by James Jordan, Sumner Newscow — Prioritizing which houses are in bad shape to demolish and which are not took up much of the Wellington City Council meeting Tuesday. Council members agree there are a lot of houses that need to be either fixed or demolished, but they want to tweak the system of deciding actually take action on first. 

No one showed up to speak at a public hearing concerning a house at 611 West 13^th street, and the council tabled the hearing and the matter itself until the Oct. 20 meeting.

The house in question has been before the council a couple of times, and the owner at one time said he would fix the problems, but changed his mind after city building officials told him what it would take.

Council member Kip Etter raised the question of why this case was moving along faster than a similar case only a block away. Etter noted the property owner is mowing the yard has boarded up windows and locked the doors.

“He has shown he is willing to work with us,” said Kip Etter, Wellington City Council member. “He isn’t planning on making it livable, but he has made an effort.”

Council member Kelly Green said there is trash outside the house, but the structure itself seems solid.

“I thought we did this when there was a safety hazard, not just because it is ugly,” she said.

Green questioned how houses are prioritizing for action. She also wondered why they were going after this one when there are many other houses in just as bad of condition — some that even have people living in them.

“We can’t tear a house down just because of complaints,” Green said. “There are houses I have reported and they still look like they have for years. We need to direct our efforts more to houses that are a real hazard.”

Council members want the owner to show up and talk to them, which is why they tabled the public hearing. They also plan to discuss prioritizing how the city deals with structures that are not up to code at a work session.

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In other matters:

•The Council agreed to move forward with including businesses in the average utility rate system. In this system people may pay an average bill from the previous 12 months to keep their bill about the same instead of having a much higher bill at certain times of the year. Businesses were never included in this plan. The council will discuss this at a work session and may vote on it soon.

•John Lloyd was appointed to the public building commission and the board of zoning appeals. There is still a vacancy on the health care authority, which runs the hospital. The deadline is Sept. 3 and there were no applicants as of Tuesday evening. The deadline will be extended if there are no applications.

•There will be a town hall meeting next Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. in the council chambers.

•An approval agreement for automatic aid with Sumner County Fire District No. 9 and an agreement with the county for emergency medical aid was formalized. This was a continuation of current agreements.

•The Council authorized repairs on a gas turbine at the electric department at a cost of about $30,000. The turbine will be shipped to Missouri, repaired and returned in about 10 days.

•This coming Friday will be the first entertainment and art downtown it was announced. 

•Wellington City Mayor Shelley Hansel said she has a bet going with the mayor of Augusta for lunch over who wins the first football game between the Crusaders and Orioles Friday night. 

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