Tuesday July 21 BELOIT CITY COUNCIL MEETING

Beloit City Council Meeting

July 21, 2015

By Terry Bailey

The Beloit City Council met on Tuesday evening, July 21, 2015 to oversee the affairs of the City. Seven Councilors were present. The chair once held by Charlene Abel remains vacant. No replacement has yet been found. Also present were City Administrator Glenn Rodden, City Attorney Katie Schroeder, and City Clerk Amanda Lomax.

The first order of business was a presentation by engineers representing the Schwab-Easton Engineering Firm. Their presentation dealt with the present quality of water in Beloit and the future needs of a water system that can provide adequate drinking water for the citizen of our town.

The water treatment facility for the City of Beloit provides between 800,000 to one million gallons of water each day. They said that was not at the capacity for the current facility, but was fast approaching the limit of what the system could provide.

At the present time, quality control measures at the treatment facility test the water in a variety of ways for a variety of standards. The water is treated in a number of ways using tried and true methods as well as cutting edge, state of the art procedures.

Switching gears, they then addressed the future needs of Beloit’s water system. They are working on the assumption that as time passes more and more water will need to be provided by the system to the citizens of Beloit. They presented the Councilors with four possible alternatives to meet the future water needs of Beloit.

The first option was for a minimal upgrade to the system. This would simply buy time but major work would still need to be done in the future. The cost of this alternative would be between 1.5 and 2.0 million dollars.

The second option was to expand the external capacity of the plant. This would increase the daily capacity of the plant from 1.5 million gallons per day to 3.0 million gallons per day. The end result would be an up to date, state of the art water plant. The biggest problem with this option is to insure that adequate water was being provided while the extensive construction process was being conducted. The cost of this option was estimated to be from 4.5 million to 5 million dollars.

.A third option was to construct a new river water intake system with significant plant modifications. The cost of this option was 7 to 9 million dollars.

The fourth option was to construct a pipeline to Beloit from Waconda Lake. This 11 mile pipeline would provide water to the City that had not been exposed to possible contaminants in the river resulting in less treatment necessary. The cost of this alternative was projected to be in the 8 to 11 million dollar range.

In the time allowed for public comments, Carl Jordan addressed the council regarding some language contained in the Comprehensive Plan that he believed was unclear. In the process of his calling attention to these passages his three minute time period expired and he was not allowed to continue.

The Council adopted Ordinance 2166 allowing for the installation of stop signs at 21^st and 22^nd streets on North Walnut and Rosebud Street at Highway 24.

The Council adopted Ordinance 2167 establishing water and sewer rates for customers outside of the city limits.

In part, the water ordinance reads:

For customers inside the city limits, the base rate is $19.78 plus a charge of $4.00 per one thousand gallons used.

For customers outside of the city limits, the base rate is $35.00 plus a charge of $7.50 per one thousand gallons used.

Sewer charges are as follows:

For residential users within the city limits, $15.69 basc serviced charge per month plus $4.15 per one thousand gallons used.

For residential customers outside of the city limits, a basic charge of $35.00 per month plus $7.50 per one thousand gallons used.

The votes recorded on this ordinance: votiing against: Rick Brown, Tony Gengler, and Lloyd Littrell. Voting for were Kent Miller, Matte Otte, Bob Richards, and Bob Petterson. The motion to adopt the ordinance passed by a 4-3 vote.

For the next order of business Coucilor Rick Brown made a motion to accept the Comprehensive Plan as forwarded by the Planning Commission with the exception of deleting any mention of extra-territorial zoning authority of any distance. Lloyd Littrel seconded the motion. An exchange of ideas took place but it was evident that opininons were well fixed and little change could be expected. In the roll call vote, Councilors voting for Brown’s motion to accept the Comprehensive Plan while omitting the suggested two mile zoning authority were Rick Brown, Lloyd Littrel, and Tony Gengler. Voting agains the amendment were Bob Petterson, Bob Richards, Kent Miller and Matt Otte.The motion failed 3 votes for and 4 votes against.

Councilor Bob Richard then made a motion to accept the Comprehensive Plan including the 2 mile extra territoria zoning authority. The motion was seconded by Kent Miller. Voting for the motion were: Petterson, Richards, Otte, and Miller. Voting against the motion were Littrel, Brown, and Gengler. The motion carried with 4 votes for and 3 votes against.

The Council approved the Sewer Wastewater Utility Policy which states that anyone wishing to seek sewer service from the City of Beloit will seek voluntary annexation into the city limits.

The Council approved a bid of $108,700 to repair damage to the coolin tower in Labor Day hail storm last year. The damage was only recently discovered. It will be covered by the insurance.

The Council approved a letter modifying the residency requirements of Porter House.

Approval was given by the Council for a 1.6% cost of living wage increase across the board for all city employees. This number is based on the Federal government’s Consumer Price Index.

A three month extension was granted to the Downtown Commreical Rehabilitation Project to allow for the use of excess frunds left over from the itnitial bids.

The meeting adjourned and the work session began. City Administrator Rodden tooke the Counfcilos throgh a power point presentation highlightign the upcoming budgety details.

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Beloit, KS 67420, USA