Florence citizens express concerns at meeting
With the mayor and all council members present at the meeting of the Florence city council Monday, a group of Florence citizens was on hand to hear the discussion of the proposed new city building.
Mayor Jeannie Meirowsky opened the topic by asking the council to decide how serious it is about pursuing the plan for a new building.
"We are at the point where we need to either seriously move forward or decide against the project," she said.
She noted that the council had instructed Dave Shupe to be looking for the necessary funds and members were in receipt of a design and bid from Flaming Metal to build the building. "Its time to make a decision," she said.
Councilman Larry Timm said, "I think that just by buying the property and tearing down the house on it, we have sent the message that we intend to go forward."
In answer to a question from new council member, Bev Baldwin about the status of the current city building, Meirowsky said that estimates for remodeling were about $100,000. She said that with a new building, the Florence Fire Department could expand into the current building. She noted that the air conditioning and heating systems would remain.
The proposed new structure would be attached to the current ambulance building. It would have an office for the police department and an area for an evidence room, handicap accessible rest rooms, a meeting room for court and city council meetings, more adequate storage for the city's files and records, and more work space for city employees.
"One of the reasons we wanted to add it to the ambulance building is that it would require only putting up three sides and that would be a saving," said Meirowsky.
Meirowsky then opened the discussion to people in the audience, allowing them one minute each to address the council.
Jeff Nightengale said he opposed the expense of a new building when the city faces larger priorities like sewer and water plant upgrades.
"I feel pretty strongly that since the taxpayers are going to foot the bill for this, it ought to be put to a vote of the taxpayers," he said. "The city already owns the library building. Why not spend a little to renovate that and move the city offices in there? The city owns it, but won't pay for the upkeep and the library board can't afford to keep repairing it. In 10 years we could end up tearing it down. I think the city should move in there and share the cost of a building the city already owns."
Linda Britton agreed. "I feel like the town has plenty of empty buildings," she added. "I don't think we should build another without trying first to fill one of the ones downtown that is sitting empty. And I am against the council doing this without allowing the taxpayers to vote."
Meirowsky said that if the council settled on an addition to the ambulance building, a public vote would not be necessary. "As long as it's not a free standing building, it doesn't need voter approval," she said.
John Lehman asked what it would take to purchase the old Dale's Rexall and renovate it. "I just would like to see some figures on what it would take to fix up one of our older buildings. I would like to compare the cost of renovation to the cost of new construction," he said. "And I would like to see this council conduct a community meeting on this issue so that people have some input and can get some answers."
Travis Parmley suggested the council construct a larger building across the street from the current ambulance building that would be big enough to house the ambulance department and the fire department together.
"Then move the city building to what is now the ambulance building and let the city crews have the present fire department building and city building as a city shop," he said. "As it is there is no place to work on equipment or keep it out of the weather. There is no place to park the trash truck."
"It seems to me that would solve a lot more problems than just adding a city building extension to the ambulance building," he added.
Larry Timm asked how the city would justify the cost of an even larger structure to the community.
Parmley answered, "You sell it as the solution to three problems. Instead of only solving one — the problem of the city offices being short on space — you solve the problem of all the departments being short on space."
"If you are building a 40x40 building, it's not that much more expensive to build one that is 40x60 or 40x80. The cost of additional overhead doors would be the biggest thing," he said. He also noted that he felt there would be volunteer labor available to help put up a metal building.
Council members Timm and Baldwin expressed interest in holding an open meeting and hearing more information on Parmley's idea for a larger joint ambulance and fire department building.
Meirowsky brought the council back to the question on the table. "I am not opposed to an open meeting, but we need to decide whether or not to have Dave seriously proceed with looking for funds," she said. "We can't keep meeting forever, looking for ideas. At some point we have to make a decision, not just hold meetings and waste the city's time and Dave's time."
Barbara O'Dell said she thought it was time to move forward with the project. "We've been discussing this for two years. It's not like we just fell out of bed this morning and decided to build a building!"
O'Dell made a motion to have Shupe pursue the information the council had requested concerning funds which might be available for the building. On a second by Baldwin, the council voted 4-0 to get a report from Shupe.
Timm said he would look into the council hosting a public informational meeting to get the costs and plans before the public.
In other business the council agreed to allow the ambulance department to spend a total of $4,263 from its memorial fund to purchase a Jaws of Life, agreed to purchase four new tires for the city flatbed truck, heard from Stuart Funk that the test report on the water plant was in the hands of the KDHE and he was awaiting their response, and approved a $77 expenditure for Funk to attend a class for five hours of credit necessary to maintain his certification as wastewater plant operator.
The council acknowledged the effort by Funk and Rick Burcky to get the snow removed from the streets after the recent storm. Members discussed a complaint by a person who lives on 6th Street who wanted the street bladed instead of allowing youngsters to use it for sledding. After discussion, the council instructed Funk not to blade the street, but to continue to allow the sledding.
Funk said he had had some other complaints about the city plowing around cars parked on the street, thus blocking the vehicles. The council agreed it presented a problem, but felt it was up to the owner of the vehicle to move it off the street when snow was in the forecast.
It was agreed to offer the summer mowing position as a seasonal full time employee position and Timm received permission to appoint Funk as recreation director and proceed with trying to get a summer softball program back in Florence.
