by James Jordan, Sumner Newscow — Wellington City Council decided against naming an interim city manager for the present at its meeting Tuesday night at the council chambers. The group will instead take up the issue again at 5:30 p.m. next Monday in a special meeting.

After a 30-minute executive session to discuss the issue, councilman Kip Etter motioned to go back into executive session to continue the discussion. That motion resulted in a 3-3 tie. Mayor Shelley Hansel broke the tie by voting against continuing the executive session.

Hansel said she agreed with Jim Valentine who had suggested letting the dust settle a bit, before moving forward.

The council terminated Wellington City Manager Roy Eckert last month and was considering naming an interim manager while they begin another search.

“We need to do this in a purposeful and thoughtful way,” Hansel said. “We want to make the right decisions and we want the public to be proud of that decision.”

The city will continue with Jason Newberry handling day-to-day duties, and Shane Shields continuing to be in charge of the finances. Hansel also said she appreciated the work of Carol Mericle and Jeremy Jones, who are also department heads.

She said she feels confident the city is in good hands with the staff that is in place.

She also welcomed the public to give her and the council feedback on the direction it should take in finding a new city manager, and even what to do in the interim.

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SRMC bringing in more:

The Council heard from Terry Deschaine, a board member from the Sumner County Medical Center.  He said the hospital is doing much better, but would be even better if the state expanded Medicaid.

He said the new interim director hired last year has made a lot of improvements, and he said the study and plan the city paid for is also showing some dividends.

Over the last few months the hospital has brought in about $100,000 more per month than it has spent, but it still has some old debts that are being paid down. That is a lot better than a year ago, when it was losing money each month.

Deschaine said the hospital would be getting about $800,000 more per year of the state expanded Medicaid. The state has refused to do that under the Affordable Care Act, as have other states with Republican governors.

The hospital lost its surgeon last year, but has since entered agreements with two from Wichita, who come down weekly to do surgical procedures. That is saving the hospital $350,000 each year, and has resulted in more doctors encouraging people to have procedures done here instead of going to Wichita.

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KDHE representative pays visit:

The council also heard from a KDHE representative concerning the raw water issue near Mayfield. There was an issue recently when the city was told it had to disconnect people that were hooked to a line that brought untreated water into the city, even though that water was coming from their land.

The city was ordered to provide bottled water to those customers, some of which had already dug their own wells and would not have been inconvenienced by being cut off. Jason Newberry told the council the city is close to being in compliance, and is giving bottled water to eight residents now. Some of them are getting their own wells and don’t need the line anymore.

It was a year old agreement that the city would get water from under their land and they would get to hook to the city line for free.  The Feds have since ruled that a city may not allow people to use untreated water, and KDHE was passing that regulation along.

Kathy Tucker Voegel of KDHE gave a report on how the situation had evolved.

She said KDHE first contacted the city in 2005 and told them they would have to disconnect those customers. The city asked for more time and was given more time. This went on through 2009, with KDHE telling the city to shut them off, and the city asking for more time. From there the issue was not raised again until late last year when KDHE sent another letter to the city.

She said she did not know why communication broke down there.

There may still be an issue on a cross connection at the water plant, where untreated water is close to treated water. That issue is being addressed, Newberry told the council.

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Replacing gas turbine:

The council voted to purchase a gas turbine for the electric plant from Air New Zealand for about $30,000. That bid was a lot less than the others, and that was a concern, but Newberry said the city has worked with this company before and has been happy with the results.

The turbine had been malfunctioning. It has been there 29 years and this is the second time it has had problems.

The item was not budgeted but there may be enough in equipment repair funds to cover the costs.

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In other business, the council passed:

•renewing a cable TV franchise contract with Sumner Communications;

•setting new court costs and fees getting them in line with state guidelines.

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