It’s been more than 6½ years since Iolans disbanded the old three-man city commission and replaced it with an eight-member city council.
An era will come to an end Jan. 8, when Mayor Joel Wicoff and City Council members Beverly Franklin, Don Becker and Sandy Zornes leave their respective positions. Wicoff, Becker and Franklin were the three remaining members of the original Iola City council when it was seated in April 2011.
“I’ve enjoyed and appreciated the opportunity to serve Iola and our community,” said Wicoff, who shifted from his role as councilman to mayor in 2013. “I appreciated working with everybody here and the folks who aren’t here. We’ve done a lot of good work.
“We went through a tough time of change,” he said. “I think the system’s running a lot better than it was.”
Monday’s meeting was the final regular meeting for the full Council.
Wicoff will be replaced by Councilman Jon Wells, which means Wells’ seat will become vacant when the new Council members are seated.
Applications to fill Wells’ seat are still being accepted at City Hall, although City Administrator Sid Fleming noted nobody has announced their desire to do so. Any Iolan who lives in Iola’s First Ward, north of Breckenridge and west of Cottonwood Street is eligible to apply. Applications can be obtained by calling 365-4900 or sending an email to the city clerk’s office at roxanne.hutton@cityofIola.com.
Other newcomers joining the Council in January are Ron Ballard, Gene Myrick and Mark Peters.
COUNCIL members discussed several year-end budget transfers, the largest of which were a pair of transfers from the city’s wastewater utility fund, $60,000 to the Stores Department and $25,000 to the Recreation Department.
The $60,000 transfer to the Stores Department supplants a planned $33,000 transfer from the city’s Water Utility Fund, Fleming said, noting expenditures from the Stores Department came in above expectations.
“From a year-to-year basis, sometimes you bought things cheaper, then used them up,” Fleming said. “Then when you go back, the price is higher.”
The Rec Department fund level has been discussed previously.
Council members have mentioned assessing an optional fee added to utility bills, giving customers the choice of whether to chip in an extra $5 or $10 monthly to dedicate to the city’s Rec Department, parks and trails system.
Smaller transfers also were necessary for the convention and tourism, library and capital projects funds to close out those year-end budgets.
A special budget hearing was scheduled for 4 p.m. Dec. 27 to discuss and formally approve the proposed transfers so they can be in place by year’s end.
COUNCIL members also approved 2018 cereal malt beverage licenses for consumption on premises to Cedarbrook Golf Course, China Palace, Country Lanes, Denny’s Sports Center, Pizza Hut, El Jimador and Coronado’s. Licenses for such beverages to be sold in unopened containers were approved for Ray’s Mini Mart, Pump N Pete’s, Jump Start Travel Center, Walmart, Casey’s General Store and G&W Foods.
The Council also preemptively approved licensing for Dudley’s Done Right BBQ, which previously had sold beer on premises, but had not yet filed a renewal application for 2018.
SUSAN LYNN, owner and publisher of The Iola Register, pressed the Council about its practice of posting public notice summaries in the newspaper for various ordinances and resolutions and directing them to the city’s website, cityofiola.com for the full text of those items.
Such a practice has been in place since 2012 as a money-saver for the city, which no longer pays for the longer public notices.
Lynn noted the city’s most recent public notice, regarding changes to electric rates, still has not been posted online more than two weeks after it was approved by the Council on Nov. 27.
“I understand the city’s desire to trim cost, but it can’t be done at the unacceptable cost of keeping the public in dark about its business,” Lynn said.
STEVE JONES asked about Christmas lights the city erects on utility poles on North State Street.
Jones said he’d rather see the lights erected closer to downtown, possibly starting at the State Street-Madison Avenue intersection.
“I just think it’d look better,” Jones said.
Fleming said he would look into the matter.
