Noting the time and effort already invested in extending the Prairie Spirit Trail, Iola City Council members agreed Monday to continue with the project.
Council members approved, 7-0, a construction engineering agreement with Schwab-Eaton to handle the design of the trail, which is being extended from Cofachique Park along North State Street to the north edge of Riverside Park.
An engineer’s estimate is that the extension will cost about $396,000, with the city responsible for 20 percent. The Kansas Department of Transportation will fund the remaining 80 percent.
Approval was unanimous, but not without some discussion.
Council member Ken Rowe said he was voting for it only after it was noted the former city commission voted to accept the KDOT grant, making the extension possible.
The city could back out now, incoming city administrator Carl Slaugh said, but doing so could jeopardize Iola’s chances at receiving other state grants.
“It would not reflect well upon the city to renege on this now,” Rowe said. “I’m voting in favor of it now, but if I had the opportunity to vote (when the grant was made available) I would have voted against it. I don’t think it’s how we should be spending these kinds of dollars.”
Council members Beverly Franklin and Steve French agreed. French said he would have liked to have seen a study on how much the trail was being used.
“I hope there are some hungry contractors out there,” which would result in lower construction bids, French said.
Council members also directed city crews to begin leveling off the former Thohoff Construction grounds acquired by the city in a land swap last year with Iolan Jack McFadden. The land, for years, housed surplus construction equipment and other debris.
In addition, city crews also will remove a barricade to accommodate traffic near the trail on Scott Street. Doing so will allow truck traffic to make deliveries to Iola Auto Parts, council members noted.
AFTER INTENSE study of the city’s 2012 budget, including another round of queries by council members at Monday’s meeting, the spending plan is ready to be submitted to the state.
The budget will be supported in part with a property tax levy of about 38 mills, numbers roughly equal to last year. The exact mill levy will not be known until Iola’s final assessed valuation is determined in the fall.
Slaugh presented a number of corrections to specific funds that he and other city officials caught after the council’s July 25 meeting. The most noteworthy correction was the removal of $200,000 from the city’s general fund that had been classified as reimbursement funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The fund has been empty since being used in 2008 to reimburse the city for its expenditures related to the 2007 flood.
Kendall Callahan voiced other concerns about how the budget was presented.
His biggest sticking point was what seemed to be changing figures on what should have been the same fund levels from one year to the next.
As outgoing City Administrator Judy Brigham noted previously, the figures can and do change because of the differences of projections and actual expenditures.
Plus, Slaugh added, the forms presented to the council breaking down the budget into specific funds are not the same forms the city must present in its published budget to the state.
The most accurate readings should come after the city’s budget is audited, Slaugh said.
“What I would like to see is a spreadsheet that shows us exactly where we are with our budget,” Callahan said, suggesting the city have all of its finances audited. “I’m not accusing anybody of anything, but we don’t know where we are. It’s a flawed system.”
Slaugh said he will work diligently to find ways to improve how the budget is presented to council members.
THE BUDGET will be supported in part by an ad valorem tax levy of about 38 mills, a shade lower than what was assessed for this year.
Commissioners will have a budget hearing at 1:15 p.m. Aug. 10 to discuss the spending plan.
The mill levy may be altered slightly once the city knows its final assessed valuation, currently projected at $32.2 million.
Thus a single mill, equivalent to a tenth of a cent, will generate about $32,000 in property taxes — $1,225,901 in all.
At 38 mills, the owner of a $100,000 home would pay about $391 annually in property taxes to the city, not counting taxes spent to support USD 257, the county or Allen County Community College.
