Iola City Council members will consider whether to legalize the shooting and selling of fireworks in Iola’s city limits.
Fireworks have been off limits for years, council members noted, although many residents largely ignore the ban.
The council was approached Monday by Curtis Barnett, who has sold fireworks from a stand north of Iola on Old 169 for the past several years.
Barnett said he has a location within Iola from which he could sell if the ban were lifted.
Council members said they needed to hear from Iola’s police and fire chiefs, as well as from the public, as they further discuss the matter.
COUNCIL members also said they would begin looking at what city ordinances need to change now that a new governing body is in place.
Councilmen Ken Rowe and Kendall Callahan said that in conversations with Sandy Jacquot, chief counsel for the Kansas League of Municipalities, several ordinances are no longer valid since the new eight-member city council was seated in April, replacing a three-member city commission.
Rowe said that all city charter ordinances that refer to “commission” instead of “council” must change.
The council also needs to determine whether the mayor’s authority should be altered, Rowe said.
Under state law, the mayor’s duties with a city council largely mirror those Iola already has in place for its city administrator.
Council members will meet in an adjourned meeting at 4 p.m. Thursday at the New Community Building at Riverside Park to discuss those changes.
THE COUNCIL approved a zoning change of five lots of land at 206 and 214 N. Kentucky Street from residential to commercial use. The zoning change will accommodate a land swap involving Lilly’s Towing, which is selling another portion of the company’s property to Allen County for construction of a new hospital.
Council members also accepted a deed to land offered to the city by Evelyn Thohoff at 705 S. Walnut St. The parcel is between other vacated pieces of land already owned by the city, Assistant City Administrator Corey Schinstock said.
A demolition contract with TLZ Construction of Erie was accepted to demolish condemned houses at 511 N. Chestnut St., 410 N. Jefferson Ave., 517 S. Jefferson Ave. and 216 N. Third St. The TLZ bid of $10,000 was the lower of two.
THE CITY received a dividend check of $15,384.42 from EMC Insurance Company for Iola’s participation in the Kansas Municipal Utilities Safety program. Participating in the program is attributed to lower insurance claims, and thus the annual dividend.
Council members approved a request by Cub Scout Pack 55 to use Riverside Park on June 9 for an Osage Nation Day Camp. The Scouts already had received permission to stay overnight at the park June 10-11.
Jeremy Utley and Ralph Romig of the Iola Amateur Radio Club notified council members that ham radio operators would be at the park June 25-26 for their annual field day activity.
COUNCIL members accepted the resignation of Andy Weide, an equipment operator with the Gas, Water and Wastewater Department, effective May 27. The council approved annual evaluations and subsequent pay raises ranging from 2 to 3.5 percent for five employees.
Jerod Kelley was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Iola Planning Commission.
