Correction: It was incorrectly reported in Wednesday’s article that the city has agreed to set aside $20,000 to install sewer facilities for the new satellite Cowley Campus in Wellington. On Tuesday, the council has agreed to set aside $20,000 to go with a study by Professional Engineering Consultants, P.A. concerning sewer extension and improvements for the campus site.

Wellington City Manager stated this morning to Sumner Newscow:

“The City did not approve sewer to Cowley, and the City did not agree to install sewer facilities.  The latter two things may yet occur, but not at this point.”

Shields said normally the developer pays the sewer, the city pays the electric and they split the water.

At the meeting, Council member Kip Etter said he felt the city has a responsibility to take care of such agreements. He said he would send a message to other developers, either in a good way or a bad way.

Hansel agreed, saying, “This will send a loud message to future development. We need to be progressive.”

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Correction 2: It was also incorrectly reported that the the city was repaving the lots at Casey’s General Store West. The terminology is “re-platting” not repaving which is a zoning procedure. The reason for the re-plat is so the owners of Casey’s can sell off the storage units which are behind the convenience store.

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(Wednesday version) by James Jordan, Sumner Newscow — The Kansas State Department of Health is getting involved in the tire issue that the city of Wellington has been dealing with for several months. The property at 220 Haslett has hundreds of tires on the property, and the city is trying to figure out how to get rid of them, and the owner has also been trying to help.

The city gave the owner extensions to try to get the more than 3,000 tires removed. The property was inherited and the new owner didn’t really know why or how they got there.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment investigated the matter and has decided to hold Browns Tire and Custom Wheels of Wichita accountable for the tires. They were apparently taken from that company and moved to Wellington and stored on the property.

In a letter, KDHE cited a state law that states you must have a permit to do this, and since there was no permit, the tires are still the responsibility of the business that gave them away.

They gave the company until July 24 to clean them up. At the meeting Tuesday night, city officials said they have not heard from the company, and there has been no sign of activity.

KDHE will remove the tires if the business does not, and will then try to collect the costs from that business.

Since this issue became public several months ago, some people from the community have taken some of the tires. About 300 were given to people, but there were still thousands left.

Power pool commitment:

The council passed a resolution renewing its membership in the Kansas Power Pool. Wellington is one of the larger members of the pool of cities that produce electricity.

The city will continue purchasing electric power from the pool, and will produce power when needed. Vince Wetta and Jim Valentine voted against the measure. Kip Etter and Kelly Hawley voted for it. Mayor Shelley Hansel cast the deciding vote to continue the contract. Council members Jan Korte and Bill Butts were not at the meeting.

The contract is for 20 years and could even last 40 years. That was too long, council member Wetta said, and that was his main reason for voting no. He said he supports the work they are doing, and that he supports the majority after the vote, but was just concerned about the length of the contract.

“The issue to me is that there is no escape clause,” Wetta said. “The whole world could change and this contract would still be in effect.”

City Manager Shane Shields said staff recommended renewing the contract, and he said it costs less to buy power than it does for the city to make its own.

Reminder: U.S. 81 is closed:

The city reminds people that beginning today, U.S. 81 will be closed from Harvey Street to Botkin Street for a road improvement project. Those two streets will remain open to traffic, and it should take 50 working days to finish the project.

In other business, the council:

• Passed a resolution agreeing to enter into a paramedic intercept agreement with the City of Blackwell. Paramedic intercept is when the Blackwell does not have any paramedics on board their EMS unit and the patient has injuries or a medical condition. The city of Wellington Fire/EMS would be contacted by Blackwell, and a unit would be dispatched most often to the Kansas Turnpike to meet the Blackwell unit, and either; load the patient into our unit or send a paramedic in the Blackwell unit to a Wichita hospital.

•Approved a street repair project for Harvey Street that will cost more than $500,000.  This was planned for the 2017 budget, and there are state and federal dollars involved as well.

It was also pointed out at the meeting that this project is the result of suggestions made from a street survey the city paid for a couple of years ago.

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