City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. It's 7:01. We're going to go ahead and start our regularly scheduled meeting. Uh we'll call this to order and we'll start with our invocation. Chief Sutterby, if you'd like to come up and everybody please stand if you're willing and able. All right. Thank you. Will you bow your heads with me and pray? Almighty God, we just thank you for uh this day. What a beautiful day it was. We thank you for the people who have taken time out of their day to come and be at this meeting. Lord, we thank you for staff. Lord, most of all, we pray over our council. We pray for wisdom and guidance, discernment, and decisions as they do what's best for our community. And we just pray this in your name. Amen.

Amen. Thank you. Now we'll do our pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. [snorts] [clears throat]

What are you looking at? you okay or do you want us to move back?

Oh, where's his name? Just put it up there so we know he's gone. All right, madam clerk, please take the role. Mr. Throne, here. Mrs. feedback. Mr. Grant here. Mr. Dougado here. Mr. Savage here. Mayor, we have a corn present. Thank you. First up tonight is going to be our public hearing on the Spring Hill wastewater treatment plant. Oh, actually, I'm sorry, I went too far. First thing up is the approval of our agenda. Do we have any requested changes?

Nothing. If not, I uh entertain a motion to approve the agenda tonight. So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor? I I I opposed. Motion passes 400. Now we'll move on to our public hearing. And I think uh do I need to hit this to open the public hearing? Open the meeting.

We'll now have our public hearing council. Um, here we go. Um, tonight is the second step in the process we're going through related to a applying for loans to build a new wastewater treatment plant. Um, these are requirements. We would like to use the state revolving fund um for part of the loan and these steps tonight are the ones required by SRF. Um we also plan to apply for WIFIA funding um through the federal government as well. And so we're hoping these steps will assist when it's time to make that application and we'll be able to use these hearings and minutes to go for both loans. So tonight we're taking the next step. We are interested in constructing a new wastewater treatment facility. We will need to apply for loans and grants and other types of funding and this is a step in the process. So this is what our agenda is tonight. This follows the requirements of SRF. First I give you a summary of the proposed improvements. We provide an engineer's cost estimate for those improvements. And the important thing tonight is to provide the impact on sewer user charges to fund improvements and then I'll take questions from the council and then you can open it for public comment related to the treatment plant and uh the loan application. So, uh last time we were here on February 12th, Mrs. Um Abel did a great job of explaining the alternatives we've looked at the um process we've gone

through related to design of a treatment plant and in the end we're looking to um construct a new plant with an initial capacity of 5 million gallons per day. It'll have the ability to expand or decrease depending on what we're trying to do um as we fit the pieces all together. Um, this property that was purchased is at 10M Creek and Sweetwater Creek. It's in one and a half miles downstream from our existing plant and the engineers estimate for a 5 million gallon per day plant is $128 million. Um, I am no expert in how we're going to build a plant. Um, I've been involved in the process, but there are people here tonight if you have specific questions about the plant, its design, its engineering, um, that'll certainly be happy to answer any of your questions. I think it's important to say here that building a plant is a puzzle is the way I look at it. A lot of moving pieces and we're looking at all of those pieces. Financing is one, the design is one, the operation is one, and [clears throat] we've been working on this project since 2023. It started with a study and now we're down to designing a building and how do we finance and how does it impact our residents? and we'll keep working those pieces until the picture comes into view. All along this process, different decisions will come to this council to make. It won't be decisions that engineers make or your finance director makes, but they're decisions that you'll make along the way. And this is one of those steps. So, it's important tonight to talk about project uh impact on user fees. And so it's very important all through this process we are not attempting to build a plan on the backs of our existing customers. What we want to do is

continue the the line that we're on which is that we have made normal inflationary related increases over time and we plan to continue those similar increases into the future. We're not looking to make any major hikes in rates in order to fund a plant. We are now at $1048 per thousand gallons of wastewater. Um Johnson County Wastewater charges $10.85 and Gardener charges $10.35. So we are competitive, if you will, if there is competition for utilities. We are competitive with the people around us and we want to continue to be competitive and have a reasonable rate to our users. Our goal is to minimize the impact by funding the gap between what we can afford in our current operation and what we'll need for the new plant by using every tool that we can. Whether it's grant funding, whether it's new revenue streams, or it's state and federal funding, we plan to bridge that gap through those programs, not on the backs of our rate users or rateayers. In a best case, we get everything in the picture that we want, we would have no additional impact to user rates beyond what's expected for inflationary increases and adjustments. we normally make. Tonight, what you're going to consider is whether or not you'll allow us to apply for the SRSF, SRF loan with the state of Kansas and then move on to apply for the WIFA loan through the federal government. That's a water infrastructure loan. So, in the end tonight, that's the only decision that you'll be making. It's

sorry we [clears throat] are following the correct steps for the SRF loan. It's the most advantageous to us um ratewise. Um WIFFIA is a little higher interest rates, but we would prefer to finance as much as we can through SRF and then move to WIFFIA financing. So, I'll open it up to any questions or comments you might have about the SRF program and making those loans, applying for those loans. Mike, what you got? Like you're going to say something. No, what is the terms on the SRF? Like, how many years?

You bet. I forgot to mention that on the line we have Francesca McCann who's from Black & Beach and she works with us on the these loan applications. That's her expertise. I believe we're looking at a 20-year loan. Okay. Um we have options for 15. Again, it's a puzzle. We want to optimize. We can delay payments for a time. We can take loan distributions over time depending on construction and then we can delay beginning payments for a certain amount of time paying and capitalizing interest along the way. And so in the end we'll pick the best plan that works for our loan.

What's the max loan amount for SRF? That is just there is no I don't believe there's any quoted max. Um, we first originally were told we would be eligible for 25 million. Okay. And then they bumped it another five to 30. We hope to apply again. We would love to borrow all the money we need from this fund. I say it's the cheapest money. Yes. However, that's not very reasonable. The state has a lot of people to apply, but that is going to be our attempt to maximize all we can from SRF and then move to WIFFIA. Okay. And then Wiffy, is there any max with them or is that have we gotten any kind of inclination on what that would be?

I've not heard a maximum. They are not uncomfortable. We've been working with a $128 million number with them. Okay. Just not as good of a rate from my understanding. Right. It's a good 1% more. 1% on that much is a lot of money. It's a lot of money.

Yeah. No, I mean obviously this is a necessary step. This is a process we're having to go through. Uh I think there's still some guard rails on if we like you said if it if we don't if it doesn't financially make sense we'll we can stop at any point that we need to. U but we're not we haven't you know thrown it so far down the field that we can't go back. So at this point we need to make sure we get these steps done so that when we are ready to pull the trigger we're ready to go. And um and it always comes back to council that when we get all the way to the end and you're going to accept the loan, we'll be back every step of the way. You get to make decisions before we move to the next step. Say this process takes two years. It does. Do we have to reapply a c every certain amount of time or is it

there are a lot of milestones along the way. We have one coming up here in March to get our application in. We received approval to apply last fall and we need to meet a timeline there. there just milestones along the way or we I think we go back to step one and start in again. So, we're trying to make sure we meet each of the milestones. Say we get there and they approve the 30 million and we're waiting on the rest of our funding mechanisms. Is there a time limit on what that approval is good for? Um Francesca, are you um a able to answer that question? Sure. Yeah, I think I'm on the line. Yes. Can you tell us? Sorry, there's an

Did you hear the question?

I did. Yes. Uh, so there is not a spe Sorry, there's a really strong echo, so I'm trying to trying to think as I speak as it's echoing back. There is not a specific kind of mandated timeline. SRF obviously would like to put the money to work as soon as possible. That being said, if they know that we're waiting on the WITHIA process, then there is some patience with that. And often SRF and WHIFIA would work very well together and you know share the environmental requirements and so I don't see that being an issue if WHIA takes long.

Well, and as we even with WHIA, as long as we're figuring out repayment terms, things like that, like we did with 199th where we pushed off for a year. Yep. until it was the right time. At least in our opinion, right? So, and there also that would be the hope is that we could we're fitting the puzzle together. Yeah, exactly. Sometimes that puzzle takes time and it's not as cut and dry as we'd like it to be, right? So, all right. Those were my questions for for this questions. No. Um, everything's been kind of answered. So, good. PJ, you got any questions? I feel like everything's been covered well. Okay. Great.

Uh, we did have a I'm going to take it to the public. We had a couple people sign up here, so I'm going to call their names for that. Um, they signed up for the hearing. Yeah, for the hearing. Okay. Uh, Nathan, is it Grill? Grill signed in. Oh, signed in. Okay. Sorry, I thought you wanted to speak. I was like, yeah, I can't even Oh, that's what I thought. I go I thought that was his name. Um, anybody from the public that'd like to come up and ask any questions or make any comments about uh the loan programs for the wastewater treatment plant? If not, um, at this point, I guess we can do we need to make a consensus or anything now or do we close the hearing? That'll come to you in the formal agenda.

All right, we will close the public hearing on the wastewater treatment facility funding. Thank you.

All right. Next up, we have announcements and reports. Um, I don't have a whole lot. Uh, we did, uh, Rhonda and I went and met with the group that runs the First Fridays this last week. There's a lot of exciting things coming there. I'll let Rhonda talk a little bit more, but I think we're going to have some fun stuff for Fourth of July, maybe even a Cinco de Mayo, something that kind of ties in with the World Cup. So, that first Friday of every month this summer down on Main Street, we're going to have a lot of fun things to do. So, I look forward to that and being a part of that this year to hopefully have some fun things to do on a Friday night when there's it's hot out and not a whole lot to do elsewhere. What you got?

Yeah. Um, I got a couple things that I've been working on. Uh, I'm going to announce them now so that way it holds me accountable to actually get them done. Um, so the first one, uh, my my barber has been trying to do this for a while where we, uh, give free haircuts to people that are less fortunate, can't really afford that, uh, at the beginning of the school year. So sometime in August, um, talked to PJ, he's agreed to also participate in that. Uh, so be looking for some more information on that. The other thing that I have, um, we're going to have a fundraiser type event. Uh those of you that know me, when I was a police officer here, I uh ran the Blue Elves program. [clears throat] So, it's very near and dear to my heart and I want to be able to contribute more to that. So, I'm working on something where it's going to be either a basketball game or a volleyball game or tournament I should say and at the end will be the grand event which will be uh team Young versus team Delgato. Um the teams are going to consist of uh various people within the community. Could be teachers, school board members, uh students, and whatnot. So, I'll have more information later on as time goes. So,

sounds like a lot of fun. And sounds like I'm going to make myself look like an idiot. Don't get crossed up. It'll be fine. [laughter] It'll be all right. James, what you got for us? All right. Thanks, Mike. No report. PJ uh Jacob, I was hoping for an update on the um mapping of our trails in Do you want to do it now or hold off to your time? You can go for it now since PJ asked. [snorts]

Think I can hear it now. and his voice isn't loud enough to go. So, we're gonna There you go.

Um, so we've been working um together with community development. It's proving to be a more challenging effort than we originally thought. So, we're having to go not just plat by plat, but even phase of plat by phase of plat to find all of the language. Historically, there has not been one single consistent way that these were always handled. So, it's not, you know, okay, we're going to find it in, you know, this paragraph and this section. Some of them were easements, some of them weren't. Some of them were in development agreements. Some of them were in the, you know, in the platting language. So, long story short, we're still um working through that rather than waiting till it's all finished to put one map together. As we get this information, I'm going to start uh just doing it piece by piece and showing you and mapping the information that we have and then as we as we gain more, that map will grow. So, I think that's the revised approach we're going to take because it was just this could be a a monthsl long effort. So, I want to, you know, piece it out a little bit at a time and get you that information sooner rather than later.

No. And just for clarity, what what PJ's asking about is the trails throughout town that we've tried to figure out how we're going to create a maintenance plan, but we don't know what is actually deed to the city and what's belongs to the different neighborhoods or HOAs or whatever it is. So, we've tasked them with that and it's it's been a little bit of a tough journey for them. So, thanks for keep doing it. I'll be excited to see kind of the places we can hit. And PJ, thanks for asking. You have anything else for us? That's the only thing on my list. All right. Thanks, PJ Lane. Nothing. Nothing. Spencer, report. Chief,

the the uh the only thing I have is uh I may not be good at golf, but I am really good at basketball. So, uh I open up my services to either one of you. Uh oh, that good. This week we had two officers, new officers start. Uh we did a Jenna put out a nice social media post today. Uh, so I want to just uh uh welcome them to the department and uh we are full so that's a good thing and uh we're getting geared up to get him to the academy. So just wanted to mention that tonight. When can we meet officer Norm?

I'm working on a plan to bring Norm in. So uh uh soon. It will be very soon. Norm's been a big hit. So it's been good. Uh in his first week actually made a big impact on a call for service. So, uh, he's already, uh, doing his job. Uh, so he'll get some kudos this week somehow. We'll figure that out. So, he's a big fluffy guy. And Chief, you remind me of Bill Murray in Space Jam. [laughter] I'll take that as the compliment. All right, Mike. You could have gone pro. Yeah, [laughter]

I have no report. All right, Alison. Uh, I guess the only thing I've got is um we are working on 199th Street. There is a portion of 199 Street that we will need to close down the roadway to do a construction. We have a pretty significant storm sewer crossing. It's the culvert that's just west of this the school admin building that um we want to try to coincide that construction so that some of it's done over spring break

so that it's less of an impact to the school. Uh we do need to get that done this spring. We can't wait till the summer. So um we will start that road closure on March 9th. that'll go through spring break and hopefully they'll be able to get it done in less time, but they're estimating that it's going to be 40 days. What they're doing is they're building um a reinforced concrete box and it's a cast in place box. So, they're going to have to pour the concrete, let it set up, and then we would we would be able to drive on it. There's going to be a detour route that is going to be signed taking people around that closure. So, uh we'll post some information on our website so that people can get that. um advanced notice, but I wanted to bring that up to you guys tonight a couple of weeks in advance of that road closure.

Okay, that's all I've got. Yeah, that's rough, but as long as we can get the information out there, it's best we can do. So, sooner the better.

Rhonda, thanks, Mayor. Um yes, we are getting ready for um First Fridays. It's a collaboration between the city, the uh rec commission, and the chamber of commerce. We have a good team started, and we're working with the downtown merchants as well. It will be pretty straightforward starting in May, the first Friday of every month. It'll run through September. Um we have different activities and themes planned. We're trying to come up with something exciting for July the 3, which is the first Friday of July, and maybe something to celebrate our 250th uh anniversary of our country. Um we'll have live music. There'll be food trucks. There'll be vendors. We're looking for things for kids to do. Um whether it's bounce houses or different activities and it's last year was a lot of fun and was really gaining momentum. So we're excited to get the year started and it'll it'll be another fun season of First Fridays. Um the other thing is each of you received the um financial snapshot for December. It is um the final one. you'll see before the audit's done and we have January nearly done as as well. And so um just wanted you to be aware that this is an update. These should be final numbers and then audit adjustments for 25.

Thank you. I'll do a presentation on that and ask for some transfers and stuff at a new upcoming meeting. Okay, great. Linda, no report. Thank you. All right, Miss Jones. Um, my update is quick. It's just related to how you mentioned the aquatic center positions last time. So, just to let everyone know, they are posted for the lifeguard, head lifeguard, uh, front desk, um, concessions, and deck attendants. All right, great. Jacob,

in addition to the trail topic, uh another thing that I know is has been a topic of interest lately, the uh new crosswalk uh near Dayton Creek Elementary was installed yesterday. We're still waiting on the accompanying signage that has been on order. The latest uh report from the vendor is that those should be ready and delivered sometime the week of March 9th. uh staff has already called in the line locates and we're ready um most likely tomorrow, assuming those line locates got done today like they were supposed to, we'll go ahead and install the poles at those locations. So, as soon as the signs come in, we'll we'll get those on the poles and be ready to go.

I will say I also noticed you guys got the flags up along Webster. Yes. So, that was that turned out really well. I don't know if you've seen it. Uh it was Mayor Berkey's last thing he wanted to do was get those flags all along Webster, which I think it looks a lot better than I anticipated. So yeah, we're there are about don't don't hold me to this exact number, but I want to say four of the brackets that were uh that were still missing or or damaged. So we've ordered those. As soon as those come in, we'll get that get the last of those finished. But yeah, it looks nice. Yeah, I think it looks cool. Jacob, I want to thank you. Uh that was one of the concerns that a citizen had about the crosswalk and I'm glad that we got that done. Thank you.

Yeah.

All right. No other announcements and reports. We'll move on to citizen participation. We didn't have anybody sign up tonight, but if there's anybody in the crowd that'd like to speak, Bill, come on up. State your name and address, please, for us. Bill Peterman, 1943 West 200 Street. Uh, I just wanted to bring to your attention a wise man once said uh what did he say? [laughter] No. uh that uh when people when companies are coming to town and want to uh build, they're always wanting a break, a tax break. And this wise man said, "What are we going to get from you?" Concrete streets instead of asphalt. Don't forget that when you guys are making decisions on this, don't just give out, "Ah, we'll give that tax money away so we don't have to borrow so much." Uh, you know who that wise man was, don't you?

You tell me. It was you. Oh, you said you said it at a meeting. I'm sure I would. Yeah, I still say it. So, I'm good.

But one of the things one of the people that wasn't wise in my opinion came up and said they got it wrong. They got it wrong. The planning commission voted on something eight to eight to nothing and they brought it to people before you and said we got to get we can't do this and they said they got it wrong and I kept asking what did they get wrong? They complied with all their rules and all their situations but they got it wrong and nothing happened. They just voted no uh voted voted it down and it went back the old way. So, I hate seeing stuff like that. The other one is $128 million for a sewer. I know we got to have it. I know we got to have it. But tonight, you guys are going to talk about number nine uh helping Buyus out. They came to you, the people before you. They came to you guys uh two and a half years ago with this idea. Was it four years ago? Okay, thank you. Four years ago. And what was said was uh they had 150 units to go to to use and they only had 74 of them being used. So they was not at they was at at a half capacity. So are have they just they had a whole bunch of people move in and they've a bunch of buildings. Why do they need it now? My theory back then and I brought up at that time was you want sewers so that you can pull these uh warehouses in and they don't have to pay for sewers. I hate when we build stuff. We work with our infrastructure and spend our tax dollars on it so that we can get have it easier for these guys to

come in. I I don't like these people coming in and making money off my money, let alone your money. It's just we got to we got to start being in a position where no, we're not doing that. If they bring all these how many people out there want warehouses now, I think that mayor and whoever it was, it was a guy from Miami County and the guy from uh to from uh Buyus came in and told us, "Oh, no, no, no." But I think the guy from from the county was into that pretty heavy because he had already been involved with some other stuff about about uh these warehouses. So don't uh don't get sucked in then all of a sudden it comes back to bite us. Uh what happened to them guys? Why do they need to use our Now will this be on top of the 28 million because we I mean what's

we we'll go through it tonight on that. Okay. We we'll touch all those spots. I appreciate you bringing it up. Thanks, Bill. Is there anybody else that'd like to come up and speak? All right, with that, we'll close citizen participation, move on to consent agenda. Uh, do we have any We didn't have any requests to change that. So, I'll entertain a motion to approve our consent agenda. So moved. Second. Motion in a second. All those in favor? I opposed. Opposed. All right. Motion pass 400. I'm gonna keep doing that, PJ. I apologize. We're going to move on. Our next uh our first formal action is board appointments.

And uh the first one we'll do is a cemetery board. So PJ, if you'd like to recuse yourself from this one. Yep. I'll be muting the meeting and stepping away.

All right. Thank you. All right. First board that we'll do appointments for is a cemetery board. And we had three terms that were expiring for Paulie Mahoney, John Neas, Keith Styles, and then we had one vacant seat that that term expires February 2028. And we're appointing I'm I'm asking to appoint Ashley Thrawn and and renewing the other three. So, if anybody has any questions, uh, ask him now or any concerns or anything. Um, we're going to see a reoccurring theme tonight with me. Um just bad communication between me and uh geez Mayor Young. Um but you guys will see in a second.

Yeah. Um any other questions or comments? All right. Uh will we take a vote or do we need a motion to approve? So it's a nomination and then just a vote. So there's no motion on this and we can do it all all together for all four. Yeah. If you want to nominate them as a slate. All right. So u altogether the three seats that are expiring in February 29 will now I'd like to appoint Paulie Mahoney, John Neas, Keith Styles and to the one vacant seat that expires in February 2028, Ashley Thrawn. All those in favor I I. All those opposed? No. Appointments pass 2110.

I guess let me clarify. I didn't say why. Um, I haven't had a chance to meet any of these people, so I'm not going to vote for somebody that um, I don't know who they are. I even though they're on the board right now, um, I don't know who they are, so I don't feel comfortable voting for me. Yeah, miscommunication on my part. I did not get him the information that he asked for. So, it's all me. Uh, the next up is parks advisory board, and we had one vacancy that expires in 2029. Uh, and I am going to appoint Sydney Unra to that position. Um, all those in favor? I

I back up a second. Do we get PJ back on the phone? Sorry, PJ, are you back? I'm back. Sorry, it's my first time appointing people, so excuse my uh not doing this very well. All right. So, for the parks advisory board, they had one vacancy. Term expires in February 2029. Uh the applicant, Sydney Unra, I'd like to appoint her to that position. All those in favor? I. All those opposed? No. Appointments passes 310.

Next up is the planning commission. We had two seats expiring and um and they will now expire in February of 2029. And then we have one seat that is vacant due to a um uh someone stepping down and that one will expire in February of 2027. So to the two seats expiring February 2029, I would like to appoint Ralpho Aravalo and Rachel Jones. And to the vacant seat term expiring February 2027, Travis Nace. Does anybody have any questions or comments? Um I got to talk to all those individuals. Uh, I like I like like what they had to say, so I don't have a problem with them. All right.

All those in favor? I. All those opposed? Planning Commission seats pass 400. All right, we got through that. Sorry, it's a little bit ugly. Hopefully I'll be better next year when that comes up. Uh, item number four is consider approval of bid and award of contract for Legacy Lake Dam improvements. That's uh Miss Alice.

Okay. The next item before you is a request to approve a contract with Greg's Construction for the Legacy Lake Dam Improvements. Uh we've had some issues at Legacy Lake. We've got um a pipe that needs to be replaced. We've got some uh trees along the dam that are causing an impact on the internal drainage system of the dam. So, we need to do uh some repairs to this area. Uh we hired an engineering firm to help us prepare some bid documents so that we could hire a contractor. Those were prepared by Water Resources Solutions. We um put those plans out to bid last month. Uh we received um bids from three contractors uh for this work. And those three contractors are here local. Um the low bidder was Griggs Construction out of Pleasant Hill, Missouri. uh they were uh lower than our engineers estimate which we like. A lot of that has to do with the fact that um we overestimated on the uh tree removal. We thought that it would be a little bit more involved uh because we do want to remove the stumps and all of the the trees because it's the root system that um is causing the impact to the dam. Uh, so I was not familiar with Griggs Construction. So I dug a little bit deeper. I checked into some of their references and um it turns out that actually two people from their company uh used to work with and owned um Blue Nile and I've worked with Blue Nile in my previous uh job at Parkville. So um I could even vouch for them. I just didn't realize that they um had started a new new company. Um they've done work for other municipalities similar to ours. They've worked in Pleasant Hill. They've worked in Prairie Village on similar projects. Uh so with that, staff recommends the approval of the construction agreement with Griggs

Construction. Uh we took this out to bid as a base bid and then we had a bid alternate. The bid alternate was to upgrade the pipe to reinforced concrete pipe, which we would prefer in this installation. It's a longer term pipe um better suited for the dam. So, we would like to go ahead and add that bid alternate in for a total of $96,18. I'm available if you have any questions. Any questions? FJ,

uh, for people that are listening, could you give just a little bit of background as to why this is necessary? Oh. Um, the project itself, uh, so it's been going on for a couple of years. Um, the, um, there's two lakes that are over in the Legacy Lake area, couple of dam structures. The lakes are, uh, running extremely low. There is a leak somewhere. There's a couple of marshy areas that are um, just downstream of the dam. So, there is a leak somewhere. So, in order to um you know, fix it, we're going to have to rip out the existing discharge pipe going from one dam to the other um and to reconstruct the dam in between the two lakes. Uh, a lot of the work is going to be removal of some of the scrubby trees and some of the more significant trees along the dam uh to make sure that the dam can fully function in the future. As the root structures continue to grow uh as the landscape grows, it's going to continue to have voids underneath um the dam causing some structural issues in the dam itself.

Does that work? Thank you very much. You're welcome. Yeah, this one's been we've talked about for a little while and between this and uh Veterans Park, we've got some issues with our dams across the city. So, getting this one such such under bid or getting a bid that's so much lower than the engineers estimate is a great great deal for us. So, I'm happy to see that we've got somebody that um you even know and uh we're going to save quite a bit of money from what we thought we were going to have to pay. I don't have any other questions or comments. Do you guys have anything? All right. With that, I'll entertain a motion. So, move. Well, you have to this one. I don't have the uh Oh, you don't have the agenda?

No. James, you want to Or do you know where it's at, Mike? The agenda? No, the the yellow the I move to approve the accept the bid from Griggs construction for the legacy lake dam improvements in the total of $96, $18 and authorize the mayor and staff to execute the construction agreement. Second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor? I I opposed. Motion passes 400 Z. You did it.

We moved to the computers a little bit beforehand, so we're a little bit out of out of kilter here. All right, we're moving on to item number five. Consider authorizing mayor to execute a real estate purchase agreement for property on which to construct a parking lot adjacent to the public works facility. And it's going to be Spencer L.

Hello. Good evening. Uh this is a contract and a purchase that has been brought before you previously. So, um before some of you were up here, uh this contract was approved by prior council for $95,000 to purchase the spring wash, which is directly west I'm bad at directions, but that sounds Yeah. west of the public works building. Um that was last year. In the ensuing time, we had to run some environmental reports, do some extra testing, work with the state. That process dragged out quite a bit. Um the seller and I went back and forth. Staff has discussed he asked for some additional money due to costs he had to incur. Property taxes increase. So we reached an agreement to pay an additional $2,000 um so that everyone comes away happy. Um the delays were essentially because the gears of environment tend to turn a little slowly sometimes. So it wasn't the city's fault, it wasn't his fault. Um but because that was sort of out of everyone's control um that's the number he proposed. So coming to you all it's the same terms uh it's the same property same end result will be a parking lot for the city for public works. Um really the only new term is the purchase agreement and then we took out things like a due diligence period because we've been doing due diligence for the last year. Uh can't get much more due than that. So yeah but here for any questions. Well, and all I'll say is this is going to really improve that corner. It's kind of a building that's falling over, turned into a nice parking lot, give them some more parking. I know police department needs it. Public work needs it. It'll make those events we have downtown look a lot nicer, too. We have clean slate there. So, um, we met him in the middle. You know, I think there were some things that made us take longer, and I get there was additional cost. So, um, I'm okay with this if you guys are.

Kind of sad. That's where I took my campaign pictures. So, but [laughter] any other comments or questions? I think it'll be good to have extra parking downtown and I'll help out with all the things. I assume we're going to be putting a fence around there or anything. Or is that later on? That's a later on question for probably Allison and Jacob. But I do want to commend staff. Allison, Jacob did a ton of work getting uh the environmentals across the finish line and following up with the state and get keeping things moving as fast as they could.

Yeah. Yeah, when you're next to the railroad and gas station and things like that, environmental stuff just takes a long time. So, um I think this will be a good deal. I think it's good for the city to as far as aesthetically it's going to make us look a little bit better. Maybe we uh have room for one of those angel wings like uh Bill's been talking about. There's a lot of stuff we can do down there. Uh all right, I'll entertain a motion. All right. I move to authorize the mayor to enter into a real estate contract to purchase property at 100 South Main Street, Spring Hill, Kansas 66083 for purchase price of $97,000. Second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor? [clears throat] Yes.

I. All those opposed? Motion passes 400. Next up, we consider resolution number 2026-R5 to authorize filing an application with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment for a loan under the Kansas Water Pollution Control Revolving Fund Act. This would be the WIFIA. This would be the SRF. So, this is the SRF. Okay. I saw the W, so I was like, uh, which one? Just to tie it back to our public,

just tying this all together. So the item before you now is uh authorization for staff to make application to the state revolving fund. Um this is the lowinterest loan that we would get from the state of Kansas through KDHE or the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Um this is everything that's been leading up to this moment. Two weeks ago, I gave you a lot of information. Rhonda gave you some financial numbers and information tonight. This is just putting a bow on it. uh we had to go through the public meeting, the public hearing, and now I have to have a resolution uh authorizing that you give me permission to apply for the SRF or state revolving fund uh loan. And as Rhonda mentioned, we were we had initially um a little bit of background, we had initially applied for it. We didn't hear anything. We did we assumed we didn't get it. After some digging and con conversations with the state staff, they realized that they had $25 million that they could offer to us. So, we continued those conversations and after more conversations, they're like, "Well, actually, just kidding. We have $30 million that we'd like to give to you for this project." And then they said, "Hey, why don't you apply next year? We might have some more funding for you." So, this is a great opportunity for us to work directly with the state to get low interest loans for the infrastructure that we will need to help with the growth and development within our community. Even at a steady rate with our residential growth as we've been seeing it, our plant is going to be at capacity. We're at 71% capacity now. So, we need to secure these loans today. So, um again, this is kind of the next step. It's not the final step because there are a lot of steps, a lot of pieces to the puzzle as Rhonda mentioned. Um, so with that, staff recommends the approval of the resolution authorizing staff to move

forward with and apply for the state revolving fund uh loan program. I'm available if you have any questions. Doesn't look like a whole lot of questions up here. PJ, you got anything for us? No, we've already covered early. All right. With that, I'll entertain a motion. Spencer, get ready to yell at me. Move to approve resolution number 2026-R05 as stated. Second as stated in the staff report. Second. We have a motion and a second. James. All those in favor?

I I I. All those opposed? Motion passes 400 Z. Next up, we've got consider approval of a funding agreement with Johnson County for the storm water management asset. Did I skip that one? That's the right one. Correct. Approval of funding agreement with Johnson County for the storm water management asset inspection program. Okay. The next item is Alison still up.

I'm still here. I'm not going anywhere. Uh the next item before you is a funding agreement with Johnson County. Um I was before you a couple of months ago, December, January, I think it was January with um a task order hiring lamperson to help us out with the storm water management program. Johnson County has a fantastic storm water program and they have funding available to available to cities like us for infrastructure for some of the other things that we have going on. Last year we applied for smack funding for um the city lake dam. Those improvements are currently under uh design. We're working on the finalizing that design and we'll have that out to bid here relatively soon in the next few months. Um well, this year, you know, I can't pass up a good opportunity to get funding. So, um Smack has funding available for uh condition assessment so that we can get a feel for what what's going on with our existing infrastructure. The best way for us to figure out what's going on in our storm water pipes is to go down there with closed caption TV system so that we can go and video each of those lines from the the dirty videos, the dirty uh the videos that we would see with the storm water lines. We would see any uh separation in the pipes. we would see any sags, anything that we would need to make some spot repairs or if we would need to do a major repair. So with that, this program is going to allow us to do just that. We would hire a contractor to come in and video the lines and then lampray through their task order will review all the footage and determine which areas need to be taken care of and how we would do that, how much it would cost to do each of the repairs and um

what that priority system looks like. So this is the first step in that process is accepting the funding. This is a 50-50 partnership with Johnson County. we would put up 50%. Luckily, we've got a storm water fund that is just there ready for us to use for projects just like this. So, we get about $800,000 in our storm water utility fee each year exactly for these projects. Um, so we will be utilizing that fund uh to cover our 50% [snorts] contribution. Uh the total cost of the uh program is 30 about $375,000 for the contractor to do their work, for the engineer to do their work, and for us to get a final report that tells us exactly which areas need to be reconstructed and how what priority system and how much it's going to cost. So with that, staff recommends the approval of a funding agreement with Johnson County so that we can participate in the storm water management program. I'm available if you have any questions. [snorts]

Are we going to do the entirety of all the storm system storm water system in Spring Hill? No, we are going to focus in on the older area. I think I put a map in the last time that we talked about this and I must have failed to put it in this time, but it's basically from North to South Street, Webster to Oh, is it in the packet? Oh, so yeah, I see there is a map in the packet. Uh, but it's it's the older part of town that we're going to focus in on. Still quite a bit of area. It looks like it is. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Allison, has this process been done before?

Uh, to my knowledge, we have not done it here, but I have done it um on the sanitary sewer systems up in Parkville before, and there are a lot of um CCTV contractors that are out there that do just this kind of work. So, um I am familiar with the process, but I don't believe we've done this here locally in our town, but other cities within Johnson County have done this this asset program. Gosh. So, essentially the oldest part of our town hasn't had any kind of exploratory um status check in a long time, if ever. So, I I do know that the lines need to be jetted before they could be TVed. It's a

Are we going to optimize our truck that we just got or is it going to everything going to be through there? It's all part of it. So, what they're going to do is uh they're going to jet the lines. They're going to uh wash them out and then they'll follow up with a camera. So, we'll be paying the CCTV company for both of the that service to clean and to CCTV. So, give us a little bit of time for our truck to go do the rest of town. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I mean, I like this a lot better that we're only paying half other than the whole thing because that's a lot of money for exploratory work. But, you know, good job on getting the grant in the county.

You're welcome. Any other comments or questions? I think it'll be good to at least have an idea of what's going on. We've already found there's a lot of failing infrastructure just in that part of town. So, we can get ahead of it. That'll be nice. This is definitely a proactive step. Um that's what we were facing in um whenever I was working up in Parkville that we had a lot of um emergency repairs. Well, it's better to get on top of it and be proactive than reactive. And this is our way of being proactive. Okay, great. Any other questions or comments? I'll entertain a motion.

I move to approve a funding agreement with Johnson County for the storm water management asset inspection program. Second. Motion a second. All those in favor? I opposed. I opposed. [snorts] Uh motion passes 400. Next up is number eight. Consider authorization for staff to submit an application to the Kansas Department of Transportation KOT for the transportation alternative program for funding for the South Street sidewalk. Last one I have again. I've had a busy week. Yeah.

Um so the next item before you is a request to authorize staff to apply for a transportation alternatives grant program through KOT. Uh we wanted to specifically focus in on the South Street sidewalk. As you guys may recall from some of the public meetings that we've had recently that South Street is an area that we would like to identify um in our sidewalk program, but there's a lot of sidewalk there. It's going to cost some money. It's going to it's going to take a larger effort to hire an engineer to figure out exactly where the sidewalk's going to go, what improvements need to go handinhand with that sidewalk. So, um again, I can't pass up a funding opportunity. So, you've got money out there. I'm going to do my best to spend it. Um, but the again sidewalks are definitely a priority in our in our city. So, um, this program is specifically for non-motorized um, paths, sidewalks, trails, something along those lines to encourage pedestrians. Um, and through the different um, KOT programs, they've got funding available. This one is kind of unique for us because we're kind of we're in that sweet spot. Although we are in the um Metropolitan Planning Organization or Mid America Regional Council, since we're part of that, uh we are part of the larger met uh the metropolitan area for planning. However, anything south of 1775th Street is considered rural. We're not part of the urban area. So because we're considered rural, we can apply for this grant. Um so we've got um the program would be 80% participating costs for us to move forward with this. Um and we would be responsible for 20% of that. I um currently working with um HDR to help us um put together the the grant

application which is due tomorrow. It's a pretty short timeline to get it done. That's why I'm in front of you today. Um, but we will have the opportunity to be back before you if we do get accepted for funding to sign that funding agreement. So again, there's a lot of steps in these processes, but just getting our application in, that is that is the critical piece. Um, so we do have funding available in our capital improvements fund to help us cover this 20% match uh for this project. And with that, staff is recommending um is asking seeking authorization to apply for the transportation alternatives program so that we can address the issues and construct the sidewalk along South Street. I'm available if you have any questions.

This is great. Um everybody knows that South Street's one of those dangerous intersections and we don't want our kids walking over there. I mean, I don't want to walk over there myself, so I'm all for this. Do you have a dollar amount that you're applying for? Is it a or project cost? Thought I put it in there, but I I didn't see it, but I mean, there's a 430. That's just what's in the in the fund. Oh, okay. 430,551 is what we have as a balance. I don't So, when you do the application, do you just say the project tell us what max amount we'll do?

Yeah, I want to say whenever I costed this out, it was somewhere between billion dollars or something like that. So, we're going to be well below that with our um 20% match. Well, no, no. I'm just wondering what the total project cost would be. Like I said, whenever um I think whenever I measured this, I was looking at probably about a million dollars. Oh, okay. A million for that entire length of um South Street. But I'll I'm going to finally from Webster to from Webster to whatever that street is. That's almost a 169. Harrison. Well, Harrison's the last one kind of in before you get to the name. No, Milidge. Milidge. Milidge.

Milidge to Webster. That wouldn't be a bad deal if we could get that figured out. Concern. This was Yeah. When we did the sidewalk uh meeting, everybody was pretty much saying, "Why don't we do south and this is the reason?" But if we could get something like this, that really kickstart some that would. So, well, fingers crossed. And then we add the 77 new customers, too. So, yeah. All right. Any other questions or comments? If not, I'll a motion.

I [clears throat] move to authorize the mayor to enter into a letter of intent setting out the right word. I am on number eight. Oh, okay. There we go. Uh, I move to authorize staff to submit an application to the Kansas Department of Transportation, K DOT, for the Transportation Alternatives TA program for funding for the South Street sidewalk. Second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor? I I

opposed. Motion passes 4 Z. Are you done for the night? [applause] All right. Next one up. Uh, consider authorizing mayor to enter into a letter of intent for purchase of agreement sewer system and infrastructure. This is what I was reading. Yeah, that's what I was like. I think you went one too far.

All right. I am going to start out this presentation like my last one, which is a bit of a blast from the past, but a year or so ago, the city council governing body considered an agreement with Miami County to treat the sewage that was coming out of the Biryus unincorporated area. Um, as part of that, Byrus or the county, Miami County went out and um planned and are in the process of constructing a line down 223rd Street to bring that sewage into our system for the city to treat and its plant. Um, in doing that, discussions started occurring of Miami County sort of having less and less interest of being in the sewer business, and the city is still in the sewer business. So, we've been discussing um just taking over the entire system, including that line down 223rd Street. There is one pump station, two one a pump station in there. Um it will position the city long term by having that line for economic growth kind of east along 223rd Street. Um you might recall a couple meetings ago, Miss Ael brought you some studies across 223rd Street. So, it's definitely a corridor for future growth and this puts the city sort of in the driver's seat for that. We talk a lot about the ability to run sewer is important. Um, and this puts the city in possession of that. Um, the county's construction costs are about $4.6 million. They received grant funding of about 4 million. So, they asked the city to just pay the difference and get $4.6 million worth of sewage sewer infrastructure for $600,000. That's where that number comes from is it's roughly the diff difference there. Um as part of that the city will take over the debus sewer. It's called a step uh treatment system. So it's not a pure septic system. It's sort of a hybrid there. There's a bit of a and Mr. Spear will correct me when I get too far

over my skis here. There's a roughly a septic tank and then a pump pulls it out and sends it along that line over to the city. So, the city will be taking over the maintenance of everything after the septic tank portion of it. Um, the county currently contracts with a company to do that. That company does maintenance and it has kind of a rotating schedule of inspections of those pumps. Uh, so we're probably going to continue that contract. I put in here, it's about 16,000 a year. Um, the staff time to load up our brand new truck and drive it out to Bus Cirrus and then do that work. It makes a lot of sense to just have someone who is intimately familiar with that system already. They've been maintaining it for years to continue doing that at a good price. Um, this will add 77 new customers to the wastewater system. Approximate annual uh revenue from that is $46,000. So, this is not necessarily or in any means a charity purchase for the the county. We're not bailing them out of anything. Um, this is a recognition that for them the economics don't really make as much sense for those 77 houses, but for us, we can make that make sense. And the good news is is we're coming out quite a bit ahead on uh easement acquisition and pump station infrastructure on 223rd for sewer. So, what you have before you is a letter of intent. Um, the final agreement will be much longer and will take some time for the lawyers on each side to kind of hammer out. What this is is a brief summary of the most important terms, purchase price, what we're assuming, what we're not assuming, who's on the hook for what until the date of closing. So, um, the big number, like I said, $600,000 for 77 users. Uh, and that will include a taking over that 223rd Street line. So, uh, happy to answer any questions, uh, or discuss this further and and happy to have Mr. Spear correct me on technical knowledge as well.

So, you brought up easement. Does this include easements? Correct. So, the county went out and acquired all the easements necessary for that line on 223rd Street. I think they might had to do some eminent domain. Uh, so that work has all been taken care of and the city just sort of gets to step in and take over uh the county's hard work on that. So, from a staff time perspective, there's also a value there of not having to do that on our end. And as road improvements and widening and things happen as we move east inevitably at some point those easements are there for that also. These ements are sewer ements. So I don't they're only sewer. Yeah. I don't believe there will be road easements coming with this. It's just for their their wastewater line there. I mean just to to address some of the questions from earlier.

If if somebody was to come in obviously we're taking over this line. We're gonna have a little bit of uh we're in the green on this annually. If nothing ever changed, we, you know, basically break even at 20 years. But going forward, as development does happen and sewer hookup fees happen, that's where we'll really start to see the benefit of this. So, it's not necessarily that we're giving it away. I think we're just making the investment early on a not that it's a charity case, but we're definitely doing the the county a favor because they don't want to have this and they're doing us a favor at the same time because we'd like to have the accessibility. So, I think it's it is can be a win-win going forward. I like I like my my words of wisdom from the past. We're we're not giving away anything for free. We're going to make sure we we get our our money back on this, but I think one sewer hookup. Do we have Rhonda? Do you have a estimate of what one industry building or

5825 5825? So or the connection per for a commercial business or for house either depending on a standard um standard household connection like a 58 inch line.

Okay. So the neighborhood goes in we have we're probably making up half of this pretty quick. Yeah. So I think anything like that that gets developed along 223rd over the next 2030 years we're getting at this $600,000 number. We we'll I think we'll make our money back up. I'm not as concerned about that once I kind of figure that out. But as long as we still do our due diligence, do what we're supposed to do, and make sure we're getting our piece of the pie when when somebody comes in so that everybody is equal um as they come in, I think that makes this worthwhile uh in my opinion. So, that was the only thing I just wanted to address those those concerns because I had the same ones when I first heard. I'm like, why would we pay? we were just supposed to process and then you know I I get they want to get out of it and we're in it and we're expanding as time goes on. So and 77 houses isn't going to help isn't going to kill our what we're able to accept now. So it's nothing that's imminent that's going to cause us to build a new wastewater plant, but it definitely helps to have the revenue and um and take this on. I think to me it's worthwhile over the long run as long as we do it right over the next 20 years. We don't give the farm away. Any comments or questions from you guys?

Rhonda, can we afford this? [laughter] Yes, we can. It'll be paid from the cash of the sewer fund. And I was looking at the cash balance um on February 20th, which was about um $8.5 million in the sewer fund. So, we'll pay cash. And I don't ever want you to lose track that we're getting $4.6 million in brand new assets for 600,000. So, that's a good investment. Yeah, I can't think of a better one. Any other comments or questions? All right, with that, I'll entertain a motion.

I move to authorize the mayor to enter into a letter of intent setting out the key terms of a potential asset purchase transaction between the board of county commissioners of Miami County and the city of Spring Hill, Kansas. Second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor? I I. All those opposed? Motion passes 4 0. That concludes our uh formal action items and moves us into executive session number one. Do you have those over there? I do not. You go up back to your

What time are we doing on these? 10 minutes on this one. Okay, 10 minutes and we're adding Rob Norris to it. Do you have it over there?

These ones are a mouthful, so good luck. I move the city council recesses into executive session for 10 minutes to receive advice of council regarding potential contracts pursuant to KSA75-4319B2 of the Kansas Open Meetings Act. The open meeting will resume in the city council chambers at 2017. No formal action is anticipated following the session. Persons in attendance are the following. Lane Massie, Ronda Dunn, Spencer Laauo, and Rob Norris.

And let's adjust that to 8:19 just for the travel time or 2019, however you want to say it. You want uh we'll be be coming back at 8:19 p.m. Okay, we have a motion. Do we have second? Second. All right, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor? I I opposed. Motion pass 4 Z. See you in a bit.

We're back. We uh no decisions were made and the subjects were um as stated. Next up is the uh another executive session. This one's 10 minutes. Okay. I move the city council recess into executive session for 10 minutes for the preliminary discussion of the accusation of the of real property pursuant to KSA75-4319 B2 of the Kansas open meetings act. The open meeting will resume at city council chambers at 2031. No formal action is anticipated following the sessions. Persons to be in attendance are the following. Lane man Lane Massie, city administrator. Mike Milan, community development director. the open canvas meeting.

Do we have a second? Second. Motion and a second. All those in favor? I I opposed. Motion pass 4 Z. See you in a bit.

31 because the next one is one more. All right, let the record reflect. We returned at 8:31 and no decisions were made. All uh items were discussion were uh as stated and we have one more executive session. We do have a request for a bathroom break. So, we'll throw that in there, but if you want to make a motion for the third. How long do we need this one to be?

Okay. So, maybe add five minutes on for the bathroom. I move the city council recess into executive session for 15 minutes and a fivem minute bathroom break to receive advice of council regarding the interpretations of state law and city code pursuant to KSA 75-4319 B2 of the Kansas Open Meetings Act. The open meeting will resume in the city council chambers at 5252. No formal action is anticipated following the session. Persons to be in attendance are the following. Lane Massie, city administrator, Spencer Laauo, city attorney.

Second. All those in favor? I I. All those opposed? Motion passes 400. We'll see you back here in a bit.

All right, we are back at 8:51. No decisions made, discussions were limited to the um reason stated. We are going to ask for a fivem minute extension to this um executive session. So I will entertain a motion. So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor?

I PJ's there. Poss. Motion pass 300. We'll be back in five minutes. 57. I am excited.

[laughter]

Let the record show we resume in the chambers at 8:58 p.m. The I can't read this thing because it's not coming up. The subject was limited to the items we listed. We are not extending anymore. We are ready to adjurnn. Can I entertain a motion? So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor? I opposed. Motion passed 400. See you all next time.