by James Jordan, Sumner Newscow — Using the advice of an outside consultant, the Wellington City Council is hoping to make the community a little bit cleaner. However, already there is a snag.

One of the first people to run into this new cleaning project implemented by the city, made a compelling case at the city council meeting of the problems she is facing. The council has granted her an additional 90 days for a solution. City council members also wanted to find a way to help her.

Kristy DeBuhr said she recently inherited property on Haslet Street from her grandmother, and she doesn’t have the money or ability to clean up the hundreds of tires on the property.

She said she can’t just throw tires way. It costs $3 per tire to have someone come and get them, or she could have hauled them to Wichita and paid $1.75 each to have them legally disposed of.

“It is a mess. I won’t lie,” she said. “I just need more time.”

DeBuhr is a single mother, going to school and working full time. Getting rid of hundreds of tires would be a huge task even for a group of people with trucks, she said.

She does not know how long the tires have been there, or how they got there, but she knows it is a problem and wants to get it cleaned up. DeBuhr said she even tried giving them away, thinking maybe someone would want them for a flower garden, but had no luck.

Wellington Mayor Shelley Hansel said the top concern is the tires. They collect water and are a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other pests.

City Manager Roy Eckert said it was certainly an extenuating circumstance and he said the city would try to help fix the situation.

The city extended the time by 90 days, and is going to try to work out a way to help get rid of the tires. They don’t feel they can use city funds, but they may be able to find volunteers to help. A big part of the problem is disposing of the tires, which has to be done in a certain way.

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It was a short meeting Tuesday, but a few other items were discussed:

•The delivery of water to the 12 families in Mayfield, who had been getting raw water from the city’s water line, started last week and is going well. Council member Vince Wetta still wants to meet personally with KDHE officials to help get the situation resolved.

The city has been pumping water from wells on these properties for about 50 years, and a part of the deal was, those people who owned the land were able to tap in and get free water.

KDHE told the city it could no longer do this, and that all water has to be treated. The bottled water was ordered last week, and KDHE officials are supposed to meet with the city to iron out a final solution. The options on the table at present are putting in a water line or drilling individual wells.

•Mayor Shelley Hansel signed a proclamation, declaring May 1-7 public service week.

•Properties in the old Crestview Heights subdivision could go to a sheriff’s sale May 24, but the city may have an option to purchase them before that date. There is another meeting before then, and it will be discussed further then.

•A work session  is set for 5:30 p.m. Monday, May 16, at Wellington City Hall. The council will discuss performance reviews of the city manager. Each of the council members were recently given a form to fill out to do the review. This will likely be held on executive session as it involves personnel. The raw water issue will also be talked about during that meeting.

Another work session could be scheduled for the last week of May.

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