City commission concludes three public hearings

Aug. 30—The Abilene City Commission met for their last August regular meeting Monday afternoon. The commission went through and closed the three public hearings involving the demolition of the house at 604 S. Cedar St. and the 2024 budget, followed by their regular meeting.

Public comments

Bill Marshall, president of the Sister City Advisory Committee, presented to the commission regarding the committee's recent trip to Omitama, Japan. First, he expressed his appreciation of the city creating a scholarship for one person to travel to Omitama for free for the committee's yearly trip. The scholarship consists of the leftover funds from the committee's prior year budget. The committee first gave the scholarship for this year's trip to a local student.

"We sent a student absolutely free... He would have never been able to do it," Marshall said. "I know it's been so overwhelming for him. It really did some good."

Marshall said the trip for one person costs roughly $2,900.

Second, Marshall handed Trevor Witt, city mayor, a gift from the mayor of Omitama for city staff to display in city hall.

Public hearings

In the hearing concerning the demolition of the house at 604 S. Cedar St., the commission approved the demolition after closing the hearing. Travis Steerman, city inspector, said he has not communicated with the owner Drew Flynn since the hearing began Aug. 14. Flynn was not present at the hearing.

With no comments from the public, the commission approved the resolution for the 2024 budget's mill levy to exceed the revenue neutral rate (RNR). The budget's mill levy is 0.091 mills below the RNR, and the city said they will not be raising it unless the city's valuation is lower than expected.

After a failed motion, the commission voted 3-2 to push the resolution to approve the 2024 budget to their next meeting. Brandon Rein, city commissioner, made the motion to approve the budget with the amendment to lower the cost of living adjustment to employee salaries from 3% to 2%. Leann Johnson, city finance director, said lowering COLA by 1% would lower the budget by roughly $35,000.

"Stemming from last year when we were having those discussions, that, if we did over-correct on the inflation numbers, we could have a pay freeze," Rein said. "When we got the information this year, we realized it didn't justify an absolute freeze. I think year over year this moves it from a 9.1% (COLA) last year to, if we did the 2%, to 11.1, so we've got an average of 5.5% every year. I think that's fair."

City staff had a 9.18% salary increase for 2023, with 7.18% being a COLA increase and 2% being a merit-based increase.

Kale Strunk, fire chief, supported the COLA staying at 3% to keep their wages competitive with local agencies.

"Dickinson County EMS is starting out pay at roughly $6,000 more a year with one certification, while my guys are having three. So they could essentially leave here, go up there, and make $6,000 more a year as it stands, as an entry level EMT right out of school with no experience."

The majority of the commission voted down the motion with the COLA reduction. Rein and City Mayor Trevor Witt voted yes. Commissioners Dee Marshall, John Kollhoff and Wendy Miller voted no.

Kollhoff said, while he appreciated Rein's intention to lower the budget, he wants to lower other areas of the budget as well as the COLA. He made a motion to table the vote until the commission's next meeting to further discuss lowering the budget with city staff. The motion was approved in a 3-2 vote with Kollhoff, Rein and Witt voting yes. Marshall and Miller voted no.

The commission must approve the budget during their next meeting, Sept. 11, to meet statutory deadlines.

During the public hearing, Abilene resident Diane Miller commented on the lack of funds for street maintenance in the budget. She believes the funds from the 10-year 0.25% street maintenance sales tax have not been used correctly.

"My understanding when that was passed 10 years ago was that was for maintenance of existing streets, and I feel that money has been diverted," Miller said. "Our existing streets are just falling apart. The last time the street I lived on was overlaid with the chipped seal, which was standard practice, was 17 years ago."

Don Nebelsick of Don's Tires then took the podium to state his concerns about the increases of property valuations.

"Property valuations on commercial properties went 7.5%, 10%, housing went 10%," Nebelsick said. "We keep hitting certain parts of properties. Enough is enough on this stuff. Commercial properties seem to be hit consistently. That's hard to swallow every year."

The 2024 proposed budget has a mill levy of 47.357, which would be around $185,000 less than the 50.162 mill levy from the 2023 budget.

Regular Meeting

The commission approved an updated Standard Traffic Ordinance and Uniform Public Offense Code, which was created and maintained by the League of Kansas Municipalities.

They then approved a conditional use permit from Trinity Lutheran Church to allow them to have an elementary school in the C-4 central business district. Kari Zook, community development director, said no one gave comments during the protest period.

The commission approved in a 4-1 vote the $95,410 bid from Solid Rock Roofing for coating and repair of the Abilene Community Center's roof. Kollhoff voted no because he wanted the item tabled for staff to look for warranties in the contract with the company who originally installed the roof.

"In seeing this proposal, that this repair cannot be conducted during winter and knowing that some of these areas have leaks," Witt said, "the potential of delaying could potentially cause more damage there at the rec center."

The commission then approved financing from Community Leasing Partners for the purchase of a Rosenbauer pumper truck for the Abilene Fire Department. Kale Strunk said an invitation of finance was sent to all local banks, but only one responded and that bank could not give an accurate rate because the first payment is not due for a year.

The commission approved a resolution authorizing industrial revenue bonds for the Golden Belt Heights west apartment complex. The agenda document reads the developers want the bonds for sales tax exemption of construction materials. The developers are Golden Belt West Multifamily LLC, which was created by McCullough Development specifically for this project.

City manager report

Marsh said the 14th Street construction is about three weeks behind schedule due to shortage of crews. City staff will meet with the Abilene School District to discuss timeline changes.

The city of Abilene's City Connecting Link Improvement Program project is out to bid. The project will be constructed on Buckeye Avenue from SW 6th Street to the Union Pacific Railroad.

The Abilene Recycling Center has a new wood chipper. The center also won a solid waste grant from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment for a new composter. The grant is for $46,516 and pays for 75% of the composter.

Flu shots will be available at 9:30-10 a.m. Sept. 26 in City Hall.

The Abilene City Commission will next meet at 4 p.m. Sept. 11.