Beloit City Council Meeting Tuesday July 19

Beloit City Council Meeting

Tuesday, July 16, 2016

By Terry Bailey

The Beloit City Council met at City Hall Tuesday night, July 18 to oversee the affairs of the City. All Councilors were present as were Mayor Tom Naasz, Interim City Manager Jay Newton, and City Clerk Amanda Lomax. City Attorney Katie Schroeder was absent from the meeting.

Mayor Tom Naasz began the meeting with the mention of the fact that dogs running at large is a situation that has been occurring more and more often. He said, “The situation is not very good and is not getting any better.” Naasz then yielded the floor to Councilor Butch Pontow.

Pontow said that just recently he had received calls regard three separate incidents. In two of them, people were bitten by a dog and in the third the person barely missed being bitten. Pontow said, “It is not the animal’s fault. It is the fault of the owner that allows the animal to run at large. I think we need to put our foot down and take action against irresponsible pet ownership.” All Councilors agreed that there are rules on the books and people are not following them. It was the consensus of the group that a plan of action needs to be formulated to ensure the safety of the citizens of Beloit while they are walking or biking on the streets of our town.

Pontow also said that he had received calls from constituents regarding the deteriorating status of the West Side Park. Several months ago some of the playground equipment was vandalized and all the equipment was removed. There are no plans to replace it.

The calls to Pontow were in regard to the bathrooms being locked and inaccessible. People had taken their children to the park and found the bathrooms were not available. Pontow was told by Lynn Miller that they can’t keep up with fixing the damage done to the restrooms. Repairs were made to destruction in the bathroom and almost immediately the vandal create havoc. The bathrooms have been locked because of this.

Andrew Grabon said that he had received a call regarding hazardous living conditions in rental properties. He inquired if the city had any ordinances or regulations addressing this issue. City Administrator Jay Newton said it was his understanding that some time back the Council worked toward developing policies to address this issue. However the Council stopped short of taking action. There were several comments expressing the belief that there were certain people who did not want the City to take action therefore action was not taken. Grabon expressed his belief that the Council needs to protect our citizens.

Interim City Administrator Jay Newton reported that discussions with Rural Water District Number Three resulted in their willingness to participate in the agreement for the new water system.

Newton said that the search for a permanent full-time City Administrator had netted sixteen applicants. Of these, ten have met the minimum qualification requirements. The Austin-Peters group will be conducting background checks and will meet with the City Council next Tuesday to discuss the candidates. Newton anticipated this meeting would be of an executive session nature because of the discussion of personnel.

Newton told the Council that at the August second meeting engineers will be at the meeting to discuss the engineering plans for the East Main project

Lynn Miller and Lloyd Figurate discussed activities related to the Tree City program. The year 2017 will mark the fortieth consecutive year that Beloit will be awarded the Tree City award. Miller said the Parks and Recreation Department are planning on applying to host the State Tree City Conference. This would bring 120 t0 125 people to Beloit for the conference. Miller said this would take a coordinated effort from numerous entities for this to be a success. She reminded the Council that they were applying to host the conference with no assurance they would be chosen to do so.

Miller also said she was applying for a grant to improve the north entrance of the walking bridge over the Solomon River. She said currently the approach to the bridge is unsightly and unattractive. Also, her plans are to make the bridge entrance ADA accessible.

Jay Newton said that representatives from Leadership Mitchell County will attend the August 2 meeting to share their thoughts on positive views they have of council actions and to offer comments about possible future actions for the Council to consider.

The Council passed Ordinance Number 2189 addressing the placement of stop signs on the streets at the North Campus.

In formal actions, the Council considered a request by Tom and Mary Claussen to purchase property at the North Campus. This initiated an extended discussion regarding the purchase of lots and then having no improvements completed on the lots. The underlying concern was that speculators would buy property, do nothing to the property, and then sell it later at a profit. At the end of the discussion, the Council voted to sell the property to Tom and Mary Claussen for $7,560 with the stipulation that a residence would be built on the property within two years.

Newton reported to the Council on the status of the Pay Plan for Employees being constructed by Austin-Peters. One discovery was that under the current pay plan, many people have been hired at rates higher than the plan would indicate. The reasoning is that it is not possible to hire people for the pay scale in the current book. The Council voted to approve the work done so far and for them to continue.

The Council voted to approve the purchase of a 2017 GMC Sierra 1500 pickup for the water department. The cost of the four-wheel drive crew cab vehicle was $24,250.

A cereal malt beverage license was approved for Ray’s Apple Market.

A two month time extension was approved for the Community Block Grant demolition program.

The regular business meeting, having completed all items on the agenda, was adjourned.

In the work session Newton reminded the Councilors that have draft proposals for the 2017 budget. At the August 2 meeting they will be expected to take action on a final budget for the upcoming year.

Newton told the Council that the yearly utility bill for the buildings at the North Campus was $194,000. It is his belief that an energy audit would find many ways to reduce that cost. He urged the Council look into having such an audit conducted.

Other News

Beloit, KS 67420, USA