By Terry Bailey
The Beloit City Council conducted its regular bi-weekly business Wednesday evening, May 3rd. All Councilors with the exception of Lee McMillian were present. Also in attendance were Mayor Tom Naasz, City Attorney Katie Schroeder, City Manager Jason Raabe, and City Clerk Amanda Lomax.
City Manager Rabe reported that the City has received a 29 page document regarding concerns with the plans for the Water Treatment Plant/Pipeline. He said this was good news because now the City Engineer can respond to those concerns. Some were simply typos and grammatical errors. Rabe said there were no glaring roadblocks to the completion of the program.
Rabe reported that the Solar Farm had another good month of electrical production in April.
The sales tax report indicated that receipts were five percent above last year at the same time.
A representative from the accounting firm of Jarred, Gilmore, and Phillips, PA was present to discuss the recently completed audit for the 2022 calendar year. The audit showed no significant areas of concern.
Emily Benedick reported that a grant of $423,000 has been received to apply to the renovation of the Sperry/Duckwalls building. This new money coupled with the funds already on hand is getting close to the total money needed to complete the renovation project.
Benedick announced that the empty area just east of Bubba Q's has been named. Plans have been made for this to be a "pocket park." This spot has been officially christened at Willow Springs Courtyard.
Public Hearings were held concerning unfit structures located at 128 Roosevelt and 412 West 4th Street. The owners were present, and both indicated they were making plans to take care of the properties.
A representative from the Austin Peters Group was present to discuss their strategy for finding a new city manager. Their fee is $16,396 and they have a 16 week time frame to complete the search and hiring process. They hope to complete the search and hire efforts by Labor Day. The representative told the Councilors Austin Powers would not tell them who to hire but would, instead, provide them with qualified candidates from which to hire. She told the Council that they would not get a large number of applicants with the labor market as it now exists. She said they would be lucky to get five resumes submitted for the job.
The Councilors voted to approve the letter of understanding with Austin Peters and the fee of $16,396.
The Council authorized the sale of a 2011 and a 2014 Chevrolet Tahoe via the Purple Wave auction service.
A bid of $3,200 was approved from Chip Diers for the painting of the building located at 113 East 2nd.
An overhead door and motorized opener for the building at 113 East 2nd in the amount of $15,400 from Lake Construction was accepted.
The Council reauthorized the amount of $25,000 to be spent for structure demolition and sidewalk building at the discretion of the Code Enforcement Officer.
Rabe led the Council through a discussion of the Beloit City Pay Structure. He told the Council this was his best effort to match up current pay for City employees with the going rates in the private sector. The Council voted to accept his proposal.
The Kansas State Disc Golf Tournament will be contested at Beloit's Chautauqua Park on July 21st and July 23rd. The Council wholeheartedly voted to grant permission for the use of the Park for this competition.
A special event permit was granted to Kettle for their annual street affair and celebration of the anniversary of their business on June 3rd.
Conner Mong was appointed to a seat on the Port Library Board from 2023 to 2027.
Two executive sessions were held for fifteen minutes each. Th first was to discuss attorney-client privilege. The second was to discuss employee performance.