Ellinwood City Council meeting at a glance
Here is a brief look at what happened at the Ellinwood City Council meeting Tuesday:
• Presented service awards to city employees Josh Komarek and Cody Waite. Both employees were recognized for 10 years with the Ellinwood EMS department.
• Due to a scheduling conflict, the presentation by Great Bend Economic Development Executive Director Sara Arnberger on current GBED activities and future opportunities for all of Barton County including Ellinwood was deferred to a future meeting.
• Approved Ellinwood’s participation in the current (third) round of Barton County’s facade improvement program.
• Reviewed a draft of the city’s golf cart ordinance in preparation for approval at the January 2025 meeting.
• Approved the following cereal malt beverage license renewals: general retailer Kansas Sidewinders; container retailers Casey’s General Store, Zip Stop Inc., Ellinwood Family Foods and 10-39 Cafe.
• Approved end-of-year transfer of funds including $241,500 from the general fund to capital improvement.
• Approved purchase of extended warranty on the Altec lift unit on the recently-purchased city bucket truck, in the amount of $8,230 for the lift unit.
• Approved maintenance work on Water Well No. 2 to be provided by Clarke Well Service in the amount of $40,140.
• Approved the purchase of water, wastewater and stormwater materials for the new Northwest development in the total amount of $47,609.49. A breakdown includes bids from: McPherson Concrete, $6,966.36; DC&B Supply, $2,460.60; Core & Main, piping, $11,509.95; and Core & Main, hydrants, fittings and valves, $26,671.60.
• Approved a bid for construction of an additional 60’x 44’ storage building for city shop equipment by Yoder Engineered Structures in the amount of $74,201 plus an option of 6” concrete flooring at $19,800.
• Approved mayoral appointment of Stephanie Dunnaway as successor to City Clerk Kim Schartz, who will be retiring Dec. 31. A reception for Schartz has been planned at the city office for 10 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 18.
• Approved mayoral appointment of Lacey Schofield to fill the vacant city treasurer position to be effective Jan. 1, 2025.
• Heard a staff report from City Administrator Chris Komarek.
• Recessed into executive session for discussion of property acquisition. Approved small parcel in the NW development area and approved easement for stormwater pipe installation.
• Recessed into executive session for discussion of non-elected personnel. After salary review, approved an $.80 raise for full-time employees and a $.50 raise for EMS personnel.
• Reviewed 2025 City Administrator contract. Approved a 5% wage increase for the City Administrator and extended his contract through 2028.
ELLINWOOD — The weeks leading up to the Christmas holiday have been busy for city crews in Ellinwood. City Administrator Chris Komarek noted that work will be moving from one major project to another, as the city prepares for infrastructure installations at its Northwest Development housing project around the first of the year.
“We’re working on the Northwest Development quite a little bit; we’re moving along exceptionally fast and well there,” Komarek informed city council members in his staff report at their Tuesday meeting. Earlier in the meeting, the council approved the purchase of materials including water, wastewater and stormwater pipe and fittings in the amount of $47,609.49 from several vendors. Komarek noted that adding the approved purchase to materials already purchased, will be more than $100,000 that will utilize the remainder of the funding received from Barton County. “We might have a few loose ends that we might need to fix up over the next week, but we plan to polish this thing up within the next 10 days,” Komarek said.
Komarek said that city staff started digging at the site this week, while surveyors have been staking out the 42” sewer mains and shooting grades. “We won’t be able to hit it that hard yet, we won’t have an excavator available until Jan. 5, but we might get to some dirtwork,” he said. “We will be bringing a lot of fill sand up there and there’s a little over 2,000 feet of sewer line to lay, with another 1,000 feet of water main and 600 feet of 42” sewer pipe to put in. Komarek noted that a large quantity of fill sand will be appearing on-site soon.
“Hopefully, we will take off on that right after the first of the year, maybe a little bit before.”
Downtown Streetscape
Komarek said that an email from the Kansas Department of Transportation was received by the city office last Friday that bidletting for Ellinwood’s downtown streetscape project had been moved back once more.
“It’s scheduled for June 2025, which is OK, I’ll take the extensions,” he said. With a delay in getting the plan design completed, considering the After Harvest Festival in July it’s possible that somebody would want to bid it in June and want to start in September or October possible or it could be moved to February or March of 2026.
“That does allow us to accumulate a little more funding for the project if we need to and allows us to finish up on our water. Our water line, we’ve got the main in from First to Humboldt to the power plant and up to first and Main. North to second street the water main is all in tied in and back to being hot, all heated up ready to roll. The service lines have not been switched over yet, probably will see some of that happening along the sidewalk portions. We’ve still got to go across main street at some point and also still need to across First street and go south to the Wolf Hotel. That’s probably going to be more of a summer project or late spring next year.
“It’s my goal at this point in January, weather permitting, I want to move up to the Northwest development and keep that going. You might not see too much happening here, but there’s still a lot to do.”
Solid waste transition
Komarek noted that a letter had been sent to all solid waste residential customers, and had received an estimated 467 replies, or 56% of the total. “I think we’re right on target with that,” he said. “We’ll have another newsletter going out, maybe in January when it gets a little closer to the actual transition.
“I anticipate the first six months of this transition will be challenging at times. I’m really anticipating that Stutzman’s will be here to pick up trash at 6 a.m. in Ellinwood and being out of town by 10 a.m. People are going to want to put their trash can out the night before. Once they get established and a route going, they might. The same trucks are going to be picking up trash in Hoisington on the same days. The commercial guy will be coming out of Lyons.”
