City Council - Regular Meeting

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Good evening and welcome to the December 2nd, 2025 Hutchinson City Council meeting. Please call roll. Richardson here. Garza, yes. Here, Bass. Meers here. Goss here. Pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance 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. Victor Hman will lead us in prayer.

Pastor Phil, let's pray. Father, we come before your throne of grace tonight so thankful for your provision and uh for your grace. Lord, we do ask your blessing upon this proceeding tonight and just ask that you would guide uh each of our council members in uh in wisdom and uh and give them direction. Lord, may they also uh have unity and uh and a focused vision, Lord, for the benefit of this community. Uh Father, we thank you for your son by whom we're able to come and have a relationship with you and we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Thank you, sir. Next item, please. Item number four, proclamations. There are none. Item number five, petitions for monstrances and oral communications from the audience. Is there anyone here to speak um in public comment? Seeing none, next item, please. Item number six, consent agenda. Any questions or remarks from council? No. No.

I do just want to say thank you to everybody. um who not only are the people who are being appointed tonight, but to the people who applied um knowing that the um I I think we had a really strong lineup of people who applied for the positions and I know that it took staff an incredible amount of time to vet these um applications and to ensure that we were putting the right people in the right place. Um, and I look forward to um continuing service for some of these people and and um watching them grow in their service as well um for the new and returning people. So um with that, I would look for a motion to approve. I move to approve the consent agenda and authorize the mayor to sign. Second. Richardson, yes. Garza, yes. Mayor,

yes. Goss, yes.

Item number seven, ordinances and resolutions. A consider resolution appropriating funds to pay payrolls and claims for 2026. Angela Richard, director of finance. I have before you tonight two routine annual resolutions that we adopt. The first one is a resolution appropriating funds for payroll and claims for 2026. Every year we consider the resolution that allows um finance and HR to pay payroll and um invoices before they are added to your consent agenda. Um this allows us to pay um items timely and not incur any late fees. We believe that we have proper internal controls, purchasing policies, uh we monthly report and we have an annual audit where we are reviewed on our financials and our internal controls. So we believe these procedures allow us to have checks and balances of those accounts payable before they are paid and that it is adequate for you to review them after the fact. So staff would recommend that you approve this res resolution. I stand for any questions.

This is something we do every year. Every year. Yes. Any remarks or questions from council? Nope. Nope. I move to approve a resolution appropriating funds to pay payrolls and claims for 2026 and authorize the mayor to sign. I second that. Richardson, yes. Garza, yes. Maggers, yes. Goss,

yes. Item 7B, consider a resolution for fiscal year 2025 waiver to KSA75-1120A requirements. Um, this is another resolution that we do every year. This is to wave the 2025 um requirements of the KSA75-112A. Um this um allows us to opt out of generally accepted accounting principles which are much more complex and instead use the Kansas regulatory basis of accounting which is outlined in KAG, Kansas municipal audit audit and accounting guide. Um, and just to briefly go over some of those differences, KAG allows us to basically record cash receipts as revenue and then anything um we encumber, we enter a contract, we issue a purchase order, that's when it becomes an expenditure. Um, so it's kind of a modified basis of accounting. We do not recognize accounts receivable or assets um like you would with GAAP. So this is a much simpler way of accounting. We believe that uh citizens can follow it easier and counsel um and it is not as costly to implement or to audit. So staff would recommend that we approve the resolution as presented. I stand for any questions. Have we ever done GAP finance? We ever used the GAP process?

Um, we used GAAP for water and sewer due to some bonding requirements. Um, probably back in like the 60s7s, but as far back as I have records, we haven't used GAP for our financial statements as a whole. I'd also be concerned with looking at finances year-over-year and people being able to interpret changes. And so I would rather just stay with the same accounting practice. You don't want to switch back and forth and that [clears throat] would be very costly to do as well.

And it and it would be super confusing when you're comparing audits and you're auditing under different standards than what you were accounting for. And yeah, you'd have years of catchup. But um any other remarks or questions from council? No. No. I move to approve a resolution for fiscal year 2025 waiver to KSA 75-1120A requirements and authorize the mayor to sign. Second. Richardson, yes. Garza, yes. Maggers, yes. Goss, yes.

Item 7 C, consider an ordinance authorizing issuance of GO bonds to pay for certain improvements, sidewalks, zoo, nature play, fairgrounds, park equipment, and memorial hall. So before you is an ordinance that is becoming routine. Um it per IRS regulations, we need to um approve an ordinance that allows us to incur expenditures for certain projects before we issue the bonds for those projects. So projects that we have um started working on or will com um start working on soon are the 2025 sidewalk improvements, the zoo nature play, um the fairgrounds park equipment, and then the memorial hall roof. Um those items are listed in your memo and then they are listed in the ordinance as well. The ordinance includes the cost of the [clears throat] anticipated cost of bonding those projects. um in the project amounts as well. Um city uh staff and legal council recommend approving this ordinance. I do have a question on that. On um page 109, it's the first page of the ordinance. Um letter C, it says Fairgrounds Park and it says 156,000. I thought we had gotten the dollar figure down in the 140 range. Am I mistaken on that?

That is that correct, Justin? I know the um 156 is with bonding costs, but Oh, okay. This would be the max that um that we could bond. Okay. So, if if it is like actually 140,000 that we need in bonding, we can lower that. Okay. Um, and we can adjust those amounts in the future. Okay. Thank you for explaining that. [snorts] Any questions or remarks from council? No. No. I'm looking for a motion to approve.

I would move to approve an ordinance authorizing issuance of GO bonds to pay for certain improvements, sidewalks, zoo, nature, play, fairgrounds, park equipment, and memorial hall roof. and authorize the mayor to sign. Second. Richardson, yes. Garza, yes. Mayers, yes. Goss, yes. Thank you. Item 17, consider a resolution adopting the updated planning [clears throat] and zoning master fee schedule.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Matt Williams, director of community development. I'm here tonight to discuss updating the planning and zoning master fee schedule. Uh the master fee schedule assigns fees to the full spectrum of planning and zoning applications in our department. Uh these cases range from zoning amendments and fence permits to plats and variances. Uh while it's never been our goal to recoup the full cost of processing these applications, most of these fees have been set to capture a significant portion of their associated costs. Uh costs associated with these applications include publication in the newspaper, postage for public notices that we send out, and staff time. The city last updated the bulk of these fees in 1991. And as you know, costs have risen pretty substantially since 1991. Uh raising these fees is our effort to make our services more financially sustainable. Uh fees have not kept up with inflation and are well below the actual cost of the services. Because the fees have not increased, the general fund has subsidized an increasing share of the cost of our services over the years, effectively shifting the development cost from the developers to the taxpayers in general. Uh because the fees have not increased uh we want to bring them in line with our community peers. So to determine the competitiveness of our fees, we surveyed 12 benchmark cities within the state including Salina, Derby, Emporia, Lawrence, Manhattan, and Witchah. Based on that survey, we found that our fees were significantly lower than the average for all application types. So, we are proposing new fees that are available in on page 115 of your agenda. Um, partial cost recovery is a standard practice for planning and zoning fees in our state and our proposed fees are meant to bring us in line with our peer communities and not impact any competitiveness we may have with them. Uh the majority of the proposed fees still fall below the averages of the

surveyed communities. The fee schedule was reviewed by the planning commission at their February 25th meeting. They recommended approval of the changes 7 to zero. And as part of our effort to ensure our fees are in line with peer communities, we do plan to bring an updated building permit fee schedule back to you later this month. Um that update is actually expected to lower the average building fee uh that we see in our community. So with that, staff is recommending that council accept and approve the resolution adopting the new fees. Happy to answer any questions. So, for projects that are currently [clears throat] in the middle of being built, working through it, um, and let's say that they've pulled some of their, um, permits, but not all of them. I I don't know if you pull them all at the same time or if you do it incrementally, but um would they be like grandfathered in to the previous schedule or would these take effect immediately as soon as they're approved?

We're proposing that these would go into effect in January, January 1st, so we would have some time to let people know. Um and then two other comments I'd say for that one, these fees are relatively low. Um, you know, these fees primarily impact commercial developers if if they're changing the zoning of something, if they're platting a whole subdivision, uh, putting in a, uh, parking lot, something like that. Now, some things impact residential users if they're going to get a variance or a fence permit or something like that, but we're talking

minor fees in the few hundred at the most, if not $25. um that shouldn't impact a project and all of these usually if someone needs something they apply for it right now. So everybody that's going through a project you would apply at the beginning of the project. I would assume most of them have already paid. Okay. Thank you.

Any questions from council? Um preliminary design review or design review cost. Will that be brought up during the building permit. Yeah, [clears throat] we are looking at like a plan review cost and the way that's structured, we're looking at structuring it a new way and yeah, Jason, our building official plans to bring that back at the next meeting. Okay, I don't have any more questions. I don't either anything from anybody else on council. Nope.

Ste. Okay. Um looking for a motion to approve. I'd make a motion to approve a a resolution adopting the updated planning and zoning master fee schedule and authorize the mayor to sign. Second. Richardson. Yes. Garza. Yes. Mayers. Yes. Goss. Yes. Item eight, new business. A. consider an ever non-anexation memorandum of understanding between the city of Hutchinson and the city of South Hutchinson and Reno County, Kansas regarding non-anexation of specified land.

Paul Brown, city attorney. And this document is exactly what it says it is. It's a non annexation memorandum of understanding between the city of Hutch, city of South Hutch, and Reno County. Uh we want to clear the way for the new [clears throat] EverGy plant to be built. Uh this will assist with assist with that and that's what EverGy wanted also. Um and there was uh I can tell you there were a number of emails bouncing back and forth between all the attorneys for the cities to make sure the language was in there. But it just boils down to neither city is going to annex. And as a practical matter with it being a new plant, there won't be any taxes for at least 10 years. So, uh, nothing to fight over at this point and we'll get that, uh, planned here. A tremendous investment, uh, new jobs and we are fairly certain this is one project that will attract other businesses to our area. Uh, so it's a uh, it's a real accomplishment for Reno [clears throat] County and all the cities in it.

Agreed. Are there any remarks or questions from councel? No. No. No. I move to approve an ever an effergy non-anexation memorandum of understanding between the city of Hutchinson, the city of South Hutchinson, and Reno County, Kansas regarding non-anexation of specified land and authorize the mayor to sign. Second. Richardson, yes. Garza, yes. Mayers, yes. Goss, yes. Item 8 B, consider a contract with Stag Luza LLC and McDonald Tinker Law Firms for legal services in the PFAS litigation class actions.

Paul Brown, city attorney. Uh, this is a little bit different. It's a contract to retain uh specific council for what is referred to as the PLA litigation. Um, you may not recognize those uh those uh letters. Think forever chemicals because that's usually how it's referred to. Forever chemicals. Things that get in the groundwater and they just don't get out. Um, this is a a there's a class settlement with Dupont and 3M. Now, I registered with this a couple of years ago for the city. never heard another word uh until we were contacted by some other attorneys who were working with this firm in New Orleans um to get us into a situation where we can sign up for the benefits and get some of the costs uh covered. And this is to retain uh those attorneys. Mr. Stag is on the executive committee that was appointed by the court to structure this class settlement. So he is in the heart of it and and uh I'm drawing a blank. I need you to get to the end of it. Uh looking for Jennifer's last name because their resumes are at the end. Jennifer Hill. She is with the McDonald Tinker Firm in Witchah. Uh she has been a frequent presenter at the city attorneys conferences and also represent cities and she is local counsel for the New Orleans firm. Uh this is a contingent fee contract. It's not out of pocket expense [clears throat] to the

city. Uh it is a one-third proposed contract uh which is very standard and uh it benefits the city that someone will be looking after us and the u the idea is to get us in a position where we can obtain a recovery because there are a number of deadlines coming up and you can see those in some of the materials I supplied to to you. Uh there's one deadline that uh is at the beginning of next month um on uh phase 2 testing claims. The idea is if you get in before that date and get your testing done and submit the costs as a part of this settlement proposal, those can be reimbursed. So that's the significance of getting in there. There's there's a number of other deadlines um in involving that. If we don't get it in on January 1, it doesn't mean we're out. uh it just means we don't get reimbured for our testing costs. But I feel still think we can get that done by by that time and we will have attorneys to assist us with that. So I would recommend it to the council to approve the legal services contract and answer any questions you might have.

Have we already conducted the testing? Almost looking at public works. There have been answer that question. Come up here. Come on up. [clears throat]

So, this I'm only going to be answering as far as our ground our water supply. We've done some limited testing. We've tested on the discharge of the reverse osmosis facility and we recently did a test on the incoming um from our wellfield. So, our well field was non-detect. We had non-detect on the discharge of our RORO. We did detect PAS on the RO membrane concentrate, which is exactly what's supposed to happen. RORO is one of the approved methods of treating for PAS and POS. KDHE is also rolling out their own testing program right now. Because we are a utility that serves more than 10,000 customers, we're going to have to test all of our contributing sources on a quarterly basis once a year or on a quarterly basis for a year. So, this doesn't account for any sort of contamination testing that maybe came from industrial facilities in the past. I'm purely talking about the testing that we've done in the utilities group for our water supply. And are these testing for the old PAS or the new ones?

There's, you know, when we look at PAS and POS, that's a kind of a generic name for a whole family of chemical components. Um, we've done some of the testing recently, and I think they were testing for like 27 components, which are the more common ones. Um, again, it doesn't go back to the source with this testing where it identifies, oh, this chemical came from this contributor.

Any additional questions from council? No. No. No. I move to approve a contract with Stag Leoa LLC and McDonald Taker law firms for legal services in the PFAS litigation class actions and authorize the mayor to sign. Second. Richardson, yes. Garza, yes. Maggers, yes. Goss, yes. Item 8 C, light pollution discussion.

Matt Williams, the director of community development. Again, uh I just wanted to provide an update on the question of updating our regulations pertaining to light pollution. Uh we have been reviewing pure communities and their ordinances and we expect to take a draft uh update of the zoning regulations to planning commission early in the next year and then that would come to you. Um and then that would address both residential and commercial light pollution. Right now we only address commercial. Um, one thing to note with that is that it would accept light sources that are installed prior to its effective date. So, it won't be able to fix any problems that are currently out there, but we hope to cover new lighting going forward.

Thank you. Thank you.

Item 8 D, Woody seat update. Good evening, Mayor Council. Uh Cece Wible, public works director. Uh we got a short video that uh the crews put together with uh help from Jessica and Joseph from the IT department. So uh I'll let you see the video first and then I can answer some questions after. So uh Joseph. Hi, my name is Charles Hinsley. I'm a construction inspector for the city of Hutchinson. Work on the Woody seat phase 2 project began on March 12th, 2025 with the de demolition phase. This included removing existing curb and gutter, old pavement, and bridges crossing Avenue A and B. A fun fact about the bridges crossing Avenue A and B, both were originally constructed in 1958 by KOT. Age played a key role in the decision to replace them rather than pursue repairs as both structures had met their designed age lifespans. Following demolition, the contractor began installing 408 linear feet of new water line from Sherman to Madison. This improvement allowed the city to abandon an aging section of water line previously running along Avenue A. Next, crews turned their attention to the water line replacement on Avenue B. During this phase, an unexpected issue occurred when a 16-in water line was found at a higher elevation than anticipated, requiring the line to be lowered and replaced. While this caused a brief delay, the contractor responded quickly and efficiently. In total, 250 linear feet of 8 in water line and approximately 60 linear feet of 16inch ductal iron pipe were replaced on Avenue B. As of today, significant progress has been made. The contractor has completed storm sewer installation on the roadway. Sidewalk construction has begun at Madison, progressing east towards Adams. Most of the curb and gutter have been installed using a slip form paver from Adams to Madison on both the north and

south sides. Additionally, crews have paved the inner ring of the roundabout and are now nearing completion of the stamped colored medians. The project continues to move forward diligently and the engineering department appreciates the community's patience and cooperation as we work to improve this vital corridor. [music]

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So, just wanted to kind of confirm that um we are on track. Um barring any major weather or anything like that, uh Adam Street should be open by the end of January. The entirety of the project will be uh in the middle of summer, June, um with the uh addation of the Sea Street Bridge that has to be repaired. So, um, any questions you guys got? How about the lighting p? The lighting is So, the new pole's up. Um, the contractors are waiting on a few more parts to put up, uh, the luminere, I think.

Um, and our staff's already started some of the wiring and getting components ready. Um, like I said, same thing. As long as we don't have any major weather issues or something, um, the intersection should be lit and ready to go right along with Adam Street open or avenue opening. I see that the bridge that's go far through going through what I see that's um um the bridges are not tied in yet, right? Coming to the roundabout. That's that's what's going to be into next summer. Um okay, that's a separate contract, a separate contractor. They've already started work, but their anticipation is uh end of June will be they'll be done with that. So, when's Adams anticipated to be open

by the end of January and in Avenue A? Yes. Okay. So, you'll be able to drive through the roundabout. Yeah. Through the roundabout. You just won't be able to get on to Woody Seat. Yeah. Heading south. Well, I saw workers up on the bridges um today. So, that's really promising. Um and it looks like they're making quick work of it. I just want to remind everybody too that um if you go to the city's website and go to the public works department and engineering, you can see the entire time lapse video from start to finish. You can watch the bridges come down and everything. So, so Cecil A is going to be open by the end of January. A is going to be open by the end of January.

Okay. I told I told Deborah wrong. I thought it was going to be open before January. I got to fact check myself. They're they're hoping to actually be done sooner than that, but they have till the end of January. Okay. Well, I'll let her know. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Item AE, winter weather process update. Hey, I'm back again. [laughter]

Um, so I got a couple guys from the street department. I'm going to let them take over and just give you guys a brief update of what we're looking at for this winter. Um, did want to just start off with my part real quick. We really want to thank the USD308 schools for, uh, giving us some color to our snowplows. So, uh, those will be out. Some of them will be in the parade this weekend and then uh be able to see them running down the roads. But I will turn it over to Jake and let him start and then uh I'll be back up at the end to answer any questions. [clears throat] Uh Jake Mottz, street supervisor. Uh what I'm going to be getting into is the materials for fighting snowstorms. Uh this is extensively researched not only amongst the city of Hutchinson, but cities across the US. the most northern states usually set the precedence for um not surprisingly for what we end up looking at and what we end up researching and we watch them pretty closely to see what's effective for Hutchinson. So no surprise that salt is our most used material for fighting snowstorms. It is incredibly effective for melting snow and ice. Now it is only effective for thin layers. Um, so plowing beforehand to move a lot of the accumulation across and off the road is uh pretty much mandatory to help. So our spreaders are calibrated to put between 250 to 300 lb of salts per lane mile. And this is a pretty widely found effective number for uh how much salt put out. Salt is effective until about -6° F. At that point, it no longer is effective at melting the ice or snow. And uh we do use a salt brine uh pre-wet system to wet the salt as it's put out on the road to help it be more effective. Uh it

usually comes in and will melt quicker due to that. So salt brown itself is a very cost effective tool to help fight snowstorms at just 5 cents a gallon. Um, it's created by saturating water with the same salt that we used to actually uh put on the roads. So, it's one source for all of it. Um, and we use it to lay down on the roadways beforehand before any snowstorms. It helps reduce the amount of snow and ice that sticks to the road beforehand. Uh, helps us kind of get on top of the snowstorms as they come down. Um, now there are some limiting factors when it comes to uh the salt brine and that being if it rains before we get snow that will rinse away all salt brine on the road. Uh there are also certain snow storms such as dry powdery snow where the salt brine is not as effective because it'll cause the snow to stick to the road that would otherwise uh pretty much blow right off the edge. So we will usually balance the risk versus reward on um using salt brine especially with the low cost uh when it is effective and when it is not. And just like salt it is only effective to about -6°. So that's pretty much the two major materials we use to fight most um all snowstorms. So from there I will hand it over to Ryan Lynn for equipment and operations council. Uh Ryan Lynn, street superintendent. I'm going to cover a little bit, like Jake said, uh some of the equipment we have, um some of the training we do and a little bit of the operations and cover uh some of the routes. Um so with our uh equipment, um we have eight tandem axle dump trucks that are equipped with salt spreaders and plows. uh three front loaders, two road graders, uh one backhoe, two single axle dump trucks for hauling snow

primarily, and then uh five pickup trucks with plows. Uh those are used for residential uh snow plowing, downtown street parking, and downtown alleys. Uh some of these pictures that I have on here are just some of the operations we do. So that first one that was up there uh was just some operations of our snow plows uh plowing snow in tandem uh that was on K61. Uh we do that a lot with definitely the wider streets, but we also use that tactic sometimes on narrower streets just to make sure we can clear curb to curb all the way um off and get everything as clear as possible. And then this picture shows uh Main Street downtown. Um, in some areas we plow actually to the inside uh just because we don't want to disrupt, you know, sidewalks and businesses and things and pack parking. So, in those that we can, we actually come back and we'll haul the snow off after um which I have a few photos of that. The next one is uh one of our operations after uh toward the end of a snow event where um we're actually hauling off the snow uh downtown.

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And this just like Cecil said, uh big thanks to USC 308 for for doing this for us. It was a great opportunity uh for for us and our staff uh to prep the snow plows. So it wasn't just a benefit just for um the school district. It was also for us to keep our stuff updated. Uh every year we we go through and we make sure everything's cleaned up um ready for the the season. So that was that was a good time for us to incorporate that. And if anybody wants to see these, like Cecil mentioned, they will be at the parade this Saturday. Uh I've seen the decorations that are starting to go up and they're pretty cool. So you guys will get a kick out of that if you go. Um part of our training every year, um one thing we usually go to is uh we try to send usually four to six staff to Milford Lake State Park. Um, and that's the uh photo of the course there for the Kansas APWA snow rodeo. Um, they do a uh snowplow competition. They also do a motorgrader competition and then a loader competition. Um, so it's a good way for the crew to kind of show off their skills and interact with other communities. Um, so we try to do that as able. Sometimes they schedule it during the state fair which makes it a little bit of a challenge, but we try to make time if we can for that. and it it kind of leads into our season for preparations. Um, this is going to be a quick video of our uh snow training. So, I'll uh I'll show this and then uh kind of explain a little bit about it. But um I want to thank uh Joseph and Tyler from it for putting this together for us. [music] Hey, hey, hey. [music]

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I said that was that was a a part of our training day we do every year. So we always set up a course to give especially new staff opportunity to kind of get in the trucks, run the equipment, get familiar with it. Um and then definitely the older staff to show off their skills. We try to make it a challenge so it's not just, you know, super easy just to run through a bunch of cones. they they set up different uh obstacles and things like that and ways to score points. So, um we kind of score everybody and give everybody a little bit of a a challenge with that. Um and during that day we also uh cover um the operation of the equipment with that. But then we do uh some of the things that Jake had already spoken about um with the uh calibration um with our salt spreaders um brine making and then also loading and unloading of the equipment so that everybody has the opportunity beforehand to know how to do all that. um everybody can ask questions, you know, especially with new staff that that and then it's also a refresher for, you know, existing staff. So, it's really good for us to continue that every year. Um and then what I have here on the screen now is uh our our snow snow routes in the city. Um it uh you can see the some of the colored lines there are primary routes um that we have and then the uh council districts are split up for the uh residential snow fighting. So that's kind of how we run our stuff. Um uh [clears throat] with the uh with the residential streets. Um one thing I did want to remind everybody was that our equipment's large. So um our plows are up to 10 ft wide. So, if you're in a residential area, especially um some that are tighter streets, um just remember to remove the cars from the street if you can, um give snowplow drivers plenty of room and then uh also don't shovel snow from your driveway uh into the roadway. Um those things are important for our drivers and for us to do our operations effectively. Um and then one thing on this is that in

Hutchinson there is 680 lane miles. Um and the primary snow routes consist of 333 of those lane miles. and they're separated into eight snow routes. Um and then the primary routes will be done before or in conjunction with pling residential streets um depending on staffing levels and the event. Um with that I will uh pass it off to Jeff. Um he's going to talk a little bit about our preparation and our how we how we forecast different events.

Good evening council. Jeff Nichols, street supervisor. We ordered snow up for y'all yesterday to get you in the mood for this tonight and you saw the weather service didn't deliver. Okay. So, what have we all been for the last week watching? And we saw 3/10 to 3 in is what they were projecting. Okay. We watch that when we know there's the potential of snow coming. We look at things like this map. This map is the next 3 months projection of the National Weather Service of what they feel participation particip precipitation will be. And you can see the National Weather Service is really wishy-washy. Equal chances of less or more. Okay. So, in other words, what they're saying is is they're expecting an average year. But we take a look at various things like this. We also have daytoday to hourby- hour projections that we look at and consider. For example, uh if I hit the button here, this gives you an idea of what we look at. This graph at the top tells you the temperature, the windchill, the um uh uh due point. The next one is the wind speed and direction. Uh and then the uh cloud cover, the percentage of possibility of preip. Uh the next one is the sui which is referred to when that's the snow water equivalent when the snow is melted down. And then the blue one that that is what they're projecting uh for snowfall during those hours during that time. So, we start monitoring this as soon as we hear the potential of snow. And and again, when I say we, it's that's us here. And we start getting closer and closer as we come down. We also uh have um direct contact with the National Weather Service if needs be if we feel it's a bad enough storm. And then also we uh have the contact from the um uh emergency management and we get their situation reports that come in. So, uh, as as things start to develop, we will look and we'll say, "Okay, we know we're going to have to pre-treat because this is going to be a

snow that we feel is going to be tree treated." So, we will send the the the lasses, the liquid application system trucks out uh, and they will begin to pre-treat with the brine in in in the effort that that will will help us out as we go. We look at it as Jake said under certain conditions. If we're looking at this and we're seeing a really dry snow potential, we won't likely brine because that can actually attract the snow to stick to the street and create slick spots. So, we don't want that. Uh so, so we we will look at that. We will consider that and then from that we will make the decision whether to pretreat or not. Uh and and go from there. Uh, also as it gets down to the point, we know the storm is going to hit. We start splitting our crew into uh, shifts because we know we're going to be around the clock. We don't want to exceed maximum that we allow anybody to work at 16 hours. So, we put people on to 12 and 1 half hour shifts. That half hour shift over at the end, they have a chance to talk over, hey, this is a particular problem area. This is what we're seeing. You know, uh, different types of things like that. So, that's one of the things that we monitor. Now again, it it we we've been we were planning on snow removal yesterday because everything we had been watching and then we saw what happened. Nothing. We've had storms moving in and literally stall out at Nickerson and we have a full crew in and working, but the the weather change never hits Hutchinson. So, it it it's kind of a a guessing game. We've gotten pretty good at it. We don't miss them too often, but uh it it is part of what we do. But we literally spend days prior to an event scheduling, planning, figuring what what do we think we're going to deal with. And we we watch that blue line especially what they're calling for, you know, and again it even yesterday morning when I got up at 5:00, I looked and they were still calling for an inch and two tents of snow and and we got to trace, you know, and so uh it it it's it's just one of

those that we have to have to do as good as we can with, but we get better with it the more that that we fight and and do. This is also something we will look at in the event of a uh even a windstorm coming in. and you know they're projecting you know high winds or something we know we will we will monitor this for that uh for those types of things as well. Uh and then one of the other things we do is that's hard to see but on that is this sheet th and this goes to Cecil and then onto Enrico. This tells you every everything we have all the equipment that's ready everything's checked and ready to go. Uh how you know if we have a piece of equipment that's down and in central garage all of that information is on here. So, our response equipment and what's available there on the back, our entire crew and our who's going to be working, what shift, uh, contact information, all of that that's available. Uh, so here comes the day, it's going to say hit 2:00 tomorrow morning. So, our pager carrier, the guy carrying the call out phone, he's got this she he goes over two pages of this and he's got to monitor that. When it gets to that point, we're within 3 degrees of freezing and preip is expected. He's out checking or she is out checking uh bridge decks to see if they need to be treated, if there needs to be a crew called in, whatever it might be. Used to be years ago, it was waited until the police department started working accidents and then they called and said, "Bring somebody in and start treating." We are more proactive. We are out there checking it beforehand. We have a a temperature gun. We check the bridge deck temperatures and actually monitor that. Drive across the bridge, hit the brakes, and if you don't slide into the side, you're okay. We'll go, you know, but uh those folks again, it's it's also a uh a gamble for them because, you know, it's supposed to hit that situation at 1:00 in the morning. Well, they got to get up at 1:00 and check. Well, if it hasn't quite got down to that temperature or the moisture hasn't moved, then they go back to bed until 3:00 when they say it's going to hit. So, so they're monitoring that, too. So there's a lot behind all of that that we go and then again part of our

prep that that's just weather prep that we look at following and monitoring that again as as you saw the video a few minutes ago overhead of the trucks. You know we have a day we shut our operations down other than emergency response stuff and and we go through and we review all of this this and this with everybody plus we have the videos and the uh slideshows of of how the equipment works. Then we break up into teams. We go out and we uh calibrate the uh the spreaders uh so that we're hitting that 250 to 300 lb per lane mile. Uh the guys are uh practicing putting these uh spreaders in and taking them out of the trucks, hooking up the now newly decorated plows uh and having that uh and so they do that. They they go through the brine making. Everybody goes through and and reviews the brine making and then they they drive through the obstacle course. This year we decided to have a little fun with it and made it into a competition and it was amazing how much more uh participation we had with everybody uh doing that taking that challenge on and and it ended up being good. But we spend an entire day just prepping that, reviewing those things, getting everybody ready for when snow uh is going to hit. So that's just a little bit of what we go through. But it just know that we literally days before an event comes in, we are on that and we are watching it constantly and and monitoring those things. So who's next? Ceil. Uh so before I I got one thing I want to tell you guys in a minute, but I want to give you an opportunity to ask any questions first. So Ceel, when I used to be with the city, we had different departments which uh shovel down in Main Street. Do we still do that, you know?

Yeah. So, the uh the handicap ramps on Main Street, um currently the utilities department, uh primarily the sewer uh maintenance crew, they take that on. Um most of their equipment's usually uh

unless it's an emergency, a lot of their equipment has water in it. So, they're not able to do their normal day-to-day when it's that cold. So, they have the time and effort to be able to put that towards downtown. Um a lot of their crews also help us if we're short-handed. This this year we're in a really good place. Um, we're actually almost fully staffed, which has been something that's been a hassle for us for a while. But, uh, but in years past when we've been really short-handed, uh, water department, sewer department, central garage, engineering, all, uh, if they're some of their, uh, personnel have CDLs, they would jump in and help us as well. So, it's really a team effort. Uh, park department's out doing all of the parking lots in town and the hike and bike trail as well. So, I mean, it's pretty much everybody who works outdoors for the city is outdoors doing something with snow removal. So, [snorts]

I've got a question. I've got two questions. Um, what kind of do you have any examples of like emergency services coordination when people need to get to somebody or get access to a street? And yeah, so um we work closely with dispatch and the fire department primarily. Uh the police department doesn't call us as much. their vehicles are pretty uh agile and can get around better, but uh the fire department and EMS when they need to get around, they will contact us. Uh one of the benefits we've added is um GPS and all of our trucks. Uh used to be in the past, you know, fire department or somebody would call, hey, I need help here. Uh the supervisor would start kind of going through the list. Okay, who do I think's close? Now with the GPS, we can say, I got a truck two blocks away. Give me a minute. I'll get a hold of them. So

the the other question I had is, you know, we just looked at the pre and this is getting a little nerdy, so I apologize. All right. This is more of just I'm curious. So we just looked at a huge multi-million dollar investment in concrete streets. Mhm. At Woody Seat. Yep. Are there any alternatives to salt that we would consider to put on fresh concrete for the first season or two? Glycol or sandbased product? So, cost more for a season or two.

It's uh a lot of the sandbased products would add grip. They don't add much of anything else, but they're also quite the hassle when it comes to clean up after the fact. Um which ties back into our stormline system, street sweepers being out. It's And honestly, with the newer concretes and stuff we've been having, so we have them do a curing agent on that. It really does help keep that salt out of it. And over the years, we've reduced the amount of salt we used to put out. I mean, I'll be honest, we weren't as efficient in the past. Uh, when I first started, there wasn't any calibration of the equipment. We went out and put salt out till it melted. Um, what that amount was was a lot more than it is now. How does it affect asphalt? Huh? Out of curiosity, how does it how does the salt impact asphalt roads?

Uh, really not that bad. You You'll notice some if it gets down into the cracks, you'll kind of see that that white shadowing it puts there. Um, honestly, it doesn't do too much to it because we usually have enough rain or something after that flushes those areas. Um, it's when you let it get down in those crevices and set longterm that you start having an issue. Yes. Um, if I remember right from your after the first go last year, you mentioned that you ended up not being over budget based on um the new processes didn't add anything additional to your budget from from a manh hours perspective. Um, is am I saying that correctly?

We didn't go over budget on the purchase of the equipment, right? But not on the man hours. We had anticipated snow into our budget already overtime. Um, and last year wasn't um a super bad winter. So, yeah, we were within budget. Okay. I think I think that's awesome. And I'm I I was always glad to hear that you guys essentially added a new service um without um yes, we had to buy new equipment that'll last for years and years, but um you didn't break the bank with the

um with the manh hours and and trying a new thing. So, and for the most part, I've heard such great feedback about um people were able to get around. Yes, we had a couple of cancellations of um school days and whatnot, but I think that's just inevitable and I really appreciate the proactive response that you guys are taking right now. Um I think businesses appreciate it. Um first responders appreciate it. Um I do believe it was Jack who asked if he could get a blowtorrch to clear the downtown sidewalks. So, if that's [clears throat] something we could make happen, I'm sure he'd be grateful. Yeah, we can we can look into it.

Okay. [laughter] It also would be fun. Um, yeah, I I think this is a very good to know and as we start more with the GPS, I know John and I have talked about in a comical way of allowing them to be tracked by the public, but I do believe there is some value in that because people do shovel

cars and um we are looking into a couple options for that. Uh, we're working with it to see if there's something we can do inhouse. Um there are some systems, but they're they're a little costly. Um I've seen some of them it's like 20,000 um for the service, but uh we're looking to see if we can do something in house that would be able to track those. Um there would be just because of some stuff we looked into in the past, there would be a slight delay. We wouldn't have it 100% live, be like a 5 or 10 minute delay. Um, I've talked to some, um, people in positions in other cities that I know that, um, have had issues with, I hate to say it any other way, but insurance fraud. People see a plow, know where it's at, can track it, and want to go try to drive in front of it.

So, taking their advice and stuff, we're as we're looking into it, we're looking for a system that would be a slight delay. Yeah.

But at least people would be able to track, hey, they've been here, they haven't. Well, and I think as you're debating, do I clear the end of my driveway knowing that the snowplow hasn't come, but I don't know when it's coming, but it's stopped snowing right now and I have a window or I have time off or what have you. Like all the logistics that go into removing snow on your on a commercial property, but also on a a personal property of at at the edge of a driveway or at an alleyway or something like that. And we just like to remind everybody if they are removing it out of their private driveways and stuff, just the nature of how a plow works, if they put it to the right hand side, less of it will end up back in their driveway. If they plow it on the lefthand side, that's the direction of travel we're going. So if there's a huge pile we hit, there's more that's going to roll off. So just something that will help a little bit. We can't we don't have the equipment or time to stop and clear every driveway as we go. So there is going to be some kind of little wind row in front of those driveways.

Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's something that as we and oh maybe we're gonna get snow next week, but as we near um that season, I think it would be helpful to have um Miss Woodard put out a a just a reminder on social media of how do you properly do that so that you don't end up with it all right back where it was. Yeah. Um, you know, I really appreciate the time and effort you guys put into all of this because I know what what goes into preparing for the storm. Um, since we do we we do a lot of snow removal as well. Um, it's just I like watching your videos and your preparedness um for that storm coming. Um, but I I'm okay with the storm that misses us.

We are too. The the other morning when it missed us, I was I was totally okay with that. So, um I just it's, you know, you don't want to say it's frustrating, but you go to all that work and all that effort preparing for days in advance and then it misses us. You're like, "Yeah, it's okay." Yep. So, I do appreciate watching your videos and everything how we're prepared for when it comes that we know exactly what we're going to do and how we're going to deploy everything. So, I do appreciate the time you guys have put into all of that as well. So, um when you get to -6, are you guys going to more like a salt sand mix?

We don't ever we we typically have never used a sand mix in Hutch. because of the damage it does to the um storm inlets and the cleanup afterwards. I know Witchaw uses a sand mix on almost every storm. Uh what the story a lot of people don't know about that is after that for about the next 48 hours they have 20 street sweepers working around the clock. So um to try to keep that out of their system um you don't have a lot of motorcycle riders in the winter but sand on a asphalt road um is not a good combination for them. So, we don't um typically what we do um luckily in Kansas, we typically don't have those -6° for very long stretches.

So, we'll plow everything we off. Uh salt, while they say doesn't work very effectively below six, it still does some

um and you can get some melt, especially the the best tool we have in our arsenal is the sun. Uh even without some temperature, asphalt streets will draw that heat out of the sun and it does help. So, um, worst case scenarios is really cold, cloudy days with a brisk wind. Um, and then we just continue to scrape it off as best we can. Uh, we can bring bring out the big graders to get those places that are really icy and try to get some of that knocked off. But yeah, so we still continue using salt and well, which it does provide some sort of traction as well. At least does something at that level. So, at least most people should be staying home when it gets that cold anyway. But everybody seems to want to come out uh when it gets snowy. So, I don't know what that is either. So, I appreciate all that. So,

I have one last question. Um, so once you've calibrated and loaded equipment and all of that, how long does that like do you only calibrate once a year? So, we typically calibrate at the beginning of the year. Um, if if we only have a few times that we use it. Um, usually recalibration is not needed. If there's any maintenance done to the vehicle that could have changed something, we will do a quick spot check to recalibrate. But majority of the time, calibration will last all season. And then once you put the plows on the trucks, are they on for the rest of the season or do you take them on?

No, we uh we pretty much will take the plows and spreaders out as needed. Uh if we know storms are coming, we'll leave them on, but the rest of the operation, those those dump trucks are used the rest of the year for other things. So, we can remove them and put them back in and out. Okay. How much salt do we keep in stock? About 900 ton. And then how much brine? Uh we currently can do what? 12,000 12,000 each bin. Uh 6,000 6,000 in each. How long does it take you to re to to fill refill those brine tanks? Uh we can be making as using. Okay. So we can keep it constantly full. Gotcha.

Um any other questions? I got a couple little things I just kind of wanted to touch back on with you guys. Um for one, that picture there of Milford Lake and the APWA snow training. uh two years ago. Here's your top team in the state. Um I was gonna ask if I don't see I don't see any snow. He must have gone. He's great. [laughter] It's amazing. Uh the only other thing I wanted to bring up real quick just because I I really like embarrassing him. Um Jeff Nichols is retiring in a week and a half. Oh no. So this is his last time to really stand in front of council. So pick on him. So we need a big snowstorm to you out. [laughter] I will take a flood.

Yeah. We'll take a a snowstorm over a flood before you leave. [laughter] Well, how about we just applaud then? [applause]

I have a a few things as well in case you're done, Cecil. Uh, this one's more of a a fun story, but years ago I attended the American Public Works Association annual snow conference and I I went there specifically to learn more about beet juice applications and I was trying to think of a a cheaper way to get the work done and uh so anyway, there was a slide I was looking at and I took a picture of it just to remind myself of the material and I was in a conversation with uh Cecil and we were talking about the conferences and things he's went to. And he was describing something and I'm like, "Wait, I know what you're talking about." So, he showed me a picture uh that he took. It was the It was a picture of the same slide. He was maybe like two tables in front of me. So, it's just kind of a small world thing. Um but anyway, so it's just a fun story. But also too, I I would like to thank Jeff because he did delay his retirement. And so around the time that we split the public works and utilities department and wanted to focus more on investing in what we should be doing, uh Jeff did go out of his way to delay retirement for that. So I do appreciate his leadership in in public works. So thank you.

Thank you guys. Next item, please. Item nine, report of city officials council. Scott, you gonna go first?

I suppose um I just have um I think I just have one thing. I just wanted to um thank all entities that were involved in the meeting we had with South Hudgensson, uh the county and city council. And then I also want to thank Deborah for um from the chamber um for all the information she provided. I thought that was very crucial in uh the conversations we had. and I I look forward to having future conversations with all the entities um just for the progression of the county, city, and South Hutchinson. So, that's all I've got. Thank you, Steve.

I'd like to say that too. It was a good uh a good meeting that we had and hopefully we'll have more meetings uh that we can we need to know all of us, all the county, the city and city of South Hutch and we need to know what's going on with each other. We all live here, so we have to get along. So, it was it was good. That's all I have. Thank you, John. Uh, let's see. I think at Memorial Hall at 10:00 on Saturday is the gingerbread house event from believe it's 10 to 1. And then Saturday night is the uh downtown Christmas parade and I think that starts at 6 if I remember correctly. I think so.

Yeah. So, fantastic event. Please make it. It's awesome. It's all I have.

Yeah. Um, and I think to speak to the the joint meeting with all of the groups, I think one of the shortcomings of everything is that different groups know things at different times. And so the more we can have these collaborative meetings, um, it just gets everybody on the same page, um, a lot quicker, I believe. Um, so I I do think that we should hold those quarterly um or at least have some kind of better communication um with the other entities. Um like Paul Brown said, the the Evergue project is going to bring other businesses um other industry to town and um we have an opportunity to really show a united front um and work together on this. Um yeah, lots of events going on this week and this weekend for um downtown and Christmas parade and all of that. Um, it should be it should be a good weekend. Um, before we go to the next item, um, maybe you guys did this at the meeting. I was gone in August. I don't remember seeing it. Um, changing the official newspaper. We didn't do that, right?

Okay. Um, can you put that on the agenda for December 16th? Let me tell you that currently the Tribune does not qualify to be the official city newspaper for Hutchinson. They have to be in publication for a full year before that can be done. Ah, okay. And that's state statute. Yes. For first class cities, it's not the same for second and third class cities. Okay, that was my next question. For first class cities.

Okay. Well, then we'll put it on the agenda August of 2026 when I'm not mayor. Okay. Um, any remarks, Mr. Vegas?

I I agree with everyone that I appreciated the joint meeting. It was the first of its kind um for all three of us to get together and I while I do recognize that getting Evergy here is very important for our region um I I don't I don't want to just automatically assume that businesses will come here whenever is here because we need to have our act together first and so hopefully future uh collaborative meetings like that we and iron out what exactly it means for all of us to be able to grow um and to where we all benefit. Um cuz it it could be a little bit of a fallacy if if we assume that people will come with the plant just by itself. Uh you know so anyway we have we have some work to do but I am looking forward to those meetings uh when they come up. So

thank you. Um next item future 10 future agenda items inoperable vehicle discussion. Thank you. And then um I am going to uh make a motion for executive session. I move to res recess into executive session pursuant to the consultation with an attorney for the public body or agency which would be deemed privileged in the attorney client relationship exception KSA75-4319B2 in order to discuss legal responsibilities related to other governing entities the open meeting to resume in city council chamber at

3:5 minutes. Now I have to do the math. 25 minutes would put us at 7. How about 7:15? [clears throat] Okay. 7 at 7:15 p.m. Second. Thank you. Richardson, yes. Garza, yes. Maggers, yes. Scott,

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

Hey, 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 [music] 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, IT, finance, HR, the city attorney, keeping everything moving behind the scenes. 5

cents for economic development, bringing new jobs and opportunities. One and a half cents for code enforcement, making sure buildings are safe. 1 cent for planning and development, guiding future growth. And just [music] 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 what matters. Heat. Heat.

[music]

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

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Heat. Heat. Down here. Hey, hey, hey. [music]

Heat. Heat. N. [music]

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Nity down.

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

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Heat.

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Hey. Hey. Hey. [music] [music] move to extend executive session by 20 minutes ending at 7:35.

Second. Richardson, yes. Garza, yes. Maggers, yes. Goss,

yes. Hey, hey, hey. [music]

Heat. 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 HUD [music] 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. [music] 10 cents goes to public works and engineering, water, sewer, storm drains, and street maintenance. 9 cents runs the core admin team, IT, finance, HR, the city attorney, keeping everything moving behind the scenes. 5 cents for economic

development, bringing new jobs and opportunities. One 12 cents for code enforcement, making sure buildings are safe. 1 cent for planning and development, guiding future growth. And just [music] 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 what matters. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat.

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

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

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

Heat. Heat.

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Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. Heat.

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

Heat. Heat. at the prison.

So moved. Second. Richardson, yes. Garza, yes. Megers, yes. Goss, yes.

Thank you for coming. Heat. Heat. [music] [music] [music] Heat. [music] Heat. [music]