In other business Monday night, the Great Bend City Council:
• Approved the signing of the nondiscrimination agreement with the Kansas Department of Transportation. Human Resource Director Terry Hoff said that since KDOT receives federal funds which it passes on to local governmental entities, it has to have signed agreements from those entities.
The city already included such language in its contracts but didn’t have a formal agreement in place. Now it will.
 • Accepted a $231,635.12 bid from Suchy Construction for the Prairie Rose Drive paving improvements project. The Engineering Department received three bids on Thursday for the work on Prairie Rose Drive in the Amber Meadows Subdivision. This project is in the first phase of the Rural Housing Incentive District, said City Engineer Robert Winiecke.
Suchy had the low bid which was lower than Winiecke’s estimate of $281,794. The street will be concrete.
• Approved the annual renewal of the city’s health insurance. There is no change projected for 2015. Blue Cross and Blue Shield has informed the city that the rates have gone down slightly, but local officials recommended leaving everything the same for 2015. The traditional split for employer/employee is 83 percent and 17 percent, and this has been the case for several years.
City Administrator Howard Partington said the city is partially self insured. “We had a good year,” he said, adding the city’s account continues to grow.
• Approved street closures for the Home for the Holidays Parade and after-parade activities at the request of Community Coordinator Christina Hayes. Included were the closure of Main Street from 24th Street to 12th Street during the parade from the hours of 5:15 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 29, Main Street from Broadway Avenue to 12th Street for an additional two hours after the parade to allow the horse-drawn carriage, train rides and free food vendors to have access to the street area, and Lakin Avenue from Kansas Avenue to Main Street from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. and parking on the north side of Lakin Avenue from noon to 9 p.m.
As a side note, at the request of businesses along Main between Lakin and 12th, the parade will run one block longer this year to pass in front of those stores.
• Set 4 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 12, as the date for team-building work session. Partington said Blizzard Energy representatives will be in town and want to give city officials a tour of their facility at 9015 8th St. (on the grounds of the Great Bend Municipal Airport).
• Heard an economic development report from Great Bend Chamber of Commerce President Jan Peters. She said there will be a ribbon cutting for the new American Ag Credit location at 10 a.m. Dec. 18, a ribbon cutting at Blizzard Energy by the end of the year and a ground-breaking for the new Amber Meadows homes in January, 2015.
More immediately, there will be a ground-breaking for the new 48-unit apartment complex on Grant Street, known as the Reserves at Trail Ridge, at 4 p.m. this Wednesday at the site of the facility.
• Heard concerns from some landlords in Great Bend about liens against real estate for failure to pay sewer use charges. Randy Suchy said they saw a legal notice in the paper and were concerned it meant the landlords would be responsible for paying over-due sewer bills.
That is not the case, Partington said. The legal notice only referred to commercial property owners on well accounts, meaning they had a private well for water and just paid for sewer use.
And, it really only involves two of these for a combined annual total of about $1,600. Partington said these owners prefer to work it this way, having the bills turned over to the state and go against their property taxes.
Regardless, any bills would stay with the tenants and not impact the landlords, he said.
• Approved an abatement at 420 Buckeye, owned by Nancy L. Strain, for accumulation of refuse.
• Heard a departmental update from Howard Partaington.