by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — The Wellington City Council will be dealing with four resolutions at its regular meeting tonight at 6:3o p.m. at the council chambers (see agenda here).  One resolution includes a proposal for the city to sign an agreement with the Wellington Recreation Commission and the Wellington Area Chamber of Commerce/Convention Visitor Bureau for management services of the Memorial Auditorium.

This meeting is likely to be much shorter than the two-hour Jan. 13 work session the council held. The following is an abridged version of the minutes from that meeting:

SRMC payment status

Shields said Sumner Regional Medical Center has not made November and December utility payments to the city of Wellington. The City had abated utilities through Sept. 2014, but billing was to begin in November, 2014. However, the hospital is now $221,452 behind. Shields said no SRMC representative has contacted the city about the late payments. 

Mayor Roger Stallbaumer said one issue is the current revenue stream at SRMC. The hospital had to change collection agencies and is starting from scratch with its collection process.

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Business is down.

The Wellington Golf Club ended with a negative balance in 2014, Shields said. Revenue was $26,154 less than expected and expenses were $9,284 more than expected. Shields said green fees and golf cart rentals were down and two burglaries led to the unexpected expense of installing security cameras.

Shields said the City subsidized the golf course $57,500 in 2014.

The transient guest tax from the city is also down. The city received $18,909 in 2014, which is the lowest total since 2001 when record keeping on this matter started. Subsequently, the tourism and convention fund distribution to various organizations in the trade may be in jeopardy. Last year, $14,000 was appropriated by the city.

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Health insurance rates

City employees on average will see an increase of $20 a month in the 2015 policy year. The increase is due to having more claims from the 2014 policy year and cost increases from the Affordable Care Act. The last healthcare rate increase was 2009, Shields said.

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Spring project updates

•The city rejected bids for the North A Street project in 2014, which would repave U.S. 81 north of the roundabout. A KDOT engineer recommended the the city should submit for rebids within the next 20 days. The same engineer said a consultant should be hired for supervising the south U.S. 81 project from Harvey to Botkins within the next three months.

•Painting lines and turn lanes on 4th Street was a positive move, said Public Works Director Jeremy Jones. However, the paint didn’t last a month. He said the staff is looking into other paint products.

•The sewer project on South Sellers Park will be bid tonight. The Wellington City Park Board discussed whether or not to put in a new basketball court to replace the old one. Park Board members were leaning against it, Stallbaumer said.

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In other topics of discussion:

•Since Stallbaumer is leaving the council, and a new city representative will need to represent the board of the Kansas Star Scholarship Board.

•Eckert said city staff has attempted to call Van Sickle, who is proposing development of apartments on the east side of town. Van Sickle has not returned phone calls.

•Jones said the cemetery fees should go up to cover expenses. Fees have not been raised since 1993.

•Jones proposed that the city should consider switching to a recycling box through Waste Connections instead of paying $100 per Saturday to volunteer organizations to curb recycling expenses.

•The city has exchanged 75 high efficiency shower heads, exhausting one third of the initial order.

•Eckert said he has no plans of filling the city engineer and economic development positions vacated. He said he did not believe the city is at the stage right now to warrant a full-time economic development director. As far as the engineer position is concerned, which was vacated a couple years ago by Larry Mangan, Eckert said it is cheaper to have a consulting engineer contracted out on a short-term basis.

•Shields said $40,000 has been budgeted for 2015 for demolishing old buildings.

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