City Council - Regular Meeting

Heat. Heat. [music] [music] Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] [music] [music] Heat. [music] [music] Heat. [bell] [music] Heat. [music] [music] [music] Heat. [music] Heat. Heat.

[music] [music] [music] Heat. [music] [music] Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] [music] [music] [music]

[music] [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] [music] [music] [music]

[music] [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. [music] [music] [music] Heat. [music]

[music] [music]

Thank you for attending the January 6th, 2026 um Hutchinson City Council meeting. Um meeting is now in order. Please call role. Richardson here. Garza here. Fast here. Mayers here. Goss here. 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. [clears throat] Thank you. Victor Halfmoon from Legacy Bible Church will lead us in prayer.

Let's pray. Father, we come before your throne of grace and lift this meeting, this gathering up to you tonight. We ask Lord that you would provide wisdom in abundance as these members and guests discuss the needs of the community. May your blessings Lord overflow and your will be accomplished in full. And Father, you alone know perfectly the needs of every person that's here tonight. Lord, I lift them up before you and ask you to meet their needs and the needs of their families, whether they be spiritual, physical, relational, or financial. Give each one strength, comfort, encouragement. And we ask these things in Jesus' name, for no one comes to you except through him alone. Amen.

Amen. Thank you. Next item, please. Enrico, you're up. have a few things. Um,

these are actually for for you, John. I have an Emmy. [laughter] That's actually what I thought it was, too, but it's not. Um, so if you want to come down, take all your stuff. I'm going to go ahead and take my stuff. Yeah, just take all your your stuff with you and your Emmy award while you're at it. [laughter] Thanks. That's their way of saying see you. Yeah. Out. [laughter] I'm interested in

Is it a city of Hutchinson paper? Just another good game for you. Oh, thank you very much.

Yeah. Um, so I do have a a few words u as well. Uh, John, I just want to say I appreciate all of your service uh to the city. Um, it's a kind of a touching moment for me. Um, it's kind of the changing mana, if you will. Uh it was U5 that kind of brought me here and were the initial believers in me. Um and the relationship, you know, between the the city manager and the council is a very unique relationship. And you know, we problem solve together, talk often, wonder [clears throat] what are we doing, how do we solve this? Uh and you develop friendships along the way. Uh, and so I'm I'm very thankful that through this process that um I've we have made a strong friendship with you, John. And so I look forward to continuing to see you in the community. Um, you know, I just want to say thank you.

Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate it. Thank you very much. [applause]

Speech.

Um, bye. [laughter] I I I I I tend to mix humor in when I'm awkward and things are a little weird, but I don't want to be insincere. I really appreciate this. This is really cool. I've I've learned a lot. I feel like I've grown quite a bit as a person over the last four years. I've met a lot of people I probably wouldn't have met during my normal dayto-day. Um if if anything, I do want to say that um the [clears throat] first two years on city council were pretty rough on a lot of people. Um a lot of the city staff members, many of you are here, uh just held their ground and stayed true to the course and I appreciate that. There were a lot of difficulties that were results of decisions I was either directly or indirectly involved with. And I want you to know I really appreciate and respect the professionalism. And if you were talking behind by by behind my back, I didn't hear about it. So, I appreciate the discretion. [clears throat] Um, but I feel like the last two years have gone much better than the first two years. And I feel like we're we're constantly improving, which is what the goal is. And I thank all of you for my time on city council. That's all I've got for you. So, thank you. [applause] Hey, John, hold up a minute. I want to thank you for helping me out, man. When you came up here, I was a nervous wreck and you settled me down and you I am what I am today. Steve Garzo too much speak speak sometimes but I appreciate all your time. Me and you had some meetings and ate together you know dinners and and you helped me out quite a bit and I really do appreciate that and I wish you all the luck ma'am.

Thank you. Thank you very much. I'm going to sit down now. Thank you very much. [applause]

Next item please. Item number four, administration of oath of office. Darren, if you could please come join Mary the front side. [clears throat] I state your name. I, Darren Truan, do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the State of Kansas the Constitution of the State of Kansas and the ordinance of the city Hutcherson and the ordinances of the city of Hutcherson and that I will faithfully perform the duties of council member And I will faithfully perform the duties of council member

for the city of Hutchinson. So help me God. for the city of Hutcherson. So help me God. Thank you. Congratulations. [applause] [applause] If you'll wait just one minute, we're going to do the um the Well, no, you vote on these. Yeah. No, you vote on these. Okay. We'll just play use chairs a little bit. Um next item, please. Item number five, election of mayor. I Oh. I was going to nominate Scott. I was going to nominate Scott, too. I guess that's a first and a second. Okay.

Yes. Garza, yes. Pass. Yes. Goss. Yes. Mayor, abstain. And to get I'm not going to vote for myself, right? And to get things Oh, I'll let you go to the next one. Sorry. Next item, please. Item number six, election of vice mayor. I would like to nominate Greg Fast for vice mayor. I will second that. Truin. Yes. Garza. Yes. Fast. Abstain. Goss. Yes. Mayers. Yes.

Scott. [applause] I state your name. I, Scott Makers, do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the State of Kansas the Constitution of the State of Kansas and the ordinances of the city of Hutchinson and the ordinances of the city of Hutchinson and that I will faithfully perform the duties of mayor and I will faithfully perform the duties of mayor for the city of Hutchinson for the city of Hutchinson. So help me God. So help me God.

Congratulations. Thank you. [applause] Great.

I state your name. I agree fast. Do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the State of Kansas. the Constitution of the State of Kansas and the ordinances of the city of Hutchinson and the ordinances of the city of Hutchinson and that I will faithfully perform the duties of vice mayor and I will faithfully perform the duties of vice mayor for the city of Hutchinson for the city of Hudson. So help me God. So help me God. Congratulations. [applause]

We will take a 15minute um recess here. We do have refreshments in the lobby for everybody here. Um, and we will be back at uh 55. Heat. Heat.

[music]

Heat. [music] [music] Heat. [music] [music]

[music]

Hey, [music] [music] hey, hey. [music]

[music]

Heat. Hey, Heat. [music]

[music] [music] [music] [music] [music]

Hey, hey, hey. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [music]

[music] [music] Heat. Heat.

[music] [music] Hey, [music] hey, hey. Heat. Heat. N. [music] [music]

[music] [music]

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. N. Hey, hey, hey. [music] [music]

[music] [music] [music] [music] [music]

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] [music]

[music] [music] [music]

Heat. Heat. N. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music]

[music] [music] Hey, Heat. [music] [music]

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N.

[music]

Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music]

[music] [music] [music] Hey, hey, hey. [music] Um, call the meeting back to order. Uh, Mary, next item. Item number seven's proclamations. We have none. Item number nine, petitions for monstrances and oral communications from the audience.

Um, this is the part of the meeting um where the public can comment. Um, please limit your remarks to five minutes and to not to items not on the agenda. Um, and audience members may address the items on the agenda when the item is discussed by city council. Anyone have any public comments? Okay. Item number nine, consent agenda. Has everyone had a chance? Uh, council read through [clears throat] the agenda. Yeah. Yes. Any questions or comments? [snorts] None here. None here. No. No. Uh, looking for a motion.

I move to approve the consent agenda and authorize the mayor to sign. Second. Truan. Yes. Garza. Yes. Fast. Yes. Goss. Yes. Mayers. Yes. Item number 10, public hearing. Public hearing and resolution determining advisability of issuing taxable industrial revenue bonds on behalf of the Prairie Land Partners Project. Angela Richard, director of finance. Um, tonight we have Oh, did you open the public? I'm sorry. Sorry. We need to open the public. Move to open public hearing. Second. Trinid. Yes. Garza. Yes. Fast. Yes. Goss. Yes. Mayers.

Yes.

Okay. Um, tonight we have a public hearing to consider the advisability of issuing taxable or sorry of issuing industrial revenue bonds on behalf of AV PLP properties or Prairie Land Partners. Um, the project is an expansion of their commercial FI facility of approximately 32,000 square foot um that's located at 1800 South Lraine. Um the property has recently been [snorts] annexed into the Hutchinson city limits. It um that part of the their property was outside of city limits. The estimate amount of the proposed IRBs is $6 million. Notice has been sent to the related tax entities and publication has um been published in the Hudson News. Also, as required, a cost benefit analysis is included in your council packet. The uh ratio for the city of Hessen is 1.63. That means that anything greater than one means we will return a benefit more or greater than um the cost of issuing the IRBs. Um with this um as normal with industrial revenue bonds, we will become the lease holder. They will become the lease. That means on property tax statements, the city of Hutcherson name will show up. Um, at the time the revenue [clears throat] bonds are paid off, the property will be deed back to Prairie Land Partners. The city is not responsible for any caution issuing the IRBs and we are not responsible for any debt payments or any of the expenses in in the expansion of the property. We do have here um Sarah with Gilmore and Bell who has prepared the documents and Randy with Prairieland Partners if you have any questions. In addition, they are

asking for a 10-year property tax evadement. So, I will stand for any questions and open it up to public comment. I have a question. the um bottom of the staff report on the first page um the strategic alignment it says aligns with G1.5.C tourism. Um is that a part of the current strategic plan that was just released or what is that? It it's not necessarily with tourum but just an economic driver. That was the closest place it aligned with our prior strategic plan with the with the Okay. Yeah. So, that hasn't been updated with the new strategic plan. Yeah.

Okay. That's right. I just pulled it up pulled up the new one and I couldn't find that um like title or listing. So, Right. Thank you. Does council have any questions or comments? [cough and clears throat] Okay. None. Um, anyone in the public would like to comment on this item? No. Okay. I move to close public hearing. Second. Truan, yes. [clears throat] Garza, yes. Fast. Yes. Goss. Yes. Mayers. Yes. Next item.

Item [clears throat] number 11, ordinances and resolutions. A. consider a resolution determining advisability of issuing taxable industrial revenue bonds on behalf of the Prairie Land Partners Project and authorize the mayor to sign. So now, if you determine it's advisable, I would uh request that you make a motion to approve the resolution. Council, any questions on this item?

Just a remark based on the presentation that we received at the last meeting. I think this is an exciting project um not only for Reno County, but for the area as well. And I think it'll um pay dividends um for the long-term future by investing not only in um in our students um but also creating a um a new career track that we don't currently have. Yeah, I think this will be a great a great thing for Hutchinson um that Prilland is willing to put this much um investment into our community and it uh going to be a great benefit. No.

I move to approve a resolution determining advisability of issuing taxable industrial revenue bonds on behalf of the Prairieland Partners Project and authorize the mayor to sign. Second. Truan, yes. Garza, yes. Bas, yes. Goss, yes. Mayers, yes. Item number 11B, consider an ordinance amending the zoning map referred to in section 27-402 of chapter 27 of the code of ordinances of the city of Hutchinson as adopted by ordinance number 7518 and repealing certain parts of the original zoning map as designated in section 27-402 and authorize the mayor to sign.

Good evening, mayor and council. Matt Williams, director of community development. Uh the applicant in this case is requesting a zone change from the R4 residential neighborhood conservation district to the R1 single household household suburban district to allow domestic farm animals on their property generally located northwest of Hendricks and West 4th. The subject site is at 503 Cloverdale Drive. It's just over 2 acres and is currently developed with a single family home and some accessory structures. The property is located approximately 300 ft east of the west city limit boundary line. With the zone change, the applicant intends to keep goats, sheep, and possibly one horse or donkey on the property. These animals are not permitted in the current R4 zoning district. The character of the area is defined by large residentially zoned properties developed prior to annexation. Many of these properties along Cloverdale have had animals in the past. In October, city council approved a similar zone change approximately 600 feet to the north. The zone change was approved with a protective overlay that limited the uses to single family and the number and type of farm animals to 10 goats. On December 9th, the planning commission reviewed this request and recommended approval five to zero with a protective overlay that limits the uses on site to single family and the number and type of farm animal to 10 goat, 10 goats or sheep and one horse or donkey. Uh, one member of the public spoke in favor of the case at the planning commission. Uh, planning commission also recommended that staff look into changing the zoning for the whole area. uh noting the large properties and the existing animal uh existing animals that are there in some cases. [snorts] There were no comments from the public received prior to the public hearing and no members of the public spoke in opposition to the case. Following the hearing, we got six valid

protest petitions uh which were [clears throat] received against this request with all of the properties located within the protest calculation area. So these six protest petitions were against the resoning. The protest within the calculation area equals 61% of the protest area. Since this exceeds the state statute threshold of 20%, this request may only be approved with a super majority vote or four of five votes. Uh following the closing of the protest period, the owner of the property immediately to the north of the subject site who did protest uh this case asked for it to be rescended. Um it's recommended that the city council adopt the findings of the planning commission and approve the requested zone change and protective overlay. Alternatives include returning this case to the planning commission for uh additional consideration. With that, I'd be happy to answer any questions. So, on this on this protective overlay, how do we do we actually have to go out and um check on to see if they've exceeded the um amount of animals they can have on the property? Is that something we monitor?

It's something that [cough] right now [clears throat] with chickens or any properties that are allowed to have animals, there are certain thresholds for how many you can have. So, without the protective overlay, it's limited to a certain number per acre. So it would still be complaint driven though. Yeah, it would be complaint driven. There's always going to be a number and it's going to be complaint driven on. So it's nothing we monitor then it's [clears throat] basically if a neighbor calls in or whoever, right? Okay.

So this would be 10 goats and or sheep, one horse or donkey. And I believe that the maximum on chickens was 21 chickens regardless of lot size or for the largest lot size. So that would be the total. Well, and then you can have four dogs, which are regular in our code or in our regular code. And then I don't remember how many cats you can have. Um, it's a lot.

I have a question on I I know it's complaint driven, but what if somebody does not comply? What is the what is the penalty? A penalty would be a zoning violation that we would send out letters and that would eventually go to court if it was not um remedied. I wasn't asking specifically for this case, but for another couple different locations that seem to be ongoing for 5 years and nothing can be done, it appears. and for animal type cases. Yeah. Yeah. Pigs, goats, right in the middle of town.

Yep. We are definitely dealing with that in court right now. Okay. And so then it's up to the judge on what the penalty will be. Correct. Okay. Or how long how many extensions they give them. Okay. I'm not laughing at you. I'm thinking why would we give anybody an extension on a pig or a goat if they're it's in direct violation. Anyway, um [clears throat] is this typically how this happens that that it goes to planning and then people protest after that?

Yeah, it's typically how it happens. We send out for a zoning change, we send out letters uh to all the property owners within 200 ft notifying them of the public hearing. Then the public hearing happens. Usually there would be opposition. If there is any opposition, it would be [clears throat] at the public hearing. Um and then depending on what the recommendation is, there's that twoe protest period that follows after the hearing to officially submit a protest. Um oftent times though, there'll be a resident that maybe takes it upon themselves to kind of rally petitioners and maybe goes doortodoor. That's fairly common. I think that might be what happened in this case.

Are there any um current zoning violations open against this property or this property owner? I do not believe so. [clears throat]

No. There there had been one about offense, but we've resolved that. And so in reading the um on page 301 of the um agenda and reading the um is there a signature after the pictures, the the unsigned letter? I assume it's from the group of neighbors. Um it sounds as if and I drove by the property and um did a Google Maps screenshots too. Um I didn't see any I didn't notice a C a trailer in the back. Um is that

the protest came the protest petitions came in signed. Obviously that letter was unsigned. I'm not sure who brought that in. Okay. Um, I've read through the letter. I also looked at the photos that were attached. The photos do not appear to be the property in question. They appear to be different. They're up the street. I I recognize where they're at. I don't know if the comments relate to a different property or not. Now, you and I talked the other day. You I think you told me your recommendation is probably send it back. Let you work through it a little bit more. Planning Commission's recommendation is to approve it with the protective overlay, but an option you have is to send it back to planning.

But that was before all these other uh complaints or people opposing it came in, right? Correct. Yeah. Planning commission doesn't know about well didn't have the complaints when they voted to approve. And you said that they were since rescended or just one? Uh, one was requested to be rescended, but because that was a request after the protest period, we can't remove the supermajority requirement and it would still be above the 20% threshold from the state, I believe. So, yeah, it would put you up regardless, it would put you at five out of how many total?

It looks like six properties protested. This would be the largest property that requested it to be rescended. Um I I haven't done the math on what that would bring the 61% down to, but it looks to me that it would still be over 20%. Regardless, the technicality is what was submitted upon that particular date.

Do you know why that protest was rescended or Yeah. Um it was explained that um the person who signed the protest may have done it in anger for other reasons, not for the reasons that the zone changes for. In fact, they said that they wanted goats in the future and didn't want to limit the area to not have goats. How many of these protective overlays do we have in the city? I mean, any idea? Two. Deal. We've just deal. Okay, we just approved it at the end of the last year. We forgot about that.

And that's to if we didn't put the protective overlay on it, they would be able if we reszoned R1, they would be able to have more of all types of animals. So, when we originally approved the one just up the street to the north, we kind of limited it on how many they could have. Does it And does this stay with the current owner if it if they sell the property? Does it continue the property? It's part of the

property. Okay, that's what I thought. Okay. Um, [clears throat and cough] in an effort to get it right, I think we could send it back. I I I certainly want to support the planning commission and their work. Uh, but just be because of, you know, the little bit of confusion that we may have. Is that that that would be where I'm at on it. I don't know where everybody else is at on that's kind of where I'm at. I mean, plan commission didn't have this other information and I'd kind of like to hear them let them see the protest and hear what the other people have to say. And

so, I know I asked this when we had the car wash case in front of us because it's going back if it goes back to planning and zoning. We do not have a requirement to renotify the neighbors of an additional period. Correct. But it would be who of it would behoove of us to go ahead and kind of repeat the process. Not republish it necessarily, but to make contact with the neighbors again with a letter letters again. We could do that. Okay. I would feel comfortable if we do send this back um knowing that we're going to renotify the neighbors of um an additional hearing.

Yeah. So, it sounds like the consensus and we all want to send it back then. Is that Yeah. Garza? Yes. Send it back. Send it back. There may be people here that want to speak. Does anybody in the audience want to like to speak on this? Yeah, I do. Okay. Just say your name and your address.

My name's Ryan Reggo. I'm 503 Cloverdale Drive. 501 and 503 are the are the properties that I'm trying to get reszoned. Um, this letter that you guys received, um, is 90% false. Um, [snorts] there's a man that's two houses down to the south of me that is, uh, opposed to everything that anybody does in the neighborhood. And he went around and talked to some of the more elderly people that he's been neighbors with for a long time, told him a bunch of lies and got them to sign this without them understanding what they were signing. the people to the north of me, which is the biggest percentage of land if you look at the red marks of what you guys have, um are my immediate neighbors there. Um and um we had had some trouble about 8 months ago about a dog that they had that killed one of my chickens and uh we had some words about it. So, we had some tension there and we hadn't talked to each other until this came. Well, when he went over there and talked to her because this man uh two houses down, got all these petitions because you can see the petitions. They're all in the same handwriting. And he just went around and had people sign them by uh lying to him about some things that were going on in this letter. For one thing, he says that I have goats that get out and climb on people's vehicles, but I've never had a complaint. I've never had anyone because if you go climb on your vehicle, you're going to turn that in. You know, you want insurance. You want something going on. And Debbiey's never had a complaint about anything like that with me. He's saying that my chickens are in the road, but there's never been a complaint about that. He's stating that I have a camper in my backyard that someone's living in. It's true. I do have a camper in my backyard, but it's just our camper. Nobody's nobody's living in there. My wife and and I and my uh 17-year-old son uh live in our house. Um I started a business in this community. I founded a church in this community. I'm the pastor at Soul Winters Mission Church uh here in town as well. Um, so the things that we've done here in the community are honest and good to try to contribute to

the way that, you know, we want to live here and stuff. When we bought this property, we had a dream cuz we started to have grandkids of being able to find some place on the outskirts of town right against Cow Creek over there where we wouldn't be bothered, [laughter] where we'd be able to just have goats or sheep or whatever and, you know, let them eat the grass and get a donkey to keep the coyotes and stuff away. Well, um, the property that's next door to me, which because of that property, the only reason that man's was sent a letter because he's not within 200 feet of my pro of my home. He's in 200 within 200 feet of that extra lot that I bought. That lot that I bought had a house on it that you guys tore down and there was tons of debris and trees. I cut, I think, almost 50 trees down. Um, I have letters from the

[clears throat]

uh uh fire uh guy uh Jerry Dowling um that stating that uh he's been out there multiple times and gave me burn permits as I've taken care of that cleaned up that land. Uh Debbie spoke up at the last meeting uh with us and congratulated us about um all the work that we've done over there to clean it up and things. And this guy says in this letter that we're that we're junky and that he's having to police the neighborhood and stuff. And then he sent pictures in saying it was my property and it's not even my property. I just wanted to say something because you guys are deciding to just send it back. You know what? Well, you're sending it back on a bunch of false information that you've gotten. Um the of course the uh person that came in and recanted their uh opposition to it. And then on the south of me, that person and he was here a little bit ago, but his aunt is the one on the deed. She's had a stroke [clears throat] and she's very sick right now. That's why he left. but he came in and talked to the administrator before he left and said that they wanted to rescend that as well. So that's the people on both sides of me that are for it. Get this, the animal control lady lives directly across the street from me. Uh so the truck's there all the time. So if we would have had any kind of animal complaints or any problems like this like this person is stating, animal control would is right there, you know, and we have a wonderful relationship with them as well. Um, so other than a couple people that this guy fooled, that's the only uh complaints that you actually have, you know, and we've already been dealing with this for two months. It cost us $250 to make this application to do this. And this is just it's taken a lot of time and and and and the uh uh zoning commission in the first place agreed with us that this never probably should have been zoned back to an R4 in the first place because of the rural feel of our community. When we came in before and the last people north of us that got uh reszoned um we came in and spoke up for them because they were wanting to

get their property reszone cuz somebody turned them in for heaven goats and we all in that most of us in that neighborhood thought you could just have them. I didn't even know you you couldn't. It didn't make sense because who gets all that land just to mow it, you know? And uh they keep the grass down. They're they're not it's not like they're wild dogs or something. They're not, you know, vicious and biting kids or anything like that. So, I just I wanted to jump up here and talk to you and ask you to reconsider uh sending it back. I think that if you send it back, it's just going to come back to you again and you're going to vote on it. We're going to get it because the neighbors aren't going to rally up and do this. It's just this one guy. And if he has to actually come and speak and stuff, I think he's gonna take the coward's way out like he did before. I just sent a letter and didn't show up because we showed up to the zoning meeting and spoke like this and now we're here again speaking too, you know. So, we're doing all the diligence that we can and trying to do everything right that we can. I'm putting up hundreds and hundreds of feet of privacy fence around my property to get everything secluded and and closed off so that I don't bother anybody or have any trouble with anybody or anything like that. We've already spent we spent $6,000 buying the lot next door because the property taxes were behind on it. And then I spent another $4,000 rent equipment um and tearing out trees and getting rid of debris just so we could start mowing it, you know. And then of course we put a fence up there to be able to section it off for the animals and stuff cuz we were getting prepared to be able to have all that. And um so I mean I don't I guess I could go on for an hour, but I guess

do you know when and you may not know cuz I don't think you've been in this property too terribly long, but do you know when that area was originally annexed into the city? 1970 197 the when did get accepted into the city? It was probably it was in the early 70s right we moved out because we thought we were in the country and then right after that they sucked us into the city we moved out there because they thought they were in the country and then right after that it got so we are one of the grandfather ma'am you come to the podium please state your name and name and address please

Tammy Withers 624 Cloverdale we are actually grandfathered in have horses is anyone who it is everyone's dream to be able to have a piece of country but still be close to the grocery store and not have to drive a half hour or you know close Cloverdale had it and honestly and truly anyone who drives down and looks at it they see horses on our property they're going to move in and I was the one in the last meeting that said you know it really the whole block needs to be changed back to the way it used to be because it's hard for someone to move in thinking that they can. The first people had almost 10 acres. I mean, we're not talking tiny little lots. We're talking huge chunks of land to say, "Oh, yeah. Well, we got horses. I'm sorry. You can't have horses. We're grandfathered in." Well, that's just kind of cruel, you know. So, as long as you have everything within reason, we're not talking about, you know, overwhelming everyone with horses, but what it brings to the kids and their involvement in 4. I showed all of our horses at the fair. you get a greater sense of animal husbandry, caring for things, a little bit more developed kids, and and that's what we're trying to bring it back. And not everyone wants a horse because horses are getting expensive, but a few little goats or sheep or whatever, they're not going to do any harm. like someone's pack of dogs to get out and maul someone. You know, you never hear of the the sheep that mauled the little

old lady walking down the [clears throat] street. So, and from time to time, yes, all animals get out, but usually you find them, you fix it, and you learn because an animal has nothing but time to figure out how to break free. It's I I I don't know of anyone who's had an animal that didn't bust out at some point. So, I don't know. I He's not trying to go crazy. He's trying to go things in the right direction. And yeah, I think it's just someone lashed out. And that's everyone's knee-jerk reaction is to go, "Well, but look at you." And I'm not trying to do that. It's just kind of for the better of the of the neighborhood to take it back. Anyway, sorry.

Thank you. Thank you. Now, if we send this back, you have to wait till next month's um meeting in order to do this or could it be done by the next city council meeting? How how would this work?

We would I'm not sure what planning commission meeting we would get it on. Um we'd be back here probably within a month. Now, I can see your point. You already spent $200. You spent a lot of time and effort, but the only problem that I see is that we have to give these other other citizens um a chance to come back. They might not come back like you said. So then, but the distance that I what I'm concerned about if it's another month, you're going to have to wait another month before we get this settled. Am I right? So the only way we can do this is take it has to go back to its regular meeting, right? In order we say take it back, right? If you send it back to planning commission. Yeah.

And like you said, that might could be a month. I mean, what are you asking the planning commission to do because they're already asking for approval even though they know what they know. They're still asking for approval right now today. So I mean, you know what? That doesn't make You need you I need you to go to the mic. I'm sorry. Sorry. I I think I think Mr. Rodriguez that's a fair comment. I don't know that sending it back is going to change anything, but we do need to listen to people when they come to us and say, "Hey, we you know, I understand that, but I mean, if you guys can do some just

I don't I don't want to I don't want this to sound rude, but some common sense detective work because for one thing, this letter that you got with all the complaints, it isn't signed. So no one's and the dude's not here. Nobody's here opposing it. They knew tonight was the night. They knew that when we had the meeting before for the planning commission, that was the time to come and speak against it. They all got letters. I mean, you guys do your diligence of sending these letters to these people. How many opportunities do we need to give them so that they're not just sending a letter and they don't have to go and actually stand there and tell, you know, most of this is a lie. That's why I know the guy isn't going to want to stand here and, you know, cuz he's going to be debunked about it because there's too many witnesses and too much evidence that uh that none of these most of these things aren't true, you know. So, I just I mean, I don't understand what you're what you're a what you're asking the planning commission to do. Uh is it to go is it to like send an invite to this guy so that he can come and and lodge his complaints? I mean, hasn't he already done that? Isn't the The consideration would be the consideration Mr. Regoza would be to take into account the fact that the petitions that were received after their meeting that didn't exist when they held their meeting and recommended approval. Honestly, after listening to you speak, and I do believe that an unsigned letter carries a lot less weight than if [clears throat] the um gentleman had had put his name on it um or if anybody had put their names on it

or showed up

or showed up. We don't have a in the packet that we received. We don't have um the um uh what's the word? Sorry, the the protest petitions um that were signed by the neighbors. those staff has those. However, um I I think that I just the process as a whole um it it's ripe for being taken advantage of in the exact regard that um that you said when you have people who um I don't know kind of lack the agency to um do their research and know the process. Um, and somebody could walk in and and say whatever. And if someone provides them the form to sign as the protest petition, then

does our constitution state that we're supposed to be able to face our accusers in in the hearing or is that just for a criminal? That's criminal. Yeah, it's criminal. [clears throat] Huh? That's criminal. That's just criminal. So, how how many chickens do you have? How many chickens do I have? Uh, 24 or 25, something like that. How many dogs do you have? I got two. Do you have cats? Two. One inside and one outside. Do you currently have a horse or a donkey? Nope. Do you And how many goats or sheep do you currently have? Three. And I would assume that they're all vetted and cared for and Oh, yeah. They live as good as we do.

And what type of fence do you currently have? Right now I have a Tpost with the uh uh little square what's it called? Welded fence. Okay. Um, and I have privacy fence on also the neighbors to the north. I've completely privacy fenced from the north side of my house to their property and then all the way down all the way to the end of our property where we're completely the guy next door to me scared to death of chickens.

So, yeah, [laughter] I know. Yeah, but [clears throat] he he really does have a phobia. Was he was flocked when he was a kid and stuff. So, we're sensitive to that. So, we put up spent a couple thousand dollars and put up privacy fence so he doesn't he doesn't even see them. So, I mean, we're trying to do everything right. You know, this is the first time in my life that I've been living somewhere where I wanted to work with the city and actually mess with you guys because most of the talk of the town is keep the city out of it as long as the city don't know you can do what you want. You know, because as soon as they get in there, they're going to hit you with this code and this violation and make you do all everybody's scared to death to to talk to you guys. And you know, this is [laughter] this is kind of the kind of the the I wasn't expecting this much back and forth and back and forth, you know, to just be able to have a few goats, you know, and stuff. But, uh, I mean, you're the boss, you know, so I'm going to do whatever whatever whichever way the Lord leads your heart, but I just I'm just praying that you do the right thing.

I, in my opinion, speaking to the council here, um, after hearing from Miss Withers and Mr. it goes. I I do believe that we should um take the um planning and zoning commission's recommendation and approve it. Um I think that it is a totally different vibe out there um than my neighborhood or any of our neighborhoods. Um it's not curbed and gutted. There's um there's no sidewalks out there. does feel very rural and we're paying the same taxes as everybody else. I think our house is taxed the highest in the whole neighborhood. So,

yeah. Um and I and I and not that this is a reward for the work that you've done on the lot next door, but I looked at that lot as well and the pictures of it previously and that house was um needed and torn down and it looks like you've done a lot of work over there which is appreciated. Um you have anything else you'd like to Nope. No, that's it. I would like to actually see if there's anybody else in the audience that'd like to speak on this topic.

I'm Travis Oden. I live at 1614 West 4th. I own uh a 2acre lot there that was within the the letter zoning area. I received the letter. I was kind of I guess blind to the process. it. Basically, the way I comprehended the letter was if you're opposed to this, show up to the planning and zoning meeting. I'm very for it. So, I didn't go to the meeting and speak out. As a neighbor that owns, you know, two acres right there [clears throat] that supported, I would be supportive of the whole area being changed to allow that. Um, I I bought a lot that was the two acres a little over a year ago. I've spent a tremendous amount of time cleaning that lot. Um, I'm right up against the city limits, right up against the levey. Um, and at some point I would consider getting that lot fenced and a couple of maintenance animals to help take care of it so it's not in the shape it's in now. I bought it solely to clean it up because I didn't like living next to the mess that was there that the city had done nothing about over the last 15 years that I've lived in my house right there. So I think there's some you only mad people speak people that are okay with a lot of times just like okay you know it's great whatever but I was not aware of the process to go and speak for it only if you were opposed to it or I would have been at that meeting supporting it.

Thank you. Anyone else like to comment on this? My name is Ryan Wey. I live at 1606 West 4th Avenue. Um the neighbor in question, my property butts right up to his. We've always had issues. He when I first moved there you lots of years ago, everybody had animals and I had gotten a couple of goats and of course he turned it in and I came to court several months in a row and ended up they made me get rid of my goats because they said I was in the city limits at the time that I bought my property and to this day the city limit sign is still on the other side of my property. It never actually got moved once they annexed it all those years ago. So, I don't I don't understand why they, you know, are having such an issue with it. But this guy just he's hotheaded and gets mad about a lot of stuff. He called me numerous names whenever. He said, "Well, you're wanting it changed, too." And I said, "Well, I don't see an issue with a couple of goats, you know." And he called me numerous and you know told me that the reason why is because some guy had 30 horses out there and it ruined the nitrites. And I said, "Well, I don't know nothing about that." And he said, "Well, that's cuz you haven't lived here 30 years like me." And I said, "You're right. I've only been here 23. [snorts] So I I I guess you're right. I wasn't there when that guy had 30 horses on his five acres."

But according to the new rule, he would not have ever been allowed 30 horses, right? under under the current. Ma'am, if you're going to talk, I need you to come to the mic, please. All right. Any questions? No. No. Uh, you know, after hearing this, I I don't think sending it back is going to change anything. I know it it wouldn't I don't think it would for me. Sounds like there's a whole lot more to the story. Um, I I I'd be fine going forward. I I just I don't want to be a problem for people in this town. And you know, the way Mr. Rodriguez said it, I I don't I I I think this is somebody angry. Roza, sorry. Roza.

Brigza, excuse me. And I mean, as you can see, most planning cases don't have people that come and speak in support of them. So, that's probably why planning commission recommended the whole area be reszoned because there were so many people that spoke in support of the zone change. I'm sorry, Rudy. called you the wrong name. That is Rudy. Right. Right. [laughter] I'll just stop. Um I just want to make sure Okay, Gary. Nobody else uh would like to speak on this topic. [laughter] Gary. [snorts] All right. Are we all done with that? Yes.

I just want to make sure there's nobody else that wants to speak on this topic. Council have I have a question for Mr. Williams, what would the process be if multiple neighbors in that area? Cuz it does seem like west between 7 or 17th and fourth west of Hendricks, it was annexed all at the same time. I believe it doesn't have curbs and gutters. It is a very different feel, but yet it is R1. What would it be or what would it take to do a mass resone?

Um, the city has the ability to go in and reszone an area. What we probably would do would be hold a public meeting with that neighborhood, talk about it, what it would mean. Um, I haven't been a part of a large resoning like that, but I know you can send letters to people letting them know the zoning is changing and they can opt out of it if they don't want to. Um, or it can go through. I'd be working with Paul Brown on that. So, I know it's possible. I was just curious. It may be something that we want to consider and that would be those two guys down there. So,

no, I think that's that's some good information. I mean, we hadn't had any opposition at this meeting to actually um so I've kind of changed my mind a little bit too. Um I do appreciate everyone speaking on this matter. Um I would say we go ahead and I guess look for a motion on that unless council has any more comments. Nope. No.

Um, I will read the motion. I I move to approve an ordinance amending the zoning map referred to in section 27-402 of chapter 27 of the code of ordinances of the city of Hutchinson as adopted by ordinance number 7518 and repealing certain parts of the original zoning map as designated in section 27-402 and authorize the mayor to sign. I'll second [music] that. Truan, yes. Garza, yes. Fast, yes. Goss, yes. Mayors, yes. Next item. Item number 13.A. New business. 12.

Yeah, sorry. New business. A flood plane map update. Evening council. Um, Cece Wel, public works director. Uh, I apologize you you get leftovers. Uh, Evan was supposed to come do this and he's a much better expert at it, but uh, he's out sick tonight, so he has called in the pitcher. [laughter] Uh, so just wanted to kind of give you an update on what's going on with the flood plane map. um city of Hutch staff along with two consulting firms had been working with um the Kansas diversion of water to when the flood plane map came out and we wanted to look at that and see if [clears throat] there's anything we could do. So uh working with them and doing some through a a lot of meetings talks we had a question and answer period we were able to go through and and kind of tear into the data that they presented at that first map that was given to us. Um I think historically as Evan put it the tomato splash on the map because it was all in red. But uh through that meetings and stuff there was a lot of things that their mapping was and they admitted to that there was questions that they didn't have boots in the ground to ask and that's why they go through this process. um along with you know city staff and the consultant firms that we had we were able to go through find a lot of uh piping that was bigger diameter than they had anticipated which gave us more storage. Um, we were also able to show some historic data that they didn't have access to at the time. Through that, at the last meeting we had in December, uh, they came back and let us know that with all this work, we actually did on their inertial estimates, we've got between 25 and 35% reduction in what their initial plan was. Um, we still have time to go through before the official maps are put

in to do some more work within the city to help reduce that further, but we just want to make sure we give thanks to the city staff that did, you know, hours and hours of work on this. Um, this was something that, you know, some cities would have chose to just say the state did it, we're going to live by it. Um, our staff and city decided that we were going to try to see if there was something we could do. So with city staff's help and our consultants, we had JEO and um who is the other firm we had? I apologize. Uh in EER, they helped us be able to find this and put some, you know, at least some justified effort into this. So there has been a reduction. We're not completely out of the woods. It's still compared to what we had, it's still a large area that's under some flood plane, but we are still working with that. Um, so we still have a plan in place to continue to put away at this map. We're still going to be using the uh the storm water fund that we had and hopefully if everything goes well, the if the sales tax goes through, we'll be using that money to help with this as well. But we still have a large plan, budgeted areas, ponds to dig, and uh ditches to clean out and upsize. So, just kind of wanted to give you guys an update on how that looks. How much of that um uh that work have we done digging ponds, cleaning things out, etc. I know we've done quite a bit already, haven't we?

We've officially completed one pond. Um we've done a lot of the leg work on as far as some designing of three or four others, getting them ready. We've had some community meetings with some of those. Uh we hadn't officially started on the next one we were looking at was the Farmington Park area, but we waited on that until we got this result back and we officially get those maps next week. Um, the thing we want to make sure we look at is with this reduction, some of these ponds are neighborhood specific on where they'll help. Well, if those are already out of the flood plan because of the new information, um, we're going to concentrate our efforts on the places that are affected the most. So, the next one we were planning is Farmington, but we're waiting until we get the official maps next week to clarify if that's still going to be the target area.

Well, I do appreciate all the time staff has put into this. I think we really need to express to the community how hard staff has worked on this and how if I mean [clears throat] to your point most communities would just say well this is what they say we have to do and we stood up and I don't know that people realize how much it would cost them for flood insurance and cost us with businesses not coming here because they'd be building underwater water or having to spend too much to get it out of the flood plane. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And and uh I and once again, you're waiting to see where the flood plane the new flood maps so that we don't dig more ponds where we don't need to dig ponds.

Yep. Brilliant. Thank you for caring. And thank you, Enrico, for pointing this out in the very beginning. Yes. I mean, no matter what, we're always going to fight for the community, and this is just demonstrates that attitude. Um, and we'll continue to push this and see how much more we can reduce. Thanks, Eel. Next item.

Item number 12B, special assessment policy revisions. Angela Richard, director of finance. Before you tonight, I have special assessment policy revisions that we are proposing. Um, for the city manager's request, we reviewed the special assessment policy for needed revisions. Um, just to give a broad overview of how the special assessment policy works. It's a way for developers or residential areas of the city to petition the city um to fund certain improvements that qualify street water sewer for the city to pay for that and then assess that to their property taxes up to 20 years. So the point of special assessments is that those benefited by that project are paying for that project and the general public as a whole is not paying [clears throat] um for those improvements. So the first suggestion that we have to this policy is to [clears throat] add a paragraph that describes the purpose of special assessments. Basically what I just said u so that the general public isn't paying for those specific improvements. The second um recommendation is that any properties located within that benefit district would be required to annex into the city limits. Uh the next is that um we would add language that a developer would not be delinquent on real estate taxes. It was already stated that they must not be delinquent on special assessment um taxes, but um we recommend including normal real estate taxes as well. It just provides reassurance that that developer is financially stable and capable of moving forward with that

project. Um the next item that we request is section four where you're stating that it re um applies only to residential areas. So section four of the policy outlines um what the city will and will not contribute to with special assessments. And it also would then add that the city manager has discretion to divide costs um for certain projects in a way that would benefit the city as um as needed. Section 4A also has language that the city council will approve um which streets will be reconstructed uh periodically. That's the way the process currently works. The policy has stated that the city council selects which roads, but city staff selects them and then comes to you for approval. So, we just wanted to clarify that. It also then stated a specific amount we would spend on mill overlays. we are saying that instead it's just part of the annual budget process. So we're not um specifi specifying a certain amount that would be needed to be updated periodically. Um section 4 D um relates to water special assessment projects. In the past we would contribute up to $100,000 for water special assessment projects each year. first come, first serve. This um tweaks that so that we're proposing that the city put $100,000 per year into a special project up to $500,000. So the fund can grow up to $500,000. Then each project can use up to $250,000 of that. So we could do up to two projects a year if we had that

fully funded. and then we would just continue to acrue those funds. Um this way we are still providing some incentive for water special assessments. Um and it does update the amount that we are contributing. Um the next is that um it includes language in the special assessment policy that petitions must go along with the final platting process. This is reference to code section 9-44. That code refers to the special assessment. So, it's just cleaning up language. Um, and then the final um suggested recommendation is that the city manager and council can deviate from this policy if they decide it's in the best interests for the city. This would give leeway in cases of any corporations that are um being proposed to uh to recruit businesses. After this was published though, we did have um some final thoughts. We stayed in here that bridges would be paid for by the city up to 100%. And after looking at other cities, this isn't the case. it's um something that they treat along with streets and if it only uh benefits that certain development area then it could be part of the special assessment process. So we would recommend um changing that verbiage to allow us to um designate how much the city wants to contribute to bridges especially in those cases where it only benefits a certain district. And then another recommendation was brought up that if we want to upsize a sidewalk to a walking trail or a pedestrian trail that the city would help contribute to that cost difference, especially if that aligned with our

master plans for trails. So I would see for any questions that you have may may have regarding this So on that uh contribution, we just we just did a h 100,000 before, wasn't that? Yes. And it just stayed at 100,000. If no one used it, we didn't contribute any more the next year. So on this funding, where what uh funding balance or fund is it going to come out of? It would come out of the water fund. Okay. A storm water or just regular regular water. Regular water. Okay.

[snorts] I think this goes above and beyond my expectations of the policy changes. Um really cleans up everything else. Um and the consideration of the bridges is um that I think that's um a good evaluation of the situation to include because some of the bridges are um only for a very small benefit. Um, and I think that the neighborhood should have the opportunity to choose if they want it, um, or not, um, versus making everybody pay for it when it's not benefit [cough] to everybody.

Good work. Thank you. It was a very large team effort. Thank you and the team. [cough and clears throat] Any more questions? Does this require an approval or since it is a policy? Yes, I believe the council would [cough] a motion to approve the policy. I'll move to approve the new special assessment policy. Second. Truman, yes. Garza, yes. Fast, yes. Goss, yes. Mayers, yes. Thank [snorts] you.

Thank you, Angela. Next item. Item 12 C, strategic plan update.

Good evening, council. Dave Satella, director of strategic growth. Uh, you had requested at our last meeting or our last strategic plan update meeting where you approved it, just sort of where what direction then we were going to take with the strategic plan. I have a really brief presentation and then happy to answer any questions. Uh but I just kind of want to tell you where we where we are at and the steps we're taking to move forward with the strategic plan. So after the strategic plan was approved, we uh worked I worked with the staff members and still working with the department heads to figure out their uh which goal they were going to work on first, what priorities they were going to set. Uh some of that work requires them answering a a questionnaire um of the measurable differences on the once the goal succeeds. Um what the top priority would be for them as a next step. Uh key milestones that they might face over the next year, two years, three years. Uh partners that they might need. So other department heads or community members that they need to work with on that specific goal. Some early wins that they can find. and then what decisions and who needs to make those decisions. You also wanted to see sort of what our rubric looks like, what our work plan looks like. So I have that in front of you. I we'll we'll provide that for you and this will be also on the website. So if you want to access that, but this essentially breaks breaks down each of those goals. It has a champion. Uh and you'll notice that champion is a department head. uh typically partners if they are required for that goal um and then it goes Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4 of the next 3 years. So you can only see 2026 on that but it goes over the next three years. Um and so on those sections you'll find a step the steps that we're

going to take. Uh so we'll name those specific steps. Um, and if there are no steps in the first or second year, because we might not work on that goal uh within the first uh two years, we'll [clears throat] point that out. Um, then the other thing you wanted to know is how often we're planning to update you. And we're planning to update you on a quarterly basis. Not on all of the goals, but on the ones we're actually making progress on. And I believe that's all I have for you. Any questions for me? I think that answers all of the questions that I had

that caught you off guard last meeting. So, thank you. That was very um cohesive [clears throat] and it sounds like a a great way to not only monitor and track, but to keep everybody kind of on the same page. Okay. Awesome. Thank you, Dave. This is a great This is a great thing. I think it's a great investment in our staff. Um, I'm like I like to see what you guys are doing with it because at first I'm kind of a little bit apprehensive approving it, but now that you guys see the progress going, I really like what we're doing with that. All right. Great. Thank you, Council. Thank [clears throat] you. Next item. Item 13, report of a council. Well, we might as well keep the trend going.

Do that to That's fine. Okay. On December 20th, I had my first meeting at the uh zoo. I had about 20 people there. It was turned out really well. We had some good talks. Um we're going to plan I'm going to plan on doing this every other month. So hopefully in February I do it again. If you're out there, come to my meetings. We have a good time. We have a coffee and donuts and it's really good. We have a lot of good talks. Um like to welcome officially Mr. Truman to the to the thing. I think you're going to do good for us. Thank you, sir. So, um, other than that, I think that's all I have for today. Thank [clears throat] you.

Stacy, is Cecil still here? [laughter] [snorts] I had two questions about two um sections of um, Brick Street. The first is West Second Street, essentially from like Monroe to Maine. Mhm. Um when is that scheduled to be is that scheduled yet to be

uh a lot of the brick streets in town we don't have an official schedule on when we're going to do um there's been some money put into a budget line item to start forming what that plan will look like but um we've kind of discovered that especially with a lot of the brick streets and stuff we need to make sure we do our due diligence and figure out if it's a historic district or not. Um work with Matt's crew and make sure you know how that affects it. So, what we can and can't do, but um we don't want to lose the brick streets. Um but they are quite expensive to bring back to new standard. Um it is ultimately cheaper to pave over them, but we want to make sure we're doing that in the right order. So, [clears throat] right now there's not a plan, but we are currently working on building a plan.

Okay. I think that was the answer we had a few months ago. So, and that's totally fine. I just didn't know if there was a plan yet. Um, but that street in particular I um get complaints on and I don't enjoy driving on it either. Um, that was the only streets question that I had. Um, the other one is I would like to hear um, Mayor Meers an update regarding the Plum Creek Housing um, division at sometime in the next couple of weeks. um feels like progress is very slow in that neighborhood and um I'm curious as to why and if there's anything that needs to [clears throat] be done to um get it moving. Um I'm not looking for an answer or response from anybody this evening. Um and then the other item kind of a loose end to wrap up from last year is the uh worm farm [snorts] um 3405 East 4th. Um it seems like kind of the same situation. Progress has stalled there. Um I know that we were in good communication um and things were moving for a while and I don't think that they are still. Um, so I'd really like to hear from him again. Um, and then the other one, um, this would be a question for Chief Burley. He's out. Gavin, I have a question for you, Chief. Um, so recently an arrest was made and you don't have to speak to the case specifically, but an arrest was made in a a it was in the press release that the uh methamphetamine was being um made in the home, I believe. Um, so KBI has standards when a home requires DEA

remediation and then it goes on a registry. Um, Hutch doesn't have any homes that are or properties that are listed on that registry. Can you speak to that or could you come back and speak on that soon as to why if like we aren't meeting a are do they not meet a certain DEA threshold for remediation? Um, or is there something else that we're doing? Um, I know some cities have their own registry, but KBI also has one. Uh can you tell me what example you were referring to? So when sorry

that's okay. When I it it covers other drugs but meth is specifically mentioned um when a a drug bust is made and meth is determined that it was being made in the home or in the property. um KBI and the DEA are contacted. The DEA provides guidelines from what I've read on the remediation of the property and then it goes on a registry for 5 years after remediation and that registry is maintained by KBI. But I noticed that the city of Hutchinson doesn't have anything. There's actually very few listed in the state and I but I know that we have homes that just from reading the news and y'all's press releases that um like drug busts have been made and whatnot, but it they're not on the registry, so I didn't know what the disconnect was.

Yeah. Um I don't think that we would actually have any homes. We just recently had one home that was manufacturing. Um so I I could see that going on the [snorts] list here in the uh very near future. Um but we haven't had any other manufacturing cases here in the city for quite some time. Okay. Um so your your standard uh packaging of drugs or handling of drugs or distribution of drugs that won't get you on that DEA remediation list. It's more for the manufacturing because of the chemicals involved [clears throat] and it usually has the cooking of chemicals and then those chemicals get in the air then they get in the paint, carpet and so forth and that's when that would remediation would take effect. But uh yeah, I believe we've had one uh just recently and before that. It's been quite a while since we've had that. So you probably wouldn't see any on that remediation.

Is this a list that you're always on then? Well, I think it's going to depend on how they're manufacturing it. Yeah, there's multiple ways to manufacture it. And like Chief Bur said, thank goodness we haven't had one in a long time cuz that used to be a nightmare when you'd open up a trunk and there was a meth lab in the back. Well, and that's good. So, would you say that manufacturing is down or Yeah, it it's it's not common at all anymore, at least here in the city of Hutchinson. Um, yeah, it was uh running rampid for quite a while.

Probably back in the earlier 2000s with the manufacturing of meth, but that just doesn't occur anymore. At least it's not manufactured to the way it was back then. That involved a lot more chemicals and a lot more processing. So, and and I think [clears throat] probably the KBI would probably report that if it was a that bad a situation. Yeah, they're required to do so. Yeah, because and that's why they call the KBI in is Yeah. specialty in handling it. And because I doubt we don't have anybody anymore that can that certified, do we? No, not not not for this particular kind that was being manufactured on this day.

Okay. Um that was that was all I had. Welcome to council, Darren. Well, you're up.

Thank you. I uh don't have a whole lot. I just uh very excited to get started and and uh excited to work with you all and I did go to Mr. Garza's meeting and very very good meeting and very informative and still like to get a whole lot more people to show up. I'd like to get more people to show up to council meeting, but we've got quite a few tonight and very pleased. Not it. I'm just I've actually just got sworn in tonight. I've had a few phone calls and got some meetings set up and already getting busy. So, I'm uh very excited and thank you. um along those lines with meetings and and communication from the city out to the public. The public is invited to a meeting on an update with the Woody Seat Freeway and it'll be right before it opens. We'll probably open it at the end of January. The way I understand it, the meeting will be January 13th at 5:30 p.m. at Avenue 8 Grade School. Um right near the new roundabout. Um, we're just going to show what's going to happen with some of the landscaping and and those things. I know that city staff will be there. Hopefully Evan can be there. I know Cecil's going to be there. And I know Justin will be there. Um, I I don't think there's going to be anything earthshattering, but I thought the timing was right. And that that project is on schedule and looks beautiful.

What time is the meeting? 5:30. and hopefully it'll still be daylight out. We can look around and talk and that's why we're starting at 5:30 instead of later. Uh, thank you Jessica for putting that together. Um, thank you for the inspiration, Steve, of trying to get more community involvement. So, um, that thank you for staff. I've already uh said thank you for the flood stuff, but there's just a lot that goes on every day that people don't realize and it's much appreciated. Welcome Darren. Thank you, sir. See you, John. That's all I have. I think he's already went to bed.

I know he's watching at home, though. He is. [laughter]

Um I just want to thank council for um having the confidence in me to uh be your next mayor. Um, I I want to thank the community for electing me uh to be on council. Um, I I want to welcome Darren on. Um, we've got a great city council and I think it's going to get even better. Uh, there's a lot of lot of great things we have going u now and in the future. Um, I do want to thank John for his time he put in with us. Um, he did a lot of great things when he was on the council. He had to go through a lot of things. Um, going to miss some of his insights. He brought some great things to the table. Um, and then I would like to also congratulate HCC. I know they came up short with a national championship game, but it's still [clears throat] a great great effort to get number two in the country. Uh, so I want to congratulate Coach Dallas and his staff and team um on a on a great a great year. And um I think that's all I have. Enrio,

I would also like to welcome Darren as well. Uh I'm excited to see the direction of of Hutchinson. Um and just a few items. Uh the senior citizen lowincome utility billing assistance uh program um the new program that's been created should be um accepting of applications by the end of this week. Um so that that's big. That's something we've been working on for quite some time. Um, and I'm sure there'll probably be a little bit of bugs, so just be patient with us as we kind of troubleshoot this. Um, but it is a new program. Um, and hopefully we'll get some, um, educational material out on our social media pages. uh ne next council meeting um just to put this on uh your radars. Um I would like for us to kind of go through a in the event the sales tax were to fail and kind of run through some of those scenarios on um things that you would like for us to focus on. Uh service level uh reduction type of scenarios. Uh, as staff, we do have um I items prepared um to mention that here's something we're thinking of in the event that it were to fail. Um the idea is not to uh cause a doomsday scenario or cause people to panic, but more than it is like we really need to be thinking about this sooner u because March is going to be here before we know it. And so the more prepped and planned we are, that'll also allow us to get out more engagement. um after March especially on what service level reductions I could expect uh potentially. Um and this one I I I am excited about, but I'll keep the the information brief for

now. Um as a city, we'll be exploring one more possible uh star bond project. Uh we're meeting with uh several uh community partners now to formulate a strong plan uh put ideas on paper uh assemble the team and then kind of go through the starbond process that we went through. Um but I'm very excited about this one and more to come. Any other news that you want to share?

Um I think that's it. I I do know that uh I was just informed that the two uh LITC projects from uh last year um that didn't make the cut um they're now back on the table. Um so the developers came back to the city and said, "Hey, we're still interested. Um it I think that speaks well to the culture of Hutch. Um that they still want to invest here." Um, so I am excited about those uh LITC housing options for us and so more to come on that. Um, so that's a big one.

Oh uh thank you. Uh and recently the uh the government business review um that had uh selected me to be a top 10 city manager um had decided to upgrade that to a city manager of the year for 2026. Yeah, [applause] thank you. I I forgot about that one. Um, so I I that's all I have, but I'll stand for any questions. Um, especially on any sales tax type of scenarios. I I do look forward to kind of running through that because we'll need as staff time to kind of beat anything up. So, the months ahead will be fruitful for us. I hope

the um prioritization of the service reductions uh will that be a discussion during this or will we have a study session?

Uh I I I I'll leave it up to you all and what you would like. I I think part of the um and that's a fair question. Part of the analysis from last year is I think people probably recognize behind the scenes that cuts are made, but it there was uh some requests made that hey, can you at least make it more known what those are and so I don't think there's any shame uh in making that more public. It is more transparent. It is the public's money. Um so it essentially you're kind of you'll know how the sausage is made. Well, I think we've for the sake of having a collaborative discussion. I think if we went back there and still had it on YouTube, had it live streamed, that would be beneficial just so we have the technology for any presentations. And we also can have multiple directors seated at the same time to, you know, talk about if this then that.

Like a work session. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. And it would be open to the public and available for people to go back and watch as well. Yeah. No, I think that's I think that sounds pretty good. Probably more probably the more appropriate way to handle it. And and I kind of think of this as a precursor to our budget sessions and um we live stream all of our budget sessions. So awesome. Yep. We can do that. Okay. Thanks. Um executive session. Yes. How long do you need? Uh 25 minutes. 25 minutes.

Okay. Um let's see. That would make it 35 7:35. Um, make a motion to recess into executive session pursuant to the consultation with an attorney for the public body or agency which will be deemed as privileged in the attorney client relationship exemption KSA75-4319 B2 in order to discuss legal responsibilities to other governmental units. The open meeting to resume city council chambers at 7:35 p.m. Second. Truan, yes. Garza, yes. Fast. Yes. Goss. Yes. Makers.

Yes. Heat. Heat. buying. Bye. [music]

[music]

Hello. Heat. So, where do your tax dollars really go? Let's break it down with a single dollar. First, here's the truth. The city of Hutchinson only gets about 25 cents of every property tax dollar you pay. Sales tax. We get just 1.4% of purchases made in the city. So, no, we're not swimming in cash. But here's how we stretch every dollar we do get. 44 cents goes to public safety, police, fire, and emergency services. That's nearly half of your dollar keeping Hutch safe. 15 cents for parks and facilities. mowed grass, sports facilities, pools and splash pads, walking trails, and clean public restrooms. 15 cents covers capital improvements and bond payments, roads, major repairs, and the debt we've taken on to build what matters. 10 cents goes to public works and engineering, water, sewer, storm drains, and street maintenance. 9 cents runs the core admin team, [music] IT, finance, HR, the city attorney, keeping everything moving behind the scenes. 5 cents for economic

[music] development, bringing new jobs and opportunities. One and a half cents for code enforcement, making sure buildings are safe. [music] 1 cent for planning and development, guiding future growth. And just onetenth of a cent for arts and culture. Yep, one10enth. We listen to residents. We crunch the numbers. And we focus on real needs, not fluff. We treat every cent like it counts because it does. That's the city of Hutch budget in action. Smart, transparent, focused on [music] what matters.

[music] [music]

Heat. Heat.

[music] [music] [music]

Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, [music]

buddy. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat.

[music] [music] [music]

Heat. Heat. N. Heat. [music] Heat.

[music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N.

Heat. Heat. N. [music]

[music]

Heat. Heat.

[music] [music]

Hey. Hey. [music] Hey.

[music] [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [music]

Back. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. N. [music] [music] [music]

[music] [music]

Darren, you want to make Is there a motion to adjurnn? I'll make a motion to adjurnn. Second. Truan, yes. Garza, yes. I'm sorry. Fast, no. Goss, yes. Mayors, yes.

I just want to always see if it makes the consent agenda. What is [music] [music] [music]

[music] [music] Heat. Heat.

[music]