HOISINGTON — Recently, the Hoisington City Council has moved toward removing blighted properties, resulting in several more vacant lots to the community. At the last city council meeting, a resident asked about the plan for dealing with these lots.
The dilemma for the city is whether to keep the current code, which might encourage building more houses, or change the code to allow building garages or sheds without a house on the lot.
The rules for this matter are part of the city’s zoning regulations. A copy of the regulations is available at the City Office.
“Under the current guidelines, no accessory structure (such as garage, shed, carport) can be erected on a residential property unless there is a primary structure/home on the property,” City Manager Jonathan Mitchell noted.
This item was added to the agenda at the request of the governing body.
“The governing body wanted to provide the public with the opportunity to share their thoughts on this issue before making a decision to refer the issue to the Planning Commission for consideration and review,” Mitchell continued. While the council would still like input, they referred the issue to the City Planning Commission.
Other business
The Council met at 5:30 p.m. for a work session to review the levied funds in preparation for next year’s City Budget. The work session covered the General Fund, Special Fire Fund, the Library Fund, and the General Bond and Interest Fund (Debt Service Fund). They will continue the budget review at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 14.
The consent agenda was approved renewing the City’s annual CIC Peopleware Agreement (the City’s accounting software) and a mayoral appointment of Janet Boese to the Hoisington Commission on Aging.
The first new business was a water and wastewater update from Mike Riese, foreman over the water and wastewater division of public works for the past two years. Riese discussed three issues for his department. First, three fire hydrants will be replaced on east 5th street. Next, the water tower needs to be painted and cleaned on the inside. Finally, computer communication issues have caused problems with controlling the water levels inside the tower and it has overflowed.
“There is no leak in the water tower,” Riese said. Hopefully, cleaning and painting the tower will give technicians the opportunity to check the sensors and antenna that send the water level signals.
The storm in Great Bend also focused on a problem for Hoisington. The city water wells depend on electricity from Great Bend. When Great Bend loses power so do the city wells.
“We were close to losing water pressure due to the tower being emptied,” Riese said. A boil order would have been issued by the State if that had happened. One well was connected to a portable generator and was able to maintain the required pressure. Riese asked the council to consider placing a permanent emergency generator on at least one city water well.
The council moved on to discussion of two proposals to replace the three fire hydrants. Riese worked with two companies to gather quotes. The two quotes received were: Municipal Supply, Inc. $21,531.27; Core & Main $23,697.48. The staff recommendation for this project is to move forward with the proposal from Municipal Supply of Red Cloud, Nebraska for $21,531.27. Municipal Supply will be able to use a line stop at each hydrant during the replacement so residents will continue to have their water service without interruption.
Another new item for discussion was a modified work schedule for most full-time personnel at the City. This schedule would not apply to first responders but would apply to all other full-time, non-seasonal personnel. At the previous council meeting, Mitchell was asked to consider a modified work schedule that may include four 10-hour days. The city will try a new work schedule starting Oct. 2.
City Operations Update
• The City is looking for bids for demolition of the Windgate Apartments
• The City is reaching out to adjacent property owners concerning the unused lots in McKenna Meadows
• The Second Street project is suffering from weather delays.
• The city swimming pool will be closing Aug. 13
• The storm in Great Bend helped to identify possible problems for Hoisington such as maintaining the electrical connection for the water wells and exercising the battery backups for Hoisington tornado sirens.
• Hoisington will send three dump trucks and personnel to assist Great Bend with tree limb removal.
• The Day Care project by USD 431 received a tremendous boost when the State of Kansas announced the major grant to the Day Care initiative in Barton County.
