by James Jordan and Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — The Wellington City Council voted to finance an irrigation system for the municipal golf course through a lease purchase agreement through a local financial institution. The city will ask local banks to bid on the financing for the $226,000 Professional Turf Products/TORO irrigation system which replaces the existing system at the Wellington Municipal Golf Course.

On Friday, during a noon special council meeting, the council voted to forego a bidding process and proceed with a purchase of the current irrigation system which was installed in 1993. However, the council took no action or directive on how to fund the new system.

After discussing options, the council voted 6-0 to provide sealed bids to local banks this morning, and proceed with lease purchase in which no payments will be implemented until March of 2017. How often the city will make payments depends on the stipulations in the contract between the city and the winning bidder. The council will vote on a finance resolution at its next regular meeting.

In a memo sent to the council before Tuesday night’s meeting, Wellington Finance Director Shane Shields outlined financing options. The city could use funds out of:

1) The existing funds designated toward the Wellington Clubhouse;

2) Pay through the Capital Improvement Funds which depends on transfers to it from the general fund, or what is reimbursed to it for authorized expenditures relating to KDOT projects and other grants;

3) Depleting the unencumbered cash balance of $93,080 currently in the general budget for 2016 and depleting cash reserves for 2017.

Shields told the council it could work out payments on a monthly or yearly basis, or even a combination of the two. A yearly payment would mean there would be no payment due this year.

Wellington Golf Manager Derek Harrison approached the council Friday during the noon meeting saying the current system was inoperable and a new one needed to be put in place as soon as possible since watering is critical in March and April for grass maintenance including aeration and fertilization. He said it will take at least 12 weeks to install and make the new system operable and even then the golf course is behind the eight-ball because the new system won’t start operating until May.

The council approved the irrigation system by a 5-1 vote during a special meeting that wasn’t originally called for this topic. The meeting’s original intent was to consider a land purchase that apparently did not work out, and they decided before that to add the sprinkler system to the agenda because of the immediate attention the issue needed.

Some had questioned the legality of the meeting, including Council member James Valentine. Mayor Shelly Hansel said at the meeting Tuesday she thought the city needed to take action at the special meeting because time for a new irrigation system was an essence.

The replacement of the golf course irrigation system has been on the city council radar for sometime. Harrison has said he has discussed it with the council on numerous occasions as well as City Manager Roy Eckert, saying it was in desperate need of replacement. In 2015, the council had rejected a $15,000 request for irrigation system software because at the time it was considered just a bandaid approach to the larger issues involved with the overall system. Since then, Harrison said Professional Turf Products officials have visited with him twice and have advised him that not only is the system antiquated and possibly inoperable, but it could be dangerous in that just turning on the system could blow up the tank house because of pressure.

The cost of the irrigation system has raised more than a few eyebrows. But Harrison said there are not many companies that make these systems which are very specialized. That was one of the reasons it was not sent out for bid.

Council member Jim Valentine initially favored using the reserve money as much as possible.

The city pledged $150,000 for the new clubhouse on the condition that the same amount would be raised from private donations. They have already spent some of that money on an engineering study.

It was pointed out that the clubhouse is not ADA compliant, and that would be a reason to do a new clubhouse or at least a major overhaul.

Council member Jan Korte said the city had pledged money for the clubhouse which is a matching program with private donations and she felt the city should stick to that instead of using it for the sprinkler system.

Valentine wondered if the Wellington Golf Association could do the financing for a sprinkler system, or get the loan instead of the city.

Wellington City Manager Roy Eckert said the city owns the course.

“We spend more on the city pool than we do the golf course, and they are both assets,” he said. He added he believes the city should protect the property it owns and take care of it.

Council member Kip Etter said other city departments do not do their own financing.

“It is an asset to the community,” Etter said. “It is one of the few things that bring in tourism. We need to protect this asset.”

Council member Bill Butts moved to do the lease finance option, and all members voted yes.

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In the citizen’s participation segment of the meeting, Renee Case told the city she was shocked when her family was notified that insurance premiums had gone up by a large margin. Her husband is a retired city employee, and on the insurance. They had decided to both get on that insurance and were not prepared for the sticker shock.

The city had decided last year to stop paying for part of the cost of retired employee insurance. She felt the city should have notified her and others that this was coming.

City officials agreed it had not been communicated in a timely manner.

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The City of Wellington decided to allocate $34,000 made during the auction of the old bulldozer toward a new bulldozer purchased a few months ago. They sold the old one to an outside company called Purple Wave.

Councilman Jim Valentine made the motion that he wanted to put it towards that debt. The council voted 4-2 in favor of Valentine’s proposal.

There was some discussion about possibly putting the money into the equipment reserve fund. If they did that they could collect interest on the money and if something comes up, they will have the money. With interest rates low, they will not be saving a significant amount by paying it off early.

Councilman Kip Etter said he would like to see the city adopt a policy, or develop a formula, for what to do with money from items that are sold.

Etter and Kelly Green voted against the move, preferring the other option.

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Teri Stinson was appointed to the Health Care Authority Board and finish the term of Tami Klinedinst, who had resigned earlier this year. The term expires in April of 2017.

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The council approved a contract with Kan-Okla of Caldwell for website design at a cost of $3,500.

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The council voted to apply for a Community Development Block Grant. Part of that is getting a group together to do an in-depth assessment of housing in the city. They are still looking for a few volunteers.

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