City Commission - workshop

Okay it is three o'clock and today we will have our continue our 2027 budget study sessions and today we will be dealing with capital improvement plan. I will look to the city manager to get us kicked off.

Yeah so today we're going to go over our capital improvement plan. I think the main thing with this is this is a working document so we approve of a five-year plan but each year during the budget process we bring this plan back to you and make adjustments and kind of get the city commission's priorities. So anything on this list can be adjusted, moving around from one year to the next. We have to figure out how to make that work on the financial side, but Debbie's really good at that, so we can get that figured out. I do want to say in this instance, the 2027 plan, we kind of had a lot of design that was happening over the last couple of years and we ended up with a lot of projects that would have been scheduled in 2027. So we are going to make some recommendations about moving projects out because what we had scheduled in 2027, we just really don't have the capacity as a staff to manage that many large scale projects all at one time. and we'd have construction all over town and I'm not sure that everybody would want to have streets torn up in that manner. So we do have some recommendations about how to spread things out. Our goal with the capital improvement plan has to bend to kind of level load things. So we spend between, Three and four million dollars a year in property tax dollars on these projects and our goal is to kind of keep that the same So we haven't asked for additional property taxes for projects in some time in four or five years And we don't anticipate we will ask for more We just try to keep it level-loaded and as projects fall off then our debt capacity allows us to continue to do new projects so with that I will Shove it over to Debbie

Thank you, and good afternoon, Mayor and Commissioners. Debbie Pack, Director of Finance. As Jacob said, this is kind of our five-year plan, but as we go through this, really what we're looking at is what we want staff to start doing in 2027, because as Jacob said, we review this every year, and we make adjustments, and we can move things around a little bit here and there as we go. But as things change, we need to be able to change with those things. So this document does provide you some of those recommendations. Also, staff is here, so if you have any questions about specific projects, they are here to help answer those questions. Just so that you can get a better understanding what a specific project might be about or why they think it's a priority in a specific year or something like that. Because it's important for you as decision makers to know kind of where our mind is as far as why did we put it in this year or not that year or something like that. So the first thing I wanted to do, though, is because this is an ongoing document and we do approve projects, as we approve these projects, I think it's important for you and for the public to know kind of where we stand as far as what we've approved in the past couple of years. So this first slide is really a status of the previously approved projects. And you can see in 2025 we had several projects that are complete. Some of those were from cash or Starbond funds. We have two projects that are still under construction, which is the Magnolia Road Trail and also the West Magnolia Phase One. Those were both approved in 2025 and those are under construction. And the other designation to this that I will caveat is that once I say that it's under construction, we've let those projects, we've approved a contract, and we've signed a contract with the contractor. So we really don't have a contractual way to get out of those unless we wanted to fail on our contracts. but the next couple of projects that are on here um east crawford ninth and waterwell and the west magnolia phase two and three those are um 2025 projects that were approved that are in design so is that as far as that goes if city commission felt there was a higher priority we could hold those designs and kind of move move those out a little bit those have a little bit more leeway if any of those projects you felt like were not as high a priority as as we're recommending The other projects on here from 2026, there's a couple that are on hold, wayfinding signs downtown, North Ohio overpass, the pedestrian bridge at Brookwood Trail was canceled, the recreation or the runway repairs have been complete, the 9th and Ohio traffic signal upgrade is in progress, and then there's design being done on Ohio and Schilling and East Magnolia improvements. uh there's a couple out still that are out which is the comprehensive fee and zone update and then the culvert at northwood and fairdale so that kind of just gives you an idea from those projects that you approved last year kind of how or the in the last two years kind of where those are um in the process and kind of if they're still available for a reprioritization So the next few pages, a few slides, this is what you approved last year. And I am providing this only for reference for you. I'm not going to go through it because we will revisit most of these as we go through the 2027 and through 2031. But I did want you to at least have an idea of where we were last year and kind of how it's changed with this next year's process. So I'll skip the next three or four slides and we'll go to slide six. which is the 2027 through 2031 recommendation. And the one thing I will say is if you approve a project in 27, staff is going to move forward with it. That's basically you telling them that's a high priority for us, we want you to work on it, and we want you to get it started. So that's kind of why we say that everything can be changed beyond the first year. because really once we say in 2027, staff, this is our priority, they're gonna start moving on it. And you're gonna start seeing things come in either for design or construction for those projects. So your approval of that first year really gives them the kind of approval to say, okay, let's move forward with those specific projects. So for 2027, the standard ones that we always have in here for CIP or sales tax related, and that's hike, bike, trail, street improvements, and park capital improvement plan. You'll see those both here, and then in the sub-CIP we'll get into detail of those. We do have a wayfinding assigned project in here. This was put on hold for the last section of this, so that project may or may not move forward as we go into 2027, but we wanted to make sure we had it on here. in case we did move forward with that. The next project on here being supported by debt and these are all categorized by how they're being funded. So this next section is categorized as supported by debt and it should also show you in here how it's going to be funded. Most of these are property tax because the enterprise funds are separate. the first one is repairs to the riverbank at bill burke for a million and a half dollars this is a result of the log jam itself it's not a result of the contractor or anything else that was out there but the logs that came down that river and jammed up did a lot of damage to the the banks and to some of the walls and things like that so this has been submitted to fema for reimbursement the estimate for this has been submitted submitted so there's a possibility that we could get reimbursed for part of that Any portion that we didn't get reimbursed would be our responsibility out of that project, and it's estimated at $1.5 million. The next project that we're recommending is the construction of East Crawford and the bridge widening. This is the area right over by the new fire station. This is a project that's already been designed or is in design at a total of $2.1 million. The next one is East Magnolia Bridge Replacement Road Improvements. This one is down on Magnolia by the soccer complex, the bridge that goes over right next to the soccer complex. We would anticipate that this would be a late 2017 bid letting and probably 2018 construction, which kind of pushes out the debt financing for us a little bit. This project is estimated right now at $8 million. A couple of design projects just so that we can stay on top of things is East Iron from Delaware to Marymount at $180,000 and West Magnolia Phase II and III design at $1 million. That would be a total for debt financing in 2027 of $12,780,000 that's going to be supported by property tax. As far as the enterprise funds, they have a couple of projects, several projects on here. A new one for us is the construction and demolition cell design. This is a cell for just construction and demolition materials. The staff at the landfill felt like as much as we're getting out there for that, to be able to separate that out of our normal cells was going to be beneficial in the long run for the landfill itself. Sanitation trucks at 2.5 million. A landfill, a normal landfill, they're on like a seven-year rotation of design of landfill cells. As they fill up, they design and construct another one. And then water line improvements. Right now, in the budget that we have currently, we have $4 million budgeted for water line improvements every other year. As we have more continued conversations with this about rates and things and options, this number could change. But this is what we have in here right now. So that's the way I wanted to present it to you. That leaves total enterprise funds at $7.7 million and a total 2027 projects at $25,692,000. And you stop me at any of the point if you have questions specifically about these projects, and we can get those answers from staff. And you'll see as we go out a little bit farther, we're really detailed in the early years because we can kind of know what's going on. But as you get a little farther out in year three, four, five, we have projects out there but they're just not as as fine-tuned as we have in the current years so in 2028 again we have the sales tax projects we have east iron construct the construction we did the design we're recommending design in 27 so we'd have the construction of east iron in 2028 at a cost of 1.62 million the construction of west magnolia phase two and three at a cost of 9.2 million The final design of 9th and Waterwell at $200,000. And then a gateway sign project at $1.6 million. This would be a project that puts signs at our major intersections as we enter the city. It's been on the radar for a long time. For a total debt financing of $12.67 million. And then the construction of the C&D cell at $5.4 million and an additional dozer for the landfill at $1 million. As they add these cells, I think we've had this conversation before, but as they moved cells, they're moving from north to south or south to north. So the cells they're working on are at two different sides of the landfill. so they can't move back and forth with the equipment they have this has been we know we've known this was coming for several years as we added this additional cell so um we're but we're going to recommend that for 2028 as those cells get added so that's a total for 2028 projects of 23 million 645 thousand

Debbie, what's the – and most of these we've obviously talked about before. The East Iron from Delaware to Marymount, what's that project? I guess I don't remember that project myself.

You would like to answer that. I kind of know what it is, but they're probably better than me. For some reason – We've been doing design on it for a long time, for several years, so –

Good afternoon, Mayor and Commissioners. Ron Marsh, Director of Public Works. That east iron from Delaware to Marymount is basically a mill and inlay and then repair all the curb and gutter along iron. And it's a fairly large project, so.

So is there, and I guess, is it...

helping with the drainage or what exactly is the curb and gutter i guess i don't it will help with some of the drainage yeah i mean the curb is just failing in that area if you drive by there you see that there's uh it's just the curb is starting to fall off and kind of fall apart in that area and so it needs to be replaced yeah and sidewalks it's a pretty popular um bike path we get lots of complaints about the bike lanes in that area and them not being in good condition because there's, I mean, there's just lots of cracks. And so the street's not in good condition and the curb gets even worse. So it needs to be repaired. It's been on the list and we've moved it around several times. We've kind of continued to push it out. But I think it appeared on the list maybe two or three years ago. Thank you.

So moving on to 2029, again, the sales tax projects are in here. The next design project would be east cloud road improvements. That would be widening with curb and gutters, sidewalks to the levee. The cost of design is estimated at $200,000. And then construction of the 9th and Waterwell intersection and road widening has been moved out to 2029 at a cost of about $5.3 million. So total debt in 2029 is about $5.5 million. And then for enterprise funds, the construction of that next cell or cell number six at the landfill at about $5.4 million. And then that every other year water line replacement project and utilities at $4 million. That's a total of total projects in 2029 being recommended at $19,495,000. And then in 2030, we have the East Cloud construction at $2.2 million, and the annual sales tax projects, so the total in that year at this point is $6.775 million. And then in 2031, we would have the construction of the Ohio and Schilling intersection, and then we would start design on the West Crawford improvements, which is the area over by the – what's that bridge? Oh, over the Dry Creek Bridge. Sorry, I had to get that description from them. So that would be the design in 2031 for that project. And then 2031 is an odd year, so that would also have water line improvements. So a total of 10.775 million in 2031. So the next slide is just a graphic.

One of the comments I have when I was looking through this is, you know, we're pushing out the 9th and Waterwell, which I think the Schilling and Ohio is currently probably more important to me with the traffic flow there. Because I went through there the other day. Is there a way we can update those stop signs if you've been through there? If they're going to be up for three years? No. I'd like – because one of them is just a temporary stop sign, I believe, still. So if we could get better stop signs. And I like one of them. It has, I think, the two posts. You have the reflectors on there. Because, again, the reason we looked at a roundabout is for, you know, the safety standpoints of somebody, you know, blowing through that intersection and T-boning somebody. So anything we can do at this point to make that intersection safer I think would –

behoove us so do that would be my one ask so this next graph it's just a graphic basically just to show you what where these projects were in 2026 and kind of where we've moved them that the projects that are highlighted in green show the ones that we've moved out from their original dates most of them were 2027 and adding that new project so This is the time for you as city commissioners to take a look at these projects, see if they're in the priority order that you think they should be, if there's anything you believe should be moved, adjusted, and have those conversations. Because once we get past this and kind of get to that, then we'll be bringing this back for approval. So I'll give you some time here to have that conversation or ask additional questions before I get to funding.

I have a couple. As I look at this here, I agree with you on the 9th and Waterwell as far as making those stop signs better. I'd like to think that they're going to be there for more than another few years. I think they're doing the job. I think everybody out there is fine with it the way it is. In my humble opinion, we don't have enough money going to water line improvements. I think we need to triple that up or something compared to what we're currently doing. East Iron, you know, I drive that all the time, and I haven't noticed the street being that bad. If we needed to pick up another $1.8 million, we have it there. East cloud at 2.4 million and I mean we're getting into 2028. But I've driven down it a couple of times later and I guess it would be nice to bring it up to a city standard. But I gotta imagine it's been that way for decades and unless we have flooding concerns or something out that way, to me I would consider that another nice to do. I have to mention on the repairs to the river bank at Bill Burke, it was about 13-ish months ago, I submitted a plan to get the debris out of the river. And it's been said that you can't run government like a business. But my thoughts were at the time, the first thing we need to do is mitigate the problem and out of the river, and to me it's obvious that the greater amount of time that that debris sat in the river, the more the water had to find another route. But at this point in time, I guess if it's gonna be 1.5 million, and gateway signs, it sounds like we've been kind of kicking that down the road, and I think if we're gonna kick anything down the road, besides the things I've already mentioned, Again, I'd like to see those funds used on water line improvements. Thank you.

Mr. Linkowitz?

Just to kind of echo the comment about East Iron from Delaware to Marymount, I take that route quite a bit. Thank you. To echo the comments about the Delaware to Marymount project and the curb line, I take that route quite a bit, and I don't really notice it enough. I mean, it needs to be on our radar, but maybe if we need to divert funds to another project, that could be kind of a... you know, get around to it kind of thing. And I also agree with the gateway signs. Um, you know, I know it's something we talked about when I was on the planning commission, those, those gateway corridors are very important, but when you still have things like the, um, the debris and cleanup from the, uh, that West Crawford hotel and, um, you know, maybe those signs can wait a little bit for other projects. And, um, I think West Magnolia needs to stay on the priority list. That's really all I really have at this point.

Commissioner Davis? It looks like East and West Magnolia may be our most needed priorities. of these, my brain may just not be firing right. Explain to me, in like 2028, the Xs that are not in green boxes, how do they differ from the ones that are in the green boxes?

They are the same. They're in the same year that we proposed them in the 2026 CIP. So in the 2026 CIP, we might have had them in 2027, so we left them in 2027. So we just didn't move those. And they're still in whatever year they're indicated there.

Okay. I think there's potential for savings at 9th and, I want to make sure I got my intersections correct, 9th and Waterwell. And West Magnolia is going to pretty much have to happen. some point the price for that's going to do nothing but go up. East Crawford Bridge, something's got to happen. It would be nice to get those gateway signs, but I think in 10 years I've seen the price go up from $125,000 each to obviously $400,000 each. And We're the only big city on I-70 and I-35 that doesn't have them. I mean, other cities are advertising in our backyard, which is embarrassing. Yeah, not too much difference really from, I think, what you just heard in the last few minutes.

the one we haven't mentioned and i'm still going to stick to that is i i really believe that ohio shilling intersection needs to be addressed sooner than 2031 with the continued traffic out there with the south industrial area and the new housing and everything um is your going south There's a right-turn lane and a lane to go straight, and you have the people coming off of Schilling to turn left, and you really have an issue there with not being able to see that traffic. And I know we're trying to balance some large projects here, you know, so we can keep our debt financing, but I would really like to see that Ohio-Schilling intersection. And again, part of our job is public safety, and to me that's an intersection that really needs addressed, and I would... I would move it up into that 2027, 2028 range. And I think the East Magnolia Road bridge is a safety hazard, you know, because of its width and the amount of traffic and whether it's foot and bike traffic at the same time. And the Ohio and Schilling intersection would be my two major concerns right now. So I don't know how we balance those. I'm looking at city staff.

Well, just on its face, if we moved the Ohio and Schilling to 2028 timeframe and East Iron and the Gateway signage, we can either put those as identified as unfunded or move those out to 2031 and leave them on the list. then I think that is pretty close to the same dollar amount. We should be able to come up with that.

That would be mine is if we could move those out to like, I mean, to keep them on the list, you know, but if you move them out to 2030, 2031 would be... And certainly you'll have several opportunities to make changes to this over time.

That would... That sounds reasonable.

And we are working on a plan for water line replacement. Basically, we have a few options in terms of how we finance water line replacement. We can look at the fees that we have, and I think that will be part of any plan that we provide would be increased fees. We can look at property tax, and we can look at sales tax. Sales tax would take a vote. Property tax, we have the ability to adjust property taxes. What we just did doesn't free up any cash. I mean, it just moves things around a little bit. So the big problem is you don't have a whole lot of – I mean, it's not like a huge dollar amount that we can capture from the amount of property taxes we're collecting now. So I guess what I'm saying is – If we're going to do more in terms of water line replacement, and we're going to fund it with property taxes, that might end up being a property tax increase. We won't be able to do that this year. We're already set. We can only go where we're going. But we can certainly make a change in next year. And we are working on a plan to do more water line replacement. I think it'll probably be another year. month or two before we're able to roll that out. But it's pretty complex. There's lots of moving parts. So we will come back with that plan. And as part of this plan, you saw Debbie just left in the $4 million every other year. We are looking at how we'll be able to adjust that. So this is kind of an odd time in the budgeting process to be Because we've already submitted everything for property taxes. And you've seen the notices have gone out. So we really can't do a whole lot in terms of property taxes now. But we can make adjustments.

And I guess for the public, that's been submitted to the state.

Well, it's been submitted to the county. And the county has. This last week, you should have received a notice that says that we're going to have a public hearing on the mill levy that's set the way that we've set it. So we don't really have any opportunity to adjust that up. We could adjust it down, but you can't change. Once you've said this is what our budget is, you can't make an adjustment to it at this point. So is that, if we move Ohio and Schilling to 2028 and we move East Iron and Delaware out to 2031 and the Gateway signage to 2031, then we'll have time to adjust those over time? That would be my preference, I think. Is there anything else on this list that you want us to move around or change? I mean, are you okay with East Crawford and East Magnolia? I think East Magnolia has been on this list for... probably five or seven years now. I mean, it's been on for a long time. Um, and then the East Crawford, you know, that hasn't been on the list for as long, but we really need to do that. Um, because of the fire stations there and part of that will, will be signalization. And so we need the fire station is open today is the first full shift that they're working out of station four. So we do need to get some traffic control installed in that area so that they can turn the light on when they're coming out and not have any safety concerns with that. And then that also kind of connects that neighborhood out there that doesn't really have a way to get to town with a path. Right now, any of those folks who are walking in that area either have to go behind or walk down Crawford, which is kind of a hill. It's not real safe if you're walking on the side of Crawford to get from that neighborhood into town.

One of the things that was on the first page that isn't on this sheet that I, and I don't know if you want to discuss that now, is the comprehensive planning and zone code update.

Yeah, sure. How we will fund that. Yeah, that's a project that we're funding out of cash. That was something that we have, it's been on the radar for quite some time. I think our last comprehensive plan was completed in 2018. 10 or 2012 so lots of things have changed that's a document that's required by the state of Kansas for every community to have it's really our future land use plan so as we continue to grow in different areas of the community there's been several items over the last year or two where we've had to come and say, hey, we want to amend the comprehensive plan because we had something that's happening in an area that we didn't expect it to happen. And so that is really an opportunity to, there'll be a lot of public process with that. There'll be community involvement. There'll be committees. a lot of different meetings. The comprehensive plan is kind of where you say, okay, this is who we are today, and who do we want to be 10 years from now, and how do we plan to get there? That also includes a zoning code rewrite. Our zoning code is pretty old, and quite frankly, there's some parts of it that are hard to understand, and it's a little confusing. And so my intent would be to rewrite that code and have something that's a little bit more user-friendly, easier for us to staff to interpret easier for the public to understand if they want to develop or build something you know they can go out and not have to not have to have a master's degree in planning to understand how to do that so and that is the intent with a comprehensive plan we have the RFP going out in the next month or two and so we'll see what the responses look like that will be a pretty lengthy process. It will probably take us a year, year and a half to get through the entire thing. But it is something that I think is necessary. It's something that we really need to do. Something that you kind of have to do periodically. And so it's really probably overdue. But we need to do that. Thank you.

So from your direction, the other thing I will say that I would suggest we change then, we do have the design of East Iron in 2027. I would think that we would want to move that to the year before we do construction, which would be 2030. That would be the only kind of connector to that project, if you would agree with that. Right. Okay. Okay, so we'll make those changes, see what happens as far as financing. It shouldn't, like Jacob said, it looks like they'll equal out or give us a little bit of breathing room up front as it is. So the next thing I wanted to kind of look at is kind of explain to you how we finance these things and how we determine how we can finance these things. When we debt service something, when we debt finance something, there are several revenue sources that pay for those, and that is determined by your direction. Sometimes we have projects that we've supported out of sales tax. We have several that are out of the enterprise funds, utilities or sanitation. We also use current property tax. The things that supplement the current property tax is motor vehicle tax gets directed to the debt service fund, delinquent motor vehicle and delinquent property tax. We have some transient guest tax that's going to debt service for specific funds or for specific projects. And then we have just a general transfer from the sales tax capital fund that goes in there, as well as special assessments are kind of paying for themselves. There's a lot of different revenue sources that are paying for this, so as we go through this next slide, I just wanted to kind of explain that. Currently, one of the questions that came up, I believe, is how much are we paying today? And currently, in 2026, our debt financing payments, our annual payments, are about $16 million. Of that number, about half of, almost half of it is utilities. It's either a revenue bond or it's a Kansas revolving loan. That's about $6.5 million is coming from utilities. And then we have a couple of... bonds that are coming from solid waste and sanitation and they're supporting those so currently we have about three million dollars that we take from property tax to help pay for that uh roughly 16 million dollars and the rest of it comes from other sources whether it's special assessments or uh transient guest tax or or whatever those funds might be so I just wanted to throw those numbers out there we're not we're not paying 70 million dollars a year in bond and bond payments we're paying an annual payment just like you would We only pay it once a year, but it'd be just like you would on your house, but we pay it twice a year. We pay interest in the spring and we pay interest in principle in the fall.

Do we bond everything for 20 years or do we have some that are 15 and 10?

We have some. Depends on the actual project. The majority of the street projects are 20 years. There are some like the landfill sales are only seven because they have to repeat those, their life. We try to look at the life of the property or the life of the item that we're trying to fund and make sure that we're not going over that life when we're financing it.

Okay. Yeah, so like turf, the turf was 10 years because we knew we were going to have to replace that at a 10-year time frame. So you kind of try to line up the usable life as much as you can with the amount of time of the debt service.

So you're not paying for it twice at the same time. So the next few slides, and this has a lot of numbers, so as you digest it, if you have any questions, basically what we do for our analysis is we're taking an assumption that property tax is going to grow 2.8%. As we talked about, legislation is driving us kind of to that belief, so that's kind of the conservative way to say we believe that's where it's going to go after 2027. We are assuming that these bonds are all 20 years at 4% interest rate. So what we do is we take how much money we need to pay, that $16 million, and we determine how much revenue we need or will have from every other source except for property tax. And then the last thing that we use is property tax. And so then we come back and we figure out, okay, how much property tax do we need? And then we have to add every new project as we go along to determine, okay, how much more do we have left? And so basically this analysis is telling us how much we can fund in a given year and still pay those without raising that tax dollar based on our assumption. So as you can see with these next four or five slides, we've added in all of these projects based on the fact that we know when they're going to bond, roughly when they're going to bond, how much they're going to bond for, and then we can determine basically how much that payment's going to be a year. and how that affects that fund balance, because we also have some fund balance. So as you can see, we go out with these projects several years before we start running into, okay, we might need to look at some other alternatives. And there's not a huge concern. We're out to 2035, 2034 before we see this fund go into a negative situation. But you have to remember that every time we do this, it changes. So every time we issue a bond, those rates change. They might be lower, they might be a little higher. So this is one of those documents that's constantly being adjusted. And as we get closer to those dates, what we'll have to do is determine, okay, can we move this one out a year? Can we fund this one a little bit farther? So those are just things that we're constantly looking at as far as how we can fund these things using debt service financing.

So for the general public, we, you know, if we do a project and it's finished in 2027, a lot of times we don't bond it until the end. So it may not actually, the bond may not actually be payable till the next year.

Correct. If, if a project is not complete before March of the current year, it doesn't get bonded until the next year and the payment doesn't start until the next year. So it's really a two year delay from the time a project completes. the time we start our financing yeah if you're looking at this and you're trying to look at the projects we have it's not going to match up correct yeah correct and that's why in this model I kind of put okay here's where the project we would expect to complete here's where we would bond it and then the next year would be when we would actually have a payment on that bond so it's there's a lot of little pieces in there just to keep us going from that so Yeah, so these next pages are just that. At this point, like I said, I feel like we're pretty confident that the numbers that we have without adjusting those taxes. Now, if we got to a situation where something came in and the project cost us a lot more than we thought and we kind of were already into it, we may have to reallocate some funding, some property tax, but that's a decision we make every year, and we'll look at this going forward every year. The other thing I will say I've done on this analysis is as we get through these current projects, what I try to do is I try to go out 10 or 20 years or 15 years and say, okay, what would we have available if we had it? Because we're not going to stop. We're not going to stop doing projects after we get these five years done. So I try to go in and say, okay, in 10 years we'll have the availability to do $8 million in bridge work or something like that. So we try to keep those all in our radar as well just so that we're trying to look forward. and make a plan going forward as opposed to trying to react to what we need to do and what comes up. So we do have some items in there that don't have specific projects assigned to them. So if you go to slide 14, that's just a graphic of it. It shows where we fall below the target fund balance. We might go into a little bit of the negative depending on it. But prior to 2035 or 2036, we're going to know that based on the projects that we're funding. And we're going to know how to adjust for that, whether it's delay a project or move a project or raise taxes. There's a lot of options that you have at that point. But you need to be realistic. The next slide, this is a couple of the projects that we currently have that we know are going on which is the former Schilling Air Force Base. We don't know whether we're going to need additional funding for this. It's anticipated that when we budgeted this and went to the Department of Justice and got this funding that we would be able to pay it, but we don't want to not think ahead and think, oh, what if it comes in short or what if some, you know, pricing goes up. So we have this on our radar. If we needed to fund this, this is funded through the utility department and their projections. So we currently have that on there. The other one is the river renewal project, both the raise grant and the core project are both projects that were kind of still out there we haven't done any letting with those so those projects are still out there with either partnerships or grants or whatever that we have currently going on with those so those are kind of identified we have some funding available already assigned to those um and and we'll have to look at those as we move forward and those come to fruition

Debbie?

Yes.

Quick question before you move forward. Sure. On the former Schilling Air Force Base cleanup. Yes. You talk about five to 12 million and you talk about through bonds. Don't we have money?

setting we do we were our our judgment with the department of justice was 67 million dollars and when we did that when we went through that process that was the estimate that that The people involved kind of estimated that's what the Department of Justice settled on. However, we do not know whether that $67 million is going to take us through the 30-year process that this project is. Because it's not only fixing it, and then you have to test it for so many years afterwards.

Right. But we have...

Yes, we have that funding.

We have how many millions?

67 million.

It's actually 69 something because of interest.

Yeah.

See, we've invested those dollars, so I think we have over 69 now in that account.

Right, right. But I don't know. I have a hard time.

This is just in anticipation that if something would happen that we'd come up short, we'd have it on our radar.

Okay.

This doesn't say we'll have to do it. It just is a matter of keeping it on our radar to make sure that we're keeping an eye on it to make sure that we have it. Because we will be responsible for part of that if those funds don't cover it all.

But we are going to use those funds first. That first, absolutely. Okay.

Absolutely. So we're talking this may not happen for 20 years.

And Commissioner,

ramp if you look at at our at our audit and stuff we there's a line there that says shilling remediation has caching equivalents and then down below it has restricted funds so i remember that's got its own deal so that's how it's separated it's got its own funds it's tracked all differently so and it earns its own interest as commissioner hobby said yeah i remember that too thank you so we may never need to use that but we just want to make sure that we have it in our mind if we do okay yeah cool The next slide, this one is really these are projects that have been kind of thrown out there on the table for future consideration. They may never get considered. But these are just projects that have been identified by staff or through some project, whether it was a plan or something like that, just to have them on the list of kind of these are things we may be looking forward to in the future um none of these are on the approval list they're they haven't we haven't identified like costs or funding or anything like that for these projects but they're just projects that through some plan or through some conversation we we had a project that somebody had that that they wanted us to keep kind of on the radar and that's what this list is so any other questions on those capital projects financing

Quick question for staff. The Holmes Road improvement, we have certain triggers that we'll have to deal with Holmes Road at some time if we continue to move that direction. Is that not correct?

Yeah, we do. So our perimeter street policy requires that any development that were to come up and have to connect to Holmes Road would require them to upgrade that street. So Magnolia Village, is it? moves from, as it moves east and it gets closer and closer, it will at some point trigger the need to upgrade that road. We've had lots of conversations about Holmes Road and it's a fairly expensive project and not sure that we would be able to put it on the developers in terms of I mean, the return for them, it would cost, special assessments in that area would go up pretty high. So we've had some conversations about whether there's other options for that road, whether that's an RHID, and we don't have it all figured out yet, but we will. We have had our bond council kind of look at whether RHID might be an option. And I anticipate sometime in the fall, we'll have a strategic planning session where we'll talk about some of these items like the perimeter street policy and what we've done there and whether there's an interim standard or a lesser standard that we could require that would allow that to happen. As you see, there's lots of development, housing development kind of at the south end of homes. We've had requests around homes in Crawford, on the north side of Crawford. But it's pretty cost prohibitive for the developers to build those streets. So we're trying to figure out if there's a way to make it work. Haven't got it all figured out just yet, but I anticipate we'll have some conversations as we do kind of long-term strategic planning here sometime in the fall. Thank you.

So I'll move through these next ones pretty quickly. In addition to that five-year capital plan, we also have a 10-year, really it's a vehicle and equipment, buildings, facilities, street maintenance, repair and replacement plan. We created this about five years ago. We've asked departments to kind of plan out when they need to replace things. These items are funded through many, many sources. We have several funds that we transfer every year, funds into them for these particular items from sales tax. Parks, buildings and facilities, vehicles and equipment, street maintenance. We transfer sales tax funds into those. as part of our budget process. There's also the special parks fund, the neighborhood parks fund, and the gas tax fund. Those are all some of the revenue sources that kind of cover this section of our replacement plan. So from buildings and facilities, the projects, and typically what we do is we have you approve the dollar amount and then we bring this list of specific items back to you and these are all items that have been um submitted or recommended by the the departments that are are really kind of running these like buildings and facilities comes from like our buildings and facilities manager and any other department that maybe need they talk to them and need say hey we're going to need this replacement or a roof or something like that so he has a list here of items that um For 2027, for $1,088,000, they include anywhere from field house reseal to carver center remodel, street barn HVAC. So there's a list of items on here. if you have any questions about those specific ones i'm not going to go through each one of them troy is here he could probably answer any of those questions just for time's sake i'm going to run through these pretty quickly special parks fund on the next slide that is dedicated for from our perspective to replace playground equipment the playground that is slated for 2027 is the glennifer hill playground at that's being moved to indian rock for 500 000 the parks maintenance fund they have projects in here a fencing project they have mats and scoreboard friendship center concrete improvements they're still working on bathroom remodel that's been like a four or five year project that they've been continually working on and some other repairs and maintenance at splash pads and fountains for a total of 715 000 streets this is street maintenance they just categorize their items and then they'll bring those back to you as they put out for chip seal or ubas they have a specific schedule of what they want to do so their funding is kind of set in in these numbers From the sales tax dollars that are transferred in the street maintenance fund, they have about $4.2 million planned out for 2027 and about $1.5 million out of gas tax. System enhancements are utilities projects. These are typically how they replace, usually they're pumps and generators and those bigger items of equipment. They typically try to budget about $2 million a year. This is in addition to all of the water line improvements and stuff like that. This is more of their internal budget. equipment and things like that that need to be replaced. On here we have a couple more towers to be painted, some purchases of pumps and related items like that for a total of $2 million. And then probably the biggest one and the most complex one is vehicles and equipment because this is every department. Every department has a list of vehicles and equipment they want to replace. The first item is our annual ambulance, which is reimbursed by the county. And then you can see we have a list of items that are coming out of the Vehicle and Equipment Fund, which is funded through sales tax at $1.1 million. Then the Central Garage has an item they support, they pay for their own. Sanitation, solid waste, and water all budget their own in their operating fund. So this is kind of their list of annual items that they want to replace in 2027. And then the next slide, just for your information, there's a lot of items that, because of dollar amounts, we can't replace every year because some of these items are pretty expensive. Also on this list, everything highlighted in orange, was a new request this year that due to funding we just couldn't add at this point. We may have to look at some of these equipment items, especially for fire, and as we refinance those fire apparatus, we may have to look at how we do that, add some of these additional items in that process. But there is still quite a few items. And what we do from a department perspective is we ask them then to go put those out and kind of level them out in future years if they're not critical we've asked them to go back we've gone back to departments and we said okay we got your initial list but what are your top priorities and so we asked them to prioritize it so that we know as we're going through these lists that these are the most critical needs for them and we try to cover those as we go through each annual kind of budget process quick quick question debbie just

One that caught my eye under parks and rec, Ford Transit van with mid-roof for senior trips.

Yes.

What in the heck is that?

It's a new request from the department. It is a van to be used for trips that they take for the seniors that they support in their programming.

Okay.

That's why it's on the end.

Okay. But that's a new request. Yes. All right.

then these last sections this last um probably 10 slides or so this is our capital improvement our capital replacement plan this is the 10 years that we've asked those departments to go out and list those items so that we can kind of look at where they are and how they're doing that um just so that you know it's just a visual for you to kind of see you know there's a lot out there there's a lot that the city owns it has to be replaced in order to do the business that we do every day and so we we kind of have to prioritize those and ask departments to prioritize those as we go along each year after we determine what the funding availability is so

One of the things that we changed several years ago, and I don't know if one of you would like to discuss, is now our leasing program. Explain a little bit. That seems to have been very successful and how we're handling that.

Our old plan used to be we would buy a new pickup truck and we would drive it for 20 years. And we probably five years ago went with a program by Enterprise where we lease vehicles. And so basically what that allows us to do is get – new vehicles and vehicles that are vehicles that can be turned around every couple of years. So we buy a vehicle, we lease it from Enterprise. We're able to buy it at the government rate and then after using it for 12 months, then Enterprise sells it, and most of the time we've been able to make money on those, and that really allows us to put that money back into the system to replace some of the vehicles and equipments that are not able to turn quickly. So that would be things that require a lot of upfitting. So police vehicles, you buy a police vehicle, And you really drive that one until it's almost not drivable anymore. They don't have a whole lot of value at the end, but it doesn't make sense for us to upfit a new police vehicle every year. So you drive that for six or seven years. So the program has allowed us to have a much newer fleet, so we don't do a lot of maintenance on our equipment. I mean, there's lots of vehicles that we have that turn in 12 or 24 months, so you're talking about Most of the time we don't have to replace tires. We just have to do annual oil or we just do oil changes on some of those vehicles. And then we sell them, usually make a little bit of money, or we end up not paying very much to operate those vehicles. And then anything that we make goes back into the pool and allows us to kind of offset some of the costs for the stuff that we need to keep around that costs a lot to upfit. Yeah.

So, yeah, that's been very beneficial from a financial standpoint. Okay. Any other comments or questions for Debbie from the Commission?

One question. As far as revenue neutral budgeting in the future, do these debts that are secured by property tax give us any additional leeway on increases that we can absorb without having to go to a public hearing.

the way the way i've done the analysis is based on what we're seeing at the state legislature this year as far as what we would anticipate that rule to be next year which was most most of what we saw in the 2026 session was that they wanted to cap our property tax at a cpi rate some rate at cpis and or three percent whichever was less so that's why when we did that analysis we We did our revenue, we had a 2.8% increase. So if they come back and did something different, then we may have to look at how we do that. We may have to go outside of revenue neutral or something like that. But it's so unknown.

The short answer is we really don't know. At this point we don't know what the plan is going to be. I know the League of Kansas Municipalities has put together a working group where we're talking about what the plans are for property taxes and really what the rules are that we have to follow for property taxes. So it does seem like that the league is going to get kind of a seat at the table as we have those discussions. I'm on that committee. I think Debbie's working on that committee as well. So really, at the end of the day, we just need the state to tell us what the rules are, and then we'll figure out how to back into it. And at this point, it's been kind of a moving target every year. There's there's been things that have been proposed and they've all been a little bit different. And some of them feel like they're workable and some of them would be very detrimental. So fortunately, we have a pretty good sales tax base. So the impacts that we haven't had to raise property taxes in four years. So, you know, for us, it's less impactful than it is for some of the smaller communities. But it is something that we will certainly keep our eye on and try to make sure we're at the table and at least trying to figure out what the rules will be in the future.

Okay. We will adjourn and be back here at 4 o'clock for our regular scheduled meeting.

Thank you.

Okay, it is four o'clock Please it is four o'clock. I will call the Monday August 10th 2026 City Commission meeting to order I'm waiting on my city clerk. She's running in with 100 I would ask staff for confirmation that the open meeting required notice has been properly provided.

Yes.

Thank you. May we have a roll call?

Mayor Hoppeck.

Here.

Commissioner Davis.

Here.

Commissioner Lankowitz.

Here.

Commissioner Rupp.

Here. Thank you. Before we stand for the flag salute and a moment of silence, I want to acknowledge that last Tuesday we had a seasonal employee that was tragically killed while mowing at Oakdale Park. I ask that we keep his family, his friends, his co-workers, and the first responders in our thoughts and prayers as we have a moment of silence so would you please stand i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands Thank you. We have no public hearings today, so that will move us to the consent agenda.

Item 4.1, consider approval of the July 27th, 2026 regular meeting minutes. And item 4.2, consider authorizing the city manager to sign an agreement with First Wireless to purchase replacement radios for public works, street traffic, and flood control divisions in the amount of $178,598.06.

Okay, is there an item a commissioner would like to remove from the consent agenda? No. Is there any comments from the public on the consent agenda? OK, if not, I will bring it back to the commission for action.

Mr. Mayor, I move for approval of the consent agenda as read.

Second. We have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda items 4.1 and 4.2. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That passes 5-0. That will move us to administration.

Item 5.1, consider approval of ordinance number 26-11292, levying special assessments on certain properties for the payment of costs of nuisance abatements.

Ms. Pack?

Good afternoon, Mayor and Commissioners. Debbie Pack, Director of Finance and Administration. Throughout the year... Property owners receive notifications of any city code violations for property maintenance. The way the process works is usually the code enforcement officer investigates any code violation that's reported or complaint. A notice is sent to the deed owner of the property. giving the owner a specific amount of time to fix the problem. The code enforcement officer waits until that deadline passes and performs a follow-up inspection to confirm the status. If it's fixed, no problem. It goes away. If the violation still exists, then code enforcement proceeds to have that situation abated, whether it's mowing or cleanup or whatever that situation might be. After that abatement is done, the contractor submits a bill to the city and the finance department sends a notice to the property owner stating the amount that they owe for that particular abatement and gives the property owner 30 days to pay that cost. If that cost isn't paid within that 30-day period, that cost is assessed to the property owner's taxes. And so this is the part of that process that we have. Since the 2025 certification, which was this time last year, we've had a total of $212,886.58 in abatements, which was 424 violations across 282 unique properties. of which 59,250, there is a change to your number because we did get a payment last Friday, so the number has changed just a little bit. $59,250.09 was paid, which is about 27%, and that leaves $153,636.49, or 263 violations, across 164 unique properties that will be assessed by this ordinance. Staff has identified the following options. You can approve ordinance 26-11292, levying special assessments against certain lots and pieces of property, pay the cost of abatement of nuisance. You can postpone consideration, or you can vote to deny the ordinance, which would leave the cost of those abatements to the city as their responsibility. I would stand for any questions.

I have one. What is the difference between a property and a unique property?

It would be, I'm looking at Nikki because she does. Just multiple violations. Unique properties have more than one violation. So my house could have five violations. Yeah. So unique property is that every unique parcel that has a violation, some of those could have multiples.

So if I only have- One violation, I'm not unique?

Yes, you're in unique property, but you're still within the violation total number.

All right. Did Patrick help you write this?

No. This is something we write every year.

Adding words?

Yeah. Yeah. It's just important to know that we don't always have 424 properties that have them. There's a lot that have multiple violations.

Thank you.

Yep.

OK, any comments from the public? OK, if not, I'll bring it back to the commission for action.

Mr. Mayor, I move for approval of ordinance number 26-11292, levying special assessments on certain properties for the payment of costs of nuisance abatements.

Second. We have a motion and a second to approve ordinance number 26-11292, levying special assessments against certain lots and pieces of property to pay the cost of abatement of nuisances. May we have a roll call, please?

Commissioner Davis?

Aye.

Commissioner Lankowitz?

Aye.

Commissioner Remp?

Aye.

Mayor Hoppeck?

Aye. That item passes 5-0. That will bring us to item 5.2. 4-0. 4-0. 4-0.

item 5.2 consider approval of ordinance number 26-11293 approving the blue beacon lunch block party as a special event and authorizing the consumption of alcoholic liquor within the boundaries of barricaded street right-of-way areas

Good afternoon, Mayor and Commissioners. Ron Marsh, Director of Public Works. Blue Beacon has submitted a special event permit application as well as an application for an alcoholic beverage special event retailer's permit for a Blue Beacon Lunch Block Party event scheduled to take place on Thursday, September 17, 2026 on Graves Boulevard. The special event retailer's permit is the only portion requiring city commission approval. The remaining items can be approved administratively by city staff through the special event review and approval process. If approved, the event boundaries will be clearly identified by barricade signage, a posted map, and other reasonable means as required by state law in chapter five of this line of code. Approval of the ordinance will have no significant financial impact on the city beyond the routine provision of traffic control devices and other city services associated with the approved special event permit. Your options are to adopt ordinance number 26-11293, approving the Blue Beacon Lunch Block Party as a special event and authorizing the possession and consumption of alcoholic liquor within the approved event boundaries. Number two, adopt ordinance 26-11293, with modifications. Postpone consideration of the request to a specified date and time and allow additional information to be provided by the applicant or staff or to decline to adopt ordinance number 26-11293. Staff recommendation is to approve the ordinance. I'll stand for any questions.

Any questions?

Thank you for being quick and I think Blue Beacon has been a good community member. for many decades, but thank you.

Okay, any comments from the public?

If not, I will bring this item back. I move for the adoption of Ordinance 26-11293, approving the Blue Beacon Lunch Block Party as a special event and authorizing the possession and consumption of alcoholic liquor within the approved event boundaries.

I'll second that.

We have a motion and a second to adopt ordinance number 26-11293, approving the Blue Beacon Lunchbox Party as a special event and authorizing the possession and consumption of alcoholic liquor within the approved event boundaries. May we have a roll call, please?

Commissioner Davis?

Aye.

Commissioner Lankowitz? Aye. Commissioner Rimp?

Aye.

Mayor Hoppeck?

Aye. That item passes 4-0. That will lead us to item 5.3.

Item 5.3, authorize the city manager to execute agreements with Dragon Corporation, ALS Global USA Corp., and Pace Analytical for remedial design and remedial action work plan seven at the former Schilling Air Force Base in the combined amount of $367,636. Ms. Tasker.

Thank you, Mayor and Commissioners. Martha Tasker, Director of Utilities. The item before you today pertains to work out at the former Schilling Air Force Base. In April of 2021, the City Commission approved an agreement with the Dragan Corporation for services to be performed by itself and their sub-consultant and a random number of specialty contractors. And that was an amount not to exceed of $5,440,122. But it did not include the majority of the specialty contractors, which we'll talk about PACE Analytical and ALS. analytical later today. And it was anticipated that those costs would be in the range of $550,000. The specialty contractors were selected through a bidding process, and then an agreement was entered into through the public entities, which is the city, Salina Airport Authority, USD 305, and K-State. So for our item today, there's an additional cost for the Dragan Corporation and it's for work plan number seven, which is the 2026 through 2027 monitoring of groundwater, residential well water, and indoor air. Our plan was approved by KDHE on July 23rd of 2026, so we are anxious to get started on this groundwater sampling because the last time we did sampling was in 2023 and 2024. And basically, for this additional work, the cost for Dragon is $299,827. And in your packet, you'll find the information that defines the work that they're going to do. And that work will typically take place in August of 2026 and August of 2027 for two separate sampling activities. Provided kind of a summary of the work that falls into play with Dragon and the extra projects that's been assigned and what they actually were. What I noticed was the work plan in 2023 and 2024 had a price tag of $234,684. And in 2627, that's 299,827, just to give you a benchmark for the difference between the two time periods. Next, we'll move to ALS Global. And the work that they're going to do is testing the groundwater residential wells and testing any wastewater that's generated during this testing to ensure it can be disposed of properly. And the cost for this portion of work from ALS is $57,390. And a total breakdown of that work is attached in the exhibits. The difference between 2023, 2024 sampling and now is roughly about $30,000. And the main difference there is we changed to a new sampling method that's required for the PFAS, and we're doing additional sampling to meet KDHE requirements. and the sample before was maybe 175 dollars and now we're up to about 395 dollars so that's a big share of this additional cost just to give you an idea and then pace will do the indoor air sampling and they'll be looking at 19 buildings and their cost for this work is $10,419, which is just a few hundred dollars more than it was back in 2023 and 2024. So that compares closely. And typically with our plans that we submit to KDHE, we have an overall design concept. Once we get into the actual doing the work, that's where this additional work and additional costs come into play. So hopefully that helps a little bit. The fiscal note you mentioned earlier of how many dollars we have in the balance for this project. Right now we have $69,402,000. thousand dollars and change i provided a summary of the dragon las and pace totals and including all of the costs allotted today we're still roughly about two million dollars under the overall budget for this work so moving along um The options that staff offers is to approve and authorize the city manager to execute the agreements for work plan seven for the 2026-2027 annual monitoring at the former Schilling Air Force Base or approve the agreements with some type of amendments, postpone consideration, or deny executing the agreement. I'd be glad to answer any questions you may have.

Any questions for Ms. Haster? Okay, any comments from the public?

You've seen the front page of today's paper? Delay in the money. Delay, delay, delay. Right on the front page of this line of paper. Better look at it for this cleanup at the base. all bases in the United States. So you ain't got the money.

Please give us your name and where you're from.

Good afternoon, y'all. I'm a manager for Greenfield Contractors.

Can we have your name, please? Bill Sorrell. Okay, thank you.

I'm a manager for Greenfield Contractors. We're an environmental construction company. We've been in town for about 30 years. 30 years ago, all that could have been cleaned up for $20 million. I do work with Scott O'Neill and Brett. I also work with Burns and McDonald's and Arcadis, two of the largest engineering firms in the United States. Now, City of Salinas has sat on their butts. We allowed that plume to get across into the residential area because we haven't done anything. There's only a few systems that can be installed there. Now, we took care of and installed the thermal system there on Santa Fe for Koch Industries. That was very, very bad, and you never get 100% of it cleaned up unless you get rid of the elevators. So there's always going to be that potential of contamination setting right here in downtown area. But what gets me is, Debbie said something about another 30 years. That is bull crap, guys. There's only a few systems you can put in. There should have been some air spars, soil vapor extraction wells installed in that many years ago with some stripper systems out there to stop that plume. Now we've got a $50, $60 million deal, and it's going to go more than that. It could maybe go to 30 more years. That's not acceptable, guys. It is not acceptable. This can be done. You just gotta get off your bottoms. You got to get it done. By letting these engineering firms keep billable hours is how all this gets to where it's at. It needs to be taken care of. That's all I got to say, thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay, I will bring it back to the commission for action.

Move to approve and authorize the city manager to execute the agreements for remedial design and remedial action, work plan 7, 2627, annual monitoring of groundwater, residential well water, and indoor air monitoring at the former Schilling Air Force Base site with Dragan, ALS, and PACE as provided.

Second that.

We have a motion and a second. Approving and authorizing the city manager to execute the agreement for remedial design, remedial action, work plan 7, 2026-2027 annual monitoring of groundwater, residential well water, and indoor air monitoring at the former Schilling Air Force Base site with Dragon, ALS, and PACE as provided. All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? That item passes 4-0. that will bring us to development business.

Item 6.1, consider approval of ordinance number 26-1129 for rezoning lot 7, less the highway right-of-way in the interstate district north of I-70 lots 4 through 7 addition from C7, highway commercial, to C5, service commercial.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Commissioners. Dustin Michelson with Planning and Zoning. So this item is a consideration of ordinance number 26-11294. This relates to a case ZMA 26-004, a rezoning request filed by Mike Harvey on behalf of Bobcat of Salina for a 1.8 acre track located at 645 West Diamond Drive. You can go to the next slide. Let's go to, yeah. The applicant's requesting a zoning map amendment to transition this 1.8 eight acre property from his current C7 highway commercial zoning to a C5 service commercial district zoning. Next slide. So looking at the immediate area around it, this corridor features a mix of commercial and industrial zoning. The properties immediately to the west, which include the Morton Buildings property and the Bobcat dealership are already zoned C5 service commercial. And go to the next slide. a little bit of background the slot was originally planted in 1974 but has never been developed in 2008 the city established a special benefit district to finance infrastructure upgrades bringing street paving water and sewer access to this parcel and those along that south side of west diamond drive which laid the groundwork for for commercial development there next slide So according to the applicant, the primary driver behind this request is having consistency with the properties adjacent to it in the zoning of those. While the applicant has indicated that they don't have immediate construction plans for the site, extending the C5 designation matches the neighboring properties to the west and sets a uniform zoning across the applicant's properties and the south side of West Diamond Drive. Next slide. So the C5 district accommodates a broad range of service-oriented businesses, such as equipment sales and offices. Any future development would meet standard C5 bulk regulations, and the 1.8 acre lot size provides more than 10 times the required 7,500 square foot minimum lot size. Next slide. So in evaluating the site suitability for development, there is one fact that's up front here that it's remained vacant since 1974, which would suggest that there's a potential for the C7 zoning to be too restrictive or or not appropriate for what could be developed there. So transitioning to C5 expands the viability of the site for development. And because it abuts existing C5 zoning, we wouldn't be creating an isolated spot zoning. One thing to point out there on this slide is it does have partial coverage of the special flood hazard area, so any future development on that site would have to adhere to the floodplain development criteria, which would require development be done a foot above base flood elevation on that site. Next slide. So character in the neighborhood, this amendment would align with the established character of West Diamond Drive, which already supports a mix of equipment dealerships and service facilities. And approving this rezoning request would kind of unify the zoning along that side of Diamond Drive without disrupting neighboring uses. Next slide. So thanks to the 2008 Special Benefit District, public utilities are in place and ready to serve the site. When development does occur, stormwater would be managed according to city standards and the site would not overtax our public school system or emergency services. Next slide. Regarding the traffic, future C5 uses generally generate similar or even lower volumes than the high volume interstate uses that are permitted under the current C7 zoning. Because the lot would remain vacant for now, there would be no immediate impact on street network or safety hazards. Next slide. So the requested rezoning is supported by this the comp plan which already designates this property for commercial use and it meets all locational and development criteria by sitting on a key commercial corridor. Next slide. On July 21st, the Planning Commission held a public hearing on this request and voted 8-0 to recommend approval to the City Commission. In their findings, the Commission noted that the half-century of vacancy proves that The current C7 zoning is not conducive to development here. They found that the proposed C7 zoning is compatible with the neighborhood's established character, conforms to the comp plan, and is fully supported by existing infrastructure. Ultimately, they concluded that advancing this rezoning promotes public welfare by setting the stage to potentially develop a property that has sat vacant for 50 years. And next slide. So the City Commission has four options tonight. You can adopt the ordinance as it was presented. You can return it to the Planning Commission with the stated reasons for their disagreement and have them reevaluate that recommendation. You could postpone consideration or you could deny the application with alternate findings stating the reasons for that action. The first three of those would require three votes, and a denial would require a 2 3rds majority vote, so four votes. And next slide. So staff recommends adoption of ordinance number 26-11294, and we do have a recommended motion up there on the screen for you as well. And that concludes my presentation. Welcome to answer any questions.

Any questions or comments?

Explained it well.

I think the Planning Commission covered it. Any comments from the public?

Okay, if not, I will bring it back to the Commission for action.

Move to agree with the recommendation of the Planning Commission and Approve ordinance number 26-11294, rezoning the subject property from C7 highway commercial to C5 service commercial.

I'll second that. We have a motion and a second approving the adoption of ordinance number 26-11294, rezoning the subject property from C7 Highway Commercial to C5 Service Commercial. May we have a roll call, please?

Commissioner Davis?

Aye.

Commissioner Lankowitz?

Aye.

Commissioner Repp?

Aye.

Mayor Hoppeck?

Aye. That item passes 4-0. That will bring us to item 6.2.

Item 6.2, consider approval of ordinance number 26-11295, providing for the annexation of right-of-way along the future extension of Virginia Drive.

Ms. Driscoll.

Mayor, commissioners.

Scott, if you could go one slide in. Thanks. We are discussing Virginia Drive right-of-way annexation. This annexation is roughly 45,516 square feet of public street right-of-way. This is being conveyed to the city by GZH LLC. It is located along the planned extension of Virginia Drive, and this annexation includes right-of-way only, not the remainder of the GZH property. Next slide, please. To give you a better visual description, you can see where Virginia Drive comes off of Magnolia to the north and drops down. GZH is due south of the Menards property, and this portion of the right-of-way is the half that belongs to gzh the other half has already been deeded to the city for right-of-way by the developers of the Salina destination project this map is just an overall aerial gives you an idea of to the easement that we'll be speaking about and some of the other relevant properties in this project next slide please Virginia Drive currently extends roughly 1,600 feet south of Magnolia Road, taking it just to the end of the property where Menards ends near their lumber yard entrance. I should say that Virginia Drive is identified as a collector street by the city street classification map. That's relevant in the fact that Virginia Drive is always meant to be extended. It is meant to collect as development comes around it. the smaller streets and bringing the traffic to Virginia. So this has been long anticipated that Virginia would need to continue expanding south. This is a planned connection, and there is a Virginia Drive on the other side, and the proposed extension will be approximately 1,000 feet south of where The current connection is to what will soon be Shenandoah Drive when other future projects develop. And Shenandoah Drive, as we'll see here in a minute in some of the pictures, is what would run east at the bottom of the Salina Destination project, starting to connect the aeroplanes project. Virginia Drive does require public right-of-way from both sides of the roadway to make it a complete road. and GZH has now deeded the remaining half. There are 28 acres that are not right-of-way, will of course stay in the county, but now that those, the right-of-way has been dedicated and deeded to us, we own it, and it needs to be annexed and become part of the city. This is just a brief graphic that shows how the right-of-way will continue and then identified as track one, and then track two identifies where the easement will be for the street turnaround. Next slide. Just kind of give you one more look at how this all works together. As I mentioned, Aeroplanes is to the west. There will be a connection that comes along from Yeager up to Shenandoah at the bottom of Salina Destination and connect over to Virginia, giving it that east-west connection. And that has been planned as a benefit district where we have a petition. That Shenandoah Drive won't actually come to fruition until Aeroplanes develops its It's second half of the project and that's relevant from the timing and why we have worked with a care property and GZH to alter Where the easement typically would be? You know the next slide please So as you can see from that picture, Virginia Drive terminates right there as the care properties. There's actually two of them where they begin. And if you were, the right-of-way comes all the way down, but if we were to construct the turnaround there, it would basically be in their backyard. And they've known this is coming for a while, but in working with them and GZH, which is not ready to develop at the moment. They were happy to give easement for a right of way on or I'm sorry, give easement for a turnaround on their property so that the care property did not have that turnaround time until the road comes into full development. So giving that a little bit more space. GZH has granted us a public street easement for the turnaround, which is slightly different than right-of-way. It basically gives us permission to use private property in a particular way. That easement can be vacated once Shenandoah Drive is in place, but the public street needs to be in right-of-way. That specifically identifies the ability to put utilities and other critical infrastructure in that property. Next slide, please. And as I mentioned, why annexation versus right-of-way? Actually, Kansas law allows a city to annex city-owned property that is adjacent to the city. So this is an ideal situation in which that half of the road is now city property, so we would annex it in. And that is the primary request tonight. Next slide, please. is no direct fiscal impact associated with this annexation future street maintenance begins following construction and city acceptance of the street no street that's constructed is becomes part of the city city inventory until it's finalized from public works and make sure it meets our standards and then annexation allows for the construction of virginia drive extension to proceed so staff's recommendation is that you approve ordinance 26 11 295 and If you do not, you could send the ordinance back to staff and give additional recommendations on how we would change that. If you deny this ordinance, it would leave the property outside city limits and delay construction of Virginia Drive. I'm happy to take any questions.

One quick question, Ms. Lauren.

Yes.

Will Virginia Drive, will that eventually go all the way to Schilling by chance? Will it ever... Well, never go all the way through.

It's possible. I mean, without kind of working with public works and how that will develop out, some of it will depend on the future of how the carers decide to develop their property, if they do or don't. But the long range plan is you would ideally connect to the residential neighborhood to the south.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah. Any other questions or comments? No. Any comments from the public on this item? Okay, if not, I will bring it back to the commission for action.

I guess so I don't get shut out. I'll move that we approve ordinance number 26-11295, providing for the annexation of a certain tract of land in Saline County, Kansas in conformity with the provisions of KSA. 12-519 to 12-526, inclusive. I'll second that.

We have a motion and a second to approve ordinance number 26-11295, providing for the annexation of a certain tract of land in Saline County, Kansas, conformity with the provision of KSA 12-519 to 12-526, inclusive. May we have a roll call, please?

Commissioner Davis?

Aye.

Commissioner Linkowitz?

Aye.

Commissioner Rem?

Aye.

Mayor Hoppeck?

Aye. That item passes 4-0. Okay, that will bring us to other business. Is there an item a commissioner would like to bring before the?

I got a couple of comments. I guess I'll start with talking to one of our community members this past week. She commended Brett with Parks and Rec and I just wanted to make sure, I don't think I've ever met Brett, but she spoke very highly of how responsive he's been and just wanted to commend Brett. Number two, I think A lot of people in the room know that I went to a wedding in Michigan, saw family and friends, and I just wanted to say my wife and I flew out of Salina. We flew back into Salina. Couldn't have been more convenient, couldn't have been easier. I haven't always had great luck, but the bad luck has been in years gone by. Traffic has picked up substantially. And it really made flying in and out easy. And last but not least, I just wanted to thank our city manager, Mr. Jacob, for getting the RFPs out for the shelter so we could move that forward. Thank you. Thank you.

I really... Don't have anything to add. I always like to talk about something positive. And our city manager already mentioned it, but Station 4 is open, and they have their first shift running out of there today. And I believe we plan on having some type of open house or something in the near future for the public, correct?

Yeah, we will have a ribbon cutting and an open house probably in the next 30 days sometime. So we'll look forward to getting that scheduled.

So look for that, and we'll make that announcement. when we know the date.

So with that, that will bring us to- Yeah, I would if I could, I just want to kind of provide a little bit of an update on where we're at with the water process. So as you know, we did a bid for a project for Dover, Larson, 10th and 11th Street. We received four bids for that project on Thursday. The low bid is about $2 million, just over $2 million. The high bid was about $3.7 million. The city will be reviewing those bids just to make sure everything's appropriate. And then we will hope to bring that back to the city commission at the next meeting. So that would be the 24th. And if we are able to get that on by the 24th, I anticipate we might have construction start in the next 45 days. So we're going to push really hard to get it approved. And then also have to go through the contract process and get that approved as well. So hopefully we can have that project start as quickly as possible. The rebate program that was approved by the City Commission a few weeks ago is live, so we are taking. If somebody wants to provide an address, say they have issues, we will look at that. We've received about 15 applications at this point. We're working through the testing on those projects. There's been a little bit of conversation in the community about water testing. And there's been a water test that's been circulated around Facebook that shows some things that aren't great in our system. I just want to talk a little bit about the process that we use to test water. So KDHE requires that we have 50 tests done within the city for bacteriological sampling. That's done. There are basically 50 zones within the cities. Each zone has six different testing sites. And those are tested once a month. So we do 50 tests. We send those in. We have not had any violations for E. coli or anything like that dating back to, it's on KDHE's website. It dates back to 2003. And we have not had any. any concerns or issues with that. We have had a few test positive for coliform and basically what you do coliform doesn't say that you have bacteria in the water but it makes you think maybe we might have an issue so anytime we've had that test KDHU requires you to do additional testing and so if there's a site that has tested positive for coliform then we do sites kind of on either side of that and see what the results look like and the second test has never come back with any coliform so We do do testing quite often within the system. We haven't really had any issues. We are, as a result of some of these tests that have been floating around, we are going to have a third party go out and test some water throughout the city. I think we'll probably just take the list of 15 applications and have a third party go out and test those houses to make sure that they don't have any issues and concerns with the water. We don't have any concerns with the water. Everything, all the tests that we've had going back a pretty long ways have been positive, good, not positive as in bad, but they've been good tests. So we don't have any concerns as a city. KDHE hasn't expressed any concerns with us and the water that we're producing out in the system. There's also been some discussion about lead pipe in our system. I just want to be clear. The city does not have or we're not aware of any lead pipe mains that the city has. EPA has mandated that all cities across the country kind of take a look and see what service lines are still lead. We have about 500 locations in the city, so there's been some talk out on there that there's 500 places that have lead lines. Well, that's not necessarily the case. There's 500 places that have been identified that we just are unsure about, and we have sent notices out to the community to to ask them, hey, what are your service lines? And we are required to replace those at some point in the future. So we are gathering that data. If somebody has lead service lines and they know it, they need to contact us and let us know. We'll come out and get those on a list. But we are not aware of any lead in our mains. There are no lead pipes that we have that are part of our system that we're aware of. If we were aware of it, we would replace it immediately. So that is something that's out there. Still working on the water main replacement plan. City Commission, several weeks ago, told city staff that you want us to focus on that and to try and do more. Coming up with a plan for that is gonna take a little bit of time. But we are working through that, and we will have a plan that can come back to the city commission probably in the next 30 to 60 days. I'm hopeful that we'll have to have a discussion about water rates for 2027 anyway. We do that every fall as part of the budget process. So I'm hopeful that we'll be able to roll out some sort of a plan for water main replacement where we're doing more than what we're doing today. So with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions if you have any.

Thank you.

One question. Have we had any further investigation into options of, I'm going to say the chemical wrong. Ben, could you help me out?

Yeah, so I'd be happy to address the chloramine is one of the chemicals that's in our treatment process. We do have a company, Black & Veatch, has been hired. The city commission approved them to come in and take a look at our downtown water treatment plant. We have used chloramine for a really long time. Chloramine is a very commonly used disinfectant that cities use. I think if you Google out there, you'll find seven or eight cities. Typically in Kansas, the cities that have river water, that treat river water, chloramine is a very commonly used chemical. We use chloramine. We also put other additives in the water that helps to... to keep the corrosivity of chloramine from causing impacts on the system. But we do have Black & Veatch is going to come back and make some recommendations. I don't know what those recommendations will be. They will certainly be about making our downtown plant more efficient. We haven't done anything significant in the downtown plant in over 20 years. So it's time to do that. We recognize that. And we will go through that process.

OK. Thank you.

Yeah, one of the things, as all this is coming back, you do a little bit of research on the chloramine. I did find a deal where it says approximately 30% of Americans have chloramine in their drinking water, and it's been around since the 30s. So it's used to kill bacteria and viruses, and one of the benefits is it lasts longer than free chlorine water. And so that was just a little bit of the information I picked up on the chloramine because I'd never heard of it before, didn't have any clue what it did. Okay, with that, we will open it up to Citizens Forum. This is an opportunity for individuals to come forward and any comments they would have. We ask you to give your name. We have a new system. We'll see how this works. We have a clock that will give you your three minutes. I believe there will be a sound, a buzzer that will go off when three minutes is up. So, first one.

Sherry Spratland, Overdrive. I did have two individuals out to my house today to test my water from the KDHE, and I won't get those results back for at least a week. And I will have them redo it because nobody wore gloves. And one of the containers that they took samples in, it was a little flat vinyl thing like a balloon, and they blew into it and then took the sample. Well, it's already contaminated. by that. So I'm going to have somebody else come from the EPA out of Kansas City has contacted me and they will be taking samples. I appreciate the fact that you did get it out for bid, appreciate the fact that you look at the bid. I don't appreciate the fact that the city itself has not done anything for any of the residents. I had a lady send me a sample, a video that lives on Millwood. of her urine specimen when she went to the doctor. And the laboratory people, and I have the video, the laboratory people told her that was from the city water. Now, you guys got to get a grip on this. This stuff is more important than ever putting in a river project or building a bridge or anything else because you won't have anybody around. They'll all be dead because you poisoned them with the damn water. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Sherry.

Rosemary Mai, Celina. I just wanted to bring it to your attention and the public attention that the Granny Brigade's August meeting this month will be on Tuesday, the 18th of August at 7 PM at the Carver Center at 215 North 2nd Street. And our topic will be fraud and scams. And our speaker will be George McCurry from the Attorney General's Office, Division out of the Attorney General's Office. And he will be informing us on how to protect ourselves from frauds and scams. And it's a meeting you don't want to miss because if you listen to the radio, there's been a – on 311 and Salina Post. There's always been somebody here that's been scammed in the last year, so this would be a meeting that you might want to come. And also, while I'm up here, the Granny Brigade is in partnership with Salina Share and the Missing Socks on helping the residents of Dover, Millwood, and North 11th Street to get their laundry done if they have the brown dirty water. We raised some funds with partnership with the Salinas Share and we're going to allow them to do their wash at Missing Socks and he has partnered with us and is going to match us for dollar for dollar. So if I haven't gotten your name and address, because he will ask for an ID when you come in. So if I haven't gotten your name and address, see me after the meeting tonight and get it to me so that I can get it to Missing Socks. Thank you very much.

What time is that meeting on the 18th? 7 o'clock. Thank you.

Thank you.

Manuel Salina, follow up on chloramine. Chloramine is not bad as far as municipalities. It's a combination with another chemical that's being put into the city water that actually makes it fast track what it's doing, it makes it very aggressive. It's not the chloramine itself, it's a combination of the chemicals in Martha Tasker's cocktail. Last meeting, I put out there exactly what the study that was provided to me from an outside entity as to what our water is doing to the infrastructure of water mains, corporate stops plugging up. individual water services and a large portion of the community's businesses and individual homes having their lines destroyed from the inside out. You all have been sent a detailed proposal from a Kevin Corb, including the city manager, and all four of you commissioners have got this in regarding to putting a seven-year plan in place and every detail needed to change the first 55 to 65 miles of needed mains, including where to get the funding and a list of contractors to reach out to to get the job done. So, I'm going to ask every individual in this room that if you think that clean, safe water is more important than a new moving river through town, please stand up and stay standing. I'm going to put this in a way that you commissioners would have from the city on any agenda item that recommends that you vote yes. And I'm going to change one word. We, as the bosses of the four commissioners behind that desk, demand that every non-essential city project be put on hold. All money earmarked for any non-needed at this time project be transferred back into the water fund. All lawsuits stop. extra money beyond the $15 million in the general fund be put into the water fund, and that you, the commissioners, move forward and direct the city manager to put a plan together with the help of someone like Kevin Korb to get our drinking water taken care of right now. Not two years from now, right now.

Leave the room, guys. Leave the room.

These people are your bosses. They are the ones that are talking.

We are the ones going through this. And we want something done right now. Thank you. Thank you.

My name is Diana Frobenius. And I'm here today basically to educate myself. I don't know about the timing, but I have some questions that I'd like answers to. I'd like to know what exactly the general fund is for.

Well, you can ask the questions and we'll get back with you.

We're not gonna answer all those right now, but if you'll do that and- Then I will read my list of questions.

Okay.

Out of what account are the two females from the shelter being paid their wages and why? And out of what account are their legal fees being paid and why? When can we see the test results from the last water tower that wasn't emptied on time? Why do we hire so many companies to come in and make recommendations? We have smart, intelligent, good companies right here in Salina or in Kansas. Have we stopped the cozy in legal battle, and if not, why? I mean, there's got to be a reason why. What is the plan to get our pipes replaced? And I think that was covered very well just now. And do you have anyone working on grants for the FEMA with help with our water? And that was my questions. Thank you.

Susan Cooper, Salina. I have gotten some information that I didn't have before. I didn't live in Salina when all of this business about the river project was going on. But I have found out that, yes, in 2017, apparently, it did come to the city commissioners. And yes, it was approved, even though the voters voted it down in 2010. I guess my question, and I learned a long time ago in my profession that I should never ask a question why, because that's accusatory. So I will ask it this way. Your justification for going from $1.3 million per year for the River Renewal Project to $5 million, and according to the 25 budget listed on the Kansas website, it said that $5 million was taken out of the general funds in 25 for the river renewal and then again in 26 you took another five million dollars out of the budget for the river renewal but yet you have a seven hundred thousand dollar shortfall that you're going to want increased mill levy or you're going to want increased property taxes Salina is the only town I know of that can take a perfectly good sidewalk, tear it up, and put in a wider sidewalk. Personally, I think we have enough of the hiking, biking trails. Where are they in North Salina? Are there any in North Salina? I don't know. I think that if you are wanting to spend our money prudently, you need to do more with the water projects. And I am appalled that $4 million every other year is what you have allocated for replacement of water lines. You guys are not doing what you're supposed to do. And in my household, if I don't have the money for something, I don't do it. I do without. And it's about time you guys figured out what it is that is important in the city of Salina and put your funding and your efforts to that purpose. project and primarily it's the water. You can't, art cannot let you drink water. Thank you.

Thank you.

I think I gave you my notes there too, Nick. You can look. Was my notes in there?

You have one copy. I gave it to Jacob. Oh, did you need that?

Oh, yeah.

That might not have struggled to read my phone.

Getting old as hell. Tony Johnson, Salina, Mayor and Commissioners, I want to talk about something that's concerned every taxpayer in this city, the enforcement of the city's own rules when hundreds of thousands of dollars are at stake. On January 1st, 2024, the city implemented landfill fees based on whether loads are secured or unsecured. The city's own website clearly defines the difference. An unsecured load is charged double the secured rate. Then on June 17, 2026, the city entered into a contract for the demolition of the Ambassador Hotel. The contract wasn't vague. It specifically says the contractor is limited to eight landfill loads per day unless the contractor provides a man and machine to keep the dump pile pushed up. And Section 1, under general specifications, Item 6, says very clearly normal disposal fees will apply. So what happened? Through core records, we discovered the contractor was only being charged the secured rate of $100 per ton. But the trailers being used to haul this material did not have tarps. Under the city's own landfill fee schedule, these loads should have been classified as unsecured, carrying a $200 per ton fee. The records show the city landfill ultimately forfeited approximately $325,159.40 in dump fee revenue. That's $325,000 of lost revenue in a year with a budget crunch. And it gets worse. The contractor exceeded the eight-load-per-day limit on more than half the days, yet there was no man and machine on site to satisfy that exception. that was written into the contract. So let me ask this commission, why put requirements into a contract if the city isn't going to enforce them? And there's another cost taxpayers need to consider. I confirmed that Sean Furbeck, the city's dangerous structures inspector, essentially had to babysit this project following loads to the landfill to verify that the material was being disposed of properly. That's city staff time, that's taxpayer-funded labor, and it's another cost that doesn't necessarily show up when someone looks only at the demolition contract. Commissioners, this isn't about whether someone likes the contractor. It's not about politics. It's about whether the city follows its own rules. If the rules apply to everyone else, they need to apply here. And if the city failed to do so, then taxpayers deserve a straightforward explanation of why and who was responsible for making sure it happened. Because $325,000 is simply too much to donate to a contractor's bottom line and move on. The taxpayers deserve accountability, they deserve consistency, and most importantly, they deserve a city government that follows the rules and rights for everyone else. Thank you. Thank you.

Yes, go ahead.

I'm Lucille Sanderson, City of Salina. I wonder how many of the citizens realize that your slew problem from the old air pace started back in the 1960s. They didn't address it, but it started when they left because they were dumping stuff on the ground. I understand that no city employee is allowed to speak to a commissioner in a meeting or even away from the meetings. I mean, you see them on the street. I understand they're not allowed to talk to them. And this housing development out on the air base, Are they inspected as they're being built? The reason I made this remark, not yesterday, but a week ago, I went out and I went into some of these houses. Do you realize that the garage already has cracks in the concrete? I wonder why. Where was the inspector making sure that where that concrete was going to be poured was solid enough? there's cracks and the next stupid thing the storm shelter is in the floor in a two-car garage where in the heck are they gonna put that car if they need to get the shelter right mr davis good question i know you're listening but you're not looking all right i want to know you did you have children and i expect when you were talking to them you asked them to look at you And if they didn't, you politely told them to. Now, to the animal shelter. I don't know how to phrase this. But I don't think they had a strong enough leader above them. You needed somebody with knowledge, knowledge in that field. And when you give it to that person, you did not give up. He did not have the knowledge of how to do this. Now, I was almost afraid if anybody walked on the yard of the new station number four, they might have sunk out of sight because I don't know how long that water was running over the curb, running clear down to Sites Drive before it went into a storm drain.

Three times a day.

How many gallons of water went over that? that could have been used on Dover. It went in the storm. They couldn't use it at all. And your Riverwalk. Give up on it. You're tearing up sidewalk along Belmont, no, Magnolia for a bike and hike track. That's going to be great. You've got trails, hikes in Jerry Ivey Park. You're not going to get that river park going. I took a long time, didn't I?

No, you took your time. It's your time. Three minutes. Yeah.

My name is Shirley Ruffus. I live on Millwood Drive. I heard that Larson Street... was put on the water list, and I never seen anybody here talk about Larson Street. But Millwood Street went off the list. I'd like to know why. Anybody tell me?

We'll have to get back with you. I do not know.

Well, Vicki and I both have been here. to every meeting and we both live on Millwood Drive. Vicki has lived in Salina, Kansas all her life and you take her off the list and put Larson on when I haven't seen or heard anybody here from Larson? Come on, think about us, please.

I think what the mayor was saying was Well, I'll answer it from my perspective. We don't micromanage every department, every day's activity. It'd be impossible for us to do it. Some of it's technically too challenging. We wouldn't know how to do it. We are the go-between between you and the city administration and staff. We'll collect the concerns, and we do bring these concerns up the link. But to give you an answer to that specific question,

a question the four of us aren't in a position probably to know that right now but we can get the answer back to you gloria duffy celina i just wanted to let you know that my mom and dad lived on larson from 1998 to 2022 and constantly calling about their water thank you

Terry Walsh, Salina. At one meeting, it was mentioned about having a citizen on the committee for all the water line replacement plus the, I mean, if you're going to check the water, you need to be able to have a... Well, I'd have to say somebody on the other side because it doesn't seem like to a lot of people that anything's moving fast enough. And I understand it's not something that you can snap your fingers and fix, but do they have a committee and is there a citizen involved? I mean, I think it would help answer a lot of questions if you had somebody that could be there And give people answers. I'm not saying give out any specifics. I'm saying, you know, keep them up to date on what's going on. And I understand they've made strides toward getting the lines replaced, and I'll probably never see it. I'll never live long enough to see it all get done. But a lot of friends of mine are having a lot of trouble and I would like to see them stick around. And another thing is personal property taxes went sky high. But if you go to sell your house, one of the first questions they ask right now is, do you have bad water? Because if you do, you better take the price down real quick. But you can take the personal property taxes up They're exponentially. It's ridiculous. And one thing I don't understand is on this rebate, who's making the decisions, and I'm not trying to be rude about it, but who's making the decisions on who, what, when, and where? Because it just doesn't seem fair to me. Nobody has, you know, I understand you don't have every answer to every question right now. And I understand that you don't. I get that. But can we get some citizens involved? You know, every little bit of help doesn't hurt.

Yeah, I don't believe there's a committee that's been formed that has any, but like I said, we're putting together a water plan, so we'll make sure we'll keep everybody informed.

I know, but what's wrong with having a citizen involved in that? Really, Joe?

No, they don't want you involved. The city manager had a question. Correct me if I'm wrong, but a couple of weeks ago you met with citizens in that Yes, I have. Do they get any regular mail?

We have a meeting here every two weeks. We've talked about water at every single meeting since we had the study session. So no, I haven't been providing weekly updates. I'm not sure that we're making... I mean, I'll provide updates when we have them. But I just don't have a whole lot to report. The policy, the rebate policy is posted on our web page. And you can see all the standards and what it looks like and how we've put that together. So that's all available. And you can call, call, and we'll come out. I mean, we haven't had very many. We've only had 15 people call and sign up to be on that list. And at this point, we're looking.

That really disappoints me because I really feel like that maybe people ought to stand up. And we are looking at it. I'm not saying that on your part.

We are looking at having a third party tester to go out and take those tests. So it's not city staff. So I know people don't trust city staff. And so we're looking at a third party to come out and perform some of those tests. I don't have all that worked out just yet. And this is... Nobody else is doing a program like this with a rebate thing. So this is uncharted territory. We're trying to do the best we can. Once we get you signed up, you'll get the rebate that goes back to 2025, and we'll work through that.

I understand that, and that's very good. But have you thought about forming a committee to work on that and adding citizen to the list?

I mean... We haven't had that discussion, but... Is that a no? I don't know what that would look like, so we'll just have to discuss that.

I didn't get my four or three minutes.

Yeah, it stopped while you were talking. Thanks.

I just have one short question.

I guess you just answered it. Go ahead.

Your name, please. I just have one short question. Is there a reason why that application isn't sent out with the water bills? Because there's a lot of people that aren't on the internet or Facebook.

And if they can't, if you call the city clerk's office probably would be the best place. We can get you one.

Yeah, city clerk's office. It's listed on the website. You can call the water department. Either one will get that to somebody.

I'd like you to clarify something to me. When you spoke about lead lines, now, can we get your name again? About 35, 40 years ago, I think we started removing the corporation service supply.

Bill.

Can we get your name again just for the record? Sorry, sorry. Old ears. Sorry about that. Didn't hear. Bill Srault. Okay, Bill. Thank you.

Sorry about that.

Nope.

As I said, I got some bad hearing, so I might not have heard everything you said. But you spoke of water mains. And many years ago, I mean, we didn't have any lead water mains, so to speak. But I dug up a lot of wood lines on 4th Street. You know, that was kind of cool. But so to clarify, when you said lead... Mains. I'm assuming you're talking about the service line from the corporation. Yeah.

I'm saying we do not have any lead mains in the system. It would be, it would be led on the service side. So on the property owner side, from the main to the house, those, there are some, well, we don't know how many now just for the public.

Your kids matter a heck of a lot more than you. If you've got a lead line in your house, you need to bite the bullet. You need to bite the bullet. Find some kind of program that will help you get that water line changed. But lead lines need to be out.

Bill, could you face this way? The microphone, people won't be able to hear you online and stuff. Okay. Please.

I thought I was allowed to. But anyway, to the public, as far as the public goes, if they have a lead service line into their house... We need to get some kind of program or something to help these people if they cannot afford it. They need to bite the bullet on it. You know, we're talking about our children, people moving into these houses. They don't know anything. They're going to be the next bunch of people sitting up here. So I just want to say to anybody that has a lead line, you need to get it taken care of. Thank you. Thank you, Bill. Appreciate it.

Susan Cooper, Celina. First, I meant to thank you. I know that I come with complaints. So when you do something that is positive, I think you need to be thanked for it. I thank you for the cancellation of the Brookwood Trail Bridge, whatever you call it. for $130,000 maybe is what that was. I didn't know until recently that that had been canceled. So it'll be fine. You deserve credit for that. You did listen. Secondly, I want to ask the $700,000 shortfall in the budget this year that I'm hearing that you're wanting increased property tax or you're wanting an increase in mill levy. If you took $5 million out of the general fund and put it over here for the river renewal, why can't you take $700,000 and put it back so that there's not an increase in the property tax or in the mill levy? I mean, it was supposed to be $1.3 million that you were getting per year. And in 25 and in 26, you put $5 million per year. And I saw that on the state of Kansas website, that the 25 budget had the $5 million. So it's not some pipe dream that I came up with. I guess when I start looking at the things that were in the budget, do we really need a new street sweeper? Can we forego the hiking and biking trails at $75,000 a year for the next how many years so that we can put those monies back into getting clean water And I know that if it's brown, it's potable. But getting acceptable water, I'll put it that way, for the city. But I just wanted to say I forgot to tell you thank you.

OK, thank you. We didn't put $5 million two years. We just did a $5 million one year, correct?

Yeah, just one time. You have to ask the case.

The transfer only happened one time. Yeah, we only have once.

Next. Norman, I heard a commissioner comment something about brain issues. CTE. Maybe all of you commissioners ought to go have your medical examination up to date. Brain problems can... Prolong it 20, 30, 40 years. How old are you gentlemen? Evidence right here. So maybe you need to have an annual medical checkup for your brain. You can do it. I've had mine checked. I'm old too. My brain's a little bit out of whack, too. So, that ain't funny.

It is. Okay, Norm, Norm, up here, please. Okay. This isn't...

I mean, we've got to make fun of it sometimes, guys. On this water filter issue, it's a one-time deal. It's like giving a guy drugs and then you take it away from him. You want to do that? I don't do drugs, but I might do the water filter. Civil disobedience. I talked to a lady in McPherson. She's on the radio station. She says, what is going on with your city down there? I said, well, you need to listen to the radio. And I was in Lyons, Mr. Hoffman. I met you, didn't I? You were at the city commission meeting. You moved down here? Bet you took a pay cut. This water issue is more than just one state, gentlemen. It's not only in the central U.S., it's in the western states, it's the whole country. We're running out of water. We are rationing water because we are not getting the rainfall and the snow we used to get. Who'd come up with the parts per million at Canopus Lake when they built that water district? You need to go out of state labs. As for... The comment that you work for us. We have the right to confront our city officials, express our displeasure with you. You work for us. Your ass is grass and the people's feet are the lawn mower. There's a lot of feet out here. So maybe we need to mow the grass if it would rain. Oh, you do irrigate it. You shouldn't be. So you need to watch the DVD. Damnation. It's about water to the whole country. We're running out of water, gentlemen. And you can stop this.

Thank you.

Hi. Nicole Skidmore. I don't have to give my address anymore, do I?

Yeah, you're fine.

I am one of the people who filled out the stuff for the rebate process and all of that. And I know that five of my family members have also done the same thing. So I guess I'm curious as to what is gonna be the process of like, when will testing be started? Like when will people call and show up and say, we're doing this? And is there a timeline? Like after the first one within so many days, because I think it says there's three tests that have to be done. Because I think some of the concern is we're going to put this in there, and then they're going to be like, yeah, you don't meet the requirements. And then we have to wait years and years and years for our stuff to be bad enough to get new pipes and stuff.

Yeah, we'll be reaching out to you in the next couple of weeks. I don't have an exact time frame, but they're working through the testing procedures, and there'll be a couple weeks.

And so they also talked about how the filter... If our area is deemed that we do need assistance and we do need some things to make it better, will we then get a timeline of when things might be fixed for it to be not needing the extra things for the water pipes to be fixed?

Yeah, I mean, that's the plan that we're working on.

We'll be working on our next group of addresses or areas or whatever that need to be addressed once we get done with 10th, 11th. So we're working on that next group.

I just didn't want it to start and then it be like, you know, we do a test now, and then in three months we do the next test, and then in four months we do the next test.

No, it won't be drug out like that. No way. Okay, Nicole, thank you.

Denny Powell from Salina over on Highland Circle. My comments are a little different than everybody else's. In our intersections around our house, we have circles. It's got grass and stuff in it. About 15 years ago, a little over 15 years ago, the city decided not to cut those grass. I don't know whether it was budget cuts or whether it was, I don't know, inconvenient for them. Anyway, they quit cutting it. And so after a while, at one of our block parties, we used to have block parties, we decided as a group neighborhood to cut the grass. So we did that. And the next two weeks... They decided not to cut it again, so I started cutting it. And that was over 15 years ago. And in my neighborhood, a lot of people, including me, put up American flags and decorations in our house for different things that are going up, like fall and Christmas and stuff like that. OK, well, I'm almost 80 years old. So this year, I decided I would contact the city if they could cut it for me. And I talked to a gentleman. in a park and rec division. He's a park superintendent, really nice gentleman, really nice guy. And he said, sure, we'll have the guy come out and take a look at it and cut it. He's over in Sunset Park every week anyway. He'll cut it. Okay, so he did. And then the next day, the gentleman come out from the city and said that we had trouble with cutting the grass because there was obstacles in it. I asked him what the obstacles were. He said American flags.

Oh, gosh.

So... So consequently, I took my flags down, okay? And then I got to thinking, well, maybe I'll talk to the park superintendent. And he said, and he came out the next day and looked at it like, they're fine gentlemen, really nice guys. I mean, they did a good job, very diplomatic and stuff. And he said, not only was the flag, they had trouble cutting around the flags, but But the city ordinance said that we can't put anything on city property, such as flags or decorations or anything, without having a contract with the city. So my question is, or my comment is, or question is, how come I could do it for 15 years and do it, and then when I ask the city to do it, they tell me I can't do it. That's the comment. Thank you. If we could get your contact information.

I'm not familiar with the area you're talking about.

Okay. 1302 Highland Circle. Over by Sunset Park Circle.

And is it one of the circle areas there? Yes. Okay. I'll go. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

And as a comment, the gentlemen, the city people I dealt with, fantastic people. Thank you. They did a great job. Thank you.

It's because they're in the trenches. Yeah. They don't make the decisions. Yeah.

Okay, anybody else?

Christy Dixon, Celina. Just have a couple of questions that some of the girls in our group chat weren't able to make it. Where are we at with the new commissioner? How much did this new system cost us? My third statement was what Jacob said, nobody likes the city or those in the room. It's not that we don't. We very much greatly appreciate the people who pick up the branches. It's the ones that lie to us that we don't care for. So you're right, I'm part of it, but not all of it. I thank my trash men all the time, offer them cool water. So there's plenty of love between those that we respect and those that we don't. But yes, if I could get a total for the monitors and then to find out where we are at with the new commissioner on that, that would be great. Was there something else?

I can't remember.

But anyways, I think that's it. If I can just get those questions answered.

Commissioner, EOIs were due today and we'll make that decision on the 24th.

Okay, and so on the 24th, is that like during?

That's me, yeah. Yeah, we'll put the list out of everybody that put their name in the hat tomorrow morning. First thing, it'll go on probably Facebook and on our webpage, and then we'll provide the full EOI documents to the city commission tomorrow morning as well.

Okay. And... So we got the RFP, which is great for the animal shelter. What about the report? The report must be out.

Hey, could we please respect the speaker? There's way too much discussion.

The report, it must be out since we started the RFP?

I expect to have it by the end of the week.

So you don't have it yet?

I don't have the full report.

I thought we had to wait before we did the RFP, but anyways, I guess that's okay. So by the 24th, so you should have that by our next meeting as well?

I expect we will.

And it'll be made public?

Yes, absolutely. It will be a public document, yes.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

My name's Stephanie Weller, I live on 10th Street. As far as the testing goes, I submitted today for a test for my water because it takes five minutes to fill up a Brita pitcher, if you know anything about how big they are. It takes five minutes coming out of my faucet. I don't know if TDSs are what you're testing for, but mine is never any lower than 450. And I have a sinkhole in my backyard that's about this deep. And the grass that's growing up through the concrete driveway right next to that sinkhole is about three times higher than the grass growing in my front yard. So I'm wondering if I have a leak somewhere. And it's probably coming... I don't know where it's coming from, but I'm wondering if it's coming from the chromium that you guys are putting in the water. So I'm going to have my water tested. And I want to know what's going to happen if... I want to know if you guys are testing for water pressure, if that's a problem, if it's going to be a problem.

Looking at city staff, we're really not testing for water pressure.

How come? Because I have to have water pressure to have good water. I know that. It can be contaminated if it's not at the right pressure. I know that for a fact.

Don't know if that's... I did.

I did.

I don't know if...

Your water pressure affects it.

Yeah, we can get your address, and I guess... I already submitted one to the city. Okay, water department, come out, look, and figure out if it's us or something between, you know, on your property.

I do know that my neighbor last year had a water leak, and it cost them over $1,000 to fix, but since it's fixed, it shouldn't have caused... problem in my yard in my driveway because i've got concrete this thick and the grass is growing up through it and it's like i said it's three times higher than the water than the grass in my front yard so there's something wrong there okay i don't know thank you thank you

My name is Terry Smith, and I've lived at my house because I bought my parents' house. So I've lived at this address 55 years because that is how old I am. And so, therefore, I have watched the city because I live in a cul-de-sac, and it's on Plaza Drive, and I'm very close to Vassar, and I'm also close to Dover. This year, we recently didn't have any water pressure. We have replaced every single line in our house because A, it was brown, B, it was low flow, and it was before all this came to light that this was going on. It was $5,000 worth of work, and now it's not changed our pressure. It's not changed what color the water goes when we fill up the bathtub for the babies to take a bath. My thing is I watched the city over the years two times in the cul-de-sac dig five feet from each other, dig up the concrete, replace a section because the city could not afford to fix the hub that's in the middle that feeds four different houses. One of those houses is now my rental, and my rental property is in the same boat. A, their water is brown. They moved in. They complained to me saying that it was my problem. But when I bought the house, I had all the plumbing redone in the house. Everything is PEX. Everything is PEX in my house. Ten years ago, the line from the meter to my house blew in my front yard. $2,000 to replace that line. It is not lead line. It comes straight into my house, and it's all been replaced. If I'm having issues in my house, I replace my stuff. I don't understand why the city is feeding me all these lines that are breaking and not helping us and telling us it's our problem. My rental tenants have said that the city is raising their rate, and it keeps going up, and they say there's a water leak. I've had a plumber out to the house twice and he says there's not a leak in the house. And I can't figure out what is happening, you know, because they're coming back to me asking me questions. I also am curious. I like Ms. Frobenius's questions. Where can I go to see where you answer her questions or Stephanie's questions? Because those are all the same questions that I have. And I'm not really sure where to go on the website to figure out where to get those answers or where they're posted. You say you get back to us, but how do you get back to us? Because I want those specific answers too. And also, when you do the testing, if you fail two, does that mean you're off of the water list? If you pass one or you pass two, fail one, are you off the water list? Do you have to pass all three? Because it's not specific. It just says it's coming out there three times.

No, if there's one test that qualifies, I mean, that's why we're doing it three times so that we can, I mean, we want, if you have bad water, we want to be able to see it. So the intent is for you to call us when it's the worst so we can come out and get it when it's the worst. Because there are times of the day that you may have, that it may be clearer than other times. So our intent is to try and get it when it's at its worst so we can test it and have that logged. So, yeah, that's why we're doing it so many times.

Okay. Could we get your addresses somehow so we can have the water department come out since you have two properties on Plaza Drive?

Yeah, they're a house apart. 926 and 929 Plaza Drive.

926 and 929.

I only have one house in between us.

Okay, thank you.

And I'm three houses from Vassar.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Alex Bischel, Salina, Kansas. I just wanted to say that I was a little disappointed that we decided to privatize the animal shelter. From what I could research, people want to to give it to Prairie Paws, but I don't... When I looked at her interviews, I didn't really see any indication that... I didn't see Vanessa Coey indicate that she wanted to take it over. And the reason Prairie Paws is cheaper is they live near a university where they have a bunch of vet students, and they come out to volunteer for the shelter cheaply. So... I think my opinion is that we just need a full-time manager and a full-time veterinarian.

Please let the gentleman have his say.

Go ahead if you want to finish. Yeah. It just seems to me like privatizing it might be worse for having a no-kill shelter, in my opinion. Thank you.

There you go.

All those mistakes. I'm going to clarify a few things.

Rose Base, Celina. I just want to clarify a few things, Alex. She does have the one in Manhattan, but she also has one in Ottawa, and she has one in Emporia. They do not utilize the K-State vets. They have their own vet team, and they have their own band of attorneys. So she's pretty much individualized. So she's not... I don't know how you want to say it, but she knows what she's doing. She's been very successful. If you haven't been and toured a Manhattan animal shelter, then you really need to go see what it's like because they do state-of-the-art things for the animals. They have fundraisers. They just do all kinds of good, positive things for the community. From everything that I've read from our community, for the most part, they are very highly speaking of Vanessa and would like to see her take over our animal shelter. So, that's it.

Rose, quick question.

Yes.

How many volunteers do they have now in Manhattan, do you know?

In Manhattan, they have over 500 volunteers, in Manhattan alone. 500? Wow. 500, mm-hm. How many we got in Salina? None. None.

We chased them all the way.

So I really do appreciate you putting out the RFP though for getting somebody in here that knows what they're doing. Thank you.

I'm going to switch subjects a little bit. Sue Nichols, Salina. I'd like the commission to consider establishing an independent ethics and whistleblower hotline for city employees administered, administrated by an outside entity. Over the past several months, citizens have received dozens of messages and phone calls from city employees concerning things happening within city government. A common theme is that they want to remain anonymous because they're afraid of speaking up could cost them their jobs. We've also heard from employees that certain supervisors or leaders are considered tenured and that even when there is a valid complaint, nothing is going to happen. I wasn't aware there was such a thing as tenure within this line of city government. No employee should believe that someone's position, title, or years of service make that person untouchable. Through the investigation from all of us of animal services, we've reviewed an enormous amount of correspondence among city leadership. And the one thing that I see that's missing is anything from human resources or where they were in this process. It makes me question what role they have. That's why I think an independent hotline could be incredibly valuable. Have it operated by an outside entity, give employees the ability to confidentially and anonymously report suspected misconduct, violations of policy or law, abuse of authority, retaliation, conflicts of interest, or other serious concerns without having to report through the same chain of command they're concerned about. Those complaints could then be independently evaluated and then warranted, investigated, and referred to the appropriate authority. There should also be a clear policy prohibiting retaliation against anyone who makes a good faith report. I believe a hotline like this would probably be pretty busy in the first couple months that it was in place. And maybe that tells us something, but this isn't about looking backward forever. I think it's a good way for Celina to move forward. Once employees, supervisors, and department heads understand that accountability is real, that legitimate complaints will actually be investigated, and that someone's title doesn't protect them from consequences, I believe that city government will operate better. It'll protect good employees, encourage better leadership, and ultimately identify people who simply shouldn't be in the positions they hold. Good employees shouldn't have to call private citizens because they're afraid to report something to City Hall. They should have a safe, independent place to go. Accountability isn't something city employees should fear. It should be an expectation of working in public service.

Thank you. And by the way, there is no such thing as tenure. That's the term we keep hearing. Well, that's a term that is used by somebody, but that's not a valid term. So, thank you.

Could we have the city manager and the city attorney explain that the city's line does not condone or accept retaliation and what protections we have for our city employees before any... Mistaken thoughts leave this room.

Well, I don't know exactly how to answer that way. I absolutely would not, I would not tolerate retaliation. City Manager wouldn't tolerate that. If I may, while I have the microphone real quick.

Mr. Winholz, if you want to stay, please allow us to talk.

Oh, yeah, I do want to stay. Thank you.

Okay. Whatever.

We do get complaints from HR. We have a process for that. We have procedures. We are a for-cause employer, which is different than people who may be used to with private industry. But, I mean, you know, I cannot convince people who don't want to trust me. But anyone who knows me knows I take anything like that very seriously. But we have a process and procedure that we go through internally with HR and take everything seriously. Thank you. IT'S JUST DIFFICULT IN THIS CONTEXT TO RESPOND TO ALL OF THAT. MY PHONE IS ALWAYS AVAILABLE. MY DOOR IS OPEN TO ANYONE. SO IS THE CITY MANAGERS.

THANK YOU.

THIS OUGHT TO GO OVER WELL. I wasn't planning on speaking. Michelle Timpson from Solomon. Jacob was talking earlier about a water test that was floating around. It was on Facebook. It was a water test that Tony Johnson and I, Tony had gotten it from Dover Drive, and it was floating around. It was done... through the Director of Water Quality at the Laboratory of Kansas Water Institute, Kansas State University, CBC Building, Room 407, from two great chemists. So it wasn't just some water test that we just made up. I dropped off another sample today, so there'll be another one coming. Let's go on the top of what Sue was talking about. There's people here in the city of Salina, some of the public, that don't trust the people in this room. They don't trust the city manager. They don't trust Patrick Hoffman for good reason. They don't trust the commissioners. So when he says, when Jacob Wood says, we're going to have a third party test the water, well, who's his third party? Who's going to test the water? And why have we waited so long? These people are sick. Nicole has a daughter that has skin issues. They want answers. So yes, we took the water out of the city. We took it to these fabulous people at K-State, chemists. And do you know what they said when they saw the results? They were floored. And when I went there back today and had a conversation with them, and her husband was there, has been a chemist for 30-some years, and I said, this is the drinking water. They were floored. So when these next results come back, you guys should be ashamed. Martha Tasker should be ashamed.

Oh. Oh. All I can say is we have the water tested monthly and sent into KDHE. I don't know how you did your test. Did you do it through a faucet? Where did you do it at?

Well, we're going to get several of them. And that's why I'm doing it. We're going to do it from several different places.

There's a lot of different things that can go into that. There is a lot of different ways to do it. I don't know what to tell you. We do what's required by the state of Kansas. And we send in water samples.

But here's the thing. I explained to him why these two aren't trustworthy. We already know what happened with the shelter escapade. And what is taking so long to get this testing done and this rebate stuff going? It's been weeks. I've been talking to Linda and Cherie, and come on. And that's what the chemist said. Water is life. This is their drinking water? I said, yes, this is the drinking water. Come on, coliform and E. coli. You've made it sound like coliform was not a big deal. It is a big deal. And you can't tell me it wasn't in the drinking water.

Thank you.

Shannon Russ, Line of Kansas. Just listening to Michelle, you asked where she did it. I would invite Michelle. Where did you do it? So maybe you guys can test it tomorrow.

Yeah.

Tomorrow. Not in a week. Tomorrow. I spoke last time we were here. I am just appalled. I have a budget that I have to maintain at home. I can't afford things I want to do. I don't do them. It just disgusts me. Test it tomorrow. Get your information from Michelle. Test it tomorrow.

Okay, if there's no one else, I'll bring it back to the commission for...

My name is Jerry LeDuc. I live at 350 East Selma Road. Thank God I don't have the water problems that these other ladies do. And you talk about the monthly samples that you send to KDHE. I got a challenge for you. Send them some samples from these people's homes and see how your test results come back.

We know we have a problem there. That's why we're going to replace the pipes.

I'm just saying that you're using the KDHE thing that our tests from them are good. And yes, you are. They are. but they're not coming from those faucets. Okay.

Okay. I will bring it back to the commission for adjournment. Move to adjourn. What's that? Move to adjourn. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Aye.