BELOIT CITY COUNCIL â€“ Wednesday, September 7, 2022

By Terry Bailey

The Beloit City Council conducted their bi-weekly meeting Wednesday evening at City Hall to oversee the business of the City. Attending the meeting were Councilors Todd Adolph, Andrew Grabon, Gretchin Staples, and Tony Gengler. Also attending was Mayor Tom Naasz, City Administrator Jason Rabe, City Attorney Katie Schroeder, and City Clerk Amanda Lomax. Councilors absent were Lee McMillan and Jamie Meier.
Rabe reported one of the new replacement bridges on Circle/Gill Creek Drives should be open for traffic on Thursday, September 7. The second bridge should be open one week later.
He reported the latest news from KMEA (Kansas Municipal Energy Agency) is that anything to do with energy all across the State and Country is currently more expensive and will continue to be that way for the foreseeable future.
Rabe said the property acquisition for the West Drainage project has been completed and City Engineer Stewart Porter will be working on plans for the project. He hopes local contractors can successfully bid on the project.
Sales tax receipts continue to be higher than in the past.
It appears the drag races will he conducted at the Moritz Airport in conjunction with the downtown Millapalooza on September 24th. Fouts Insurance will be providing the liability insurance coverage.
Stewart Porter and fellow project engineer Jeff Shamburg provided the Council with a "75% Plan Completion Report" for the new Water Treatment Plant and Pipeline. The completed document submitted was one hundred fifty pages long. Many specific details were shared with the Council, but the bottom line is that the plans are meeting with approval and work should be ready for bids as planned. The project was estimated to cost in the neighborhood of 14 million dollars when initiated two or three years ago. At this point the projected cost of the completed undertaking is $22,724,000.
Rabe said the best course of action at this point is to complete the plans for the project, announce the plans for bids and see what numbers are received. At that point, action can be taken to work on additional grant possibilities and to request additional funding from the USDA and KDHE.
A discussion of the North Walnut Street improvement project was conducted. Previously the cost of the project was at 2.7 million dollars and the one bid received for the work was 4.3 million dollars. Rabe and Porter have concluded the best way to progress is to modify the plans and to rebid the work. As with the Water Plant project, once a final cost number from the bids will determine what to do.
The Council approved action on Ordinances 2319 and 2320, both action taken on a yearly basis.
Also approved was Ordinance 2321, the assessment for mowing conducted by the city. Ordinance 2322 for a special activity for the Kettle was approved. Also approved were special event licenses for activities at the Chautauqua Park for Boettcher's and for a retirement party for Click Clark.
The business meeting was adjourned, and the work session was called to order. The major topic of discussion in the work session was a draft copy of the ordinance directed at regulating Cats in the City of Beloit. City Attorney Katie Schroeder highlighted the major points of the draft copy. She stressed that this is a draft copy and will be subject to several discussions before a final copy is adopted. For those interested in studying this document, it can be found at the City of Beloit website.

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Beloit, KS 67420, USA