BELOIT CITY COUNCIL MEETING TUESDAY DECEMBER 2

Beloit City Council Meeting

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

By Terry Bailey

The Beloit City Council met Tuesday evening, December second, two thousand fourteen to deliberate on issues concerning the citizens of Beloit. Councilors present were: Bob Petterson, Tony Gengler, Bob Richards, Kent Miller, Charlene Abell, Matt Otte and Lloyd Littrell. Also present were Mayor Tom Naaz, City Manager Glen Roddden, and City Clerk Mandy Lomax. Absent from the proceedings were Councilor Rick Brown and City Attorney Katie Cheney.

City Manager reminded all City employees that the date of the Christmas Party is December twentieth. He asked all those planning on attending to please RSVP to the City Office so that accurate planning can be made.

Rodden also pointed out that work is being done on the Old Penny’s Building and the building that once housed the Beloit Pawn Shop. New windows are being installed with significant funding for the project provided by the Neighborhood Revitalization Block Grant.

Code Enforcement Officer Chris Jones announced that work was still being performed on the Highway Fourteen Geometric Improvement Project. Jones explained that this is the term used by the Department of Transportation. He pointed out that on Highway Fourteen/North Inpendence Street the road dips significantly north of the Westwind Plaza. Work will be done in the summer of two thousand fifteen to raise the roadbed and eliminate the low spot in the road that is prone to flooding. Jones also indicated that Hiway Fourteen/North Independence Street will be closed during this construction project which will affect the flow of traffic.

In the Public Hearing time period Chris Jones told the Council that a tree located on the property of Richard and Carol Padgett at Five Twenty-Three North Hersey was hollow and leaning onto his neighbor’s property and is in danger of falling and causing damage. The Padgettes were notified by mail on November sixth and given thirty days to have the tree removed. Jones had expected the Padgetts to be present at the Hearing but they were not in attendance. The City will move forward to the next step in the process.

In time allocated for a Public Hearing regarding the improvements at the North Campus, David Porter questioned the Council’s decision to spend one point two million dollars to pave streets in an area where there are no houses at this time. Porter said, “This is a lot of money for a road where nobody is there to pay for it.” It was Porter’s belief that it would be wise to construct gravel roads and when enough people build new houses and move into the area cement streets could be done and the homeowners could be assessed some of the cost.

It was the consensus of the Council that a good way to attract nice people to build nice homes was to have good streets in the area. The Council believes good streets will be a strong marketing tool to attract new homeowners.

When ordinance Twenty-one fifty-nine came up for discussion its passage was not favored by Councilor Matt Otte. This ordinance was one to increase rates for electrical users three percent in calendar year two thousand fifteen and the raise the rates again in two thousand sixteen by another three percent. This would amount to a six percent raise over two years. Rodden explained this raise would be used to fund projects needed by the Electrical Department. The two-year plan according to Rodden would finance necessary projects and would lessen the shock of a big increase all at once.

Otte contended that the new raise in rates would cause the homeowners electrical bill to rise by twelve percent and large business owners would see a twenty-seven percent decrease in their rates. Otte reminded Rodden that in the work session when the rate increase was being considered, he had asked for additional information and documentation and that he had never received it.

Councilor Lloyd Littrell pointed out that in the monthly budget numbers, the Electrical Department is showing a surplus of four hundred twenty thousand dollars and that perhaps some of this surplus money should be used first before raising the rates on homeowners.

The Council decided to table the rate increase ordinance until the next meeting so that more detailed information can be made available.

Resolution Twenty-fourteen-twenty was passed. This resolution detailed the improvements to be made at the North Campus.

The Council approved a bid of fifty-one thousand one hundred eighty-two dollars and five cents from GE Oil and Gas for repair of turbo charger number six.

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Beloit, KS 67420, USA