BELOIT CITY COUNCIL – Wednesday, April 17, 2024

By Terry Bailey

The Beloit City Council met at City Hall on Wednesday evening, April 17, to conduct the business of the City. All Councilors were present with the exception of Lee McMillan. Also present was City Manager Halley Roberson, City Clerk Mandy Lomax, and City Attorney Katie Schroeder.
City Attorney Schroeder said she is reviewing the provisions of Code Enforcement and cleaning up details. She will work on the dog ordinances next week. She said the Imminent Domain case for the land for the pipeline on South Independence Street has been filed.
City Manager Halley Roberson told the Council that energy contracts through the Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA) are coming up for renewal. The City's association with GRDA has been positive. Roberson said electricity production across the United States has seen a lessening in the use of fossil fuels.
She reported that the GIS update is progressing well. GIS stands for geographic information system, a system for storing and manipulating geographical information on computers.
The water plant cleanout resulted in one of the basin cleaned out very well.
Work that was scheduled for the wastewater plant had been put on hold to allow for the work to be done on the new water line and plant. Nobody expected that job to take six- and one-half years.
Roberson reported that in conversations with the airport manager she believes it will be possible close the grass runway at the airport. This would allow room to build much needed hangers.
With the resignation of the Code Enforcement Officer, those duties will be assimilated into other departments and a new person will not be hired for that position. The majority of the work will be absorbed by the City Police Department.
Police Chief Lackey has received three bids for a new police vehicle. They are:
Landmark $41,500
JR Audio $42,750
Beloit Auto and Truck $41,616
These bids were for Dodge Durango Pursuit Vehicles. When asked why he was soliciting bids on a SUV rather than a Dodge Charger, Lackey said that the Charger being phased out of production by Dodge. Additionally, the SUV is much easier to get into and out of. With the increasing amount of gear carried by the officers, this is a big factor. Also, the SUV has a higher ground clearance. Lackey said, "Running into a raccoon can cause serious damage to an automobile."
The Council voted to accept the bid from the local vendor, Beloit Auto and Truck Plaza.
Lackey reported he has concluded the Fentanyl training with USC #273 personnel. He and others performed the training. Lackey recommended storage of the emergency medication in the school's IED boxes. He said, "If you need the Fentanyl medication you are probably going to need the IED."
Lackey said, "We have one officer at the Training Academy, and we have just hired another officer. This puts us at full strength."
Lackey reported he has talked with homeowners about the upcoming restriction of no parking on the north side of Main Street from Poplar to Highway 24. All were positive about this action.
Roberson reported that she has been working with Schwab Eaton to determine the best location for a detention pond for storm water control on the east side of town. The pond will be located East of Highway 24 and just south of Highway 9, just east of the Rolling Hills complex. The Council approved $66,200 for Schwab Easton's engineering fees.
How best to create an equipment inventory was the topic of discussion in the Work Session. Accounting for everything from backhoes to string trimmers is a daunting task.
Roberson also reported the mechanics are overloaded with repairing vehicles to chainsaws. Some repairs are major and even the minor ones take time.
Roberson said with the retirement of the "old hands" the City will not be able to hire a new person who can and will work on everything from diesel motors to string trimmers.

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Beloit, KS 67420, USA