Council - Regular Meeting

All right, we'll call the meeting to order.

Heather, if you'd take a roll, please.

Morgan Johnson, first ward. Lucas Stansbury, second ward.

Present.

John Lee, third ward.

Here.

Darrell Westhoff, fourth ward. Here. We have a quorum, Mr. Mayor.

All right. May everybody please rise for invocation and pledge allegiance.

Keep our heads.

I'm going to ask you to do this tonight to make the right decision for the city. Amen.

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.

All right, can I have a motion to the acceptance of the agenda?

Mayor, make a motion that we accept the agenda as presented. I second the motion.

Okay, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Okay, motion passed. Can I have a motion to accept the consent agenda?

Mr. Mayor, make a motion we accept the consent agenda as presented. Second.

all in favor aye aye opposed okay motion passed moving by a public forum didn't look like it though okay all right so now we'll start regular business item a holly powers with midwest provide a project update it's been a while since you've seen me i've seen you guys but uh contractor officially started today they got 200 some pipe in up on uh

carbon in Northern and your first fire hydrant is in. So I was just coming tonight to see if you guys had any questions about work progress. You had a pay application two weeks ago. I was gone on vacation, so I wasn't able to attend the meeting when you guys had that done, but it was for stored materials. The contractor is like 890 some thousand for stored materials. They'll have a fairly decent size pay application. You guys, this next council meeting for more stored materials Right now they've got $2.2 million in stored materials that they've paid for and they've submitted to us. But that'll be almost done with all the stored materials that they'll have for the project. So we'll have a pretty big payment on that. And then the payments will get worked on work basis. Now, as they work, they've already paid for materials. So then you'll deduct materials out of that bid item as they work. So we won't have huge million dollar pay applications every month. They'll be a little bit smaller because we're not paying for the materials ahead of time. But I just want to know, do you guys have any questions, concerns, thoughts? anything we can do for you at this point or anything like that.

So, so far so good.

I think so. I mean, I'm in constant communication with my inspector, Kevin, out here. He's been up here off and on for two weeks. You know, we had a little bit of a thought we were going to start a couple weeks ago, got the material in, found out that the pipe that they got delivered, and it was the manufacturer that they got it from, the pipe has to be made in the United States. It was not. It was coming from India, Canada.

I don't know about that.

yeah so we had a you know backtrack on that um but everything else is checked out we did ais certificates we inspected all their stored materials everything else um is according to usda's rules and regulations so there's nothing else that has been sent back or we've had to reject so what was it you said they were carbon and where uh northern northern yep they're basically that's the first sheet of the plan and they're just kind of working on sheet we named c1 c2 c3 They're just starting up at C1 and just working their way down. So we organize when we put it out to bid. We had our five areas. Area one was our priority forest area. So they're basically starting priority priority area one first and then working their way down. So.

So I saw the inspector on North 7, well, on Midwest, and they're digging on both sides. Is that, so KDOT, that project got delayed? Or what was, I know it's maybe not related, but what are they doing there? Is that?

We're having to do a tie-in to meet KDOT's project up there. But Jackie could probably tell you a little bit more because I don't know what the other contractor, which I think is Riddell.

Riddell's up there working right now. We have about 1,800 contractors. foot line that's being replaced as part of that K7 rebuild. As soon as they get the northern part of it done, and then they're going to kind of do this next half, and it has to be moved for that.

That's why we moved all the poles, too. Why we moved all the poles, too.

Maybe one more week and they'll be done. See, we service three houses out of the city limit. And those three houses have a two-inch line. They want to move back to the back of the easement, so that's what we're doing on the right. So that's what the delts do.

And that's different from this project? Yeah.

We're going to meet up to you, but we do not go past the city limits. So then Raydale takes everything from the city limits out to your out-of-town customers.

Okay, so the Midwest truck I saw was probably the engineer looking at, because he was in city limits. He was just looking at the connection point.

Yeah, they did the road bore, I think, just to have it prepared so when we got up there, we could do that.

That's a reimbursement project from K-9. We got our money back from what we put in there.

And what about the drainage, Jackie? Is that like they said that was postponed?

I can talk a little bit more about that. So on that corner, we have this project. We have the KDOT Transportation Alternatives Project, which is Sidewalk Project, and that's Earl's. We have the KDOT Clip Project, which is also Earl's. And we have the KDOT Relocation Project, which Jackie is heading himself. we're trying to coordinate all four of those projects we had everybody on site at one point in time i don't remember when that was it was last year sometime and said hey we have a drainage issue here with your projects we want the drainage addressed and what did they decide weren't they going to put a big huge whistle underneath in that part

that and just grade it out they said it could have been graded properly it wouldn't have had a problem so they said that fell within the funding for the project so they were going to include it for the clip project i think they're going to take that bump out or whatever it is the drainage issues right there on the back side i think some of them were designed for that But I haven't seen what they came up with. Earl has been working on that. I'll see one of them tomorrow. Peter, I guess he's coming, right?

Yeah.

I'll see him tomorrow. I'll ask.

So now, Holly, they plan on being in town every day now until non-work days, which is, is it weekends?

Yeah, basically just weekends right now. Okay. Yeah, unless they decide to change it. If they want to work weekends, they have to ask permission. We have to coordinate with you guys because that means we have to bring inspectors in or something like that. So they can work Monday through Friday, basically from their regular work day. Weekends or holidays, they have to get prior permission to work. Okay.

And then just since I'm not too familiar with the whole process, do they leave equipment in yards and stuff or how do they do that?

They usually do. Like I went by, they've got their excavator still sitting in the ditch where they ended. We won't leave it in the private yard or we won't leave it in people's driveways. So if there's not a good place in the ditch or if it's impeding, you know, we don't let them leave it on the side of the road either. It can't impede traffic. Then we'll make a move in. But. went down and checked it and they've got it in the ditch right where because they're trenching it with their excavator their smaller excavator right now so they don't like to move it and especially as what is it is you move it off and on you're getting mud on the roads and stuff like that which

Yeah.

We're going to have them. So I'm sure at some point address some mud on the road too. So we'll, you know, make sure that we get that cleaned up and try to get sweeped off. And, but so far what they did, uh, today, like I said, I went up there before I came here, they've cleaned up, they're keeping things nice and tidy where it should be. So I don't, um, have too many concerns right now, but it's only day one.

So, well, and that's reasonable. And if it stays consistent, then citizens will know it's going to probably be that way. Just moving South. I'm assuming. Yep. So, okay.

But I don't really have any concerns with them. I mean, all the paperwork's in. We're doing pay applications correctly. They got all the AIS certificates. We've been putting disbursements through USDA. They've been approving them. So I feel up until this point, besides a few little material

you know um mistakes that we've had on getting the right materials on site i mean really we haven't had too many uh bumps in the road for it so and at some point you'll come back and we'll discuss options i mean i can't remember which one we approved but there's like a b and c because we have found some pvc in the ground that we where we thought we were going to have to replace and have it which we can take all that money and put into the

plant refurbishment but i know we had and eric will definitely have an opinion on that when the time comes right i would like to get 50 through the project and then that will kind of give us tell us where we're at money wise to make sure how many surprises that we could be coming up with once we hit the 50 point then i say we start talking hey because you do have about right now There's like a little over half a million dollars still sitting earmarked for the waterline project That's not counting what's left for the water treatment It's still earmarked for the waterline so that we could start discussing because I know at the west end of town That Lupin and tying into the West water tower That was two options that we decided not to put on the change where they said we would like to come back and revisit Once we get a little bit further down the road and we know where the money's gonna settle at So we think that'll be nine months since it's an eight month.

I

Yeah, and we could do a little bit sooner. Let's just let's just get this. Let's just get to fall early winter and see how we're doing with them. And, you know, if we're staying on track, money's going good. We're not finding a lot of surprises. I'll feel really, really comfortable start having those conversations. If we start getting into pipe and we're finding lots of different materials that pipe out there and we're starting to have to add it in because we thought it was PVC and we're finding out it's ductile iron or something. We're having to start replacing stuff we weren't planning. That's a whole different situation. So But doing the change order is not a big deal. We could do the change order pretty quickly It's not like a six month process or anything Okay, so it's you know doing a change or 30 days tops by the time we get it approved through rule development And that's all that's all waterline city side.

You're saying. Yeah, that brings up a good point. What about on? the citizen side if we have to connect or do something different there and

So if we are touching the water meter and happen to reconnect it, we are investigating that. And if it was a service line that needed to be replaced, we are replacing it. The plans we set up to five to three feet from the house. We are replacing that. That does not get all of your meters. That does not get all your service line because we're not relocating or reconnecting all of the meters in town. We're hitting about 56% of the meters and reconnect them in town. So that means you guys and we kind of had those discussions a couple of months ago. You know, one of the things that you guys could do with the extra half million instead of putting in a water line, you could focus on replacing some of those other service lines that we're not touching that are copper and lead and need to get out of the ground. but again, that's something I think we thought, well, let's just get the project started, and then we could come back and revisit that. I think we gave you guys an estimate at that time, and to replace what we were kind of estimating to replace the rest of the meters we're not touching with this project, it would be somewhere between a $500,000 and $600,000 bill to do that. But yeah, at some point you guys are going to have to address those. But I know Jackie's been keeping up with KDHE on that, and I think he told me. 7% has to be replaced a year.

When we did our lead and copper survey, the people who did not respond, it automatically said lead. It defaults to lead. So we have to replace 70% of those that we don't know, or we have to pot hole, or we have to answer questions.

So we told Jackie, if we're working on it, uh we will track that and we're in the area uh we set up the gis i just set it up for kevin today that we can track some of that for you guys and help you out on that so if we do run into hey you guys need to replace this we can at least build it in your gis system i can quickly print you guys a report it'll have address meter number what the material is and then you guys can have a list as we're doing our project saying okay here are the ones that you know We have identified, we verified they need to come out of the ground or they're okay to stay. So we can help you out as long as we're in the field doing this project too. We can help you guys out a little bit there since we got the GIS going in, you know, we're working with the homeowners and stuff. So, okay. awesome thank you okay i will be here this week inspecting because kevin's taking a few days off for vacation so if you guys have any questions um i'll be out in the field definitely tuesday and wednesday all day hit me up out there give me a call ask eric ask jackie but i'll be around for a couple of days okay all right okay thank you all right thank you guys appreciate it thank you i'll talk to you guys in the morning okay all right move on to item b fire department update

Meeting Mayor, Council. So this is our second quarter annual. You guys should have received that in your inboxes, our report for our second quarter. Just kind of go over a little bit overview of it. The overview, we talk about the fire department suppression, emergency services. Again, like you guys know, we are staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, combination department. During this last quarter, we've added four new firemen to our ranks, our roster. One of them just yesterday finalized his EMT, passed his national EMT, so he brought him on the board. So working on his fire one and finishing it up right now. With the overview and strengths of our staffing improves our response capabilities to help ensure continuous providing dependable service to the citizens here in Girard. Our emergency response this quarter was down. This last quarter we ran 91 calls the last three months compared to last year, which was about 94 we had. So it was a little bit slightly, just a little bit reduced in calls, but overall volume-wise compared to last year, we are up. on calls. We ran, last year, 193. As of today, we ran 217. So just a little bit up on our calls for demanding the services in Grove. We talk about the EMS. So this last quarter, we met with our new EMS director in the county. Had a really good visit with him coordinating. Part of it is working with our EMS coordinating director with training. We're gonna do a little bit more hands-on for our EMTs. So they're going to be bringing some mannequins and things over for our guys, dedicating some time, setting up training opportunities for our EMTs. So we'll come in, we'll practice hands-on more skills. That way, like they say, the less you use it, you lose your skills. So keeping up on our skills and stuff, doing innovations and different type of cardiac stuff. With that collaboration, we also EMT is additional hands-on. We talked about that and also continuing education. They're offering that to keep up on our hours too as well. So working with Drew and Michael. Michael Burdett is our new Crawford County EMS director. So it's going in a really good direction. So working with all the local fire department agencies on that. We'll talk a little bit about the grants opportunities. As you guys know, the CDBG grant, we are in the final process of finalizing that. We're starting to acquire gear, so we're getting boots. We got all the Flashlights, gloves, Nomex is in. So now we've got half of our boots, and so we're waiting on the other portion of just the gear itself. So we're in the final stages of getting that all in. Once that gets in, we have to do an inventory of it, make sure we've received it all, and then we'll start issuing it out to individuals on that as well. through that grant. Also this year, the last quarter we applied for the Gary Cease Foundation for that Zoles monitor, still working on that, trying to obtain one for our department. Our guys are pretty well trained on that with the EMS side of it. When they're in the back of the ambulance, that's what Crawford County uses, the Zole X. So they're getting used to a little bit of training with our current EMS providers in the back of the ambulance and trying to work on a couple of grants and trying to obtain one for our organization as well. The Polaris UTV donation grant, I applied for Polaris out of Washington. Every other quarter, they do a donation type system for area agencies. I applied one for our department to kind of help out, utilize with some of the special events. We can utilize it for EMS, transporting water, medical services. Some of them have cots built in the back of them. You can utilize for different type of agencies, football standbys and things like that. Waiting here back out on that support for that on the UTV on that. So training continues to be one of our highest priorities within the organization. This last, we ran our numbers today. I called Tyler Texas, which they helped us walk this through our reporting system that we have. So we logged just a little over 200 hours in the training this last quarter. So as you guys probably see in your drop boxes, it's a breakdown of the training through those different areas on hands-on, which, you know, 206 hours. We continue, you know, Saturdays, every third Thursday, we do training with wives. We get together, and then the guys dedicate one Saturday for some all-day, eight-hour training. So, you know, that hands on this last Saturday, we had a live burn, which we had a local or I say local Independence Fire Department, Kansas come. They had sent four individuals over there to go through our live fire training, which was a very good turnout. We had a good opportunity to work with them in different situations. And also they had some members on that department have never been in this type of environment. So getting that first hands on view of live fire training as well was was great opportunity for them. Upcoming training, we did get the final go ahead. We did secure October 24th and 25th. We are hosting a regional school, Kansas State Firefighters Association. So in October at the end of it, we'll be hosting a regional school here again in Girard this next year. Given this, you know, the opportunity for training and educational programs, the area department's here as well. So getting back on that roster, working with that. Our training grounds, we're kind of still working on. We're gonna be doing some more renovations to it here. We're gonna make it a little bit better for a rollover type situation for fire and building it inside. So I'm still working with Jake's Fireworks They said after we get through the holidays and stuff, they're going to look in to see what we can do to continue maybe getting a couple more conics boxes, start maybe even build up on top of it, making a second story, or replacing the burn mary box, which we've used quite a bit over the time. We're going to make some changes. Also, we'll be changing the doorways in the system and also the windows in that box out there for our training operations. For the future on our apparatus, like you guys probably know, we're still in the process of changing or replacing Engine 3. That's a 1994 Pierce. It still runs great. It's got 36,000 miles only on it for a 94, but still, over time, it needs to be replaced, especially with that tank it has inside of it. We're working with our guys within the department. We've finalized our specs on our new truck. So we're gonna be going with a Pierce. Those specs have been finalized, all done. So, but we plan on utilizing the CDBG grant. We won't be able to utilize it this next year. I believe the city's gonna utilize it on some type of projects themselves. So hopefully in 2028, we can utilize that on the larger grant side of it. to where on the CDB, on the larger side purchases, instead of like this small one we're doing for the gear for 10%, that requires 20% down for that. So we're hopefully going to utilize that grant, but our truck specs are all done and getting it ready to utilize our goals of combining the funds. Part of that using the public safety tax to kind of minimize, you know, the spending that we need to on our local taxpayers and ensure firefighters have our safety and reliable equipment that we need. Um, in closing again, it's been a pretty good quarter. Um, like I said, um, with all that's going on, the training-wise, bringing new personnel so that the organization's growing. Calls are a little bit up. So hopefully just continue to strive and improve as we go on. But in closing, I'd like to, you know, thank you for giving me that opportunity to give you this report. And if you guys have any questions, I'd be glad to answer them.

Thank you.

You bet. Council, thank you.

Mayor, thank you. Appreciate it. Have a good evening.

Thank you. Thank you.

All right, move on to item C. Excuse me. Executive session for contractual discuss negotiating telecommunications and surveillance equipment.

Mr. Mayor, I move that we go into executive session to discuss contractual negotiations. Man, my goodness. Double communications and surveillance agreement. 15-minute session to include mayor, council, state attorney, state administrator, state clerk, and police chief.

Second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Okay. Let's get that spit out.

I might need glasses.

right call the meeting back to order move on to item d executive session for contractional discuss easement negotiation mr mayor make motion to go into executive session for contractual to discuss easement negotiations recommend a 10-minute session including mayor city council city attorney city administrator and the public works director second all in favor aye opposed okay much passed

I don't even know how they got so many lines in the same space. I mean, it's like five different companies working their work. A couple of them were good, a couple of them were... I like my names, but it was a nightmare. I'm just worried.

Mr. Mayor, I'd just like to thank all the state employees.

day in, day out, the jobs that they do. Also wanted to just remind everybody about what Holly said tonight and how she was saying the water project has started. There is trenches being dug. It's actually close to where I live, north of town. And there's a lot of heavy equipment, a lot of people in the streets. So I know it's going to get even more busy. Be mindful of all the signs up. They do have signs that say road closed or utility work ahead. And it is going to be messy, but like she said, they're going to try to keep on top of that. If there is any concerns, make sure we reach out to the appropriate departments or notify somebody if there is a concern. The weather's getting hotter. The pool... We have facilities like the pool, the skate park, the Frisbee golf, and the golf course. So remember to visit those if you can as a citizen, whatever your favorite activity is. Other than that, Mr. Mayor, that's all I have. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. John? I got a question. How late can you shoot off the fireworks? Until 10 p.m. 10?

Is it 11 on the weekend or is that just on the 4th? 3rd and 4th midnight.

OK. Because there's going to be a lot of fireworks going off. And everybody needs to be careful. Please do it within the law. Don't want to start no fires and. Definitely don't want the police at your house. Fireworks too late, you know? That's all I got.

All right, thanks, Darrell.

I just want to tell everybody to have a safe and happy holiday, and that's all I have.

All right, thanks. All right, so I have one thing here. We got the new website up and running. There's still some glitches.

Glitches, I don't know if that's the right word.

Tweaks. We're going to do, we're in the process of adding in where you can order online and stuff at the golf course. We're still working on that. And hopefully that'll be up in the next couple weeks. And you can also order if you're out golfing and then come pick it up. That is it. Can I have a motion to adjourn? Second motion. Got to have one first.

Make a motion to adjourn. There you go.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye. Opposed? Okay, motion passed. Sounds like something I would do.