Changes to animal control ordinance approved

After discussing the issue at length twice during study sessions, the Concordia city commission approved an ordinance amending the city's animal control ordinance during its regular meeting on Wednesday.
Included in the changes to the ordinance was the elimination of all breed specific language.
The previous ordinance required that a dog that had the appearance or characteristics of being predominately or a pit bull type breed or a mastiff type breed, or that had been hybridized with a wild canine, could not be kept within the city limits unless it had earned a Canine Good Citizenship certificate from the American Kennel Club.
The city commissioners had been informed by concerned citizens during a previous meeting that there was not a Canine Good Citizen course offered in Concordia.
Under the new ordinance adopted, the prerequisite on dog licensing of the Canine Good Citizen certificate for certain breeds of dogs was removed.
Also removed from the ordinance was language addressing wild canine hybrids and wild feline hybrids.
The ordinance now states that it shall be unlawful for any person to keep, own, or harbor, within the city limits, any animal except as allowed, domestic dogs and domestic cats.
Language regarding vicious dogs was combined with language regarding dangerous dogs.
The ordinance now states that dangerous animal means any animal which does any act which might endanger the safety of persons or property of others in a given situation. If any animal shall chase or attack any person, that fact shall be conclusive evidence of the viciousness of such animal.
Maximum penalties associated with dangerous dogs was increased to $1,000 and more latitude was given to the courts to determine the severity of the consequences based on the specifics of the case, and the language was changd to increase the objectivity of determination by the animal control officer for violations of the ordinance.
The ordinance also aligns with state statute as it relates to agricultural use of animals within the city limits.
Also during the meeting, the commission approved a resolution authorizing the assignment of the tenant for bonds from Concordia Tractor Inc. to PLP/CTI Real Estate, LLC.
In May 2010, the city commission authorized issuance of Recovery Zone Facility Bonds in the amount of $2 million  and Taxable Industrial Revenue Bonds in the amount of $2 million to finance the acquisition, construction and equipping of the new Concordia Tractor Inc. (CTI) facility north of town.
The bonds were issued June 1, 2010. Bennington State Bank purchased the bonds.
It was reported to the commission that CTI has made its payments per the established payment schedule.
The bonds are set to expire in 20025, and $1,143,209.82 remains outstanding on the Recovery Zone Facility Bonds and $1,146,263.85 remains outstanding on the Taxable Industrial Revenue Bonds as of December 31, 2017.
Effective January 1, 2019, CTI will merge with PrairieLand Partners.
The assets of both companies will be placed with PLP/CTI Holdings, LLC, which is the new parent company.
PrairieLand Partners, LLC. will continue to operate the John Deere business at the current CTI location.
Because CTI will no longer be a legal entity following the merger, the city needed to update the bond documents by assignment and transfer of the tenant from CTI to PLP/CTI Real Estate, LLC.
PrarieLand Partners, LLC. will make the bond payments to Bennington State Bank, which has agreed to the arrangement.
Quentin Breese, Unified School District 333 superintendent of schools, made presentation to the commission during the meeting addressing school finance, facilities needs the future of education.
“Two of our three buildings which have students in them are in life phase five, which means that cost of maintaining those buildings is pretty extravagant,” Breese said.
Those buildings would be the Concordia Junior-Senior High School, constructed in 1929 and the USD 333 Service Center, the old Middle School, constructed in 1964.
“It ends up costing us a lot just because the buildings are old and pipes are old. We wait for something else to fail almost every day,” Breese said.
Breese discussed why the school district spent nearly $1.3 million on improvements at Harold M. Clark Stadium including the resurfacing of the track and the installation of an artificial turf football field.
“We are paying for this track out of the capital improvement plan, and so it really didn't have anything to do with a hospital, it really didn't have anything to do with waterslides, it didn't have anything to do with the college other than they are a contributing as partner,” Breese said, “The track had to be replaced. We had talked about that since 2011 when I got here. It was to the point where we were no longer going to be able to host a meet.”
Breese said that the resurfacing of the track, if the football field remained grass, would have required the installation of slot drainage around the entire field at a cost of about $150,000. He also said the projected annual cost for maintenance of the grass field would be about $35,000.
“We figured it was a ROI (return on investment) of about four years when you look at the cost of the turf project,” Breese said.
Breese also talked about concerns with the existing facilities.
“The big thing is we have talked about the needs for safety, our enrollment growth, our aging and deteriorating facilities. But I don't want to just tackle those. So what we are trying to do is look at what education is going to look like over the next 25 years and try to adapt to meet those needs,” Breese said.
The commission met in a 10-minute executive session with city manager Amy Lange and CloudCorp executive director Ashley Hutchinson to discuss confidential business data. No action was taken.