City commission appoints two to Recreation board

Chrissy Henderson and Derek Gordon were appointed to the Concordia Recreation advisory board by the Concordia city commission during its regular meeting Wednesday.
Wellness & Recreation director Chris Atkins reported to the commission that the two-year terms on the board had expired and three of them indicated they did not want to serve another term.
Henderson was reappointed to the board. Gordon was appointed to a first term.
The advisory board now has six members.
During staff report, Atkins reported on fall activities being offered by the Recreation Department.
The city's flag football program for children in grades 2-4 has 14 teams and 135 kids participating. There are 20 teams and over 200 children participating in the youth volleyball league.
The youth soccer league has over 145 children participating.
Atkins said the sand volleyball league just completed play, and there were nine teams participating.
The women's volleyball league has started, and there are nine teams.
City manager Amy Lange gave the commission a report on the Fly Kansas Air Tour that had an overnight stop in Concordia last Thursday.
There were 28 planes that landed in Concordia. About 30 motel rooms were reserved, and 320 gallons of fuel were sold at Blosser Municipal Airport.
Lange also said that Mayor Mark Matthew and commissioner Chuck Lambertz had met last week with Kirk Lowell and Janet Lowell, who own a building in downtown Concordia that is located in the floodplain.
Lange said that for several years the Lowells have been trying to figure out how to work within the floodplain regulations to fix up the building.
“We think that last Friday we came to a viable action plan,” Lange said, “It may also involve some repairs to the city owned parking lot that is adjacent to that building. So we would be able to kind of work both projects simultaneously.”
City Public Works director Ron Copple informed the commission that he is beginning the consultant selection process for the planned project on U.S. 81.
Concordia was selected to receive $1 million in funding through the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) City Connecting Link Improvement Program.
The funds will be used for a pavement replacement project to the southbound lanes of U.S. 81 from the south city limits to north of College Drive.
Copple presented a list of consultants that are on the KDOT approved list. He said he would like to send letters to Campbell & Johnson Engineers, PA and RMA Engineering, LLC, both located in Concordia.
“I have to send a minimum of three letters out, and the maximum can be five. If I go over five I have to go through more preliminary selection stuff,” Copple said.
Copple said they first have to be approved to do the design of the project and the construction inspection.
Five firms were selected to be contacted about the project.