City commission moves foward with housing study

In an effort to develop a better understanding of the housing needs within the city, the Concordia city commission approved authorizing Five Rule Rural Planning to proceed with a housing study and market analysis during its regular meeting on Wednesday.
The cost of the study will be $25,000 with $15,000 coming from the city’s improvements program (CIP) fund and $10,000 coming from CloudCorp.
Expected to be completed in August 2022, the housing study and market analysis is intended to provide a 10-year focus to inform CloudCorp and city officials on housing development and redevelopment efforts. It will provide housing stock inventory data within the city limits, will engage community stakeholders to determine local housing needs, will assess housing trends and provide recommendations/strategic play for the city to use as it allocates resources toward housing over the next 10 years.
The CloudCorp community resources committee was activated to address apparent issues related to housing stock in the city following discussions with realtors, builders and local employers.
During a discussion with the city commission back on June 2, a summary of the most recent housing data collected back on 2011 was presented.
Also presented was the potential use of the Rural Housing Incentive District and the Moderate Income Housing grant as possible methods to fund a new single-family home subdivision in Concordia.
A consensus was reached by the commission during the June meeting to proceed with the use of the community resources committee to address housing issues.
The commission set aside $10,000 in CIP funds for a housing study and market analysis. The CloudCorp board of directors also committed $10,000, recognizing that having a strong housing stock has a direct relationship to economic development.
Reaching out to consulting firms recently used by Kansas Association of City/County  Managemen members, the community resources committee received two proposals to conduct the housing study.
A subcommittee of the community resources committee evaluated the proposals using a rubric.
It was the recommendation by the subcommittee to authorize Five Rule Rural Planning for the project.
City manager Amy Lange said that the housing study and market analysis will provide the city and CloudCorp with a guide on where they need to go on the issue of housing needs.
Also during the meeting, the commission approved a motion to reject a request from OCCK, Inc. to provide financial support for public transportation for the fiscal year 2022.
The motion made by commissioner Ashley Hutchinson and approved unanimously, was to deny the request for 2022 but encourage a request for 2023.
OCCK, Inc. assumed operations of the general public transportation service in Concordia, that had been previously operated by the Concordia Senior Center, on July 1 of this year.
The service is operating as GoConcordia and has provided more than 2,500 rides since July.
A letter presented to the commission by Trell Grinter, director of transportation for OCCK, stated that long term, sustainable financial partnership is key to the success of public transportation in any community.
Grinter and Michelle Griffin, OCCK mobility manager, met with the commission during its meeting on October 6 to discuss its need for funding.
An annual grant from the Kansas Department of Transportation funds 70 percent of the costs of operating general public transportation. The operator is responsible for securing the remaining 30 percent match.
The grant application for the upcoming year is due on November 18.
OCCK transportation requested that the city provide $37,380 for the remainder of the fiscal year 2021-2022  and $74,670 for 2022-2023.
Information provided to the commission by Lange stated that the fiscal year 2022 budget has already been approved and that authorization in full or part of the request from OCCK would require reallocation from departmental operations budgets, outside entity funding requests, CIP, equipment transportation fund, placing a hold on filling of vacant positions or the use of reserves.
“As OCCK, we do have enough to make transportation happen, but we know going into 2022 and into 2023 we do know that we have to have those local partners and we are working to acquire that so we don’t have to see a dip in service next July. We would love to expand, but we just need to secure the service we have,” Grinter said.
OCCK will be working with other entities and will be exploring other grant opportunities to help secure future funding.
In other action taken during the meeting, the board approved authorizing Mayor Chuck Lambertz to sign an agreement between the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) and the city for a mill and overlay for K-9 Highway from Cloud Street to the east city limits.
The mill and overlay project is KDOT’s Connecting Link Improvement Program.
KDOT will pay 90 percent of up to $300,000 for the project and the city will pay the additional 10 percent plus the cost of the design.
The engineer’s estimate for the project is $275,16.25 with the city’s share being $34,341.63.
Approving the mayor to sign the audit engagement letter with Jarred, Gilmore & Phillips for the year ending December 31, 2021, in the amount of $13,000, was approved by the commission.
Half of the funds for the audit will come from the general fund and the other half will come from the water/sewer utility fund.
The commission approved hiring Benesch as the city’s airport planning consultant for the next five years.
Benesch will provide planning and engineering services on behalf of the city for any and all airport improvement projects undertaken in the next five years. Projects are determined through the annual airport capital improvement program submittal, and are based on the needs listed in the current 2013 update to the airport master plan.