KVSV

Beloit City Council Meeting Tuesday April 18th

 

Beloit City Council

 

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

 

By Terry Bailey

 


 

The Beloit City council met to conduct the business of the City Tuesday evening, April 17th. Councilors Lloyd Littrell and Lee McMillan were absent from the meeting while all the other Councilors were present. Also attending were Jason Rabe, City Manager, Katie Schroeder City Attorney, and Amanda Lomax, City Clerk.

 

In his City Manager’s report Jason Rabe reported:

 

The water testing for the city’s water continues. The numbers aren’t perfect but they are showing progress.

 

Workers are preparing to install the new fueling system at the airport. Work is continuing to identify any additional obstacles in the flight landing/takeoff path for the airport.

 

Work on the Court Street project is showing great progress with the good weather. The first section of the drainage pipe was laid this past Monday and six more were laid on Tuesday. A total of 34 sections of pipe will be needed to complete the project.

 

The Little Red Schoolhouse renovation project is nearing its end. All the outside construction work on the building has been completed. The fencepost limestone posts have been reset. Landscaping work has been completed around the building. The handicapped accessible ramp and guardrail has been installed. The County work crews have completed the inside work including new drywall on the interior ceiling. The major tsk yet to be completed is the painting of the outside of the building which will transform it from the Little Brown Schoolhouse to, once again, being the Little Red Schoolhouse. Rabe is collecting volunteers with spray guns to man the painting effort on a calm day.

 

The new Cemetery Ordinance was been delayed so the Cemetery Endowment group can review the document.

 

Rabe said the Sales Tax receipts continue to mirror the receipts from past years.

 

A proposal for a new police squad car had been on the agenda but a review between Rabe and Police Chief Dave Elam resulted in a decision to postpone the purchase. All current vehicles are running well and there is no pressing need to buy a new car.

 

A special event Ordinance 2227 was granted to the Kettle which would allow them to celebrate their anniversary on Saturday, June 2nd. This will necessitate the closing of Mill Street between Court and South Street for the duration of the activity.

 

A lift station bid was approved as follows:

 

Lift Station Replacement = $103,144

 

Installation - $18,500

 

40 KW Generator - $18,980

 

This lift station serves the entire western part of town and the current one has been problematic and needs to be replaced.

 


 

A pipe bid from Municipal Supply in the amount of $52,132 was approved for various pipe needs of the city.

 

A bid for a new mower for the Parks and Recreation Department in the amount of $12,899 from Carrico’s was approved. The City has over 130 acres of green space that the Department mows each summer.

 

The Council approved a bid from Red Municipal Equipment for a new Ravo street sweeper in the amount of $220,000. Financing will be provided by the Beloit First National Bank in the amount of 3.40% over a five year period. Annual payments on the machine will be $48,587.

 

Costs in the amount of $15,000 to repair the roof of the Port Library Building. Since the Labor Day hailstorm on 2014 the roof has been patched here and there in hopes a short fix would cure the problem. The new work was to recover the entire roof service.

 

The Council approved the following appointments to the Fire Department:

 

Fire Chief – Aaron LaCoe

 

First Assistant Chief – Dale Lewis

 

Second Assistant Chief – Eric Clark
Secretary – Steve Krier

 

Treasurer – Randy Stroede

 

First Captain – Josh Bell

 

Second Captain – Nathan Lund

 

First Truck Driver – Brett Beck

 

Second Truck Driver – Jeremy Easter

 

Third Truck Driver – Greg Thiessen

 

First Trustee – Alan Mong

 

Second Trustee – Luke Cashatt

 


 

The regular business meeting was adjourned and the Work Session was called to order.

 

The Work Session had one topic: The water treatment plant feasibility study discussion. The City of Beloit has worked for several years in an attempt to provide high quality water for the citizens of Beloit.

 

City Engineer Stuart Porter led the Council through a summary of the steps taken to date to provide the citizens of Beloit with the best water possible. Currently the City takes water from the Solomon River, treats it and distributes it to the City. Over the years many environmental factors have caused river water to be harder and harder to treat satisfactorily. Two or three years ago the City began pondering the possibility of building a pipeline and using water from the Waconda Lake as the source of the City’s water.

 

Because of an emphasis by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to regionalize services such as drinking water, the City and the local Rural Water Districts have entered into discussions about a joint effort to build a water treatment plant to serve the Rural Water District Customers and the Citizens of Beloit. The latest of these meetings was last week when Council Andrew Grabon Porter met with representatives of the Rural District.

 

Two plans to provide water to customers have emerged. Plan one would be to update and expand the current Rural Water District water treatment facility. Basically, keep doing what we are doing in a more modern and technologically advanced fashion. Plan number two would be to build a new reverse osmosis plant at the lake which would provide water to all citizens. A main advantage of this option that it would have the technology and capability to provide stat of the art treatment of water well into the future.

 

Porter told the Council that, with their approval, he could organize a visit by “experts” from the state to come to Beloit and help review the two options for all involved parties. He was directed to set up such a meeting.

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Beloit, KS 67420, USA