May 9 - Overbrook Council Minutes

CITY OF OVERBROOK

MINUTES REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MAY 9, 2007

MEMBERS PRESENT: Bob Sisson, Tadd Goodyear, Dorthy Chikly, Don Schultz, Larry Coursen,
Mayor Jack Young.

OTHERS PRESENT: Pat Martin, Stephanie Watson, Mary DesChamps, Ira Allen, Rob Molt,
Vic Robbins, Jon Brady, Rich Hamit, Patty Hylton, Jim Koger, Bob
Call, Everette Dannar, Cheryl Brown.

The meeting was called to order by Mayor Young at 7 PM. Roll was called by Cheryl Brown, City Clerk.

MINUTES / WARRANTS: Bob Sisson moved to approve the minutes of the April 11, 2007 regular meeting as written. Larry Coursen seconded; motion carried 5-0. Larry Coursen made a motion, seconded by Tadd Goodyear, to approve the minutes of the April 18, 2007 special meeting as written. Motion carried 5-0. Dorthy Chikly moved to approve the minutes of the April 26, 2007 special meeting as written. Larry Coursen seconded; motion carried 5-0.
Larry Coursen made a motion, seconded by Dorthy Chikly, to pay all warrants presented. Motion carried 5-0.

SANTA FE TRAIL DAYS: Pat Martin, on behalf of PRIDE and the Overbrook Athletic Association to talk about Santa FE Trail Days. The Pony Express riders will be here on Friday, September 14th and the plan is to have activites carry over through Saturday, the 15th. There will be crafters, vendors and demonstrators as well as a bean feed at noon on Friday, the 14th. There will be a wild mustang show on Friday and Saturday, as well as an antique tractor and car display and they would like to have a parade with the antique cars and tractors on Saturday morning. Plans to have a poker run with the antique cars are being discussed. The group would like to have a street dance on Friday night. Martin said that the more successful this is this year, the better the chances of having it again next year. Martin said that the endurance race and village will be hosted by Overbrook next year. Stephanie Watson said that we need to find 30 acres to be used for this event next year. Martin said that people from all over the United States will be coming, so they’re wanting to put on a really good show. Stephanie Watson, Osage County Economic Development Director, said that we could have 2,000 people in the county for these events. Burlingame is hosting the race village, Melvern will be the site for the endurance race and the Pony Express will be in Overbrook. Watson said that there are tourism grants that can be applied for to help with expenses for next year’s activities. Mayor Young said that the group can expect full cooperation in every way. Martin said that there will only be two horses and riders involved with the Pony Express ride and exchange. All the activites will take place at the fairgrounds, except the parade and street dance.
Martin said that may be up to 500 people traveling with them. Martin said that the school kids will be having an old-fashioned lunch with the Pony Express riders on Friday, with opportunity to have pictures taken. Watson then said that OCED will be able to help with the advertising, and plans to have someone appear on free spots on the local tv stations. Mayor Young said that information will be put on the city’s website as well. Martin said there will be flyers distributed in surrounding towns.
Watson said that their will be a fireworks display in Melvern on July 7th. Watson is thinking of ways to draw people into the county for several days next year, using several activities in different towns including the Pony Express event.

CLAIM FOR SEWER BACKUP DAMAGE: Rob Molt, 206 W. Market, came before the council to ask for help with the cost of repairing the damage to his basement from sewer water that backed up into his basement after the past heavy rains. Molt has only received a couple of bids at this time. Molt also said that they’d had this same problem 2 years ago. Don Schultz asked if some kind of backflow preventer had been installed at that time, and Molt said there’s a trap of some kind. After discussion, the council advised Molt to install a check-valve in addition to a sump pump. The council agreed by concensus to submit the claim to the city’s insurance company.

AID FOR GREENSBURG, KS: Mary DesChamps, owner of Granny Brown’s Attic, came before the council to report that American Legion Post #1, Topeka, will be at her store sometime on Thursday to collect donations of clothing, non-perishables, and gasoline cards. DesChamps has offered any and all of the items in her store that they want to take, and thought maybe the city would want to do something. Don Schultz made a motion, seconded by Bob Sisson, to donate $200 to be used by the volunteers to purchase gasoline. The first choice is to get a gas card locally, but only if that will work for the American Legion people as we’re not sure if Casey’s would be located close to Greensburg. DesChamps said she would check with her contact and let the clerk know how to proceed.

SEWER REHAB PROJECT: Vic Robbins reported that not much has been done the past 10 days due to the weather, other than spreading some gravel. Two big items to be completed are re-paving all the settled asphalt areas, and the re-seeding and mulching. There’s also some fence work and minor repairs as a result of the sewer work. He named several others things, including finishing the leveling at the lagoon site. Robbins said that after Joshua Excavating is finished with their part, another meeting may be necessary before he can sign off on the project. Robbins is also concerned that Joshua Excavating still is not current regarding payments to his subcontractors. Cheryl Brown said that she has checked with G&G Excavating about any bills from the quarry for rock to be used for the sewer project. Brown also said that Donna Crawford, G.A.S., has told her not to pay Joshua Excavating until Crawford has received all the necessary paperwork. Mayor Young said that he and Bob Call have been asked to retrieve some gravel out of the creek on Don Thornton’s property. This is gravel that has washed in from the east lift station and the street. The mayor asked if this is Joshua’s responsibility or the city’s. Robbins said that if the lift station area had been cleaned the way it should have been by Joshua’s, it wouldn’t have ended up in the creek. The council agreed by concensus to have Bob Call remove as much of the gravel and debris as he can from the around the lift station.
Robbins said that he’s concerned about the amount of “clean water” that’s still emptying into the lagoons. His feeling is that not all of the sump pumps are draining to air as they should be. Robbins feels that there’s still a lot of clean water coming from perimeter drains and sump pumps. Mayor Young asked how we’re going to eliminate that. Robbins said his feeling is to eliminate intentional inflows from private residences. This would need more inspections to find perimeter drains and sump pumps. The mayor asked how to do this without going into the house and running cameras from the inside out. Robbins said that the other option would be to dig, which no one wants to do. Mayor Young said he’s heard of a robot-device that will climb from the sewer main into the service line. Robbins and Call said that those are limited by the amount of water and the angles of the lines. Robbins said that going back over the inspection reports done earlier, plus looking for houses with basements and no sump pumps and no place where the perimeter drain is surfacing might be the way to start. Robbins said that KDHE will probably let the city work on this problem before they would require the city to build additional lagoons. Don Schultz asked if there was an overflow at the lagoons as a result of this last heavy rain. Robbins explained that the extra volume of stormwater going into the lagoons causes the water to be forced through the cells before the normal processing time. Schultz asked if there’s a reasonable fix at the lagoon end, and Robbins answered adding to the capacity. Robbins said that the excess storm water can also cause damage to the lagoons over a period of time. Robbins said he would go back through the reports and report back to the council. There was discussion about improving the capacity of the lift stations. Mayor Young asked that more gravel be put at Shirley’s Café to accommodate moving her dumpsters back to their original location. The mayor also said that Jean Branson would like to have some work done on her property to make the water drain towards the ditch away from her house. Robbins said he would check into it.
Mayor Young said that the valve vault at the east lift station blew off today. Call said that it needs some kind of gripper ring put on it. Robbins said Joshua’s should be required to fix it as part of the project.

STORM WATER DRAINAGE: Don Schultz said that he’d received complaints from Wally Harris regarding water draining on his property from the Brookside area, probably due to the current contruction. Schultz said that Brookside and the affected neighbors have been talking about solutions. Robbins said that a drainage control ditch was included in the approved site plan, but Scott Averill thinks that part of the water is coming from east of his property. Mayor Young said that this sounds like something for the property owners to discuss and agree on a solution.

CONCRETE REMOVED FROM SEWER PROJECT: This is no longer an issue since the contractor has buried it.

POOL OPERATION TRAINING: Mayor Young said that Joni Hudson has talked to Family Pools & Spas about some training for starting up the pool as well as daily maintenance, but he’s not sure when this will be done. Dorthy Chikly mentioned that the council would like to have Hudson be more diligent in tracking the testing schedule throughout the year. Mayor Young said he would talk to her about that when the start-up training takes place.

CULVERT FOR FULLER PROPERTY: Vic Robbins said he did tell Eula Lee Fuller that having a culvert installed in the driveway/alley would help keep the water from pooling on her property since there are no ditches there.

BID FOR DITCH/CULVERTS: Mayor Young said that the individual who had offered to pay to have the ditchs and culverts repaired on his block has declined after seeing the first bid.

OVERBROOK PARK PROJECT: Vic Robbins said that he’s talked to Bonnie Johnson, KU, about a site plan for the east side of the city lake property regarding access, etc. Robbins said he’s not sure where the property lines are, and that the Hylton House is placed on a site at least as high as the top of the dam elevation to avoid flooding. He’s not sure there’s enough city property to accommodate this. The mayor said that the Hylton House has been put on hold at this time.
Jon Brady asked that any dirt that’s being hauled by the city be put in a certain area of the future soccer field. Brady also asked for $2,091.56 that came from Osage County Special Parks & Recreation monies that was sent to the city in August, 2006. Tadd Goodyear made a motion, seconded by Don Schultz, to authorize using the $2,091.56 as matching funds for the Overbrook Park Project. Motion carried 5-0, and the clerk will issue the check to PRIDE/ Special Park Fund. A report will need to given to the Board of County Commissioners on how the money was spent.
Brady also asked if the city is going to pay for the field maintenance again this year. This amounted to around $1300 last year. Mayor Young asked if the OAA has received any money from Santa Fe Trail High School, and Brady said they haven’t. Don Schultz asked if this would create opportunity to have a Parks/Recreation person to do a lot of things, including field maintenance. The mayor said yes, it would be a good thing. Schultz said to do this on a large scale, the person would also need to be somewhat in charge of the Athletic Association, where revenues and expenses would run through that department, and they would also oversee the maintenance aspect. The pool could also be included in the plan. The mayor suggested this be studied more carefully in the fall. Bob Sisson moved to pay the field maintenance at Jones Park. Dorthy Chikly seconded the motion; it carried 5-0.
Robbins mentioned concern about flooding in the areas where the memorial circle and pavilion are to be located. Hopefully the materials that are used for the construction will withstand this.
LIBRARY BOARD: Larry Coursen made a motion, seconded by Bob Sisson, to appoint Bob VonStein to the library board for a term of 4 years. Motion carried 5-0.
CHECK SIGNERS: Bob Sisson moved to designate Don Schultz and Dorthy Chikly as authorized check signers for the city. Tadd Goodyear seconded; motion carried 5-0. The clerk will get the necessary paperwork required by the bank.

RE-APPOINTMENT OF CITY OFFICERS: Mayor Young read a list of city officers to be re-appointed and asked for a motion to approve the appointments. At that time, Bob Sisson made a motion, seconded by Larry Coursen to go into executive session for at least 10 minutes to discuss matters not related to elected personnel. Motion carried 5-0, and the meeting was recessed. The mayor opened the meeting at 9:17 at which time Sisson moved to go back into closed session for 20 minutes with Coursen seconding.
Mayor Young called the meeting back to order at 9:37 at which time he stated that he was going to ask that each city officer be appointed individually. The results are as follows:

Chikly motion/Coursen second for Stephen Jones as Municipal Court Judge 5-0
Schultz motion/ Coursen second for Michael Coffman as City Attorney 5-0
Chikly motion/Goodyear second for Shayne Coursen as Court Clerk 5-0
Sisson motion/ Chikly second for Patty Hylton as City Treasurer 5-0
Coursen motion/ Goodyear second for Bob Call as Maintenance Supt 5-0
Schultz motion/ Chikly second for Cheryl Brown as City Clerk 5-0
Chikly motion/ Coursen second for Jim Koger as Assistant City Clerk,
Assistant Maintenance, Animal Control 5-0
Schultz motion / Chikly second for Edward Harmison as Chief of Police 2 yes; 3 no
with Coursen, Sisson and Goodyear voting no
Schultz motion/ no second for Everette Dannar as Assistant Chief of Police
Motion died for lack of a second.
There was no motion made to reappoint any of the five listed part-time law officers as neither Harmison or Dannar had been re-appointed.
At this time, Everette Dannar asked “Can someone tell me what just happened here?” Mayor Young said he wasn’t’ sure. Dannar then asked if he had a job or not, and the mayor again said that he wasn’t sure, but he didn’t think so. Dannar asked when this would be effective, and the mayor told him as of now, but that Dannar could have until 8 AM Thursday to turn in his equipment. At that point, Dannar left the meeting.
LAW REPORT: Since there was no one present from the Police Department, Mayor Young reviewed the written report that had previously been distributed.
MAINTENANCE REPORT: Bob Call told the council that he’s repaired 56’ of water line at well #4 as a result of a major break. He also had to make repairs at well #1, due to the same problem. Both meters had to be removed and cleaned. He put about 60 hours into these repairs. He’s still waiting for parts to complete installing meters at all five wells.
Water service has been installed for Brookside’s new addition, and they had to rent a tapper due to a different sized service line, and Brookside wants a bigger tap for the sprinkler system. Call has told them that the city doesn’t have that equipment so Brookside will have be responsible for all the equipment. Call mentioned that the maps are wrong about the sizes of the water lines in that area.
A water break on Market St was fixed, and the phone lines have all been moved on W Seventh so the township can start on the ditch soon. Call would like to have Vic Robbins involved since there’s a driveway culvert to be installed.
Call said that he’s had some work done on the tractor to make it a little safer. He’s also working on the paper work required for the manhole overflows.
D & S Sanitation will be coming to finish pumping out the pool, and they’re going to pump out the restroom at the lake.
Call asked that the council get job descriptions so everyone knows what his job is or is not.
Tadd Goodyear said that Call needs to do some more back-filling where he worked on the waterlines at the wells, but he might want to wait for it to settle more.
CITIZEN COMMENT: Cheri Harmison, wife of Chief Ed Harmison, asked to speak. She said she has major questions as she understands her husband’s job has been done away with. She asked if there’s been major complaints, or other problems or is this just a vendetta by a couple of people who are a little peeved. She asked how they could wreck a man’s career who’s just a few years from retirement, and was that even considered? She stated that this is a small, tight-knit community who are supposed to look after each other, and that’s what her husband has been doing. She also stated a concern that at his age, he probably wouldn’t be able to get another job in law enforcement. She said that she could understand if the police department was doing something wrong, but not if this is because a couple of council members have an axe to grind. She then left the meeting.
TREASURER’S REPORT: Patty Hylton reviewed the financial reports, with a brief explanation of what each one shows for the benefit of the two new council members. Hylton said that there will probably be some out-of-pocket expenses for the wasterwater project, and will talk to Vic Robbins about what we should expect for final billing from Joshua Excavating.
Jon Brady asked how they should account for the money received from the county. The clerk said that the city can report that the funds were given to the park project, and then the park committee can report as to how it was spent.
CLERK’S REPORT: Cheryl Brown told the council that Jim Long will be here to do the annual audit on Thursday, May 24th. Donna Crawford will be here on May 25th to monitor the wastewater project.
Brown said that Jim Long told her that the state statute refers to Special Highway funds being authorized for “incidental facilities”, and that may include ditches. Long suggested that the city attorney advise us on the exact meaning.
There was discussion about what to do for streets this year. Larry Coursen suggested getting bids for repairing the really bad spots are and then just chip and seal in those areas. Mayor Young asked Bob Call to talk to some contractors about doing it this way and how much can be done with the available funds. The Special Highway fund has $33,125.91 as of the end of April. The council agreed by concensus to have Call get more information about certain areas that need repaired and get some bids. Jon Brady said that a lot of the ditches in town don’t work due to debris blocking them. The mayor said that he and Call have been talking about getting a blade that would work on the backhoe. Hylton said that the city should receive another $20,000 in special highway funds by the end of the year.
COUNCIL MEMBER COMMENTS: Bob Sisson asked who will notify Osage Co Sheriff that the police officers were not re-appointed. The mayor said he would do that right after the meeting. Don Schultz asked if there should be a special session with the sheriff to see what can be done. Larry Coursen said that the locks need to be changed right away. The mayor asked if the clerk would take care of having that done. Bob Call said we just had the locks re-keyed the last time. He also said he wouldn’t advise leaving the patrol cars at the maintenance shop. The mayor said we’d have to figure that out later.
MAYOR’S REPORT: Mayor Young said that he was very disappointed about how much clean water ended up in the lagoons after all the sewer rehab work that was done.
The mayor said that some more thought needs to go into finding someplace for people to use as a tree limb dump site and how to police it.
MISCELLANEIOUS: The clerk asked the council to please review the proposed zoning ordinance as presented by the Planning Commission so it can be adopted as soon as possible. She has provided copies of the new one as well as the current zoning ordinances.
EXECUTIVE SESSON: Bob Sisson moved to go into executive session with Cheryl Brown to discuss non-elected personnel matters for 5 minutes. Dorthy Chikly seconded; motion carried and the meeting was closed from 10:30 to 10:36 PM. No action was taken after the mayor called the meeting back to order.
MISCELLANEOUS: Larry Coursen moved to start the procedure to get a contract with Osage County Sheriff for coverage. Bob Sisson seconded. Vote was 2-3 against with Schultz, Chikly and Goodyear voting no.
There being no further business before the council, Larry Coursen moved to adjourn with Bob Sisson seconding. Meeting was adjourned at 10:40 PM.

Respectfully submitted,
Cheryl Brown
City Clerk

APPROVED: June 13, 2007