Moran city council members discussed various topics in Monday night’s meeting, the majority of which concentrated on fundraising for a new public library and the sewer repairs and renovations being done in town. TWO MOTIONS were passed in order to make payments to the Shafer, Kline & Warren engineering firm and the contractor, Reed Dozing & Contracting LLC, for Moran’s wastewater collection system improvements, but not without some contention. In other business:
Council members requested the presence of the library board members in order to discuss fundraising for the future building. Mayor Phillip Merkel cited the cost between $300,000 and $400,000 depending on which type of building material is used — concrete or QSI aluminum siding.
He said the council has been researching grants for a new building, but the process has been slow and cumbersome. The next round of grants released by the state is in February, however City Clerk Lori Evans said more time is needed to submit grant requests. The next available time will be in August.
“There’s just not a whole lot out there, not a lot of money,” Merkel said.
Council member Jim Mueller said some of the legwork has already been done on the building site, including soil testing. However, he said the city needs a “spark plug” type of person to head up anything else that needs to be done.
The council discussed various ways to begin raising funds, including fundraisers, utility rate increases and sales tax increases. At the time of the meeting no decisions had been made.
Due to confusion surrounding the bills presented before the council, discussion was made about how much in particular the city owes the firm, as well as what their contract stipulated. Ultimately, the council voted on two different motions to pay $7,786.92 for the first phase of the project, and an additional $26,069.35 to the contractor for the amount of work completed thus far.
Council member Warren Johnson, along with the rest of the council, had some reluctance on paying the bill, due to a confusion over a duplicate invoice that was given to the city in November.
“I can’t vote for a bill that I don’t hardly know what it is,” Johnson said.
After some discussion, the council decided that the amounts voted upon were accurate up to this point, and will wait on clarifications from the engineering firm and the contractor before making any more payments.
• A motion was passed to allow the Department of Transportation to construct an additional entrance to their facility. The entrance, complete with a gate and culvert, will be put in place on the west side of Oak Street. Council members requested that the entrance be placed at the location farthest from any residential housing.
• Council members passed a motion to allow four volunteer firefighters funds needed to attend the State Capital Area Firefighter’s Associate training in Topeka. The amount, including meals, transportation and board, is approximately $1,000.
Moran council members discuss library, sewers
