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TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 15 BELOIT CITY COUNCIL MEETING

 

Beloit City Council

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

By Terry Bailey

 

The Beloit City Council conducted their regularly scheduled bi-weekly meeting to attend to the affairs of the City on Tuesday evening, September 15. All Councilors were present as well at the Mayor, Tom Naasz, City Administrator Glenn Rodden, City Attorney Katie Schroeder, and City Clerk Amanda Lomax. Still left vacant is the seat left open by the resignation of Charlene Abel.

In the time reserved for comments from the Councilors no comments were made. City Administrator Glenn Rodden informed the Council that city crews were attending to necessary utility work related to the upcoming K-14 project. Rodden then introduced Mike Cooper, the developer of the Silver Fox Estates at the North Campus.

The reason for Cooper’s appearance before the Council was centered on street light poles that were being installed by the City in the newly developed North Campus area.

The City has a policy relating to the installation of new light/utility poles. The policy has been followed at times and not followed at other times. The policy states that the city will install wooden poles which cost in the neighborhood of $500 including the cost of the pole and the light and mounting bracket. New metal poles have a price tag of $1,500 including the light and mounting bracket.

Cooper contended that this new housing district was intended to be a showcase area to draw new homeowners to the area. He pointed out that the area has underground utilities, new streets, and will contain new homes when developed.

He asked, “Since you have to all the trouble to create an attractive area would you not want to make it look as nice as possible? The wooden poles are unsightly and detract from the area. Using metal light poles would help create the type of area the City hopes to create.”

It appears that the not-well-known policy allows for the developer to pay the difference between the cost of metal poles to be installed instead of the wooden poles. A rough count concluded that there were about sixteen poles to be considered.

Home owner Stephanie Litton spoke to the Council. “Travis and I chose to return to his home town of Beloit to make our home and raise our children. We wanted to build a nice house in the new area. We spent a lot of money to do so. Probably too much money, but we ended up with a nice home. Then I woke up one morning and saw this ugly, crooked, wooden pole in my front yard. Every time I look that way, that is all I see.”

When asked if they would be willing to pay the difference between the wooden one and a metal one, she replied, “No, we have already spent too much money.”

The discussion went this way and that with the core question being, “Who should pay for a nicer light pole?” Should the City revise their obscure policy to make allowances to install more attractive utility poles to create a more attractive town? Should the homeowner or contractor pay the difference to have a nicer utility pole in front of their house? A look at past similar situations resulted in the fact that sometimes the City put in nicer light poles and sometimes it didn’t.

The discussion ended with no clear cut decision of how the City would proceed. It was obvious that the policy needs updating and made more readily available for those interested in such issues.

Next up was another situation regarding the City and the North Campus. In the contract between the City and Mike Cooper, the developer, it was stated that the City would remove the rubble that littered the area of development. Rocks, cement blocks, assorted metal fragments of various sizes and so forth needed to be removed before development could begin. Some of the debris had been pushed up into piles with some being loaded on trucks and carried away and many pile still visible.

When Travis and Stephanie Litton recently began to landscape their back yard, they discovered a large pile of debris had been buried under the surface of the ground. It was virtually impenetrable and they need to get down to a lower level so that can locate drainage away from the house correctly. It seems that when the crews were clearing that area they moved on before the entire job had been completed.

According to City Attorney Katie Schroeder, “It was part of our contract to remove the debris. We didn’t do it. We need to take care of the problem.”

Mayor Tom Naasz asked Rodden, “Can we get up there this fall? They can’t do anything until we take care of our part.”

Rodden replied with a mixture of “Yes we might” and “Well, we have a lot of other work to do.” It was unclear when the Litton’s might expect the City to clear up the problem they caused.

A public hearing was called to order to discuss an unfit structure at 709 West Court. No one appeared to speak for or against the action. With no one present the Council adopted Resolution 2015-22 declaring an unfit structure at 709 West Court. It was decided to give the property owner 30 days to take action. If nothing has been done after 30 days, the City will move to the next step.

In formal actions, the Council:

Approved a bid of $10,591 for 17 thirty-five foot electrical poles and 17 forty-five foot electrical poles.

Approved a bid of $11,875 for aluminum wrapping.

Approved a bid of $13,200 for EPA emissions testing.

Approved a KMEA Sale of Energy contract.

Having successfully dealt with all items on the agenda, the Council adjourned their regular business meeting and called the Work Session to order.

City Administrator Rodden presented the concept of early retirement to the Council. He reminded them that several years ago the City had opened a window of opportunity for early retirement for City employees. The major premise for early retirement is that those in that category are in higher salary brackets. When those higher paid employees retire, they are usually replaced by younger employees drawing a lower salary. By replacing higher paid employees with lower paid employees the City benefits. For those who qualify for early retirement, the City would pay their health insurance until they reached 65 years of age.

The Council approved his moving forward with the early retirement concept and to see how many were interested.

 

 

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Beloit, KS 67420, USA