BELOIT CITY COUNCIL â€“ Wednesday, March 1, 2023

By Terry Bailey

The Beloit City Council conducted its biweekly business meeting Wednesday evening, March 1. Councilors Andrew Grabon, Tony Gengler, Lee McMillian, Jamie Meier, and Gretchen Staples attended in person. Councilor Todd Adolph and Mayor Tom Naasz participated in the meeting via Zoom.
City attorney Katie Schroeder told the Councilors that a recent bill introduced in the legislature to require City Councilors to declare a party affiliation had been defeated.
The legislature is following up on previous legislation to remove the Kansas sales tax on groceries. There is a movement underfoot to remove the local sales tax now levied on food sales. Final action has not been taken on this idea.
City Manager Jason Rabe told the Council that paperwork had been submitted on the water treatment plant 60 days ago and the City has not heard from the State. The State discourages a follow up on the paperwork until 90 days has passed.
Rabe said the City realized another profitable month of sales tax revenues. A total of $174,000 was collected in February. Rabe said, "This was one of our strongest months in sales tax collection."
The West 8th Street drainage project is ready to go as soon a the contractor starts the work.
The North Walnut Street project has generated a lot of paperwork that has been submitted for grant funding. Rabe believes that Beloit will qualify for funding somewhere, somehow.
Work is continuing on the Solomon River Walking/Biking Trail. A memorandum of understanding will be drafted and signed delineating which entity is responsible for what part of the trail project.
An audit engagement letter was approved to secure the audit services of Jarred, Gilmore, and Phillips, PA to conduct a single audit of the City's books for 2022. The fee of $12,000 was approved.
A land swap at the Moritz airport was approved. The City will receive 1.95 acres of land from the Landoll Corporation and Landoll will receive .95 acres from the City plus $10,000. The Council voted 5-0 on the issue with Councilor Jamie Meier abstaining.
The business meeting was adjourned and the work session was called to order.
Rabe led the Council through a detailed discussion of the the City's wage structure and comparing Beloit's wage structure to other cities our size. The comparison is challenging and it is difficult to compare apples to apples because of the many differences from town town in their compensation model.

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Beloit, KS 67420, USA