came to you guys with the need to make some changes to our animal control ordinance as well well as our procedures um based on our loss of animal shelter locally um increased call volume um and just some other needs that we had with those changes we wanted to come to you at the end of 25 and give you an update on how well we feel those have gone um so far this year. So, one of the changes we made, we in first quarter of 25, we started the online pet licensing through BarkPass. Um, we've seen over a hundred additional pets license so far this year. Um, we also introduced a three-year pass, so now um pet owners can purchase a license for three years. Um, we've included incentives for pets that are microchipped um and spayed and neutered. So incorporating all of that, we've seen a huge increase. It's made the convenience a lot better. Um it's also going to cut down in the future because we don't have to um issue new licenses. We can renew the ones that we've already issued. So that's going to help us with the cost as we move forward, too. Um we've done the pet u vaccination clinic for a few years now. Um last year was one of our more successful years. 182 pets um came through the drive-through vaccination clinic in the lot in the parking lot of the justice center. um and were vaccinated, microchipped, and the other options they gave um all of those residents, all of those that were residents of Gardener um were followed up with to make sure that their pets were also licensed. Um which contributed to our ultimate goal of returning pests to their owners should they should they get loose. Um we knew we had to be proactive. Um we were reducing the services we were providing to the community, so we wanted to be proactive um in making sure that reduction was as little as possible. So, one of those steps we did, we installed five public microchips can scanning

stations. Um they're at Veterans Park, Cornerstone Park, Celebration Park, um Stone Creek, and then the entrance to the greenway um off of Madison. Um while there's no way to measure how many times those are used because they don't store, um any data um just through our feedback we've gotten from the community, they have been very popular. Um, you'll also see as we move through the presentation that the number of pets that we've had to pick up has dramatically reduced. So, we we can sort of measure that success based on that as well. Uh, one of the programs we've been working through all year long and is just getting ready to roll out this month is our trap neuter return program. Um when we one of the reductions we did is we no longer um pick up stray cats unless they're injured um and so on. That's a a trend moving across the entire region. Um but we do recognize that there is a stray cat problem in town and most of those are feral cats not belonging to anyone. So the TNR program um we work with volunteers to trap the cats um and with the partnership with Oakbrook Animal Hospital. The cats are taken there. Um they're spayed or neutered. Um their ears are tipped, which is a um common method to identify um TNR cats and then they're returned to where they were picked up from. It's a long-term plan, but it does it's proven to reduce the colony size over time. Cats are opportunists. So when you take a cat out, another cat will fill space. um much like fox and other wild animals. So we if you reintroduce that cat back in there's no there's no space to refill. So eventually that that population when it can't reproduce um it helps solve that problem. So again that's a brand new program that we're just rolling out starting this week um is our first set of TNR cats that are going to be caught. Um but we're really excited about that. We are targeting this right now to um

the Konis Stoogga trailer park and that's where we see our largest problem with the plan of moving anywhere else we see the the complaints across the community.

The other um program that's taken a little bit to get going but we're excited about is our discount microchip program. Um we've partnered with Oakwork Animal Hospital, Gardener Animal Hospital, and Stepping Stone. Um the city's going to purchase the microchips and provide them to the clinics. the clinics have agreed to um implant them with the small fee that they need for um their services um which is only about5 to$10 per microchip. Um this contributes to our ultimate plan of getting the pets home when they do get loose and also contributes to our um scanning stations because they have the microchip. So we're excited about that. Uh the total measure for all of this. So um we partnered with Always and Forever um moving into um 2025. Always in Forever is based out of Oswadami. So that's a 40minute one-way drive anytime we have to take a a pet down to um their shelter, but they've been great with providing the services, the adoptions and all of that. Um we had to cut down because that's just not a a sustainable number, 40 minutes one way. Um, so so far in 25. Um, and these stats are a couple weeks old, but we've only had a 684 total calls for service animal control-wise. Um, which has result in only 99 reports, which is a pretty significant reduction. Um, 29 of those were animal bites. That's an unavoidable thing, unfortunately. Um, wild animal calls will forever be a problem we're dealing with in a growing community. Um, but we've only lodged 27 pets. um we were over 300 I believe in 24 um and only 181 um stray animal calls which is about a third of what we faced um in previous years. So to me that's a huge win. Um it saved budgetwise um a pretty significant number. Our um

projected budget moving into 2025 was about 190,000 based on um quotes we'd received for animal shelter services. Um with our partnership with Always and Forever um the proactive steps um we've been able to make um our projected spending is about under 40,000 um at the end of this year. So, um, we're pretty proud of that number, being able to, um, get more pets home, but also, um, affect the city's budget in a positive way. We're not blind. We know this plan is not sustainable long term. Um, so we wanted to evaluate what our our plans could be moving into the future. We also see our cities growing at a um, very exciting rate. So, our service demand is going to increase. We're continuing to research and engage in partnerships that could add value. Um those include um that spay and neuter clinics, microchip clinics, um and so on. We're looking at the best practices across the community. Um the best way to um affect those the pets. Um and then long-term we've began discussion of possibly looking into a city-owned shelter and partnering with a um nonprofit to help run those daily operations and so on. Again, we recognize those are long-term plans. Um, but we don't want to be blind to how fast our city is growing and the needs that we're going to face.

Are there any questions? I think that's great. It's a huge savings. Yes, we're excited about it. Better for the population as well. I just wanted to say thank you for the innovation and being very budget conscious and delivering an effective solution to the to the problem so far. Thank you. Absolutely. Absolutely. Pet Resource Center is who we partner with for our um span neuter and vaccination clinic. Um and there was just an article last week in case TV5. They installed a microchip scanning station at their location based on our models. So um we're proud to be able to say that we're pioneering that direction, too. So

are we finding a lot of the pets that we pick up, we are finding their owners before we have to get them down to always and forever or Yes, we are. Yep. And if I don't if I remember correctly, the scanning technologies developed by our own police department. Is that correct? Yeah. The design of this of the Yeah, they are innovation. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yeah. Thank you.

Hold up. Okay. Um, no public hearing, so we'll move to public comments. Members of the public are welcome to use this time to make comments about city matters or items on the agenda that are not part of a public hearing. If you wish to come forward, please limit your comments to five minutes or less. There is a time clock to your left. With that being said, come forward and state your name and address for the record. And the podium is now open. See no one coming forward. We'll move to consent agenda. Is there an item on the consent agenda? Council like to move Three and seven.

Okay. Seven. All right. Do I have a motion for consent agenda items 1256 8 and nine? So moved. Second. Motion McNair. Second. Deon. We approve consent agenda items 12456 8 and nine. All in favor? All opposed. Abstain. Those pass. Consent agenda item number three. Consider authorizing the execution of an agreement with Low North Construction to administer the replacement of the backup generator at city hall.

I was just curious. So, I couldn't find it because I I have a little gripe with the website. I can't go farther back to 2022 for minutes for the utilities. And I'm pretty sure we put that in between 13 and 15. So I'm curious how close we are on the lifetime on it since I'm guessing we haven't ran it all that much. It was it was taken from utility so it was used when we took it and we can no longer get parts for it. Okay. So it's it's passed into life. Okay. Understood. Thank you. Then I'm good with that one.

Consent agenda item number seven. Consider authorizing the execution of an agreement amended amendment with Olsen to perform additional design services on the 167th Street roadway improvements project between Center Street and Moonlight Road.

I was just curious, there's several little things it looks like, that were kind of left out or was it an oversight or was it something that the scope changed? So in the course of a design this large, sometimes things move the roadway actually shifted within the ride ofway which moved us into an area of additional rightway acquisition and also interaction with additional utilities and things like that. These are generally just unforeseen site conditions that play into an adjustment of scope. Okay, perfect. Thank you. I'm good. Any other questions on those items? Is there a motion then for consent agenda items three and seven?

So move Second motion Baldman second Deon. We approve content agenda items three and seven. All in favor? I. All opposed. Abstain. Agenda items three and seven pass. Um is would anyone like to move the planning and zoning consent item? Is there a motion to approve that? So moved. Second. Motion Deon. Second McNair. We approve the planning and zoning consent agenda. All in favor? I. All opposed. State. It passes. Lot of words.

Uh, committee recommendation number one, consider adopting an ordinance approving a conditional use permit for the construction of a 100 foot tall community tower on 7.88 acres located at 16500 Waverly Road. Brewster.

Thank you. MW Towers has an agreement to lease a 50 foot by 50 foot piece of property on the city's substation electric substation number three. The lease term require the applicant to obtain all necessary permits and approvals for that monopole proposed structure. The applicant is proposing to install a 100 foot tall communication tower with a 10-ft lightning rod on top. The new communication towers are required to receive a conditional use permit in all of our zoning districts. The red line on this graphic is the outline of the property of our substation and the yellow box is approximately where the lease area is. The mechanical equipment related to the comm communications facility will be screened by a six- foot tall wood fence around the perimeter. There was some discussion at the planning commission meeting about the distance of the proposed monopole from the surrounding property, specifically the neighborhood. You can see on here I've highlighted that it's 125 ft approximately from the back property line of residence and approximately 162 ft from the Waverly Road right ofway. The proposed communications tower does comply with the maximum height in residential zoning districts. It meets the minimum setbacks and will be constructed to allow for the collocation of a maximum of four carriers. As part of the submitt, the applicant provided some photo imposed renderings, if you will, of the proposed tower. The top one is from 165th Terrace and the

one below that is from South Waverly. At the November 18th planning commission meeting, a public hearing was held. There were several residents from the neighborhood, but no one spoke at the public hearing. The planning commission and staff are recommending approval of the ordinance to grant the conditional use permit for the communications tower at this location with the conditions as listed in the ordinance. The applicant is present and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you, Mister.

Is there any public comment on this item? Council, do you have questions or is there a motion to approve? So move. Second. Motion McNair. Second, Deon. We adopt ordinance number 2861 approving conditioning permit 25-305-06 as recommended by the planning commission. Council member Baldwin. Yes. Council member Deon. Yes. Council member Lee. Yes. Council member Johnson. Yes. Council member or I'm sorry, Mayor Winter. Yes. Council member McNair. Yes.

Ordinance number 2861 passes. Thank you. Committee recommendation number two, consider adopting an ordinance approving a resoning from a agricultural district district and rur county rural residential district to CP3 planned heavy commercial district and consider approval of the associated preliminary development plan for a private K through2 school located on the north side of 191st Street approximately 1,000 ft west of Locust Street.

Thank you. New Life Christian Academy has purchased property on the north side of 191st Street. They are requesting reszoning and preliminary development plan approval. You can see on this slide the variety of zoning districts that are surrounding this property, the subject properties outlined in red and immediately to the west is the city limits of Edertton. The proposed school at completion will be approximately 142,000 square feet in size. It's proposed to be constructed in phases with the first phase consisting of approximately 40,000 square ft and that would be for the elementary school. That's the portion that I have outlined or shaded in yellow the building and the related parking in phase one. There would be three additional phases. The second would be for a middle school. The third would be for the high school performing arts hall and gymnasium. And the fourth would be two support buildings, one for special education and one as a technology building. The property gray in gray on the southwest corner is a parcel that the pro the private school currently does not own, but they do have the right of refusal and are interested in purchasing that property. That additional property would give them room for expanded parking, a second point of access on 191st, and for storm water detention. I've provided the elevations for you to give you an idea of what the building would look like as it's completed. So, this is the full buildout of 142,000 square ft. The building is proposed to be of tiltup construction with varying um colors to differentiate and and break up the long facades. There also on the

bottom would be a formliner that makes it look like brick and the the tiltup panels would have reveals as well. In addition to the resoning and preliminary development plan applications, the planning commission approved the preliminary plat, a final plat and the final development plan for phase one. Again, there was a public hearing at our November planning commission meeting. No one spoke at that public hearing. At the meeting, the applicant did request some uh deferral or delay in some of the transportation related improvements. Our staff did not recommend deferring those past the first phase and the planning commission did not recommend approval of that request either. The planning commission and staff did however recommend approval of the resoning and the preliminary development plan. They also as part of their final approval of the final plat are recommending approval or acceptance by you all of the right of way and easement dedications. Again, the applicants are also present for this item. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

Thank you again. Is there any public comment on this item? Council, any questions, comments? pretty impressive that they, you know, the church was built, they've moved in there, they've grown in the last couple years, and now they're building old school. I mean, it's pretty the the rate was pretty accelerated. That's impressive. Yes. They also really kind of had an early start in their church building. K through two already. Maybe the tell us a little bit more about that.

Good evening. Uh my name is Michael Ward. I'm founder and board president. Sorry if I'm a little overdressed. I came right from the Christmas program. Uh I was telling them listening to kindergarteners sing never gets old. So, um, luckily I got to catch the very end of the tail of that and then come here. So, thanks for your time. Um, right now we are K through five operational. Um, and so a lot of this started just to give you a very brief history. Um, my wife about 12 years ago was deployed with the military. Um, so I had to take my child who she had been staying at home with to open arms daycare. And I just remember her bringing home some of these things during a very tough time in our life. Um, and she's bringing home, you know, Christian facts and Christian crafts and just I just love that they were doing the spiritual formation at that time where her mother was halfway across the world. Um, and I remember thinking at that time, I wonder what it takes to build a school. Like everything has to start from somewhere, right? Um, well, given everything that was going on, that that thought quickly faded. So, you know, fast forward five or six years, we now have twins. Um, just a side note, we tried, we had a girl, we tried for a boy and got two more girls. So, uh, I think God said that to us on on the boy idea. But, um, our twins start going to that development center and I remember thinking, "This is this is fantastic. I I just I love this and I uh I just feel like I need to investigate what it would take to start a school." Um, I just didn't want to kick myself 20 years down the road. If it doesn't happen, fine, but I also just want to chase that down. So, the morning I decided to chase that down, I'm in my office writing down a plan of how I'm going to go about starting this. Uh, and annuity sale. I'm a financial adviser. And so, it's annuity salesman pops in. I don't really do annuities, so I don't know how we got in or anything. So, he just said, "Hey, Mike, what are you

doing?" I said, "Actually, I feel like I'm called to start a school." And he goes, "Funny you should say that. I have this contact. In fact, I just talked to you yesterday. So, right from then, the door started opening. Keep following that for about a year. And I had the cake 50% baked, as I would like to say. And I take this to Pastor Rick and I say, "Hey, here's what I've got. What do you think?" And he says, "Funny you should say that. We're getting ready to build a new church building. What if you guys what if we built another row of classrooms and you guys um were tenants of ours and subleasased from us?" And so, even though it's new life and new life, we are separate entities. We are completely separate from the church. We are tenants of theirs. We're subleasasing. We just named it the same for cohesiveness. Um and so some people have had questions on that. Um and so when we started a couple of years ago, CO kind of put a hiccup in everything, right? Uh when we started it was K through three. That was two years ago. We had 25 students. Last year we had 56 and this year we have 85 students. Next year we're projected enrollment's already running. uh projected to have 115 to 120 kids next year. Um we had 35 applicants for 20 kindergarten spots this year. So it's probably going to be two years until we open our second kindergarten. So fully completed um again that third grade. So our twins because of CO almost missed the boat entirely. They were the third grade class and they're the lead class every year. And so, uh, they'll be the king of the hill all the way, one grade at a time, all the way to 12. Um, and so when it's fully built out, as you saw there, um, it'll be K through 12, two classes per grade, uh, 600 students, roughly about the size of Marinatha right now. Um, we were accredited. It's been, it's been a fast somebody said something about being a fast ride. You're telling me uh we got accredited last year which

usually takes five to six years to gain accreditation and we didn't just find anybody we used the we found the hardest people to get accreditation for ACSI most of the private schools around here uh Marinatha Heritage and others are all ACSI accredited um and so we had that in two we have 25 acres now um and we are off and running we as a board have set a um a fleece if you're used to that Gideon term, but we have set a target for when we would feel comfortable breaking ground and we're hoping to do that this coming year, 2026. Um, so things are moving fast. We have a lot of donors in orbit. Three have said um that they're in the process of selling securities or business uh but they would like to contribute a million dollars each next year. So um away we go. Fel,

it's been excellent. Any questions as far as vision or founding? Oh, I guess I should say if you don't mind before I do that, um, on our website, if you go to New Life Christian Academyy's website, if you go to the invest page, you'll get to see a fly through rendering. Uh, that cost $6,000 by itself. So, please go put some eyes on it. I want as many views as possible on that. Surprised it cost so much. Um, well, but the other thing that I have on there, which I think is important, is we have a study. We have a link to some studies. I put five of them. There was a lot more, but I found five studies that showed that whenever a new school is introduced to a community, all test scores in every school go up. In every industry, in every way, competition always makes everything better. that is just incontrovertible at this at this point in the game. So, I'm excited about that. This is not a school for everybody. It's not a country club and it never will be. We did $140,000 out of the gate first year, $140,000 in scholarship fund. We've done that every year. We're actually increasing that and we've partnered with um Aramark that if somebody does if that's not enough or the scholarship funds have run out, they can actually do um concessions at Chiefs, Royals, Monarchs, KU basketball, and they would get their tuition paid for. Uh we've also had multiple people in the church that said, uh don't ever let money be an issue. Somebody wants to go there and the funding's not right, you let me know. So, I can promise you that money is not and never will be the issue. If somebody really wants to go here, we will find a way to make that happen. Um, so I I love it that this is going to be a great option for a lot of people. It's not for everybody. It's not intended to be, but even for the people that it's not for, it's going to be the

boat. It's going to be the tide that rises all boats. And I am excited about that. So, any questions as far as vision or or the founding or anything before I turn it over to the real experts? I think we're good. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks, guys. Appreciate you. Council have any other questions or

not from that standpoint of we talked about traffic andor I mean we don't have a school zone now. You don't have a school zone now. not any sort of any sort of thought about anything we would want to do in and around this area. I know it's off and I'm I guess I was thinking more that we're used to schools being you know our public schools are in the you know neighborhood areas and this one's more on the industrial side. So, um I don't know if you guys have given any thought to that or

Well, and Will Dubois, architect, I saw getting the microphone ready. Uh that was actually part of that discussion um uh with planning commission staff about kind of the timing for some of that. and we we've agreed, hey, we're going to do these turn lanes and that's to help with the traffic in the area because yes, there is an industrial character, particularly really to the west and potential in the future. So, uh we have a full traffic study looking at the trips that be generated by the school and how that interacts with the industrial traffic. Um that road has recently kind of been upgraded to reflect that increased traffic on there. And so we will be constructing in the first phase before even the full 600 kids are there. We'll be constructing a right turn lane to help where 90% of the traffic is coming from as well as a left turn lane. So that way you know you don't have a semi-truck barreling down waiting for someone to turn into uh the site. Um, also that future spot in the southwest, uh, feel pretty good about that, but can't, you know, depend on it if it's not under control, but that will provide a second access point that will also help traffic internally and accessing the site.

I'll just add quickly on this one. Um, part of the situation, if you noticed with the site plan, the building is set back quite a distance from the roadway itself. So stacking issues or things like that look like they'll be handled internally internally on that site. Um as mentioned by Will the the issues that we really saw were more with the turn lanes as people were making turns in and out of that situation. Again that intermixing the current speed limit on 191st Street is 35 miles per hour. We'll probably be evaluating that and potentially slowing that down. Uh again, you've got that mixture of trucks that, but that's where the turn lanes come in as part of our access management program. So, as people are slowing to make those turns or adjusting to make those turns, getting them out of the through traffic lanes will be important. So, that's that's where we're looking at those features right now. Uh it's a little different in regard to pedestrian activity there. Right now, there are not sidewalks associated with this. It's not integrated in a neighborhood like you said on a residential standpoint. So, we've been focused more on the traffic itself than we have been worrying about any of the pedestrian elements.

Yeah. And I think that's kind of also where my head was at, too. I know that was a topic of discussion during the planning commission about um sidewalks and holding off on that, which it seems to make sense. I mean, I I it's not I mean, we want to pride ourselves on walkability, but not being a neighborhood school. So such such as what we would call it then I mean you're just you're going to drive it.

Yeah. And this this project being phased the way they're talking about. We also have development that may be occurring along Locust and and that route in and as you know when we have that development occur those developers are required to put sidewalks in. So the network is going to eventually get built but it'll be part of the phasing projects that go on out there. As far as the school zone aspect, I think the lanes, the turn lanes are great solution, but in the meantime of whether or not you actually put in an actual school zone, would it be worth just putting up a sign that says school entrance ad?

I mean, yeah, we can do that pretty simply and then we can evaluate for whether additional measures are necessary in the future based on how the turn lanes performed. Okay. Any other questions? Thank you for everything. Um,

um, so do we have a motion for recommendation number two? Some moved. Second. Motion Baldwin, second. here. We accept the recommendation of the planning commission and approve ordinance number 2862, an ordinance changing the zoning classification or districts of certain lands located in the city of Gardener, Kansas under the authority granted by title 17 of the municipal code of the city of Gardener, Kansas, and accept the dedication right away and easements as shown on the New Life Christian Academy final plat. Council member Deon, yes. Council member, yes. Council member Johnson, yes. Mayor Winters, yes. Council member McNair, yes. Council member Waldwood,

yes. Ordinance number 2862 passes. Yes. We have no old business. Move to new business. New business item number one. Consider adopting a resolution describing the corporate limits and boundaries of the city. Good evening, mayor, council. Uh, every year that, uh, the corporate limits of a city have changed. Kansas statute requires us to update our corporate limits description and official city map. Uh those were attached to this uh package uh in the packet. Uh we had a few annexations this year. So this resolution updates the corporate limits. Staff recommends approval.

Any public comment on this item? Expect there to be any council discussion, questions, housekeeping. housekeeping. Have a motion. So moved. Second. Motion McNair. Second. Baldwin. We adopt resolution 2183. Resolution describing the corporate limits and boundaries of the city of Gardener, Johnson County, Kansas, a city of the second class. Council member W. Yes. Council member Johnson. Yes. Council member McNair. Yes. Council member Baldwin.

Yes. Um, resolution number 2183 passes. In business number two, consider approving revised Garner Investment Policy. Director Wolf. Good evening, Mayor Council. City's investment policy provides guidance for prudent management of public funds. This update responds to recent legislative changes including HB or House Bill 2152 which modified certain requirements for public fund investments in deposit security. Kind of a brief summary of the changes include we've updated the stat um statutory references to reflect HB 2152 and ensure alignment with current Kansas law. We clarified procedures for investing general idol funds. We've added the definition of poolled collateral. We revised procedures for investing debt proceeds. Emphasize separate tracking, permitted instruments, liquidity, and recordkeeping in compliance with KSA 12-1675 and KSA 10-131. We've also strengthened oversight and reporting requirements. Um so in the future we'll be providing you quarterly reports um directly to the governing body and then we've also incorporated explicit uh conflict of interest guidance for investment advisors executing bids. The main purpose of this is to basically update our investment policy to be in line with um current legislation which just got passed this year. Is staff's recommendation that you approve the revised investment policy.

Thank you Matt. Any public comment on this item? Council, do you have any questions or comments? Hear a motion? Moved. Motion. Deon. Second. McNair. We approve. Kelly did that. It's okay. Johnson. Second. McNair. We approve the revised gardener investment policy updated December 2025. All in favor? I I

All opposed. Aside number two passes. Item number three, consider adopting a resolution amending a certain schedule of fees and charges in title 11 of the Gardner Municipal Code.

Good evening, Mayor Council. This is a housekeeping item. On October 20th, 2025, the Gardener City Council approved increasing the hangar rates at the Gardener Municipal Airport to the amount stated in the CIF for this item included in your agenda packet. At that time, staff intended to bring back a holistic overhaul of the fee schedule for 2026 at the final Gardener City Council meeting of 2025, formally adopting the recommendation by resolution. However, since the initial approval of these hangar fees, the holistic overall fees has been temporarily delayed, allowing time for additional research into development related fee recommendations. While a holistic resolution is still in progress, it is necessary to move forward with a resolution specific to hangar rates for them to become formally effective on January 1st, 2026 as initially planned.

All right. Thank you. Any public comment? Council, any questions? What's our weight list on these? I know it used to just be astronomical. Is it still pretty year and a half? Hefty. It's longer than a year and a half. It's around, I think, 30ish people on a wait list right now. Okay. We generally maybe get five vacancies a year. Okay. Is there a motion? So moved. Second. Motion D. Second Johnson. We adopt resolution 2184, a resolution amending a certain schedule of fees and charges in title 11 of the garden municipal code. Council member Johnson.

Yes. Council member McNair. Yes. Council member Baldwin. Yes. Council member De. Yes. Council member. Yes.

Resolution 2184 passes. Business item number four. Consider adopting a resolution amending certain sections of the personnel policies. On July 4th, 2025, the federal government passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which includes a no tax on overtime provision and provides a new deduction on overtime earned under the requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act or FLSA. FLSA overtime is overtime earned based on a calculation including hours worked only and does not include overtime accured using benefit time which includes but is not limited to sick and vacation time. The city of Gardner's current personnel policies allow overtime to be earned above FLSA requirements in that benefit time is included in our current overtime calculation. According to official guidance, overtime amounts above FLSA requirements, including overtime earned using benefit time, are not defined as tax deductible under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Continuing to allow benefit time to be utilized to calculate overtime creates reporting issues for taxing and auditing purposes. In order to ensure strict compliance with the OBBBA, staff recommends amending sections 4-110.2.1 2.1 and 5-104 of the personnel policies to update the definition of hours worked to align with overtime as defined under the FLSA. The proposed amendments also include changes to compensatory time, including a new provision requiring comp time to be utilized in the same calendar year as it was earned and not allowing overtime, which is solely premiumbased, such as holiday worked or call back pay, to be converted to comp time. These changes are also intended to ensure compliance with the OBBBA. Please note there is a minor clerical error on the proposed resolution

included in the packet. The effective date is listed as January 1st, 2026. This needs to be amended in the motion to January 3rd, 2026 is the effective date will need to coincide with the first day of the first full pay period of 2026 as changes to time calculation rules in the payroll system cannot occur mid pay period. All right. Thank you. Any public comment on this item? Council questions. Is there a motion? So moved with the addition of changing it to the third. Okay.

All right. Motion D. Second McNair that we adopt resolution 2185, a resolution amending certain sections of the personnel policies of the city of Garner, Kansas with the minor amendment. All those in favor or I'm sorry, city clerk. Council member McNair. Yes. Council member Baldwin. Yes. Council member Deon. Yes. Council member W. Yes. Council member Johnson. Yes. Resolution 2185 passes. New business item number five. Consider accepting voluntary annexations with land owner consent.

Good evening. This a request to voluntarily annex a track of land. The property already adjoins land in the city of gardener. The attached voluntary consent annexation agreement outlines the terms agreed upon by the city and the property owners as conditions for this consent annexation. This is a smaller piece of land that connects two very large parcels um that are intended for future development. That's why um we're bringing this in and that's why we agreed to a 5-year abatement for this property. Um there's no real benefit to them coming into the city um other than just connecting these two properties. So that's why that provision is in there. So um recommend accepting the voluntary consent annexation from the property owners identified and adopt ordinance number 2863.

Thank you Jeff. Any public comment council any questions? Is there a motion? So moved. Second. Motion and second we accept the voluntary consent annexation agreements from the property owner identified within and adopt ordinance number 2863 an ordinance annex annexing land to the city of Garner Kansas. Council member, yes. Council member, yes. Council member W. Yes. Council member Johnson. Yes. Council member McNair. Yes. Ordinance number 2863 passes. That completes new business. We'll move to council updates. Chief, do you have anything for us tonight? I do not have anything tonight. City clerk,

I have nothing. Matt, finance. Amy, nothing further. Thank you. City attorney. Nothing. Utilities. No sir. No parks. Nothing for me. Nah, nothing for me. Okay. Nothing further. Okay. Um, nothing for me. I'm sorry. He knew there was not about Ryan. We got Ryan already. We got Ryan. Sorry about that. Somebody please speak up if they have something. Yeah. Uh, Councilman McNair.

Yeah. First off, I wanted to say thanks uh for the great work of putting up the lights and and they're actually very very nice. Really appreciated that huge addition to the community and uh hope everyone has a blessed and Christmas in New Year. Thank you.

Uh I was also gonna say fantastic job to the crew for putting up the lights. It's always uh always feel like there's something new in there every year. Um maybe I'm wrong, but maybe I'm seeing something new every time. Um and thanks for the wonderful weather of that is always uh the tree lighting ceremony. And then happy birthday to Council Member McNair. Yeah, happy birthday. Thank you. President,

I'd just like to wish everybody a happy holiday season and be safe out there. You know, our PD has to work year round. Let's give them a light load this year for Christmas and New Year's. Don't drink and drive. Be safe. Spend a good time with your families. That's it.

Thank you, Council President. Um, I just wanted to add a a little piece to the ceremony we had before the meeting. Um, the T-Mobile grant um that it was passed on to me that the $50,000 that the grant is up to $50,000 and a lot of times you don't get the full 50,000. So, we should be very proud of Jen and all staff that worked on that to get the full uh rate on that. Um, and that's that's obviously a great asset to the city and everything the mayor already said in that um, presentation. And then the other thing I wanted to mention was I'm sure everybody's heard, but uh, Captain Rob Kirk passed away. Um, he was here, you know, a lot of times for Fire District One. Uh, been retired for a little while, had some health problems. Uh but you know losing somebody at Christmas time is never easy. So um condolences to his family and uh I'm sure everybody um that didn't know um is is wishing them the best they can during this time.

That's that's kind of what I was going to follow up with too. I was just going to just say a few quick words about Rob. I mean, a lot of people didn't realize, I mean, he did the fire uh for for a number of years. He was a lifelong garden resident, I believe. But beyond that, I mean, he he really um was responsible for a lot of gardener, what happened behind the scenes, I would say. So, he was very very involved in gardener, very um proud of gardener and wanted it to succeed. and he, you know, would would get together groups of people in many ways behind the scenes to push things through or get things happening and and without him, I think there's some things that may not have happened. So, we do owe a lot to to him and obviously he was he was very great guy beyond that. So, he'll he'll be missed for sure. So, condolences as you said to him and his family and um just thank you for everything you did. So, uh and then beyond that again, happy holidays, merry Christmas. Uh thank you for the lighting ceremony. I love the the cold sparks. That was a great idea.

Yeah, that was new. That was exciting. Yeah. Uh I don't have anything further. I would hear a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. Motion Deon. Second McNair. We all in favor? I all oppose. Jason, since we had Steve come push the the lever down there.