May 2019 Meeting Minutes

Meeting Minutes for May 2nd

The Jetmore City Council met in regular session on May 2, 2019. Mayor Derek Olson called the meeting to order. Councilmen present were Jeff Channell, Mike Hendrickson and Larry Steinbring. Absent were Councilmen Jesse Pitts and Orval Shewry. Also attending were City Administrator Michael Ort, City Attorney Clayton Kerbs and City Clerk Deb McKivergan.

Councilman Hendrickson made a motion to approve the consent agenda. Councilman Channell seconded the motion; vote unanimous.

CITY ATTORNEY REPORT:  City Attorney Clayton Kerbs reported that city court is going well. Pride Ag will pay their corrected billing over a two year period and will be invoiced separately for that amount each month. Mr. Kerbs has taken no action on the issue with Earles Engineering, but will move that up to a higher priority level.

CITY CLERK REPORT:  City Clerk Deb McKivergan reminded the council of the following upcoming events:

May 25th – Hg. Fest. Councilman Steinbring made a motion to donate $700 to Hg. Fest to be used for the meal expenses. Councilman Hendrickson seconded the motion; vote unanimous.

Big Bang – The Big Bang will again be held on July 4th. Councilman Hendrickson made a motion to donate $500 to the Big Bang fireworks display. Councilman Steinbring seconded the motion; vote unanimous.

ACTION ITEMS:  Mayor Olson appointed the following positions for May 2019 – May 2020:

Deb McKivergan, City Clerk; Brenda Ringle, Treasurer; Clayton Kerbs, Attorney; and Kenton Gleason, Municipal Judge.

Councilman Channell made a motion to approve the appointments. Councilman Steinbring seconded the motion; vote unanimous.

The City Administrator presented Ordinance #662, an ordinance regulating customer owned residential and commercial renewable energy generation facilities in the City of Jetmore and adding Section 12-315 to the Code of the City of Jetmore and all to the Code of the City of Jetmore. Councilman Hendrickson made a motion to approve Ordinance #662. Councilman Steinbring seconded the motion; vote unanimous.

CITY ADMINISTRATOR REPORT:  City Administrator Michael Ort presented the council with his May travel schedule. *Mr. Ort presented the Fund Health report to the council.

*The power plant engine was put on line and run on April 28th for one hour without incident. Farabee checked the bearings and found everything in order. The engine was run again on Monday for 5.5 total hours. After a morning run of 3.2 hours the bearings were checked again. Mr. Ort ran the engine for an additional 2.3 hours with about half of that being at full load. At this point the engine is available for emergency running. Next is the long run and a three day run for transformer work, all of which is scheduled for the last week of May.

*Because of the results for testing for manganese, Allen Nichols with KDHE was in Jetmore to assist/observe our staff taking samples at all four water wells for inorganic testing. Mr. Ort also reached out to KRWA on the idea of treating public water for manganese. The product we currently use (Aqua-Mag) doesn’t remove manganese from the water, it only makes it so it won’t adhere to and clog our water mains. Mr. Ort was directed to Ned Marks who is a geologist and specializes in helping public water systems deal with iron and manganese issues. Mr. Marks suggests that the presence of iron and manganese could be the result of faulty well construction. Mr. Marks will begin the process of looking into our water system to help us out.

*The bathroom project at the City Lake has begun and will hopefully be completed by Memorial Day weekend.

*There have been several requests for 50 amp services at the city lake campsites. After visiting with an electrician it was determined that it would be easier to add sites rather than change the current sites. It would also be easy to extend the water services to additional sites. There are already additional sites to expand the camper area. The council instructed Mr. Ort to get a more exact cost for developing the additional sites and bring the information back to the council.

*Mr. Ort is also looking into adding fire rings to each of the campsites. He has looked into purchasing pre-made ones and having them made locally. He will continue to pursue options and bring ideas and prices back to the council.

*It is time to start building the 2020 budget. Mr. Ort has asked the staff to develop a list of wants and needs and will continue to work on this process.

*As directed at the last council meeting, Mr. Ort offered $7,000 for the used car at the Sheriff’s office. They countered with $7,500, and per the council’s direction from last month we will purchase the car.

*MAP Inc. brought the crop insurance policy for corn and milo into the office and Mr. Ort signed them.

*No code letters were sent out this month, but we will soon be sending out a few for high grass and weeds.

The high school recently had a water leak. The staff will determine their average bill and ask them to pay only that.

New BBQ grills and trash receptacles have been purchased for the park and will be installed soon.

Councilman Steinbring made a motion to adjourn. Councilman Hendrickson seconded the motion; vote unanimous.