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Packed House At City Council Tuesday Night

It was standing room only at the meeting of the Beloit City Council Tuesday night with more chairs brought in to accommodate the crowd present to express their support for the Roadside Park.

Lifetime resident and local business owner, Jim Bell, addressed the council during the public comment section of the meeting. He was speaking on behalf of the group of 20 some people what were present to make what he called "their last chance to save the park." Bell called on the council to make a decision before they start selling off that area of ground where the park is located. He asked them to take the decision to the general public on a ballot and let them vote on whether or not to destroy the park. Bonnie Steiner was also on the agenda and expressed her feelings very simply when she said, "Keep the park! We need it and it is very nice there."

Later during the work session agenda one of the discussion items was the North Campus Platting and Rezoning. At that time City Administrator Glenn Rodden made the following statement. "On Tuesday, January 10, 2012 the planning commission voted 3 to 1 to recommend the submitted plat and rezoning request to the city council for approval. Passing the plat and rezoning request does not commit the city to any development of any parcel of land within this tract of land, but this action does plan for the future growth and development of the entire area."

The plan is zoned for part commercial, part mixed use for small commercial businesses as well as some residential use of that area and another area designated as strictly residential. The streets and blocks are all planned out in the residential areas. Rodden said this is just a guide for a future plan for developing the area and it may take 20 to 30 years to complete development of that whole area.

Councilman Denis Shumate, former Superintendent of the North Campus Facility when it was owned by the state and served as a girls industrial school, gave a short history of the school and how it happened that the State of Kansas deeded the campus property over to the City of Beloit. He went on to say that no one realized at that time that this deed did not include the property where the Roadside Park is located. Since that time the city obtained ownership when the State signed a quick claim deed to this effect.

Discussion followed with Councilman Matt Otte speaking out in favor of keeping the roadside park at its present location. Councilman Tom Naasz asked about alternate ways to access the surrounding area to Highway 14 by going around the west side of the park. Otte asked if there were a number of people interested in marketing the land where the park is located at the present time. Jim Bell said the City of Salina would not let any parks be zoned as commercial. They are all zoned as residential as this makes it harder for the city to change it from a park.

Beloit resident, Bob Petterson, told the council he has traveled in an 800-mile radius of Beloit checking on how parks are zoned in towns within that area and they are all zoned as residential. He said it would cost the City over two hundred thousand dollars to move the park to a new location even using City employees to do the labor. Petterson was asking as a taxpayer and a retired contractor who did a lot to help build up the City of Beloit that they take this information into consideration when making a decision on the park. The question came up as to whether the Farmer's Market could be held there if this was zoned as residential area and it was determined that it could be held there.

After more discussion the decision was made to inset a ballot in the envelope with the next City light and water bill, the same as was done with voting on the library and swimming pool issues. All registered voters who live within the City limits will be allowed to vote. If there are two or more registered voters living in the residence each would be allowed to have a vote. Voters could also pick up a ballot at the City Offices. The Council determined that if the majority of the community votes to leave the park in its present location the City Council would agree to unanimously approve this action.

Administrator Rodden, presented employee of the quarter awards to all the Power Plant Employees, and city employees Craig Marcotte and Loren Chism.
Rodden said the city ran the power plant for 24 hours straight during a five-week period recently due to equipment problems. With the help of the power plant employees and Marcotte and Chism who pitched in to help, the city was able to keep the power on during that time.

The Council voted 7 to 0 with Councilwoman Pat Struble absent, to approve Ordinance 2106 for the KDHE loan. Passing this ordinance completes the loan agreement with KDHE for the purpose of obtaining a loan from the Kansas Public Water Supply Loan Fund to finance the replacement of the cities current water meters with automated meters. The City will be borrowing $515,000 on a ten-year loan agreement with KDHE at an interest rate of 2.43 percent.

The Council approved two resolutions. The first was Resolution 2012-2- 2011 for the waiver of GAAP Accounting. The second was Resolution 2012-3 concerned selecting representatives to the Nebraska Municipal Power Pool Representatives Members Council and appointing Glenn Rodden as the City of Beloit's representative and Ronald Sporleder at the alternate representative.

The Council voted 7 to 0 to approve the FY2011 audit agreement with Clubine and Rettele in an amount not to exceed $7,650 and designated Amanda Lomax, Director of Finance/City Clerk to oversee their services.

The Council went into a 10-minute closed session for non-elected personnel with the governing body, City Attorney Cheney, Administrator Rodden and Travis Lattin present. No decisions were made or actions taken.

Administrator Rodden reported the work on the new cooling tower at the power plant is moving along well. The water line project continues to move forward since they have been able to keep working with the open weather this area has been having. He also said there would be an employee meeting on January 26 with the Blue Cross-Blue Shield representative to go over an increase in the employees' insurance plans.

Mayor Becky Koster reminded everyone the last day to file for a city position is January 21 at noon either in the City Office or the County Clerk's Office. Councilman Otte reminded everyone it is time to get City dog licenses renewed.

Tony Salcido, new resident in the city, spoke to the council about his concern with the City's Pit Bull Ordinance. He asked about the chances of getting this ordinance changed either by council vote or by petition. He has a family pet that he wants to keep and he has received a notice from the City that he has to get rid of the dog within a short time to comply with the ordinance. After consideration the Council made the decision to leave the Ordinance as it is due to the history of problems with Pit Bulls and Rotweilers the City has had in the past.

A long discussion was held during the work session concerning the animal control situation the city faces and possible options as to what can be done to relieve some of these problems in the future. Chris Jones, Code Enforcement Officer explained the huge problem the city faces in dealing with dogs and cats running loose. He estimates there are around 600 stray dogs and up to possibly 60 feral cats running loose in the city limits. He said there were only around 150 to 160 dogs that were licensed last year out of the 600 known dogs running lose.

Many different possibilities as to how to deal with this problem were presented; included building a city dog pound. Jones was told to check out possible options through the Humane Society and get back to the council at their next meeting.

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Beloit, KS 67420, USA