City Commission - Regular Meeting

2:23 – 2:34•SASusan E. Adamchak

Good evening, it is now six o'clock. Welcome to the October 6th, 2026 meeting of the Manhattan City Commission. Chelsea, will you please call the roll?

2:49 – 5:13•SASusan E. Adamchak

Thank you. Will you please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance? Thank you. We have several proclamations this evening. We will start with Library Savings Day. If representatives from the library will come forward, please. Whereas the Manhattan public library serves as a vital community hub, providing free access to educational resources, digital media, literary programs, and lifelong learning opportunities for all residents. And since 2017, the Manhattan public library has printed estimated year to date savings on checkout receipts, to transparently demonstrate the direct financial va

6:46 – 10:10•SASusan E. Adamchak

Okay, just want to humble brag, your mayor had over $26,000 worth of savings in the last nine years. Me too. There was a teacher in our community who was at $106,000, one person, over the eight and a half, nine years that this has been recorded. Pretty amazing. I suspect that at least one commissioner is pretty up there as well. Moving on to a slightly more serious topic, we will talk about domestic violence in our community. And I'm joined by Brandon Peebles and Tyshelle Jones, who are from the Manhattan Crisis. Domestic violence is a widespread public health problem impacting all demographic

13:37 – 14:22•SASusan E. Adamchak

I'm sure you'll all agree it's a shame we are dealing with these issues in our community. We are very lucky to have resources such as the Crisis Center. Okay, now we are moving on to physician assistants. Is there anyone here? Thank you. So Michael Troush, principal faculty, and Christine Haslett, clinic director, Chloe Whalen, class president of 2026, and another person who's not here yet.

14:28 – 16:14•SASusan E. Adamchak

Welcome. Whereas quality, cost-effective, and accessible patient-centered healthcare provided by physician assistants contributes to the well-being and quality life of all patients in Manhattan, Kansas. And whereas PAs are academically and clinically prepared medical professionals who diagnose illness, develop and manage treatment plans, and often serve as a patient's principal healthcare provider, And PAs are often the first point of contact for many patients and play a vital role in helping them to understand their medical needs and empower them to become effective advocates for their own he

19:10 – 21:12•SASusan E. Adamchak

Good evening. We have one more. Whereas the annual distribution of buddy poppies by the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States have been officially recognized and endorsed by government leaders since 1922, and whereas VFW poppy Buddy Poppies are assembled by disabled veterans and the proceeds of this worthy fundraising campaign are used exclusively for the benefit of disabled and needy veterans and the widows and orphans of deceased veterans. And the basic purpose of the annual distribution of Buddy Poppies by the VFW is eloquently reflected in the desire to honor the dead by helping th

23:20•SASusan E. Adamchak

Thank you. We will now take public comment. Is there anyone who would like to make remarks on an item not on tonight's agenda?

23:55•SASusan E. Adamchak

Is there anyone who would like to make any comment on any item not on the consent or general agenda?

27:06 – 27:28•SASusan E. Adamchak

Thank you. Please sign in, Gary. Is there anyone else who would like to make a comment? All right. Seeing no one approach, we will close public comment. Commissioners? What have you to say today?

27:59 – 28:27•LFLarry Fox

Well, I wasn't going to say anything, but I guess I'd have to say in response to Mr. Old's comment that it is my understanding that this sales tax is a pay-as-you-go, that we will complete projects as we collect the money, and that they will not be bonded and paid for with debt payments. So that is my understanding of that. what we are asking the public to improve.

28:31 – 28:56•KMKaren McCulloh

Karen, just like to say there's a lot going on at the discovery center and the zoo go online and look at all the possibilities. I won't list them and a shout out. The mayor asked me to cut the ribbon at Dylan's east last week, and they have done a lot of renovation and Dylan's has been a very good city partner. They are always, you know, when you hear of them, somebody standing in front of a grocery store, it's almost always Dylan's east and west. So thank you.

28:59 – 31:12•SASusan E. Adamchak

I would like to acknowledge that I attended a ribbon-cutting today for the Manhattan Free Clinic. They have recently relocated to newer, much larger premises. They are now at the medical complex at the corner of College and Claflin in Building A, ground floor, still providing the same services with innumerable hours provided by local volunteers and medical staff. I learned today that there is a physician who comes every two weeks from Kansas City to serve at this clinic. So appreciation to them. Congratulations to Black Entrepreneurs of the Flint Hills. They've received a $100,000 Heritage Tru

31:36 – 31:52•SASusan E. Adamchak

May I ask, are these questions of, do you have relatively simple questions to pose to staff that can be easily resolved before we pull all of these items?

31:55•JMJim Morrison

In my opinion, minor one-line answers, generally. Would you care to pose them to staff?

32:11 – 32:40•JMJim Morrison

It will be reasonably short. Do you want to do it now? My question is, with 4th Street being the primary conduit through downtown, why are we closing 4th Street and not doing it somewhere else? I'm a bacon lover. I'll probably be there first in line and probably be the last in line, but why are we closing 4th Street, which is a major exit off of 177? How and why did that happen?

35:30 – 35:44•JMJim Morrison

Well. Again, this is the first time I've seen us do street closings, and I just wanted to know if there was a procedure and a protocol that somebody made a decision, which I assume they did. I just wanted to have an explanation.

36:07•JMJim Morrison

So does the city have expense to do this, installing the barricades and patrolling them extra, or is that something the sponsor does?

36:34•SASusan E. Adamchak

Commissioner, does that resolve that question? Can we leave that on the onset? Okay, and your second item was which?

36:50•JMJim Morrison

I see it's for professional services. Correct. I would assume for stormwater and drainage.

37:02 – 37:13•JMJim Morrison

So it's not part of the agreement with the university to do design work for... storm sewer and that. It's not part of that project.

37:21•JMJim Morrison

I guess if we can't get it out of 4th Street, we can't do the rest of it, can we?

37:33 – 37:53•SASusan E. Adamchak

Anything else, Commissioner? If I can just add, this is also being undertaken now in advance of the planned work by KDOT in 2030. Correct. So it is to make sure that we have appropriate connections with the infrastructure that KDOT will be installing along Sutter Creek Boulevard.

38:37•JMJim Morrison

Just wanted to know if it was part of or part of our responsibility. The university said no, and I understand.

38:52•SASusan E. Adamchak

I think so for you. Okay, thank you. Commissioners Larry and, sorry, Commissioner Fox and Commissioner McCullough are any...

39:14 – 39:56•JMJim Morrison

I want to discuss the second installment of that. First and third are okay with me. I just authorized staff to submit a nomination for the sections house to the state and national registry. Mayor and commissioners I recommend we pull item G and we'll discuss that's fine with me I mean but my objection is not to the first part about doing the cemetery application nor the last one about commencing the legal work but if you want to pull it that's fine with me yeah okay all right thank you McCullough do you yeah danielle could you please just address the

39:57 – 40:16•KMKaren McCulloh

Final plat of MoD Brothers. I've had a number of people ask me, is this a new district, the OEN, and why didn't it go to the planning board? Just basically information for the public. Yeah, absolutely. Because they saw the house on Zillow already, and it's not even flattened yet.

40:57 – 41:12•SASusan E. Adamchak

to approve Thank you All right last one is pertains to edge 3.0 Larry did you pull this one?

41:12•KMKaren McCulloh

I did I'd like to pull this one and talk about it after we approve the consent agenda. I want to explain my vote. I

43:39 – 44:06•SASusan E. Adamchak

Manager Doolin, I know Ben Shmuel talked a little bit about this during our work session, not this property specifically, but what can and cannot be done prior to an area being designated as a historic district. Are we precluded from moving ahead with this replat since it has not yet been designated, or

44:36•SASusan E. Adamchak

Is there anyone else who would like to make comments on the consent agenda excluding item E2 or G1?

44:45•KMKaren McCulloh

I move we accept this consent agenda, except for those two items.

44:52•SASusan E. Adamchak

Second. Chelsea, thank you. Will you call the roll, please?

45:15•SASusan E. Adamchak

Thank you. looking at item E2. Karen, would you like to raise your comments, please?

45:23 – 49:56•KMKaren McCulloh

I have lost so much sleep over this. This is the 250th anniversary of the founding of America. And one of the tenets was no taxation without representation. And about a century before that, a philosopher named James Locke wrote a treatise he's called The Social Contract. And basically it said, the king can tax us as long as the king takes care of us. And so that's what we have at the city level, the state level, et cetera. Basically, we tell people we will charge them property tax, sales tax, franchise taxes, which are probably gonna go up $100 per household this year, and in return, the city

50:03•KMKaren McCulloh

Yeah, I just want people to know my vote's going to be no.

50:10 – 51:09•LFLarry Fox

So I would just comment that every commercial development of every kind that's ever been done in this city is a risk. Developers take on risks. and most of them, certainly not all of them, but most of them have been successful to date. Certainly downtown was successful. That was a Starbond project that has now been paid off. Others are ahead of schedule. We live and die by the university, and I think we need to be supporting it in any way we can. you know, want to see it more of a partnership kind of thing and not just us handing out, not just money flowing in one direction, but I think this i

51:10 – 51:22•KMKaren McCulloh

And I agree, but I also think we should tabulate up how much we have already spent on this. We brought a new gas line in that was $5 million. We could improve Kimball, but obviously not enough.

51:24•SASusan E. Adamchak

I think that was referring to work that has already been done. Yeah, it's already been done. There is no work being done on Kimball.

51:33•KMKaren McCulloh

It's a way to pay back what we put into it. I know that, but somehow that doesn't seem...

52:08 – 54:14•SASusan E. Adamchak

I think we're pretty far down this path. I would like to see us vote to set the public hearing so that we can continue this discussion as we have been proceeding. I am aware, I'm sure some of you are as well with your briefings with the city manager, that discussions are ongoing with the foundation in terms of what benchmarks will be included in any agreement to ensure that certain targets are being met and that what has been promised will be executed. So those discussions are ongoing. We're looking at setting a hearing date, which is five weeks from now, six weeks from now. Those discussions,

54:15 – 55:28•KMKaren McCulloh

I would just like to add, you know, 15 years ago we were told that all these people were going to move here from Plum Island and there would be all these ancillary companies and things that would come. But I think a lot has changed. For one thing, we didn't have Zoom in 2010 or whatever. We didn't have companies that didn't need to relocate to be allied with activities and research. I just, you know, I feel like I am really responsible for taxes and what I ask the public to do with their tax dollars. And I don't like speculation at this level. Yes, we have speculated in other things. We've als

55:29 – 57:05•LFLarry Fox

So I would just point out to your concern, Karen, that there's a lot of private property going to be within this development that is going to be taxed from inception. all of the private property, the hotel, the restaurants, the condominiums are going to be taxed. Those owners are going to pay property tax. It's what happens to that property tax that's the question. And the question there is just what percentage comes back to the developer, what percentage comes to the city of Manhattan to help us recover some of the costs we've already put in it. On top of that, the special sales tax what is n

57:05 – 57:50•KMKaren McCulloh

No, I think we need to look at it, and I agree. But I also think we've invested millions in downtown and Aggieville. rightly so, and to disperse the restaurants and that kind of thing away from those two areas. I mean, we still haven't seen anything going in at the Commerce Bank building, and that was supposed to be a fancy restaurant. I want some assurances, and I really appreciate your negotiating with the foundation for better terms, and I think that will ease my concerns somewhat, but that's where I am.

57:50 – 59:18•SASusan E. Adamchak

Karen, I disagree with you. I don't think that creating another node of commercial entertainment activity on the north side of town is necessarily a bad thing. We've talked previously The restaurants that have been discussed, at least some of them, will probably be locally owned. We are aware that conversations have been held with some of our restaurateurs. A hotel is a hotel. That's up to whoever is throwing a wedding, what decision they make about where they're going to put their guests. don't completely, I don't have the same bleak picture that you do about people not coming to Manhattan to

59:19 – 59:57•KMKaren McCulloh

No, but the lack of accreditation even in the Pat Roberts lab at a level three. I mean, we were promised this when we, and the city did a lot. And one more thing, the city university fund was supposed to be sales tax from the campus that worked in a committee with the university to set up established works and that kind of thing that would benefit both. And now I see the city university fund is supposed to be worth a million dollars. And is it just our staff that meet with the president of K-State? What happened to the input from the public and from the faculty and that kind of thing?

59:58 – 1:00:39•SASusan E. Adamchak

If you remember in 2024, President Linton visited us here in this chamber. And I said the same thing. And asked to disband that committee. That was not a decision that we made. It was at his request. Our staff does meet regularly with representatives of the university. Whether faculty and students have input into that, I do not know. Promises get broken, but I don't think we can base all of our decisions on past, on... Transgressions. Thank you, good work.

1:00:41 – 1:02:53•JMJim Morrison

My observation is our community is not a manufacturing company community. We have a lot of small businesses that are critical to our community. But our primary industry in this town is the university. I'm not eager about this project, but I think we need to go ahead and set it up for hearing. And I would expect that if we don't have the agreement drafted at least weeks before the hearing in November or whenever it is, I'm gonna be either moving that we delay it to December, January, or whatever year it takes to get that agreement between the foundation and the city. Our staff needs to be able

1:03:43 – 1:04:31•JMJim Morrison

with that comment and be prepared for me to move to delay it if it isn't here timely, and I say timely, minimum two weeks. Because if it's like some of the other stuff we get and there's 50 or 100 pages of stuff, of technical stuff, I'm not gonna kill myself to do it in a week or four days. So be prepared to either be a no vote or a continue vote for a hearing more reasonable if we don't have it. I won't try to make an amendment now but I think we need to set the hearings and if they run into a deadline they may have to ask for a continuance or the staff if they feel like they haven't gotten i

1:04:32 – 1:05:18•KMKaren McCulloh

But I would echo Commissioner Morrison because we need to know what's going on ahead of time. I did not get today's agenda till yesterday. Now, I was told I could have gone on the web page or something, but I called Chelsea and she said, I'll drop it in her box immediately. It's a quote. So all weekend I was looking and Even Friday afternoon is pretty late you know for me to call people and ask people and that kind of thing Hackett is made available to commissioners on Thursday afternoon we'll have to take a look at why you weren't able to access it commissioner I never get anything till Frida

1:05:19 – 1:05:42•JMJim Morrison

and I'm not competent on the computer and print it so I beg being a newbie and ask staff to print it for me so I can pick it up because I am slow and it takes me a long time to go through some of the stuff. And they've been very accommodating, Chelsea and Lauren have been very exceptional and I did take them cookies once just to make sure I had privilege.

1:05:43•KMKaren McCulloh

Well I think Chelsea and Lauren are wonderful. I don't mean to criticize people but I'm sorry. I'll go check my email commissioners.

1:05:51 – 1:06:40•SASusan E. Adamchak

May I open this for public comment? Is there anyone who would like to make comment on the this item Which is item e to? Accepting the community improvement district petition for additional 1% retail on retail sales at Kansas State University approved resolution one zero zero two six 626B, setting a public hearing for the CID resolution 100626C, setting a public hearing for the tax increment finance district and redevelopment plan and resolution 100626D for setting a public hearing for the star redevelopment plan. Public comment from anyone?

1:06:45•SASusan E. Adamchak

No, I just was reading it all out to let people know what we're talking about. If no one is approaching, we will close public comment. Commissioners, do we have a motion on this item?

1:06:56 – 1:07:18•LFLarry Fox

So I would move that we approve resolution number 100626B, setting a public hearing for the CID, and resolution number 100626C, setting a public hearing for the tax increment financing redevelopment plan. And resolution number 10062D, setting public hearing for the star bond redevelopment plan for Edge District 3.0.

1:07:27•JMJim Morrison

Didn't read that part, yes. And I'd move to amend it further to declare what date we're setting it for the hearing since it's not in the caption of the ordinance.

1:07:48•JMJim Morrison

I'll second Larry's proposal and the city manager's, and hopefully somebody will second mine.

1:07:57•SASusan E. Adamchak

Chelsea, can we have, call the roll please.

1:08:21 – 1:08:50•SASusan E. Adamchak

Thank you. We have one other item which was pulled from the agenda. Item G1, authorizing staff to finalize and submit a nomination for historic districts representing Sunset Cemetery and the Sexton's House and to petition district court to determine the status of title. Commissioners, I forget who pulled this.

1:08:56 – 1:09:35•JMJim Morrison

as I stated at the comments at the time I moved to pull it, was that the first part, nomination for Sunset Cemetery Historic District, I have no objection to and would move to approve that. And I would move to approve the last part, that is to authorize and instruct staff to file a legal action to quiet the title on the property that is the Sexton's house in those two items and the remaining item about the property the sections house also being petitioned for the state and national registry of historic places be deleted at this time until title is established.

1:09:36 – 1:10:15•SASusan E. Adamchak

Commissioner Morrison you did make that comment at our work session two weeks ago. I went back and did look at the tape of that discussion and while it was not a voting It was not a legislative meeting. There was consensus among myself, Commissioner McCullough, and Commissioner von Lintel to move with the parallel submissions, and that was the guidance that we did provide to the city manager.

1:10:15 – 1:10:26•JMJim Morrison

Well, that wasn't a vote, so if anybody wants to put the second item in, that's somebody else's business, not mine. My motion is do one and three and skip two. That's the motion I make.

1:10:35 – 1:11:20•KMKaren McCulloh

I move to authorize city staff to finalize and submit a nomination for the Sunset Cemetery Historic District to the State and National Register of Historic Places. Authorize city staff to finalize and submit a nomination for the Sexton's House to the State and National Register of Historic Places and authorize and instruct city staff to put petition the district court to determine the status of the title of the real estate underlying the Saxons house Second Chelsea before we take roll we need to do public comment You see that I'm looking expectantly at a certain row

1:11:58•SASusan E. Adamchak

Thank you Is there anyone else would like

1:15:16 – 1:15:30•SASusan E. Adamchak

Manager Doolin and Mr. Adam, may I ask, is there a mechanism by which that type of collaboration could be sought from the preservation community during the application process.

1:15:46•KMKaren McCulloh

Thank you. Might that be a good chance for the Historic Resources Board to assist?

1:15:54•SASusan E. Adamchak

I thought that was perhaps what Mr. Charney was referring to.

1:15:58•KMKaren McCulloh

I think he was talking about the Preservation Alliance. But both.

1:16:06 – 1:16:18•SASusan E. Adamchak

Danielle will trust that you loop in the appropriate entities. Thank you. Commissioners, do we have a motion on this item?

1:16:18•KMKaren McCulloh

I think I moved it, didn't I? I did move it.

1:16:49 – 1:17:59•SASusan E. Adamchak

Thank you. I would just like to add that on tonight's consent agenda, in part due to your mayor's tardiness, we have 15 different individuals from the community who are being appointed to various boards and I just want to extend my very deep appreciation to all of those who have submitted applications and who have agreed to serve. That being said, we do still have A few openings on the boards, they can be reviewed on the city website. There are, there's information there as to the responsibilities of those respective boards. And I would encourage anyone who would like to have a voice in the co

1:19:20 – 1:19:33•JMJim Morrison

Are there any exceptions that are concerns that you have? I know I expressed some to staff. Have you had a chance to look at those? Unfortunately, there are probably more than I would have thought and you would have expected, but.

1:20:00 – 1:22:40•JMJim Morrison

Madam Mayor, I did go through those more diligently than I do most of what we've gotten because it was a couple hundred pages, reasonably thought through, reasonably well written, except that a lot of things that I don't think are appropriate for us to adopt without guardrails. The Conservation District, I think, creates liabilities and responsibilities to the city. We become a HOA in a form that we manage. I think Stephanie at one time mentioned that we didn't have the staff or the manpower to exercise some of those responsibilities. There's a couple sections in there that I took concern abou

1:22:44 – 1:23:08•SASusan E. Adamchak

Should we table this? Danielle, is it appropriate for Commissioner Morrison to share his? Yeah. comments or concerns with us so that we're aware of what they are. We don't duplicate his efforts or we can consider our positions relative to his concerns.

1:23:37 – 1:24:25•KMKaren McCulloh

Commissioner Morrison, could I just say, this is the plan. We adopted the MOVE MHK, which is the rec plan, and there's a whole lot in there about fixing up a whole lot of parks, which I thought was an excellent plan, but it did not say we had to do any of those things. It was just a plan. This is just... telling us what we should look for in historic preservation. And we've been at this now, I think it started in 2018, and then the Historic Resources Board had had it, and then back and forth. And I really think we need to just accept this and tick it off our list of things to do, because I thi

1:24:29 – 1:26:15•LFLarry Fox

So I would have to agree with Commissioner Morrison that this is a 233 page document. I read through all the pages and there's a lot of questions in there about the need to educate people on the importance of historical preservation. So clearly some people don't think enough people know about it, so we need to educate people, so whose responsibility is that? Whose responsibility is it to decide what is historically significant, what should be kept, what should not? Just because an old property is old doesn't necessarily mean it needs to be preserved. I've managed a lot of old houses that they

1:26:18 – 1:26:30•SASusan E. Adamchak

Commissioners, are you agreeing? May I call for public comment? Is there anyone who would like to address us on this issue?

1:32:47 – 1:36:16•SASusan E. Adamchak

I would like to comment that when I look at this plan, I see it as part of our overall portfolio for the city, but I don't see it as a tool only for the city. What it makes me think of is a student at K-State or a class at K-State could be using it to shape a senior project. or an assignment for classes. I don't, forgive me, I can't recall who it was that has installed the 10 markers around, was it the DAR? The 10 markers around, my apologies, but the 10 markers that have been posted around linear trail pointing out historic locations in Manhattan. My neighborhood has these really large stone

1:36:17 – 1:37:26•KMKaren McCulloh

Could I just add, if you read the whole thing, I know it's long and it's very detailed because we've had money, not ours, but outside sources to hire an expert in. And the Move MHK plan for Park and Ricks, I think it's a wonderful plan, but I'm not sure that we have... done anything with it to speak I mean well I mean like all the little parks that it mentioned and things that we could do for them it it really gave us a blueprint but I think what the most important thing when you read this is a lot of places where it said establish this board establish this it's been changed to encourage and s

1:37:29•SASusan E. Adamchak

Commissioners, is there anyone else who would like to make a public comment? Do we have a motion?

1:38:23 – 1:38:55•LFLarry Fox

the city as to the recommendations that are in here and what's already being done by the city in the way of historic preservation. You know, what are we adding to it in this plan? And, you know, maybe we can move forward with it. But also looking at Commissioner Morrison's concerns about, what, a citywide homeowners association referred to it? But anyway, before we, We're asked to approve it. Can we learn a little more about it?

1:38:55•SASusan E. Adamchak

Commissioner, are you making a second to? I second it, yes. Chelsea, can we have a roll call, please?

1:39:22 – 1:39:36•SASusan E. Adamchak

Thank you. Our final item for this evening is authorizing a city-state agreement with Secretary of Transportation for improvements at Casement Road and Hayes Drive.

1:43:58•LFLarry Fox

So you are creating some additional turn lanes, some paving.

1:46:07•SASusan E. Adamchak

The stop log was meant to be installed? Yes. Is that not happening any longer?

1:46:16•LFLarry Fox

You're saying those walls would be eight feet tall?

1:47:07 – 1:47:22•SASusan E. Adamchak

Commissioners, any other questions on this item? May I take public comment? Is there anyone who would like to talk about traffic signals? Seeing none, we will close public comment. Commissioners, do we have a motion?

1:47:22 – 1:47:43•LFLarry Fox

So I would move that we authorize a city-state agreement with Secretary of Transportation, Kansas Department of Transportation, and Resolution Number 100626E for the Casement Road and Hayes Drive Signalization Improvements Project, City Project Number ST2302, KDOT Project Number N082701.

1:47:45•SASusan E. Adamchak

Thank you, Commissioners. Chelsea, will you please call the roll?

1:48:06•SASusan E. Adamchak

Thank you. Thank you, commissioners, for your this evening. Thank you to the public for sharing your opinions with us. Do we have a motion to adjourn?

1:48:18•SASusan E. Adamchak

Second. All in favor, please say aye. Aye.