Iola City Council members will discuss Monday whether they should meet on different nights of the month.
In November, the Council was approached by Iolan Larry Walden, who noted the city’s regular meeting nights — the second and fourth Mondays of the month — also fall on the same night as the USD 257 Board of Education, limiting the ability of residents to attend both meetings.
City Administrator Sid Fleming has looked into several options, including moving the meetings to another public locale, such as the Dr. John Silas Bass North Community Center.
That location is problematic, he notes, because the acoustics of the building are not ideal for meetings; audio and visual equipment used to record the meetings would have to be moved frequently; and attendees must exit the building for executive sessions.
Likewise, Fleming said the Council would be best to avoid meetings on Wednesdays, Thursdays or Fridays because of conflicts with church or school activities.
That leaves Mondays and Tuesdays.
The New Community Building, site of the regular Council meetings, is booked on the first and third Mondays of each month by area 4-H clubs, Fleming said, while the Allen County Fair Board meets the second Tuesday of each Month.
That leaves the first and third Tuesdays as the best remaining option, Fleming said.
Meeting dates are set by the city’s Municipal Code, and can be changed via an ordinance.
The Council has met the second and fourth Mondays since the city shifted from a three-member City Commission to the current eight-member council in 2011. Prior to that, commissioners met on Tuesday afternoons.
ALSO Monday, the Council will hear from Scott Shreve, the city’s energy consultant, about potential savings in purchasing electricity through the Southwind Energy Group, and related adjustments in energy cost adjustments the city assesses its electric customers.
Council members also are expected to approve an ordinance regulating the use of tobacco products in Riverside Park. Signs were erected last year designating smoking areas at different areas of the park, but the Council has yet to make those changes official.
THE COUNCIL also will discuss extending a 2-inch water main to serve residents in what had been Rural Water District No. 7 on the southern edge of Iola. The city has recently taken over the water rights.
