Citing cost, Marion passes on pickup

By ERIC MEYER

Staff writer

Concerned about price, Marion City Council decided Monday not to buy a one-ton flatbed 2013 Chevrolet diesel truck with 90,000 miles on it.

“That much?” council member Jerry Kline said when told the price would be $38,000.

Vice mayor Ruth Herbel put it in perspective.

“We’re looking at a 9-mill tax increase,” she said. “I think we need to cut back.”

The truck, to be purchased from an unidentified private party, would have been used regularly by public works director Tim Makovec.

Makovec said it would eliminate a need to borrow a truck from another city employee when towing heavy equipment.

“We’re killing a Dodge pickup by pulling so much with it,” administrator Brogan Jones said.

Makovec noted that this city’s budget included sufficient money left over after purchase of a sewer machine.

But council member Zach Collett suggested that an older model, from 2003 to 2007, might be more affordable and still get the job done, especially if the truck would not traveling out of town.

“Then you’re looking at engine problems,” Makovec replied.

Collett encouraged Makovec to keep looking.

“You don’t have to take the first thing that shows up,” he said.

Mayor David Mayfield moved that the city purchase the truck, but his motion died for lack of a second.

In other action, the council:

• Approved designating the council as a citizen appeals board for allegations of bias in policing. Chief Gideon Cody said the board probably would never meet but was required by law, even though the law he cited seems to indicate that it is optional, to be mentioned in annual reports only if it exists.
• Accepted without reading a new version of a 16-page water purchase contract that reportedly corrected a question in an earlier draft about prorated payments of $0.473 per 1,000 gallons of water taken from Marion Reservoir. Council members said their approval would be conditioned on approval by city attorney Brian Bina. Jones estimated the contract would cost the city $12,000 this year and $50,000 to $52,000 annually thereafter.
• Appointed Eric Wessel to replace Lyle Leppke on Marion Airport Authority.
• Approved early purchase of water treatment chemicals to avoid potential for running short.
• Gave members two options — in person Aug. 16 in Olathe and online Aug. 23 — for two hours of Kansas Open Meetings Act training by the League of Municipalities at $100 per person.