August 7, 2025
The Jetmore City Council met in regular session on August 7th, 2025. Mayor Bill Goebel called the meeting to order and led the group in the Pledge of Allegiance. Roll call was answered by Councilmen Cole Buffo, Jeff Channell, Charles Leet, John Neeley & Mike Thornburg. Also attending were City Administrator Michael Ort, Assistant City Clerk Connie Olson, City Attorney Clayton Kerbs, Sailor Seiler, and Isaiah Bradshaw.
Councilman Thornburg made a motion to approve the consent agenda containing the July minutes & Appropriation Ordinance #2025-07. Councilman Neeley seconded the motion; vote unanimous.
SHERIFF’S REPORT:
Sheriff Walker provided his monthly report to the council. There have been some issues at the housing authority. Sheriff Walker also discussed dog complaints, golf carts, and tornado sirens with the council.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT REPORT:
Sailor introduced the new Economic Development director, Isaiah Bradshaw. Reported to council some of the highlights from the month; the 2nd SEED payment was received, Rural Champion Grant was received, Pitch your Porch event held and 4 businesses were awarded money, 1st TOWNS payment received, applies for Patterson funding for USD227, finished NXTUS interviews & attended RAISE KS retreat.
CITY ATTORNEY REPORT:
Things are going well with court. The dog bite case has been continued to October due to Judge Gleason being gone to conference in September.
BUSINESS ITEMS:
Councilman Thornburg made a motion to suspend the regular meeting and open the meeting of the Land Bank Board of Trustees. Councilman Buffo seconded the motion; vote unanimous. Sailor Seiler shared with the land bank board the details of the Rural Champion Grant that has been awarded them in the amount of $10,000. She further shared the terms of the agreement and the obligation the city will have to commit these funds before December 31 of this year. Councilman Neeley made a motion to accept the terms of the agreement. Councilman Buffo seconded the motion; vote unanimous. Afterward, Councilman Buffo made a motion to adjourn the meeting of the Land Bank Board of Trustees and reopen the regular council meeting. Councilman Thornburg seconded the motion; vote unanimous.
City Administrator Michael Ort presented the 2025 Region D Hazard Mitigation Plan to the council. This plan was the product of meetings between Kansas Department of Emergency Management personnel and local officials from counties and cities in SW Kansas. Mr. Ort further shared with the council that adoption of the mitigation plan locally would enable that jurisdiction to receive grant funding in an effort to pursue any of the goals or tasks outlined in the plan. Councilman Leet made a motion to approve resolution 2025-04 and the 2025 Region D Hazard Mitigation Plan. Councilman Buffo seconded the motion; vote unanimous.
Administrator Ort presented the BCBSKS insurance renewal. The annual renewal this year includes a 6.8% increase in premiums over last year, far less than the 21% increase that was seen last year. Councilman Buffo made a motion to accept the renewal policy. Councilman Neeley seconded the motion; vote unanimous.
CITY ADMINISTRATOR REPORT:
*City Administrator Michael Ort presented his travel/training/meeting schedule for the month.
*Airport Project-The agreement with Kirkham Michael was completed this month after some revisions
requested by Clayton. The next step will be geotechnical work, consisting of coring and sampling of the runway and apron in an effort to determine the extent of the repair and replacement project to be engineered and planned. Cory, our engineer, is waiting to hear about the scheduling of that work. This work will require intermittent closures of the airport.
*KMEA Report-Mr. Ort shared with the council some information from the most recent EMP3 meeting delivered by KMEA General Manager, Paul Mahlberg, to the group. First, future costs of wholesale electricity are expected to increase dramatically around the country in the upcoming years. Kansas is fortunate as these increases will be less than nearly everywhere else, but are still expected to climb by 30%. The big driver on this will be overall growth of the electric load, caused in large part by the demand of large data centers. None of this will affect that portion of our portfolio that is contracted power, until those contracts come up for renewal. Second, capacity costs are increasing beginning June 1, 2026. Capacity costs now are $2.25/kW per month. That cost will go to $5.00/kW per month next June, upon the recommendation we received from KMEA staff. This does not affect the city of Jetmore right now as we currently have a small surplus of capacity under the current requirements, but that is changing. The vote on that measure was almost unanimous with one No vote
recorded, which was cast by Mr. Ort. Third, performance-based accreditation (PBA), which will be implemented by SPP starting in June 2026, will provide some upward pressure on our overall costs. PBA was developed in response to Winter Storm Uri. Previously there was a single Peak period per year, from June 1 to
September 30. With PBA, there will be an additional Peak period, from December 1 through March 31 each year. For the one Peak period now, capacity requirements are the annual peak load plus 13%. That requirement will go to peak plus 15% for the Summer period, and will be set at peak plus 30% for the Winter period.
With present requirements and at current capacity costs, Jetmore currently has 231 kW of excess capacity that we sell at $2.25 to those in EMP3 that need capacity for which we receive $520 per month. Under the new rules and new capacity costs, the city will have a deficit of capacity of 190 kW. Buying this at $5/kW will cost the
city $950/month starting next June.
*Main St. Project-The agreement with KDOT was recently signed, and the Notice to Proceed was
received. Next steps are: Surveying will be scheduled and design work will begin this week. Afterward there will be a few reviews of the plans throughout the process. The city and the engineers will meet with KDOT on site at some point for a Field Check where the site will be walked together as the plans are reviewed. When the plans are 90% complete, there will be another round of plan reviews and the engineer will go over the plans then with the city to make sure we understand the process to that point and to make sure there aren’t any
expectations we had that have been missed in the planning. After that will be the bid letting which is scheduled at this point to occur in October of 2026 with construction expected in the spring/summer of 2027.
*K-156 Project-Bid letting has occurred for the waterline portion of this project and bids are scheduled to be opened on August 26 here at the city office. The opened bids will then be presented to the council at the September meeting for selection of the winning bid. Construction should be expected to take place this fall.
GOVERNING BODY COMMENTS:
Council discussed the current Sheriff’s office budget.
Councilman Thornburg mentioned a concern regarding weeds in the sand volleyball court at the park. Mr. Ort told the council that he would pass the message along to the staff and have it taken care of.
Councilman Channell made a motion to adjourn. Councilman Neeley seconded the motion; vote unanimous. Meeting adjourned at 8:27 p.m.