BELOIT CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES

AUGUST 7, 2007

 

The Beloit City Council met in regular session on August 7, 2007 in Council Chambers.  Mayor Phil Roberts called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.  City Council members in attendance were Tom Maxwell, Bill Foreman, Denis Shumate, Craig Cousland, Raymond Pontow, Pat Struble, Susan Concannon and Chad Thompson.  Also present were City Administrator Doug Gerber, City Attorney Harry Gantenbein and Assistant to the City Administrator Stacy Thompson.   

 

Department heads in attendance were Frank Gent, Mike Haeffele, and Caite Kendrick.

 

Councilor Maxwell offered the invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance was recited.

 

Mayor Roberts reminded everyone that the Mitchell County Fair starts on Thursday this week.  Councilor Thompson gave a reminder for the 3-on-3 basketball tournament coming up on August 19.  Councilor Maxwell informed everyone that on August 19 there will be a dinner at the VFW for Mark and Cherie Eck who lost their house in a fire.

 

City Attorney Harry Gantenbein officially announced that his daughter and two granddaughters have moved back to Beloit.

 

City Administrator Gerber reported that there was information for each Councilor from Senator Pat Roberts announcing his listening tour.  He will be in Beloit on August 24 from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. at the Municipal Building.  They also received a copy of the latest Kansas Government Journal.  He ended by giving an update on the Mill Street Project.  There has been a lot of rain and the crew has been pumping water out everyday.  They did get the east and west transitions and curbs poured as well as the sidewalk ramp on the northwest corner of Second Street.  All but one of the street lights is installed. 

 

Mayor Roberts asked for comments from the public and asked that the comments be limited to three minutes.   Rod Pearson wondered when the new tornado sirens would be installed.  Gerber replied that they came in at the end of last week and staff has decided that 7th and Logan and the island on the north end of Hersey are the two best locations.  They will be put up after all the preparation work is done to each site.

 

A public hearing was opened at 7:07 regarding the 2008 budget.  With no comments, the hearing closed at 7:08.

 

The Consent Agenda consisted of the minutes of July 17, 2007 City Council meeting and Appropriations 8A.  Councilor Cousland noted that Councilor Foreman had been left out of the work session minutes.  A motion was made by Councilor Cousland and seconded by Councilor Pontow to approve the Consent Agenda in its entirety with the corrections.  Roll call vote:  Yeas: Thompson, Foreman, Cousland, Concannon, Pontow, Struble, Maxwell and Shumate.   Nays: None.

 

Ordinance No. 2035 for CMB License Location Change was recommended for approval by staff.  This ordinance amends a portion of the City Code to allow the dimensions of a special event area to be a maximum 2,000 square feet.  A motion was made by Councilor Foreman and seconded by Councilor Concannon to approve Ordinance No. 2035.  Roll call vote:  Yeas: Thompson, Foreman, Cousland, Concannon, Pontow, Struble, Maxwell and Shumate.   Nays: None.

 

Councilor Maxwell made a motion to approve Ordinance No. 2036 Adopting the 2008 Budget.  There were no questions and comments.  Councilor Pontow seconded the motion.  Roll call vote:  Yeas: Thompson, Foreman, Cousland, Concannon, Pontow, Struble, Maxwell and Shumate.   Nays: None.

 

Ordinance No. 2037 Approving an Increase in Property Tax Revenues is a housekeeping item that is required by law.  Staff estimates that the City may receive $10,279 more in property tax dollars in 2008 than in 2007.  Councilor Cousland commented that this is just showing that the potential to take in more money is there, but the City is not raising taxes.  A motion was made by Councilor Concannon and seconded by Councilor Maxwell to approve Ordinance No. 2037.  Roll call vote:  Yeas: Thompson, Foreman, Cousland, Concannon, Pontow, Struble, Maxwell and Shumate.   Nays: None.

 

The Mitchell County Fair Board applied for a special event license for the remaining Solomon Valley Raceway Races.  They would like to extend the hours of the beer garden from 10:30 p.m. to midnight.  A motion was made by Councilor Pontow and seconded by Councilor Maxwell.  Motion carried 8-0.

 

The St. John’s Schools have requested that a crosswalk be established on Cherry Street between Court Street and South Street.  Councilor Cousland made a motion and Councilor Concannon seconded.  Motion carried 8-0.

 

A motion was made by Councilor Thompson and seconded by Councilor Maxwell to recess into an executive session for a period of five minutes for preliminary consideration of specific personnel matter of non-elected personnel.  Motion carried 8-0.  The session included the Governing Body, City Attorney, and City Administrator.  The session began at 7:15 p.m. and ended at 7:20 p.m.   No motions or decisions were made in that session.

 

A motion was made by Councilor Thompson to recess into executive session for preliminary consideration of specific personnel matter of non-elected personnel for a period of 10 minutes.  The motion was seconded by Councilor Concannon and carried 8-0.  The session included the Governing Body, City Attorney, and City Administrator.  The session began at 7:22 p.m. and ended at 7:32 p.m.  No motions or decisions were made in that session.

 

A motion was made by Councilor Maxwell and seconded by Councilor Pontow to recess into an executive session for attorney-client privileged information for a period of fifteen minutes.  Motion carried 8-0.  The session included the Governing Body, City Attorney and City Administrator.  The session began at 7:34 p.m. and ended at 7:49 p.m.  No motions or decisions were made in that session.

 

A motion was made by Councilor Maxwell and seconded by Councilor Concannon to adjourn the meeting.  Motion carried 8-0.  The meeting ended at 7:50 p.m.

 

The work session began at 7:57 p.m.  Those present were:  Mayor Roberts, Councilors Pontow, Concannon, Cousland, Maxwell, Thompson, Foreman, Shumate and Struble.  Also present was City Administrator Gerber, City Attorney Gantenbein and Assistant to the City Administrator Thompson.

 

Department heads present were Haeffele, Kendrick, and McGee.

 

Correspondence and Staff reports consisted of the July Community Development report and Vision Development Team minutes.

 

City Attorney Gantenbein did not have a report.

 

City Administrator Gerber discussed that the new tornado sirens should be installed in the near future.  The League Conference is coming up the first weekend in October in Overland Park.  Councilor Thompson would like to have it passed on at the conference that the dates would be more accommodating on a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  Adam Mosher will be representing the City in the Leadership Mitchell County program.  Gerber gave a lunch reminder to Pontow and Concannon.  The Mitchell County Fair Board has asked for the Council to put together a team of four to participate in the Thursday night mutton busting festivities.  Gerber will get details to the volunteers at a later date.

 

Jerry Szatan, an independent site selector, and Kellie Danielson with the Kansas Department of Commerce were at the work session to give a presentation to the Council.   They arrived earlier in the afternoon and will continue their visit the next day and were present to give their initial impressions of Beloit.  Mr. Szatan works with companies to select communities in which they can invest.  He also advises communities on economic development strategies.  Councilor Foreman questioned how important a website is and Mr. Szatan responded that it is very important and increasing every day.  He went on to say that the best websites make it easy to find a contact like a Community Development Director, they tell the world where you are, direct your audience, have labor market information, available building sites, a GIS feature, list of incentive programs, training resources available in the community, explanation of where the workforce comes from, and look bigger by taking a regional approach.  Councilor Maxwell asked about the importance of the airport.  Mr. Szatan responded that it is a nice plus that can make it easier for companies to come visit and establish themselves here.  Mr. Szatan said to be realistic in the size of business the City can attract and make retention and expansion more attractive.  Announcements of expansions are a powerful marketing tool.  Mrs. Danielson added that community education is important and communities should promote education levels and quality of education.  Entrances to the City are also important and she believes it would be very helpful for Beloit to strengthen the entrances.  Mr. Szatan added other areas of emphasis should be anything to help respond faster to inquiries and trumpet the successes of businesses like Sunflower.  Mrs. Danielson also added that an emphasis on entrepreneurship is very popular right now.  Szatan and Danielson will finish their tours and meetings in Beloit on Wednesday.

 

The second work session item was an educational session by City Attorney Gantenbein on the Uniform Public Offense Code and the Standard Traffic Ordinance.  Gantenbein took the Council through the significant changes including changes in the laws concerning hosting minors consuming alcohol, selling scrap metal, DUI’s, seat belts, and barbed wire.

 

The final topic for discussion was the sales tax.  The purpose of the discussion was to get a consensus on the amount the sales tax should be, how long the sales tax should go for, and what the question on the ballot will include.  Councilor Shumate thinks it is a good time to talk about an increase with everything that has happened with the bridge collapsing in Minneapolis.  Gerber showed the Council a graph that illustrated how far the current sales tax will go with upcoming projects.  The Council came up with projects that were not included on the list and realized that there are more projects than money.  Councilor Thompson stated that he believes no sunset makes sense and is in favor of a higher rate.  Gerber discussed that this makes sense to the Council, but we cannot assume that it will be an easy sell.  He discussed ideas for marketing that included a brochure that he handed out to the Council, a running article in the newsletter, articles in the paper, and spots on the radio.  The Council agreed that the sales tax and library are both important projects, but the library needs to be prepared before the Council will approve putting them on the November ballot.  The Council would like to see something from the library at the next work session.  The Council discussed that they would like to increase the sales tax to .7% with no sunset in order to make the total sale sales tax 7%.  This will be brought back to the Council at the next meeting for approval.

 

The work session ended at 10:30 p.m.

 

 

 

                                                        

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PHILLIP ROBERTS, Mayor

 

ATTEST:

 

 

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CHARLENE ABELL, City Clerk