HUMBOLDT — Voters here will decide in a Sept. 11 mail-ballot election a half-cent sales tax that would raise money for street repairs.
City council members unanimously approved the referendum Monday night for the 15-year tax.
About $1.2 million for equipment, materials and labor is needed to repair 300 blocks of streets and drainage along them, City Administrator Larry Tucker observed in a prepared statement. Rationale for the tax, he said, is to make up for lost fuel tax revenue from the state. Humboldt receives about $50,000 a year, with $40,000 going for patching streets and culvert repairs and $10,000 for other projects, such as comprehensive street repairs. The total is down from an annual distribution that had been closer to $80,000.
Tucker said the tax would generate $85,000 to $90,000 a year.
Approval of the half-cent increase would leave Humboldt with an overall sales tax of 9.3 percent — 6.3 percent for the state, 1.25 percent for Allen County and 1.25 percent for the city.
Tucker said if the election is successful, Humboldt could get a 15-year loan from the Kansas Department of Transportation, with 3.05 percent interest rate and repayment starting in three years.
To deal with street work, the council’s Street Committee recommended a street repair crew of two or three employees be created. Equipment to facilitate work also would be purchased. Allen County commissioners have agreed to assist with Humboldt’s street work, a concession that has occurred in the past.
Following a succession of executive sessions totaling about an hour, council members voted unanimously to extend Tucker’s two-year rolling contract through May 2014.
City Attorney Fred Works explained Tucker’s contract had a year to go, through May 2013, but that it was common practice with administrators to extend their contracts for two years each year.
No mention was made of whether discussion in the executive sessions involved anyone other than Tucker. The sessions were justified as being for “non-elected personnel.”
ABOUT $11,600 will be spent for upgrades and design work to deal with waste water.
Initially, Tucker asked permission to spend $8,630 to design, purchase and install a phase monitor, which will quickly detect loss of commercial power and signal start of an emergency generator. Tucker explained that loss of power could cause serious damage to pumps. Also, there would be design by Shafer, Kline and Warren, Inc., Iola, for blowers that furnish oxygen to waste material during its processing.
An additional $3,000 was voted to design repairs to nine lift stations that move sewage along the system.
“We continue to have to replace pumps that vary in size due to electrical problems at the lift stations,” Tucker said. “An electrical engineer could design improvements at the lift stations to reduce this risk.”
THE NEW park at the west edge of town will be known at Neosho River Park.
