Dollar Tree building permit approved

During a December, 2018 meeting, the Concordia City commission approved signing an agreement with Ridge Investment Group, Chesterfield, Mo. for the sale of property owned by the city in the south Development.
Bruno Rehbein, city building inspector, informed the city commission during its regular meeting on Wednesday that he had issued a building permit for Dollar Tree.
The building permit for Ashley Construction, Chesterfield, is for the construction of a 10,000-square foot Dollar Tree store to be built at 145 East College Drive.
Rehbein said that the company was hoping to get started on construction of the building in a couple of weeks.
Dollar Tree Stores, Inc., based in Chesapeake, Va., is a chain of discount variety stores that sells items for $1 or less. It is a Fortune 500 company and operates 14,835 stores throughout the contiguous United States and Canada.
There are currently 36 Dollar Tree locations in Kansas.
Ashley Construction has projects underway in Wellington and Pratt.
Under the agreement signed last December, the developer and the client qualified for free land under the College Drive Park Land Price Policy adopted by the city in June, 2017.
Dollar Tree will be utilizing the front half of the Lot 3 Block A in the South Development for the initial development. The back half will be for future development.
In action taken by the city commission, a bid from Hall Brothers, Inc., Marysville, of $102,020.50 for the mill and overlay project on Archer Street from Fifth Street to 11th Street was approved.
Public Works director, Ron Copple, asked the commission for approval to spend up to an additional $25,000 to extend the project an additional block to 12th Street and for patching on Archer Street.
Copple estimated the cost of patching at around $8,000. He said the estimate for adding the additional block is $16,500.
The city set an early start date for the project of April 15 and the completion date of October 4. The contractor has 20 working days to complete the project.
Two bids for the contract were received by the city.
The commission approved the low bid by Hall Brothers and authorizing up to an additional $25,000 to extend the project by a block and for patching.
An ordinance addressing snow removal from sidewalks was approved by the commission.
“As you know, we have had quite a bit of snow this winter and that caused us to review one section in our codes which is 18-115 regarding snow and ice from sidewalks. As we worked our way through that, we found that several things that needed to be changed, first of which was having an actual ordinance tied to this code language,” city manager Amy Lange said.
Lange said that there is not a specific ordinance in place dealing with snow removal from sidewalks, and if there is not a specific ordinance, then the Police Department cannot issue tickets.
“That means we have to follow our nuisance procedure to address this issue. As you know, the procedure can take anywhere from 30 to 40 days to get addressed, and hopefully we don't have snow on the ground for that long, that therefor renders this code section rather ineffective from an enforcement standpoint,” Lange said.
Under Code 18-115, residents had five hours from the time snow stops falling to remove the snow.
“In theory this sounds like a good idea, we get the snow removed quickly. However, we know that in practicality, with many of our residents working and contracting out snow removal if they are unable to do on their own ,it is very difficult, especially with the large amount of snow we have seen recently to get that done in five hours of snowfall,” Lange said.
The ordinance approved by the commission states that it shall be unlawful for the owner or occupant of any lot abutting any public sidewalk, to fail to cause to be removed from such sidewalk all snow and ice promptly, but not later than 24 hours from the time such snow has fallen or ice has accumulated.
The ordinance also states that it shall be unlawful for the owner or occupant of any lot abutting any public sidewalk to cause snow to be placed in the public street, except that the downtown business district shall be exempt from this provision.
Failing to abide by the regulations will result in a fine assessed to the owner or occupant of the property of $25 for the first offense within the previous six months, $50 for the second offense within the previous six months and $100 plus court costs for the third and subsequent offenses within the previous six months.
Enforcement of the ordinance will be performed on a complaint basis.
The commission approved a proposal from Hood Heating Air Plumbing Electric to furnish and install light poles and bases for the 20th Street spur of Heritage Trail at a cost of $22,377.
Heritage Trail is a one-mile loop around the South Development.
Former Concordian, Lavon Brosseau ,gifted $20,000 to the city to be used for the trail, a portion of which was to be used for lighting to improve safety for trail users and $9,688 was used to complete a portion of the trail that was not covered by Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) grant funding. The remaining 10,312 will be used for lighting.
The city was awarded a $10,000 grant for the lighting project from the Impact Fund and Dane G. Hansen Community Grant Fund for Cloud County.
The remaining $2,065 for the project will be paid for from the city's capital improvement fund.
Also approved by the commission during the meeting was the purchase of a HPE ProLiant ML 110 G10 4.5U tower server and accessories from LockIt Technologies, LLC for the Concordia Police Department.
The cost of the server and accessories is $11,404.
Copple informed the commission that the city is submitting a City Connecting Link Improvement (CCLIP) application to KDOT for a pavement restoration project on U.S. Highway 81.
The project will include pavement replacement and repair of concrete of the south bound lanes of U.S. 81 from 400 feet north of Walmart entrance to the south city limits.
Estimated cost of the project is $899,157.40.
The CCLIP is a 90/10 matching program, with KDOT funding 90 percent of the cost and the city funding 10 percent.
The city's total share of the project would be $89,915.74.
CCLIP is a federal and state funded program that provides funds to cities to address deficiencies or improve a City Connecting Link on the State Highway System. A city Connecting Link is defined as any routing of the State Highway System located within the corporate city limits. All City Connecting Links are eligible under the program, except those on the Interstate System and fully controlled access sections of the Freeway System.
Projects will be selected for the state fiscal years 2021 and 2022.
The commission proclaimed March 2019 as the 17th annual March for Meals Month to honor the Meals on Wheels programs.
David Garnas, Cloud County Health Center administrator, met with the commission and gave a presentation on the operation of the hospital and the master facility plan.
Cloud County Health Center, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) community owned organization.
In May, 2016, Cloud County Health Center (CCHC) entered into an operational agreement with Salina Regional Health Center.
“It is an operating agreement, it is not an ownership agreement. It is not an ownership of the building, and I know that is something that comes out on a regular basis,” Garnas said, “Over the last three years, we have definitely seen it be a mutually beneficial relationship by bringing in expertise and being able to allow us to grow and expand, to have access to the physicians we have access to, and we are very happy to have had that relationship.”
CCHC launched a master facility plan back in December and contracted with TreanorHL Health Studio to put together the plan.
“We picked them because of their expertise in rural health care,” Garnas said.
Garnas said that the expected outcome of the master facility plan was to do an extensive evaluation of the existing building and look at the feasibility of remodeling it, as well as looking at the construction of a new facility.
CCHC is receiving input on the planning from the department heads, medical staff, board members and  a community group consisting of 14 people.
Two potential building sites were evaluated for the possible construction of a new building.
“One of the big things, of course, the punch line that everybody wants to know, not how it looks, but how much is it going cost and how are we going to pay for it? And that is the big question throughout this entire process,” Garnas said.
Garnas said that a preliminary final report was presented to those involved in the planning process on the size, layout and possible locations.
The final report is due the first week in April.
Garnas said the cost estimate will not be rolled at that time because it will continue to be a work in progress.
“We are asking for help from the community to say how much is it going to cost and what are our options for being able to finance it,” Garnas said.
Susie Haver, Cloud County Tourism & Convention director, presented a 2018 year in review to the commission.
The Concordia Travel Information Center, one of 22 approved by Kansas Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, had 5,312 visitors last year, 4342 from Kansas, 1,016 from other states and 28 from other countries.