Council discusses utility rates, latest inspection of new E.R., parking in front yards, etc.

March 04, 2021 Cueball

by Devin McCue, Sumner Newscow — The Wellington City Council held its first meeting of March on Tuesday to discuss several items including a possible rise in utility costs, the latest inspection report of Ascension Medical Group Via Christi’s emergency room, and what constitutes legalized parking in a front yard.

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A couple of council members were concerned about massive spikes in utility costs that is affecting much of the country and asked if that would follow suit in Wellington.

City Manager Shane Shields stated the City of Wellington is not dependent on natural gas as much as others. The City is a KGE customer and part of the Kansas Power Pool that serves natural gas to the area. Three facilities: the hospital building, the Public Safety building, and the Utilities Steam Plant, all use gas power which has been the reason for the hike in prices. It’s unclear how pronounced the increase in power prices will be.

“There will be an impact, but we will not specifically know until the mid-month,” Shields said. “But we won’t have the impact like a community such as Winfield that has a $1.6 million budget and they spent $12 million in a week’s time.”

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In a positive development, the Kansas Fire Marshall has passed the latest inspection of Ascension Medical Group Via Christi’s emergency room thus paving the way for a possible opening in March at the hospital building. The ER will now need to pass a Kansas Department of Health and Environment inspection, hoping to have that inspection scheduled within the week.

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Wellington Director of Public Works Jeremy Jones addressed a previous inquiry on driveways and what constitutes legal parking. The issue arose because of a situation at the former Wellington Junior High building in which the private owner was parking numerous cars in front of the facility. Jones cited two ordinances passed in the 1970s. The first stated that a front yard can not be complete gravel, concrete or asphalt for a single-family dwelling unless it is a commercial enterprise. And the other defines what a driveway is and what constitutes legal parking. One simply cannot park a vehicle on grass. The key is it has to have access to a garage.

Jones said the ordinance did not specifically address those driveways that are now used for garages turned into family rooms.

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The meeting started off with an update from Jason Newberry, the Assistant City Manager of Utilities. As the freezing temperatures knocked out power and water throughout parts of the city, he acknowledged five crew members who worked around the clock to repair over 20 broken water mains in eight to 10 days:

• William Staley
• Trevor Nance
• Levi Conrad
• Austin Kogle
• Blaine Anderson

In light of the recent temperatures, their service was met with a warm round of applause.

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Valerie Earl, Executive Director of the Wellington Area Chamber of Commerce, announced that the Chamber will release a recorded presentation of the first Virtual Annual Celebration. The video presentation will contain the winners of several distinguished awards like:

• Wellington Young Professional

• Business of the Year

• Volunteer of the Year

• Distinguished Service Award

• The Winner of the Flag Design Competition

Earl stated that the video would be made available Thursday morning on the Chamber’s website, Facebook, and other online platforms.

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Jan Grace, Campus Operations Officer of the Sumner Cowley Campus, announced that enrollment has been steady this semester and is proud to report there was no attrition from previous students. Grace is also looking forward to possibly instituting some summer classes and training courses as well as a revamped GED certification class.

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KDHE announced it will be at the Cowley Campus every Tuesday in March from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. to provide free COVID testing. The testing is available to anyone, not only students, and every person tested will be alerted with their results within two days.

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Director of Public Works Jeremy Jones provided an update on the intersection of Harvey and Jefferson. The council decided that the best course of action will be to convert the intersection to a four-way stop with an accompanying flashing red light going forward. The new system will be in place for six months to monitor if there’s an increase in traffic accidents and adjust the signage accordingly. This will also require a curb extension and possible removal of one or two parking spaces to meet safety regulations.

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The Council closed the meeting by unanimously passing two resolutions.

•The first approved the purchase of a new 2021 pickup truck for the Park Department from Raber Ford, LLC.

•The second resolution approved the payment of $38,899 to Splashtacular, a Paola company, to perform a much-needed inspection and maintenance of the water slides at the Wellington Family Aquatic Center. The slides have not been properly serviced in over a decade. Jones does not believe the slides on the outside have ever been painted and that would become part of the regular maintenance. The anticipated schedule to complete the repairs is in April, before opening day.