"Other business" of Washington City Council

Since I couldn't fit the Washington City Council story into this week's paper, I promised I would post it here first and fit it into the paper next week. Here is the first of three parts. The other two parts are the story about the council's next move on the swimming pool project and a story on the proposed Washington Monument project by the Rotary Club. I'll work on those tonight yet and hopefully post them tomorrow. --Dan

In other business:
• The council discussed the Washington Chamber of Commerce’s request for assistance in purchasing new Christmas decorations for the power poles along the highway. The Chamber has purchased eight decorations already, but was hoping more could be purchased to fill in the gaps.
Four-foot diameter wreath decorations cost $193 while a six-foot wreath costs $215. Because of the time and materials expense the city would incur by putting up the wiring for the new decorations, the council decided to decline the request for thi syear, but may consider purchasing new decorations next year.
The council approved spending $1,050 to purchase the necessary materials to put up the Chamber decorations.
• First National Bank of Washington received approval to block off the stretch of C Street form old city hall to new city hall and 2nd Street from C Street to Ballard for the Fall Fest from morning until 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 20.
City staff will also provide assistance in delivering benches for the event.
• The council approved having Cohorst surveying service plat the industrial park for $2,400.
• The city recently received a proposed agreement for power purchase, but since no other cities have acted on it yet, Hassler and power plant superintendent Mary Leck recommended not acting on the agreement yet until some contract wording was worked out.
• The council approved purchasing autocad electronic mapping software for $1,145 and an annual fee of $185 to show the city’s sewer, water and other utility items in detail.
• A free lot program property located southwest of the Washington County Hospital across the street that was given to John Hanson has been abandoned. The property owner had 18 months to construct a house on it, but attempts to contact Hanson have been fruitless, even though early on he did a minimal amount of foundation work at the lot.
The council authorized the city attorney to file papers in court to obtain clear title to the property.
• The city administrator and city clerk were given permission to travel to the League of Kansas Municipalities annual meeting on Oct. 11-14 in Wichita, including one night stay for Denise Powell and two nights for Hassler.
• 100 tons of 1.5-inch rock was approved for the bid price of $1,200 from Orval Jueneman. Hassler said the city is out of rock and it is used for road work, back fill for water/sewer repairs and for other uses.
• Hassler reported he had met with Clinton Stamm about old city hall. Hassler said Stamm felt the building could be salvaged and was good structurally, but a lot of plaster would need to be replaced.
“The biggest concern is access, maintaining ADA access,” said Hassler. “There will be a massive amount of work.”
A ramp could be built but is not always popular. Stamm suggested looking at the community hall in Cuba as an idea for accessibility.
Hassler recommended holding a couple public meetings about the building to see what the community’s interest is. There is also the possibility that the individual interested in bringing a movie theater to Washington could renovate the building for that use.
• The council held an executive session for non-elected personnel. After coming out of session, they went back in with assistant city attorney Libby Hiltgen. No action was taken.
• Hassler said he received a general quote from Cohorst on platting the fairgrounds. He thought the project would cost around $3-4,000 but could be up to $7,000. A plat map would show the locations of all the buildings, property lines and the city and fair board could swap property back and forth to line things up better.
Hassler requested permission to sit down with the fair board and talk about their long term project plans and look at the property issues. He said the fair board said they might be able to participate with some funds too. Hassler was approved to talk to the board to see if it was worth going forward with plat mapping.
• Hassler said he and Powell have spent a lot of time going over the 2008 and 2009 budgets and they were better off than he thought they might be. On streets, however, the city is spending more than they are taking in. He said the biggest revenue source for streets is gas tax money, which is getting to be less and less.
The tax has a formula based on population and the city gets a percentage per gallon. However, with prices up, people are buying less, which means less taxes coming in. Plus, the cost of road oil is up.
“The street fund is one we’ll have to look at and get a long term goal,” said Hassler. In the meantime, he said the city has some cash reserves to fund the work.
• An ambulance rate increase was approved to $11 per loaded mile effective on Sept. 1. The rate has to be higher than Medicare, which recently went up.
• Late payment penalties could be added to water and sewer bills in Washington, administrative charges on delinquent accounts and changes to the deposit fee structure for owners of multiple buildings will be worked into new policies for the next meeting.
• Court fees will be raised to match the increase on the District Court level which occurred on July 1.
• The fire department requested the use of the emergency services building for a chili cookoff on Saturday, Oct. 4, along with an open house. The request was approved.

Backroads Newsroom blog records broken

I just checked my Accumeter counter and the Backroads Newsroom blog broke records today in both page loads and unique viewers (55 of them were first time viewers too!)
I will try very hard to keep feeding this monster, but I definitely think it is more fun when you all throw your comments into the mix too.
Plus, I'm not a grump every day so I'm not going to be able to give TD and HFH fodder to go after.
Keep it up!

Palin speech

Wow. I'm just getting done watching the post Palin speech commentary.
Palin rocks! I haven't been so excited about politics since Huckabee was on the rise. She threw zinger after zinger, but they were based on substantive issues. And she makes a strong case for the McCain candidacy.
I'm hoping our local political commentator Josh Zenger will write a column about the impact of this historic speech. Okay Josh?

Morrowville udpate

The State Attorney General's office is now investigating the situation in Morrowville. No charges have been filed, however, so I won't be publishing anything else until any new information arises.

City council story

I'll try to get the city council story posted tonight some time. There was quite a bit of activity at the meeting, but I can't say there was anything that would send earthquakes through the village. It was adjourned by 9:17 p.m., making two months in a row of meetings that were less than 2.5 hours. Awesome job Kurt, Denise and council!
I should also try to post something nice and controversial tonight so I can try to break this blog's page load record. Right now today, this is the third most active this blog has ever been (as determined by page loads and unique visitors). I guess getting a couple nuts and a bitter/tired editor posting back and forth can garner some interest.
Later.

Greenlinton takes root

Evidently someone put a sign up by the county airport sign that said "Greenlinton" in response to Brian Shaw's smart-alec letter to the editor last week. I drive by their twice a day every day but I didn't see one. Bunch of smart-alecs out there.
Another sign of interest would be the billboard at the east edge of Washington proclaiming a Super 8 Hotel 18 miles west of Washington. I guess that would put it somewhere between Haddam and Cuba? Oops. I'm glad I'm not the only one who does typos.

Washington pool

FACT – The Washington City Council (who met tonight) will consider another attempt at passing a sales tax increase to fund a new pool, but this time they are likely considering a 1% tax instead of a 1.2% tax and for a million dollar basic pool instead of a pool with a waterslide and amenities. A vote will likely happen next spring and construction (if approved) would happen in September, 2010.
The pool committee suggested removing the splash grounds/wet deck and the water slide and possibly downsizing the pool a bit. They said the main thing they heard form citizens who were against the original design of the new pool was that it was too fancy.
BITTER OPINION – I guess we're not good enough to have nice things here in good ol' Washington County. I mean, who do we think we are, a progressive city? We should be happy with a basic pool instead of a swimmin' hole in Mill Creek, gosh darnit!
I've always wondered why people do fancy things like wash their cars or mow their lawn. Who do they think they are? City slickers!?
What the hell good is a new pool if all we are doing is adding a zero degree entry and an umbrella splash feature (which hardly anyone uses at the new swimming pools I've been to.)
THEORY – I bet we could cut the price much further if we just dug out the current pool, redid the plumbing and replaced the pool as it is.
MY NEW OPINION – As a retail establishment in Washington, I can't justify making my customers pay 1% more for a zero degree entry. What's the difference between 1% and 1.2%? How about everything that was fun about the original proposal. For $1.20 more per $100, we could have had something really cool in Washington. Now for $1 per $100, we'll have what we have now with a zero degree entry. Big deal. Screw the new pool. Vote no on the 1% sales tax unless they put the slide back in.
And while we're at it, you should all quit mowing your lawns. Too damn fancy. Get over yourselves.
Geez, I should really get a good night's sleep before I post these things! :-(