City Council - Regular Meeting

Yeah, after the wedding I'm going to sleep for like a month with with Cameron tomorrow. Um, he's going to start the build the the sign process and then we'll kind of go Mike. Can you hear me? Yeah, Rob, we can. How about you? Can you hear us? Oh, I might be muted.

Uh Rob, yeah, we could hear you fine. Can you hear us? Yeah, I can hear you now. Yeah, you're not going to be able to uh we're not going to be able to get video of you, Rob. Just for so you're aware, we have a new security protocol we're implementing tonight. It'll be a temporary situation. We'll be able to hear you just fine. Okay. All right. Well, it's 7 o'clock. I'd like to call the September 18th Dotto City Council meeting to order. We'll start with roll call, please. Lane, yes. Hana, here. Patterson here. Mcmarin here. Daniels, present virtually.

All are present. All right. I would invite you all to please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge 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.

Right. Our first item tonight is a proclamation regarding Constitution Week. Whereas our founding fathers, in order to secure the blessings of liberty for themselves and their posterity, did ordain and establish a Constitution for the United States of America. And it is of the greatest importance that all citizens fully understand the provisions and principles contained in the constitution in order to support, preserve, and defend it. And the 238th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution provides a historic opportunity for all Americans to realize the achievements of the framers of the Constitution and rights, privileges, and responsibilities it affords. And the independence guaranteed to the American citizens should be celebrated by appropriate ceremonies and activities during Constitution Week, September 17th through the 23rd, 2025. as proclaimed by the president of the United States of America. Now therefore, I Rick Walker, mayor of the city of Dotto in the state of Kansas, do hereby proclaim the week of September 17th through the 23rd, 2025 as Constitution Week in the city of Dotto. And I urge citizens to reaffirm the ideals of the framers of our Constitution had in 1787 by celebrating the freedoms guaranteed to us through the United States Constitution. Uh, thank you to the D for bringing the Constitution Week proclamation forward. Our next item is the consent agenda. Uh, consent agenda items will be acted on in one motion. Tonight on the consent agenda, we have approval of the minutes from the September 4th city council meeting. Approve pay ordinance number 105. Approve task order number nine with

GBA for the Riverfest soccer field project and approve temporary use permit for Reach Church Halloween event. Is there any item anyone would wish to remove from the consent agenda for further discussion? Hearing none, I would uh entertain a motion for approval of the consent agenda. I'll make a motion to approve the second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion of the motion? Roll call, please. Lane, yes. Honeymichel, yes. Patterson, yes. Macaran, yes. Mayor Walker on 1D, yes. Daniels, yes. Motion carries.

All right. Item two is call to public. Members of the public are welcome to use this time to comment about any matter relating to city business not listed on tonight's agenda. The comments that are discussed under call to public may or may not be acted on by the council during this meeting and there is a 4-minute time limit. Uh if you wish to address the council, please stand. Um come to the podium. Hello everyone. Uh George Hoff 29080 West 95th Terrace, Dotto, Kansas. Um, thank you for allowing me the time to address a recent read letter of notification I received uh regards to some recent signage we had added for our business. Um, we uh placed on K10. After having discussed the matter with uh several staff members, we concluded that uh there's no current statute that allows for signage of this type and I was uh directed to speak before the council so we could maybe evaluate some uh solutions. Um, I would like to uh propose that we uh have an allowance to keep the sign in place while the city evaluates um potentially adding a statute to allow for uh provision of signage for um signs similar to that uh possibly for registered agurism sites. Um the addition of this sign has uh increased our traffic three-fold since we added it. So uh it is definitely doing the job that it's intended to do. Um, current signage options that uh I was provided with by staff uh really not sensible or feasible for our location. Uh they're either too small or too big. Uh I don't think a giant pole sign will look very good in that location. Um so I'd just like to uh I guess plead our case that give consideration to the sign

that is in place uh for the size that it is and um uh the awareness that it's bringing to our business. Um and um other than that, thank you for your time and uh consideration of this request to change the statutes.

All right. Thank you. Um we want obviously we want you to be successful in your location. And I understand a key part of that is letting people know that you're there. So, um I guess I would uh maybe encourage staff to reach out to you, set up a time to meet and start talking about some uh potential remedies to to help uh those signs stay in place to get get you a good foothold at that location. Do we need an action to suspend code enforcement um in that during that interim? Yeah, we will. We do. We do. Yeah.

All right. So, uh, I guess I'll make a motion to suspend code enforcement against the Stonepillar Winery sign, um, on the north side of K10 for 120 days until some resolution can be resolved. I'll second that. All right, we have a motion and a second. Uh, any discussion of the motion? [Music] Roll call, please. Lane, yes. Michael, yes. Daniels, yes. Patterson, yes. Mcmaran, yes. Motion carries. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Uh, anyone else under call to public? I'm Daryl Zimmerman. Uh, three. Oh, I live in Dakota. Can't even remember my head. 34055 uh West 86 Terrace in Dotto. Um I'm here primarily to see what stage we're at in the creation of the uh steamboat monument sign in Riverfest Park. whether uh I understand it it's been out put out for bid, but I wondered if bid had been received and and accepted or just what the status of it is.

All right. It uh it is on the agenda tonight. So, okay, we we did get favorable bids in uh bid in um and so it'll be on the agenda tonight and hopefully accepted by the council and we'll move forward with that sign. All right. That's what I want to know. Okay,

Tara Reedart 8425 Dicken in Dodto. Um, in order for me to stay focused, I did uh write it down. So, give me one second. Okay. Um, good evening, council members. Uh I'm here tonight to advocate for the residents right to vote on specifically the data center project. I know you guys have already um approved certain stages of that, but um it is something to consider. Um a data center does present unique challenges regarding like noise, water, energy consumption. Um I'm not saying these issues are inherently negative. You might you might be surprised that you know your arguments we probably would hear and be like okay that's not that bad because I've read everything that's been discussed you know on the transcripts and it see I get sidetracked man see stop. Um we might surprise you and vote the way that you know we feel is best might be on the same side. You never know. Um but uh they do warrant careful consideration by the community. residents deserve the opportunity to do research and decide for themselves if the benefits of this project outweigh the potential drawbacks. For example, um on the 21st, uh in the transcripts, there was mention of a couple that live across the street from where the the proposed location is. Um and they were referenced as being um concerned about vehicle traffic if there was an industrial factory or something built over there. um they weren't aware of the constant hum and vibrations and um such that have been attributed. I'm not personally experienced, but they have been attributed. I know that they have things in place that the companies can do to, you know, minimize those and stuff. So, um but businesses close and so vehicle traffic would be minimal after that time. Um which is just something that they they should have the opportunity to consider. Um that just highlights the needs for individuals to have the

opportunity to uh research and get and make their own informed decisions. Um data centers differ from other developments like concrete plants or residential areas due to the utility consumption and low job creation. Um additionally, residents uh near other data centers have reported in the wintertime there's a cyclical hum instead of a constant hum like in the summer. Um, unfortunately, this decision, I believe, should rest with the people um or at least be advised by the people who will be most affected. And actually, doesn't affect me at all where I live, but uh I urge you to consider putting this project to a public vote at less than one month since the approval. Uh the council has mechanisms by which you can make that happen. Um another question I have, did I added to this? I know. See, I shouldn't have. I got two minutes. Um, when the city offered tax abatements to the data center, were you aware that Governor Laura Kelly had signed a bill uh providing state level tax breaks to the new businesses? Uh, it's called the Apex Act, February 10th of 2022. It gives qualified companies investing at least $1 billion in Kansas. Uh, refundable investment tax credits of up to 15% of their qualifying capital investment. Um, this company, uh, with the capital investment of $3.1 billion, um, is set to get a refundable investment tax credit of $465 million. They also receive a partial payroll rebates of up to 10% per year, but only for 10 years. Um, those credits and rebates are pretty significant. That's in addition to other uh, incentives like training and relocation reimbursements. And from the state, they get a full sales tax exemption on construction materials. My question is, is this is the tax abatement and incentives we're offering by the city, is that in addition to those tax breaks? Um, or is it those tax breaks you're offering?

Because it could be they get no state and local sales tax. And uh and with the property tax abatements and $465 million in uh refundable investment tax credits, it could appear like we're paying them to be here cuz it's just stuff I didn't know that was already provided for by the state. I mean, they know what we have. They're going to be attracted here anyway. But that's all I have really. I just, you know, did we learn by having to pay attention first on the last episodes? No. But that's it. Thank you. All right. Thanks for your comments. Anyone else on call to public? Jeie, do you want to come up now?

Are you gonna have open? That's it. This is it. This is it. Oh, no. The public. Oh, on revenue nuke. You want to offer? Okay. I'm I'm sorry I misunderstood you. Yeah. All right. Any anyone else under call the public? All right. We'll move on. We do not have any old business, so we will consider item 4A. Consider donation request for the DHS Make48 Nationals team.

Uh good evening, Mar Council. I have the distinct pleasure of um acknowledging um some local students here at uh USD 232 led by Tim Miss Pagel, who you may be familiar with working with some of our art projects here in Dodto um to discuss their participation in a national STEM conference. um that's uh that's been going on later on this fall. Um the students placed in a local event and now they are fundraising to um get there. So with that, I will turn it over to Tim who uh is with the school district and let them tell their story.

Thank you, Brandon. Uh it's nice to see everybody. Uh council members, thank you for uh your time this evening. Uh my name is Tim Miss Pegel and I'm the administrator of our CAPS program at Cedar, excuse me, Cedar Trails Exploration Center. Uh the CAPS program is the Center for Advanced Professional Studies. We're now in our 16th year. This is an international organization and I'm excited to introduce our first ever Make48 team. Uh this is the first year that Make48 has had a women in STEM competition and we have some amazing young ladies uh that did an incredible job in July uh in the original uh competition that qualified them for nationals. With that comes uh some uh fiscal support and we're here to uh present to you and and hopefully uh secure some of that funding. I'd like to introduce the team.

Hi, my name is Nancy Talifero. I teach at Dotto High School some of the engineering classes. I also teach at uh CEK as well.

My name is Jamie Barry. I teach at Star Elementary technology innovations. So, I we just want to introduce you to the Make 48 competition itself and what it what it is and what the girls were needed to do were asked to do. Um, it's a fast-paced invention competition. Uh, the a sponsoring company would uh present a challenge to us. The girls had to come up with an idea. They then had to go in and make a working prototype. Um, and this was all happening within 48 hours because that's why it's called make 48. Uh, so from Friday to Sunday, uh, they invested all their time into going through this competition. So yeah, they started with that, uh, working prototype and then they moved on to a few other things.

Uh, within this 48 hours, the first eight of it, they had to come up with the idea and then they had to meet with patent attorneys, which was an interesting experience for them to see that process. It was a Q&A session where they found out that their idea had nothing in the patents that was anything like it. So that was an interesting step. And then they also uh not too long after that had to do kind of a Shark Tank style um sales pitch to a team of people to get their idea out there and get some feedback. And then um toward the end they had to come up with a one minute marketing video as well as a sales pitch to the judges um that were all also women in the STEM fields.

Yeah. So this was our first realworld learning challenge. We have been trying to implement these things into our classrooms uh not just at DInnesota but also at Mil Valley and and CEK. So it was important but our uh we put together a team of um young ladies and took them over there and um put them to the test and so we walked away with second place which qualified us for nationals which will happen in November of this year. And I am going to uh allow the girls to introduce themselves and tell you a little bit about what they did during the competition. Thank you. And sleeping was not much of it. That was not

Hi, my name is Maddie Helair. I am a part of the bioscience strand at CEK and I just wanted to start by kind of sharing what we did Friday night for our for Make 48. So, we actually we got to the Kansas City Art Institute at around 8:00 a.m. And from there, we got our t-shirts. We got shoes that were donated to donated to us by Zena Shoe Wear and which is a a woman-run company for that makes shoes just specifically for women. And from there, we started our we started the competition. We met in a giant room. We all gathered together which with each of the team and we celebrated as the clock started. The they had a giant clock that was in the center of the room that had 48 hours on it and it continued to run. It wouldn't stop until the 48 hours were up. From this point, we also got our prompt, which was what we needed to we what we needed to make, and that was we needed to build an invention that would help someone owning a she-shed, which this could this could be something that hung up on a wall that improved space, made it maybe more accessible. And so, it was very open and it left us then to come up with an idea. And so, this led us to our next part, which was coming up with an idea. We spent several hours brainstorming our idea. We looked up stuff online, what could work, and we eventually came up with an idea for a shelf that could fold down against the wall that could create a workt. And this is something we kind of started throwing around. We came started trying to find other ideas. But as like we were talking, we realized that we kept coming back to this idea. And once we talked to other people, there were many people at the event who were working. So we would ask them about our our idea, ask them for advice and they agreed with us that our idea was very solid. So from there

we started working on building our sketch and also once we got the sketch done we built a CAD model with one of our tool techs which were people who were specialized in different areas such as CAD like building and stuff like that just so that that could help us build our design. So from there, once we bu we started working on our model, we then took it to our patent attorneys. Like Jamie said, we talked to the patent attorneys and we were able to find out that our design didn't exist anywhere. And from there, they gave us the approval to start building our design. And for the rest of the night, we just worked on finding like finding all of our materials, going over our materials list for the following day. And then leading off into Sunday morning, we were then meant to go and f get our materials. They gave us $200 at Ace Hardware, which was our assigned budget that everybody had. And we had to find our materials in 30 minutes and then we could start building.

Hi, I'm Crosby Taylor. I'm a senior at Dotto High School and I'm in our manufacturing side of the programs at CEK. at the halfway point, which is kind of where we got when we exited ACE. We got all of our materials. We came back to Casey Art Institute. We hit that halfway point on the clock. Everybody's cheering. We're having a great time. We're very tired and we are pretty much free to start our project. So, we're starting our manufacturing, our building, our troubleshooting. We're running into problems putting that CAD model to life. We're carving out those wooden pieces. We're trying to piece things together. We're hitting problems, roadblocks. We're solving them as they come. We're like, "Okay, this maybe didn't work as much as we thought. We go back to the CAD model. We we're rethinking things, rebuilding, coming to conclusions. We're now taking that into thought, putting that together, building that, and we're just really troubleshooting and getting to where we like our project. So, we're spending this time building. We're creating a lot. We're going through designs. We're putting it together, seeing how it's working, if it's working how we want it. We're designing it. So, we're painting, we're staining, we're drawing out how we want it to look. So it will aesthetically look how we want in our she-shed. So not only is it functional, but it is appealing to the eye. And well, here we are.

It was late.

Yeah, it was. It was. These pictures are late on day two and middle of the day on day three mostly. We are very very tired. We have we have brain power done, muscle power gone. Everything has been used at this point. We have probably a total of maybe 5 hours of sleep in the past uh 30 hopefully if we were lucky. Um we were maybe taking a break, maybe killing some time before our presentation. Most mostly our projects were done. We were maybe working on our pitch to our judges. We were doing our marketing video, our one minute mark marketing video that we had to create that was also played for our pitch and pretty much just trying to survive. So, I will let Aurora take over here for day three. Thanks, Crosby. Um, my name is Aurora Strait and I'm in the engineering design strand at CEK. Uh I'm a student at Dotto High School and I'm also part of the CEK robotics team for three years. So um on our last day we had finished up our presentation. We were ready to give our pitch um and we had a big time of waiting where we were waiting before we got to start but we got to go in and present it to all the girls who were there, a bunch of parents and the panel of female judges like Jamie mentioned. Um when we did that we were able to learn a lot about how hard it is to market, how hard it is to answer questions about money related things, how um many details you need to know and uh we got better at our public speaking skills. We uh worked with a lot of other girls. Everyone was so supportive. It was incredibly uh meaningful and impactful. And uh after way too long of a waiting period to figure out the

results, we uh ended up getting second place. um alongside the Kansas City School for the Blind, which was incredibly amazing. It was so exciting. Uh as you can see there, we have the award that we won. Um it was so impactful. Uh over the course of it, we learned so many skills. There was so much product development and try and try again and learn new uh skills, things I'd never looked at before. I had to figure out how Adobe Illustrator worked in like 25 minutes. It was really scary. But uh we learned so many new things, not not only how to talk to new people, but how to use new tools and uh talk out loud to lots of people, which is not easy. Um but overall, it really made a huge impact on us and we've been able to spread it to our community as well. So, not only has um the Society of Women Engineers club that I was able to start at Dodto worked with younger girls to teach them about engineering for this, but also Nancy Talia Pharaoh uh who teaches engineering at CEK uh is implementing make48 style teaching at the school. So, we're they're doing projects to in a similar fashion where they do quick development and product pitches because it's really that beneficial to learning how to be an entrepreneur and how to think like that. So um we want to thank you so much for giving us the opportunity uh to even to present to you and for um being willing to listen and let us share our story. Um we come to you uh hoping that any kind of support that we can get um financially would be a huge benefit in offsetting the costs. Uh we have a large airfare and hotel costs and food and rental cars and those kind of things. So just getting us out there to the national competition um which we earned a spot at by getting second place uh would be amazing. Uh it's going to be a wonderful experience and we've already seen it ripple out to other people and

it can continue to do so. So thank you. Thank you. It's like hearing you describe it. I'm amazed you want to go through it again. Yeah, it was a lot. Jamie brought the energy drinks so and the snacks. Yeah. Praise. Um uh so we have a you want to carry on Brandon or Yes. Um so the uh the staff recommendation and Tim and I have kind of talked about this. Um $500 per student would cover the majority of their airfare if not all of it Tim. Um and so we felt that that would be an appropriate um use of the of the donation fund. So this would come out of the um charitable contributions line item

um to support their efforts to travel. Any questions or comments from councel for the presenters or staff? Congratulations. Thank you. That's awesome. Yeah, $500 each for travel lodging and meals sounds pretty reasonable. Are you sure that that that covers the need or have you you've got other contributions coming in or other fundraising?

Um, great question. Uh, originally when I started looking at the flights, uh, I was like, what's going on in Indianapolis? They were like $573 a piece. But um I paused. My wife was like, "Wait, these are going to go down." She books usually our flights for the family and I was able to get something uh far more reasonable for the team. Uh you know, more within like the $300 uh price range. So that coupling uh some of the food um this the school district has like a meal aotment for lunch and dinner. Um some of that I can do out of our CEK CAPS program. uh uh those are uh funds that are uh raised through like our maker space and things like that. Some of the sculptural work and things like that that we're we're partnering with the city on. Um so, you know, being able to kind of put that money back into the students um would be outstanding and any help that you guys could provide will will definitely help to get them there. And all in all, it's the first time we've ever experienced anything like this. Uh we really want to make this uh something that we can celebrate. I think we would all agree the more positive we can have going on the better. Um, and these young young ladies, as you've gathered, speak very well. Um, we also have an an initiative for them to begin speaking to uh some of our younger girls in the USD22 school district. Uh, think of that as kind of like a like a traveling uh speaking tour a little bit and sharing their testimony and inspiring other uh young girls. So, all right.

Any else? from council. Congratulations. Thank you. Um, ready for a motion? If you're so inclined, I can. I move to authorize a $1,500 donation to USD 232 to support student participation in the Make 48 Nationals competition in Fisers, Indiana. I will second that. All right, we have a motion. Second. Any discussion of the motion? Roll call, please. Lane, yes. Honichel, yes. Patterson, yes. Mcmaran, yes. Daniels, yes.

Motion carries. All right. Thank you all. Good luck. Thank you so much. Have fun. Thank you so much. Yes. Thank you very much. All right. We'll move on in our agenda. Item B is consider 2026 budget adoption with the revenue neutral rate public hearing and a resolution our budget

Mike. Yes, council. Um this is the culmination of several months work. Um we do an annual annual process starts pretty early in the year and ends the last couple years around September. Um I I did give a um a summary presentation of the 26 budget at the last council meeting. Uh nothing has changed um since that. I did include that that summary um in the staff report that I gave the last time. I think mayor with your permission I'll go maybe just even a more brief summary just hit the highlights and then we'll step through the bullet items. Okay.

Just no just quickly uh um for for those that may not be aware we are reducing the mill levy again about 83 mil. um this is an amount that's equal to the averaged increased value in uh the average home in Dotto. So our feeling uh even though we cannot meet the revenue neutral rate because of some particular way that rate is calculated relating to partially completed industrial uh facilities uh specifically Panasonic uh that rate is artificially low for us. So, we did come up with our own rate that would essentially hold the average resident taxpayer in Dotto um hold their hold their taxes uh level for the for between the years. So, happy to do that. It's about a six uh 6% reduction. So, this comes on the heels of a 30% reduction in our mill levy from last year. Um we still have a million dollars transferred from the general fund, the capital improvements fund. We did that last year as well. Maintaining the annual road program at at $1 million. Uh the budget includes $100,000 uh extra support for the chamber and EDC. Seven new positions um here here at city hall in the water fund and in the sewer fund. There's $27 million in capital impro uh improvement projects budgeted for next year. 17 million uh are the tail end of the Panasonic funded the water, the sewer, the water. Um so almost 10 million in in um new CIP projects for us. Um $47,000 in in budget enhancements. Um and we are still uh looking forward to commissioning the new water and sewer treatment facilities. And what we're really looking forward to is increased usage uh primarily from Panasonic, but really increased revenues from those two from that usage. Uh so the world will change from a budgetary standpoint in

the water and sewer uh very much for the better uh is the uh is a projection. So mayor that is uh the the summary there and we'll turn it back over to you uh as a reminder. So we need to there's two public hearings. The first one's a revenue neutral rate hearing. Following that we'll ask you to approve resolution 2076 that allows us to exceed that revenue neutral rate. The second one is the general budget hearing uh public hearing for the budget. Uh then there's an ordinance to uh to adopt that budget. Um and that that that's attached as exhibit C to your report. Okay. Thank you, mayor. All right.

May I interrupt for one second? Um my wife, oddly enough, text me watching the meeting. Said the camera's a little high. I'm reset it real fast. Can you Will it reach? Yeah, I I hope so. I'm going to go stand in the middle. All right. It's just catching the top of my part. Huh. I was told they she could see the top of my head. What? The stream looks good. The YouTube must be Yeah, it was the YouTube stream. Oh, let me look at that. She said it was the top of my head. All right, that should be closer. Oh, yeah. It's It's cropped. See how the YouTube stream is Yeah. Okay,

makes sense. Well, now that we're properly on video, I'm going to officially open the public public hearing on the revenue neutral rate hearing. So, uh, anyone wishing to speak on the revenue neutral rate, please come forward, state your name and address, and make your comments.

Good evening. Jean Senac uh 11680 South Zarda Drive. I'm a candidate for next year's election for Johnson County Board of County Commissioners Chair. I've had the opportunity to go to several revenue neutral and budget hearings over the last several weeks. I just wanted to summarize some of what I've heard around the communities just to uh reflect upon what you maybe have going on yours. So, the the common theme out there is is um higher taxes. It's property taxes. And I've been attending the county commissioner meeting since the first of the year, and I've had a chance or an opportunity to see how money spent at the county level. So, of your tax bill, the county bill is going to be about 20% of it. The city portion of your bills are about 20, as you're well aware, and then the schools going to make up the majority of the balance. But it is getting tough for the seniors out there, especially those that are on fixed income. And I'm feeling for those people. Uh it's not only in their taxes, it's also in their home insurance, it's in their auto insurance, it's in their general inflation they're feeling in the rest of their budgets. So what it's becoming is a a time to be very prudent about spend. And at the county level, I see some things going on that I think that can be improved upon. and that's that's my main focus. But just in some of the other cities I've been to, you know, the attendance at those has been reflected by the concerns of the citizens and um some of those have been packed houses in some rather large cities and the theme is is still very a common one there. As I looked over your budget, I I looked over it pretty close for the first 20 plus pages and I didn't go into it in depth beyond that, but I want to commend the budget that you've put together.

It's a a very well put together budget. It is, in my view, it has a lot of detail about various things and items that affected the way you made the decisions that you did. And it's it's uh real easy to follow along from from what I was seeing. So I I think the residents have to be very happy with what you put together there. My message going forward, just given the way that I perceive the economy is headed. You know, it's you've got a lot of great things going on here in Dninnesota. There's no doubt about that. I mean, I I I follow it. I see what you've got going in employment numbers and expansions. I know some of it needs a lot of discussion so that the public is on board with you, of course, and I'm sure you're doing a great job of that. Um, but going forward, you know, the the economic environment still looks a little challenging. I mean, I don't know when the the home prices stop going up the five or six or 7% a year that they have. Most of the other cities aren't seeing the benefit that your citizens are going to see in terms of you being able to hold their portion of the city taxes relatively flat is what I hear you saying. uh most other people are going to while the cities are holding to a flat mill level. The rise in the property is offsetting that. So that's a little misleading and and I think that we need a little better messaging out of the cities and I think the residents see it and they're calling it's being called out on. But congratulations that you're able to do that on on your own uh citizens properties and whereas the rest of the county it looks like it's a common theme that it's 5 to 6% anyhow. So going forward again just um I think you got to continue looking at it with a fine tooth comb. uh as I'm sure you already are, but most people I say you got to put it to a different level and be extra cautious on the things going forward and and on your 5year CIPs or whatever you're doing. Maybe some of that as you're already doing, I'm sure needs to

be out to 10 years on certain parts of your budgets and assets. But um I think we got some trying times ahead of us. I think it's uh challenging for everyone. And I just want to make mention that I think for the benefit of the citizens, you just keep um keep taking a hard look at things and and keep that in mind going forward. Thank you very much. Thank you for your comments. Anyone else on the revenue neutral?

All right, seeing none, I'm going to close the hearing on the revenue neutral portion. Um so now we will have resolution 2076 to consider. Uh any discussion or are we ready for a motion?

Yeah, I will make a motion to approve resolution 20 uh 2076 um as presented in the council packet tonight. Second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Daniels, yes. Hanichel, yes. Lane, yes. Patterson, yes. Macbran, yes. Motion carries. All right. Now, with that, I will now officially open the 2026 budget hearing. Is there any further introduction you want to do for the budget hearing? You've done it. No, sir.

Satisfied. All right. Thank you. Um, our budget hearing is now open. Anyone wishing to offer comment on the city of 2026 budget, uh, please come to the podium, state your name and address. I'm not seeing any takers, so I'm going to close the budget hearing. And so now we would have two uh the item ordinance 2665 adopting the 2026 budget. Any fanf fair for this mic? Uh, no, mayor. Okay. Parade later. Uh, ready for a motion?

I'll make a motion to approve ordinance number 2665 approving, adopting, and appropriating by fund the budget of the city of Dotto, Kansas for the year beginning January 1, 2026. Second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion of the motion? Roll call, please. Mcmaran, yes. Patterson, yes. Daniels, yes. Michael, yes. Lane, yes. Motion carries. All right. Thank you.

Moving on in our agenda. Item C, consider ordinance 2666 amending the term of the community improvement district for the Limestone Development Project. Yes, council. I put a brief memo in your packet. Um, I think the consensus at the last council meeting was to bring the matrix, the economic development matrix back uh for action by the council before considering this CI again. Um but we did have a EDC committee meeting and I uh members can share themselves but I think the consensus was that the matrix needs additional work and the thought was we shouldn't hold up uh GRA's project until we get that work done. So, what you have before you is an ordinance that would allow the CI for the uh limestone development uh to be 22 years instead of the 10 that was approved at the last meeting for any questions.

All right,

mayor. Maybe I'll sure speak to that a bit. You know, you mentioned the conversation at the the finance committee, incentive committee, whatever whatever we call it. little little thought on the discussion there. Um, one idea was to um resolve it by u proposing that we amend the matrix to uh change the duration of the limit the to total term of the C to the statutory term of 22 years. um have an action on that and then that would let us have an action to um approve the uh limestone um request to be consistent there. with some discussion as you know Patrick as you said there's some need to look a little bit farther at the incentive program overall incentive matrix overall and some some general cleanup and so um while it makes sense if we were to look at it from the regard that this property has already been approved for retail um and a sales tax C really is only functional in in sending a retail project it makes sense that it be this location. Um maybe there's not a reason to not allow it to go to full um statutory term. So maybe it makes sense there, but we really need to or I would recommend that we think about where we use that tool um across the the um landscape in Dodto in terms of incenting retail. So just kind of going taking a step back from that, the unique part of our incentive plan is that we have a map that ties to our future land use map with the idea being that we're using our economic incentives to accomplish the comprehensive plan and in particular the

character and nature of our future land use map and promote those things that that support the way the that we envision the community growing and not support those that don't uh go the direction the way it's going. But we also have a column in there for u strategic goals that are supported by a particular initiative, a particular project, a particular type of development. Um it is so since we've done this last we have updated both our comprehensive plan and future land use map in particular with the update to southwest growth area and we adopted a new strategic plan last year. So the references in the current matrix that tie to our strategic plan and to show what we're trying to accomplish aren't applicable anymore. So I think we need to go back and and look at that. In addition, we need to in uh incorporate the RHID because we've been doing that kind of ad hoc one project at a time. But I think we're at a point to look at our future land use map and look at our areas that um we're intending a variety of kinds of residential, whether it's multifamily, traditional single family, large lot, or whatever, and decide how we want to apply our incentives in various locations. Certainly, we wouldn't want to I don't think I would recommend that we adopt a just an acrosstheboard statutory limit on CD because that may then promote retail in areas where we're not focusing on retail. So, I think it needs a little bit of thought. So, my feeling coming out of our meeting last week was that um it would probably be reasonable to provide for the full statutory limit at this location. Um but for example in the other portions of that same area 14 on the map maybe it doesn't because this this project has now provided some of the infrastructure that is needed to kind of further built out some of that

area. So that's some of the thought that I I think needs to go into I don't know that that needs to be a huge production to update it but I did not feel like we needed to hold this particular project up while we go through the process of giving this some thought. And for people who haven't been on council for as long, you know, understanding the philosophy behind our incentive program is, I think, important in terms of digesting why we're providing certain incentives in some areas and maybe not in other areas. So, I'm in support of uh the ordinance that would allow the 22-year CI for this particular project.

Okay. Thank you, Kevin. Rob, did you want to offer any comment uh relative to our u discussion? No, I think it covered it and I'm on board with the 22 years. I was on board with it last meeting, too. So, all right. Thanks. Um likewise. So, any any comments, questions from council? And I will make a motion to adopt ordinance 2666 which extends the C term from 10 years to 22 years for the limestone development. Second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Roll call, please.

Lane, no. Hana, yes. Daniels, yes. Patterson, yes. Mcmaran, yes. Motion carries.

All right. Thank you. Item D, consider bid from Heartline Construction for the Riverfest monument sign. [Laughter] Uh, yes, we're council. U, this is um the conclusion of a almost year-long project um to create a Riverfest monument sign. I think this design has been bouncing around city hall for the better part of a decade. If I remember correctly, it's been on Mike's desk. It's been on my desk. I think it's been in Patrick's office periodically. Um this this design was incl this project was included in the 2025 work plan. Um and we work with Indigo design and light works on the project. Um the design is 21 ft long and 6 feet tall um with a steamboat graphic and LED lighting um with a site history black and decorative stone at the bottom. We went out for bid um a few weeks ago and the base bid we got was $89,250. There were two ad alternates um for um for stone and then for some additional lighting um a spotlight on the sign. Um I've spoken with our building official who happens to be in the room and our city planner. They have reviewed the sign. Um and so with that, mayor, um staff recommends that um you accept the bid um uh the price of 97,4 sorry 97,440 and a 10% contingency.

Okay. Um, so just a little bit of history that Daryl had shared. You know, why the steamboat? Well, the steamboat was short-lived but an essential part of the movement west. And um it's uh timing was cut off by the extension of the railroad. So it would have run for much longer. I'm sure it was a challenge, I think, as I read for uh steamboat pilots to navigate because of the the shallow water. So they had to basically develop a special boat for this river. But um interesting history because when I first I thought well I didn't know steamboats were running up and down the Kansas River. But yeah it was it was key all the way out to I think the Fort Riley I think it was went uh to deliver supplies to the fort and it was uh an essent central part of the westward expansion across Kansas. So um I don't think we have a sunken steamboat in our city limits anywhere that I know of but could start. Um, but it's a interesting bit of history and it uh it's a unique design. I think it'll be a great addition to our uh park at the river.

Questions or comments from council? I think we got a few trains. I was glad to bring this back from the shadows because Daryl has wanted this for a long time. We're looking at the Riverfest Master Park plan and the ball fields. There's going to be a lot more activity down there. The timing seemed appropriate, especially to be able to honor Daryl through this before there's a chance that he might not be able to see it completed. So, it's nice to see that come to fruition after decades and decades of floating around as a concept.

All right. Anyone else? A motion to accept the bid with the contingency. I'll make a motion that we accept the bid for the Riverfest Park Monument sign with the contingency. Second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Lane, yes. Hana, yes. Patterson, yes. Macaran, yes. Daniels, yes. Motion carries. All right. Thank you, Darl, for your patience and diligence. Forgetting where I live.

You knew you lived in Minnesota. That's all you needed. So, is there a completion date for this? Yes, I I'm sorry I didn't include that. Um, so 60 days from the notice to proceed. Um, so we are I'm planning on issuing a notice to proceed on Monday or Tuesday. Um, our goal we are getting later in the year and so we're um we're trying to push this through before we get that winter weather. So um by the end of the year this should be in place. All right. Trying to see if I will ask this as long see it completed. I got a birthday coming up here in a couple of days. I'll be 89. So, wow.

Moving on in our agenda item E, receive presentation from Intervet for the Merc expansion project. So, good evening council members. Thank you for your time tonight. By way of introduction, my name is Dave Evans. I've met a few of you beforehand, so it's good to meet you all again. Um, going to spend a bit of time just talking about the expansion, but before I kick off, I just wanted to say how much Merc treasures our role in the community. We've been here for several decades. We intend to be here for many decades more. Um, in terms of backdrop, this expansion is the largest capital expansion any animal health company's undertaking in the world. It reflects both the confidence in Dotto, the facility, the confidence in Dysotto, the community, and also recognizes the suite of incentive packages that the city of Dotto plus the state of Kansas have offered us. So again, our thanks to you for being great members, and we, you know, we absolutely intend to be great part of the community for a long, long time. Um, I've only got three slides, but please feel free to interrupt at any point and excuse me. So slide two. So, this shouldn't be a surprise to anybody in the council, I guess. So, our existing facility. Um, my knowledge of American geography is terrible, but we're kind of over that way. Um, obviously, we have just short of 400 acres of the facility and we have around 280 personnel. Our expansion once approved and once completed, we intend to add probably a further 200 jobs to this facility. again highqualified, technically capable jobs that will be of value to the organization and to the uh Kansas area for a long time. We are currently in what we call FA2. So I'll forgive the acronyms that stands for front-end loading. And what that means is we've gone through our initial design phase. We're now starting to refine our engineering, starting to argue about how we're going to actually

build the plant, debating what sort of utilities we're going to use, how we're going to pipe them into the system, and starting to debate actually how we lay out the facility. And what that means is we have a better refined cost so that when we go back to our board next year, we have a closer and tighter view of our cost base. K kind of like your steamboat thing. Okay, so the important bits to remember, obviously our expansion acreage is going to be around 80 acres. So for people that are familiar with the facility, obviously at the moment we have a series of barns on the southwest of the facility. They're going to be moved northwards and that's where we're going to construct our new plant. And I guess the important bits about it is obviously it's a significant investment even for companies like Merc which have deep pockets. This is a big, you know, it's a big investment again reflecting our confidence in the area. The ability of Kansas to recruit good people and it was interesting to see the the tech STEM stuff earlier. I mean, I found that inspiring because they're the next wave of people that hopefully in a couple years time will be knocking on the door for jobs in that area. Um, obviously significant capital investment in construction. So, that means short-term construction jobs in the area and obviously long-term jobs running the facility. And then the other thing we should mention is that the way we've designed the facility is if we elect to do further expansion in the future, we've got expandability built in. So we would intend to head northwards. So at some point in the future, yeah, not in the next two or three years because that'll age me considerably. We'll be looking to expand further north. Um and then the other point I would mention is obviously at some point in the not too distant future, we'll be looking for permitting. So yeah, your support, your feedback on permitting will be great. Um, I'll pause there. Any questions before I kind of finish my final slide?

Questions? We're good. Thank you.

So, this is a very simplified view of what the future's going to look like. So, it's around 200 square 200,000 square feet of expansion. About 100,000 square feet will be dedicated to production. It'll be a brand new production facility over two stories. We'll have a new central utility plant, what we're calling the cub, and that's around 15 to 20,000 square ft, and then about an 80,000 square ft² warehouse, and those will all be interlin via what we're calling a spine. That's the bit that we said would expand northwards. Um, we've got some fairly detailed designs at the moment. They're going for review with our senior leadership team. So, yeah, there'll be flaws in our design, but we're quite confident about it at the moment. And what that does is also allows us to start contacting suppliers because some of the equipment is obviously specialized. Um it's customuilt and it's long lead time. So from placing an order to receiving the equipment is probably two years. So once we we finalize our design at least we can start sending out purchase orders. So that's kind of where we are at the moment. Um and then obviously we'll be looking to break ground sometime next year. So again, our thanks to you particularly around the incentives package. Merc does business as you're aware in a number of states and a number of locations and the history of the Dotto plant, the value that the community places in us plus the incentive package have made it really important and we're pleased to continue business here. So anything I can help with in terms of the current facility or a peak into the future.

All right, any questions? Thank you. Thank you so much. It's more painless than I thought. Thank Thank you guys. And hopefully we'll have a chance to talk to the council in the not too distant future as we progress as well. We'll be we'll be keen to keep you guys appraised. Look forward to it. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Next item tonight is consider issuance of city's general obligation or geo bonds to reallocate 2022 geo bonds to different projects and authorize projects. So we have a resolution 2077, resolution 2078 and resolution 079. Who's presenting? Yeah. Well, council maybe Patrick and I will be tag teaming this one. All right. You want to start, Patrick? Sure. And I know Kevin Wimpy is on uh on on the Zoom uh Goto meeting as well, correct? Yeah.

So, just in a nutshell, in 2022 um the council uh issued bonds for improvements of the water and sewer plants uh to accommodate Panasonic. And uh as we moved along in that project, those proceeds

Panasonic essentially uh paid those expenses and plan to get reimbursed uh through the tip district. So uh those proceeds uh from 2022 we need to reallocate um and then we're also uh issuing bonds for 2025. Um and the the list of projects was included in your pack materials. Um that's Mike if you want to comment on the project

just quickly. Sure. So um you know as Patrick said the list is here. These are uh well well the first resolution is kind of adopting this master CIP. Um uh this is not the CIP that we're currently working on. This is the CIP that's been in our budget discussions and we show the projections. Um, mostly the uh these projects are ones that have we've already committed to, right? These are we're not making a decision really to do these projects. We're making a decision on how exactly to fund these projects. That's kind of what what this is. So that none of these are any uh are any sort of new concepts in either expenditure amounts or the project or scope. They should all be relatively familiar. Um, so just on the list just quickly, um, a little under $13 million worth. I'll get this a little bigger. So the first one, 103rd Street in Lexington. Remember, uh, part of the Panasonic deal. We agreed to contribute $2 million to that to that project that was already actually we had already planned to spend to upgrade that section of road before KOT stepped in. City Hall project. Um we're nearing completion on well we're not as near to complete as we should want to be. Um $4.5 million there. The 83rd Street Railroad Bridge 4 million uh dollars there. That would that that would be the lease cost option that we're currently working with and the railroad 103rd Street uh waterline betterment. The title might here might be a little strange here, but when KOT was putting in was building the Lexington Avenue and and Street, they needed to relocate the city water line to expand the road. It was an 8 inch line and they gave us the option to expand that to a 12-in line, but we had to pay for the price difference in the cost. And this was the council approved that, you know, at the time. So, that was $400,000.

Uh 95th Street Bridge over Kill Creek to rehab that that bridge deck. Um uh falling apart there. $900,000. Waverly water tower. Um that's Joe could give us an update on that, but that's the replacement of the the blue tower off there off of Waverly. And then the Sunflower Road wreck trail that is almost almost complete. I think it's just real close substantially, I would say. Yeah. Yeah. So that's uh that's the list of projects and I'll stop. All right. Any questions over the list of projects.

Okay. So the first item then is to approve 2077 which is basically this list of projects. Right. Right. Any discussion of the resolution? It's just so I understand kind of the whole concept of what's going on. This is this mostly just an accounting exercise or is this a refinance?

It well it it's sort of both. So if you look maybe so uh initially we issued about $12 million in bonds to do uh upgrades and substantial improvements to our water and sewer plants before Panasonic came in. And so we've reallocated half of that essentially um already. and this is reallocating the other half of that. So that's the first kind of preuncttory thing that we're doing. Um the other the other side is um this is just approving this fiveyear CIP that we've had kind of laid out mostly complete

mostly complete. But I would say uh just as a reminder uh the extra bonding that we're that we're doing here has been in our projections for at least two years. You know, we've anticipated this the mill rate for the debt servicees rolled in already. Um so we've we've always shown this generally that this is actually a little bit smaller than we thought it was going to have to be. Um but but this is this is something that we've kind of already programmed into everything in the five-year projection. So it's largely recordeping getting it chewed up, but we we do need the cash. But you are refinance. We're refinancing. We're right. We're we've been funding the projects with cash on hand.

So we need to replenish this capital so that our five-year projection so we can do new project. Got it. Yeah, that was probably the answer. We need to do these one at a time or can we kind of as the recommendation says approve them as a batch? No, one at a time. One at a time. I'll make a motion to approve resolution 2077, approving the master capital improvement plan and authorizing new projects. Second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mcmaran, yes. Patterson, yes. Lane, yes. Michael, yes. Daniels.

Didn't quite hear you, Rob. Missed you. Maybe try again. Yes. Motion carries. All right. Resolution 2078 authorize reallocation of the 2022A general obligation bond proceeds. Any further dis in discussion or information needed on that resolution for anybody? Still all related to that same explanation,

right? Yeah, that's kind of what I was asking about the question of the all of them collectively. I'll make a motion to approve resolution 2078 authorizing reallocation of 2022- general obligation bond proceeds. Second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Lane, yes. Honichel, yes. Patterson, yes. Macbran, yes. Daniels, yes. Motion carries. All right. And so now I'll make a motion to approve resolution 2079 authorizing 2025- general obligation bond issuance. Second.

All right. Do we have a motion and a second? Any discussion? Roll call, please. Lane, yes. Honey, yes. Patterson, yes. Macaran, yes. Daniels, yes. Motion carries. All right. And one quick note, this is going to be where I need to jump off. All right. Okay. Thank you, Rob. See you, Rob. Thank you. Bye.

Okay. Item G, consider change order for city hall renovation project.

Thank you, mayor. Um, here we are again, council. Uh, the joys of renovating a 100 plus year old building. Um, what's brought before you tonight is a change order related to the concrete floors on the garden level, the second floor, and both the east and west stairwell that connect um all three stories of city hall. During design, SFS had specified a sealed concrete. Um, all of the concrete floors within city hall were covered in epoxy, paint, mastic. Um, at one point within the last 5 years, even as best as tile, um, the condition of those concrete floors was assumed to be in good shape due to the finishes that were applied not showing any any major signs of deterioration. Um during the demolition process, the contractor was to grind the floors down to their bare um state and prepare a test sample for owner and architect uh to review before proceeding with the entirety of the project. In doing so, um the concrete floors on the garden level were found to have some some oddities. the age of the concrete um really didn't present the finish that everybody was really hoping for. It it resembled um more like what you would see on a sidewalk or a driveway versus a a more polished appearance um within a finished building such as city hall. Uh the stairwells during their grinding and demolition process uh were found to have severe deterioration. A lot of this, every stair has a metal nosing piece on it. Uh, a number of those nosings were found to be cracked, um, loose, broken, um, in very, very poor shape. They've been ground multiple times in their life, and now they're very slick with no texture

to them at all. Uh, there's also a lot of concrete that as the epoxy was coming off, we discovered the epoxy was all that was holding it on. um chunks of concrete came off the the east stairwell is in much worse shape than the west stairwell. Um but they both do have their issues. Uh talked with the architect, talked with the contractor, tried to come up with a a cost-effective solution to give us a a finished product here in city hall that we can all all be proud of um to present to the community. um because the sealed concrete due to the age and the condition of the concrete just in our opinion was not going to provide that. It was going to look very unfinished and very unprofessional compared to the rest of the space. Um contractor worked with three flooring contractors to try to come up with the best option. Um what has been presented before you is to a change order to provide a level three polished concrete finish which is kind of like a satin to a semi- gloss type of finish um on the corridor floors. This is going to take that concrete that's there that um fill a lot of those major cracks um try to patch in um any depressions, things of that nature, and then polish it out to provide a nice uniform appearance. um similar to if you think um like a step above your garage floor where it's it's nice and smooth, has kind of a little bit of a sheen to it, but the concrete will actually be polished um after the fact as opposed to your concrete floor in your garage that's polished during the curing process. um in order to to address the stairwells. Um due to the amount of concrete patching that was going to be required um and those metal nosings that we discussed, there's there's really no contractor that felt comfortable trying

to rehabilitate or replace those concrete nosings um with something that would be visible in the finished state and felt comfort. Nobody felt comfortable doing that. and um providing a product that was up to the standards of the rest of the floor. So, what was what was determined was kind of a repair the concrete that's displaced, um repair those broken nosings to where they're not loose anymore, and then it would be a TR applied resinous flooring. um similar to an epoxy uh a little nicer appearance than uh like the flake applied epoxies that you see on garage floors or even in this corridor here. Um working with the architect and the contractor, the intent is to uh select a color in those stairwells that closely mimics those polished concrete floors to where they don't stand out um from the rest of the newly finished space. they really flow into the second floor and the garden level floors to provide a really cohesive look um while also limiting the cost um of work in those stairwells as well as the time uh spent in those stairwells. I think it's no secret that we are behind schedule on this project. Um that's largely due to the fact that the windows have been delayed multiple times. We're getting somewhere. Some of the windows are here. Some of them are supposed to be here next week. We're hoping that we'll have them all by next week and we can get the windows installed and move forward. I'm not holding my breath until they're all here um just due to the number of delays. That has allowed us a little bit of time to work with the general contractor on this flooring change order to come up with the most cost effective but also um the most in line with what was initially presented as part of the project in the hopes for this finished space. Um,

you'll remember that we approved a 10% contingency as part of this project. When it was approved, that total was $320,800. Um, almost all of that's been exhausted prior to this change order. With the approval of this change order, um, the total contingency spent would be $378,199.36. You'll see there I've provided a a accounting sheet uh showing where we stand on total costs on this project to date. That includes all design, all construction costs, contingency, um change orders, and uh procurement and installation of all the furniture and AV equipment as part of this project. The total there is 4,42,62412. Um that leaves a gap of roughly $97,400 up to that $4.5 million budgetary number that was included in the prior agenda item as part of the the CIP. Um what we're requesting is approval of an increased contingency budget to a total of $418,175.88 88 as well as approval of this change order that um will bring the total project cost up to that $4.5 million number. Um but with that increased contingency would allow us to continue forward as we have been under the city's purchasing policy where um if we get a change order for $800, $1,500, $3,000, it could be approved at the staff level um to keep the project moving forward. any change orders over that $10,000 threshold would have to come back to council for your guys's approval just as they have throughout the rest of this project. Um, so with that, I'll stand for any questions on the change order or the state of the project.

All right, questions for Cameron. I'll make a motion to approve an increase in the project contingency $418,758 and approve the city administrator to sign change order number 45 in the amount of $64,427. Second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mcmaran, yes. Patterson, yes. Lane, yes. Hamichel, yes. Motion carries.

All right. Thank you. Thank you, Cameron. Item H, consider donation request from the Johnson County NAACP.

Uh, yes, Mayor Council. Um, this we received a donation, actually Mayor Walker received a donation request from the NAACP for their annual freedom fund um celebration. Historically, this has been a banquet um that that they've put on. I know several members of the council and staff participated um in this in that banquet. Um they are changing it up and instead of it being um a banquet, they're doing a jazz concert. Um and so the uh the ask for uh the donation is a $2,000 um sponsorship. The funds do go to um scholarships for undergraduates and voter registration. Um and so with that, I'll stand for any questions. I would just add this is we've um at least during my time as mayor we've supported uh this annual event. Uh it's been I think about every year except perhaps co when it went away that we've been a sponsor of some sort of the

of the ball. I think they called it a ball at that time. It was a dinner and um I don't remember any dancing though. Me either. Yeah. I had a speaker, but I had a brief conversation with uh with the sponsor of this and yeah, they changed it up. They wanted to kind of liven it up a little bit instead of it being kind of a rubber chicken dip. Get some music in there. Um kind of keep the event moving.

So, um appreciate you to consider uh continuing our support for the uh NAACP of Johnson County. comments or questions from council. I think this level of sponsorship would also provide us four tickets to the event if someone was uh assuming we decide to sponsor. If someone was uh interested in going, that would be available as well.

I'll go ahead. I'll move to authorize a $2,000 scholarship for the Johnson County NAACP 60th annual Freedom Fund event. I'll second it. All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Lane, yes. Hon, yes. Patterson, yes. Macbran, yes. Motion carries. All right. Item H. No, we did item H. Item I consider ordinance 2667 annexing land near Star Road.

Yes, council. Uh the last meeting Dave Anderson uh presented to you as part of that presentation was uh pointing out that the alignment of Evening Star Road, this extension that they are um wanting to uh undertake uh needed to be moved uh off of the grounder's property and my store property um because of existing EverG pole alignment. So, um they are having to encroach onto the KU property to the east of the uh road. Um that required us annexing that small uh piece of ground which is roughly 60 feet wide by 2300 feet long. Um so the board of regents did approve that yesterday signing the consent form to have it annexed. So, um asking you to pass this ordinance to annex that so that we can present a benefit district petition at your first meeting in October.

Okay. Questions from council. So, we're annexing the the rightway. Have has it been dedicate has this easement been dedicated? They approved having it in the city, but have they also dedicated the easement? both by a separate action or their action at the board, their meeting granted the easement, right? In addition to consenting to Okay. And is there any concern about the definition of the right-of-way easement in terms of the uses? For example, could there be concern that util utility a private utility couldn't use that easement for installation?

Well, I it is right away. So it's not just easement, it's right. It's it's fe simple right away. Right. Okay. Exactly. Well, because the the exhibit calls it an easement. Exhibit calls it an easement. But the dedication from the regents is dedicating fe simple. Yes. Right away. Okay. Yeah. Okay. That's all I got.

Okay. Any other comments or questions from council? I make a motion to approve ordinance 2667 granting annexation for specific land to the city of Minnesota, Kansas pursuant to KSA 12-52A7 uh for the purposes of incorporating uh road rideway along Evening Star Road. Second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mayor Walker. Yes. Mcmaran. Yes. Patterson. Yes. Lane. Yes. Hunter Michael. Yes.

Motion carries. All right. I think that's through the alphabet. So, we'll go on to item five. We don't have an executive session, so we'll go to city administrators advisory report. Nothing this evening, mayor. Thank you. City attorney. Nothing for me. City engineer. The only item heavy construction looks to mobilize next week. All right. You see some action out there. But wait, don't you want to mention the ASHTTO award? Great award.

You can do that. Um, I don't even know if I can remember the exact specifics of it, but the improvements of 103rd in Lexington have been uh received a regional um award for merit of the project from Ashtto and it's going on to be considered for a national award. So it's great public private partnership, great collaboration between the city and KOT um as a as a progressive design build project. So a lot of really unique elements of it, but this is putting Dodto up at a national stage in terms of public improvements and the process by which it got accomplished. So really cool.

And for those of you that are not familiar with the acronym ASHTO, American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials, so it's the National Association of the DOS and their um membership. So departments of transportation. Let me on national stage. Um so thank you. That's it. All right. Brandon, assistant city administrator, have a report tonight? I have nothing. All right. Thank you. Council comments. Danny, anything for the group tonight? Nothing tonight, Mayor. Thank you. Victoria. Rhonda.

Tone. Rhonda. Victoria. Rhonda. I did have a question. So, and I apologize in advance if this is out there somewhere. Oh, sorry. take care of me. Um, but due to so much growth, um, I didn't know if there's an easy or um, better way to navigate just city terms, like a like a city terms 101. Um because just since my short time here, so many people just asking me um questions or defining and I just think maybe there could be something to clear up any confusion or um assumptions just even with like simple definitions and

like ashtto like ashtto because that's not what I thought maybe that might be. Yeah.

But just something with like definitions. Um, and then here's an example of that definition along with, you know, what that impact is going to have, whether it be negative or positive, you know, on the city. But just um you know tax abatement, RHID, the CID, mill levy, city versus county taxes, just just some basic 101 or even offer a course and then that leaves it up to, you know, the public or community to participate maybe twice a year or something to come in and just kind of go through what does this mean? And so if you have already done all this and it's there somewhere, I didn't find it.

Okay. Yeah. Well, it's it's um big part of what we do is communicating what we're doing to the people who are paying for it. Right. Right. Um and we have communications uh folks that work hard on that. Um so I like your brainstorm. I mean, you know, we're um that sort of think like a one source sort of thing where u but each topic tends to be different, right?

And people don't care to t, you know, they they don't tend to care about multiple different topic. They're interested in the subject. Uh so yeah, we we have uh um we've had efforts about the revenue neutral stuff with bill levy because you get those every year. So that's a decent example of an effort that we've had that's very spo uh focused specifically on something to you know to find these what the state law is and how it how it relates to boil it down. Uh but let us give us some thought. I'll talk to Whitney and Libby and and involve others and give that some thought. Does League municipality provide some resources for Well, yes, you know, they do a lot quite a lot of uh education.

Yeah. Elected for for for elected officials because there's a lot. But I'm not sure how much they do for general public down to the community level. Yeah. If you're having trouble, others are. Right. So I would mention in our economic development section of our city code, it defines each and every incentive that is available to be applied for and it gives a little explanation of each thing. Something starting point that we can get

just and it's not you know let the floodgates open and provide everything at once. you know, maybe, you know, the communications department does a great job of dissecting and pieceing, you know, things together, so it's not too overwhelming, but just thought it might be um yeah, something that you'll because you see out there, you know, people just throwing verbiage out there and it's like, well, that might not be the correct definition or that or this is the reason. Smack. Smack money is a good example. What does that mean? What is that? Smack money. Smack. Yeah.

And unless you're Mike and unless or Brandon and that's your job, it's really hard to I mean there's things we'll talk about two years later. I got to learn it all over again. There's just so much for and if you're not dealing with it on a regular basis to retain.

Okay. So, and then the other thing might be also like the process of um the planning, you know, that there's, you know, so many times we do hear that nobody knew about it until it came to city council where actually, you know, maybe it was talked about a month before before it went to planning commission. And I I think there's some communication about planning commission is this date, but I don't know that we see that as often as we do city council where some of some of that communication could um be addressed earlier on in that process even before it gets to city council.

Yeah. Um that's that's a a pretty common desire. You there's statutes you have to do this, you have to do that, but they're pretty minimal really and when you're advertising stuff on a you know newspapers that don't exist anymore, you know. Um there's it's a it's a tricky thing. You can have all this information on your website, but that doesn't that doesn't communicate, right? Having it available doesn't communicate. So, it's that's the trick. There's only so much you can put in the newsletter with utility bill. There's only so much you can expect people to be interested in. That's all, mayor. Thank you. And I will not I will not be here. I didn't enjoy where you are.

Thank you. I will Kevin, excuse me. Just a little announcement. I'll um be going on to the Kin City Area Development Council board as of October the 8th. So being on the full board, I'll clearly still be a uh be a Dotto representative and continuing to champion economic development initiatives at the regional level, but um advocating for DOT and for opportunities that arise. So I'm really looking forward to that. Is that a year-long appointment or four year appointment? Yeah, four year appointment. All right. So pretty excited. Yeah. Great. Congrats.

Um, so the discussion about publications brought something to mind and we have a reporter here tonight. You know, I I read recently the Johnson County Post is offering legal publication. So, I would ask that we would investigate uh the cost of replacing our legal record uh publication of our ordinances with the Johnson County Post uh to help support uh local reporting at our uh community. I think that's all I got. Make a motion to second. All right. All in favor say I. I. Post. All right.