Great Bend City Council meeting at a glance
Here is a quick look at what the Great Bend City Council did Monday night:
• Approved the vacation of three right-of-ways on White Sands Drive. These were at the request of Cameron and Sarah Smith, Ron and Debbie Koelsch, and Mark and Denise Guthrie.
Each couple has requested the vacation of 50 feet of White Sands Drive immediately west of their properties, said Interim City Administrator Logan Burns. City staff members have reviewed the requests as set out in the resolution, and a notice has been published in the Great Bend Tribune and mailed to required parties.
The right of way was 100 feet because there were plans to develop the housing area further, but those plans “fell by the wayside,” Burns said. After this action, the city retains 50 feet in case it is needed.
Vacation is an action taken by the council which terminates or extinguishes a right-of-way easement when it is no longer necessary for a public right-of-way. No utility companies have denied the request, Burns said.
Kansas Gas Service just asked that they have access to the area.
• Held an 20-minute executive session to discuss personnel matters concerning non-elected personnel for the preliminary review of applicants for the city administrator.
After reconvening in open session, no action was taken.
• Heard a report from Interim City Administrator Logan Burns. He focused on the Project Cleans Sweep city cleanup initiative through the Great Bend Police Department.
• Heard a report from Great Bend Economic Development Inc. President Sara Arnberger. She focused on progress made in the development of a new daycare facility.
• Approved a charter ordinance repealing a previous charter ordinance dating back to 1979.
This was necessitated by the city’s effort to recodify and to bring ordinances in line with current practices, said City Attorney Allen Glendenning.
This process has revealed the old ordinance which was an attempt to exempt this city from a statute that had no application and is in conflict with other statutes, and which the city has followed in recent years. In addition, the resulting code sections have erroneous internal references.
Repealing the old ordinance removes this anomaly and updates the code consistent with the recodification efforts, he said
• Approved a one-day cereal malt beverage license for Fernando Delgadillo for the beer garden at Cinco De Mayo on
May 6 in Jack Kilby Square.
• Approved abatements for trash and refuse violations at: 318 Elm St., Marjorie Hendricks and Jose; Del Carmen Castillo; 1823 Heizer St., Thomas Pearson; 1118 8th St., Richard Ogle; 1223 Jefferson St., Hector And Maria Lopez; and 1617 8th St., Mauricia Estela Erlinger.
• Approved abatements for motor vehicle violations at: 2318 8th St., Ever Ontiveros And Maria Azucena Jurado-Andana; 1618 Jefferson St., Max and Sara Hames; 1823 Tyler St., Juan Flores; 200 Locust St., Leesa Maupin; 237 Chestnut St., Kevin and Marleen Davison; and 300 Pine St., Nora Leyva.
There’s a new program in town aimed at cleaning up properties facing abatements due to trash and refuse. This is Project Clean Sweep, and it is the brainchild of Great Bend Police Chief Steve Haulmark, said Interim City Administrator Logan Burns, addressing the City Council Monday night.
“This was originally brought to light by Chief Haulmark from when he was in (Kansas City, Kan),” Burns said. “It’s community service program that was developed to alleviate trash, refuse and blight from the community.”
The first step is to coordinate with the Pubic Works Department, Code Enforcement Division, he said. “They will identify people in our community who truly need help and don’t have the ability to possibly take care of trash and refuse. Once those people are identified, Code Enforcement then communicates with Police Department and Project Clean Sweep comes to haul the items away.”
The first weekend was that of Feb. 25. Two volunteers from the program looked at the abatements that had been on the council’s agenda earlier in the week and then they cleaned up all them, Burns said.
Next weekend, they went down to the Arkansas River and identified three spots to tackle. “Then we had some of the community service members, along with both Police Department and Public Works staff, who went down there and got this all cleaned up,” he said.
“So I’ll give a shout out to both of those departments,” he said. “This was something that was very needed.
“So we would ask that the community just keep that in mind when we’re going down there,” he said. These areas are clean now, and city officials just ask that they stay that way.
“That’s a new program that we’re trying out and hopefully we’ll have continued success with it,” Burns said. “But so far, first two weeks have gone pretty well.”
It was noted by some on the council that perhaps getting the word out to the public might attract more volunteers.
“This is in its very early stages and we just wanted to try it out to make sure it was going to work,” he said. But, of course, “if there’s if there is somebody whose needing community service hours or something like that, they can contact us and we can get them involved. So excited for that program.”
For more information, call Burns at 620-792-4111 or email lburns@greatbendks.net.
