Staff writer
Peabody City Administrator Mac Manning announced Monday evening that he and Police Chief Bruce Burke had created and reviewed a list of properties with weed and mowing violations.
Letters to the residents involved have been sent, and if the properties still are in violation this week, city employees will do the mowing and bill the resident.
He also noted that Burke had compiled a list of about 100 properties in the city that are vacant. Some are unoccupied rental properties.
“I think it would be in the city’s best interest to encourage some of these property owners to consider renting their properties,” Manning said. “We need to come up with a plan to assist them in getting the properties ready to rent. We get requests every week about rental property. It is something we desperately need.”
Council members took no action on Manning’s idea, but expressed interest in working with property owners.
In other business:
- Manning received permission to attend a conference Nov. 30 to Dec. 2 in Topeka, presented by Kansas Association of City/County Management.
- Council members approved an annual maintenance agreement with Denny’s Heating and Cooling in Newton to service the heating and cooling systems in city buildings at a cost of $434.
- An expenditure of $250 toward the annual Holiday Shopping Spree to encourage people to shop in Peabody for the holiday season was approved. Tracking on the 2011 holiday season tickets indicated total sales of about $15,000.
- Council members heard that paving work was progressing on Peabody Street, but that the overlay process would not take place this fall because of colder temperatures. They also were told that APAC had not yet returned to finish the patching for which it had contracted.
- The street committee agreed to meet and review the condition of all city streets to determine which will get repairs and upgrades in 2012.
- Councilman Tom Schmidt announced that the light for the Peabody sign at Ninth and Walnut streets needs to be replaced.
- Manning told the council the savings in the police budget created by hiring a part-time officer had eroded since that officer resigned. He advised the personnel committee meet to review the situation before deciding on staffing for the coming year.
- Mayor Larry Larsen indicated he still is working on finding a replacement to fill David Scott’s position on the city council.