Former sewer plant demolition on hold: mercury still present
By SUSAN MARSHALL
News editor
Peabody City Council members resigned themselves Monday night to more delays and expense involving the former sewer plant as they reviewed a notification from Kansas Department of Health and Environment indicating the continued presence of mercury at the former sewer site.
"We did not get a clean bill of health," said Mayor Tom Schmidt. "Technicians from Integrated Solutions were here Friday to re-test the area.
"We will not get results for a couple of weeks."
KDHE indicated the city would have to go deeper and farther out with its excavation and the additional soil, rock, and debris would have to be trucked to Louisiana.
Project engineer Al Reiss had previously indicated that KDHE would be paying the charges for transporting and dumping the fill from the site. According to a communication with the state by Jeff Benbrook, it now appears the city of Peabody will be footing the bill for the entire the project.
An issue involving a cash advance by the city to cover expenses incurred during employee training was brought to council members by the city administrator.
According to Benbrook a $1,000 cash advance was given to Peabody Police Chief Jeff Pohlman to cover lodging, meals, and incidentals when, in November, he attended an out-of-state workshop on domestic violence. The money has not been reconciled since Pohlman's return to work.
"It is the responsibility of the employee, upon his or her return from training, to relinquish to the city receipts for expenditures and any unused cash," said Benbrook. "This has not been done, despite repeated requests."
Council members discussed the situation and the practice of issuing a cash advance.
"It is standard procedure for us," said Benbrook. "We maintain a credit card with a small maximum balance amount. It would not be adequate to cover all meals, lodging, registrations, and such."
The council instructed Benbrook to write a formal request to Pohlman for appropriate resolution of the issue and include a deadline of March 5.
The issue prompted council to request an executive session for the purpose of discussing personnel be placed on the agenda for the next meeting. Council also scheduled a time at the next meeting to review with Pohlman the evaluation tool used to assess his job performance.
Shortly thereafter the group requested an immediate executive session to discuss personnel. Following a return to open meeting councilman Ed Slocombe made a motion to eliminate the city's practice of using a cash advance for employees attending training. The motion was seconded by councilman Steve Rose, but failed on a 2-3 vote with councilmen Gene Schmill, Alan Yock, and Tim Peterson voting against it.
City administrator Benbrook was instructed to create a cash advance policy for review and consideration at the next meeting. Benbrook also was told to instruct chief Pohlman to be in attendance.
In other business, council members:
— agreed to re-evaluate funding sources they had considered for the water tower improvement project. Members will study a new proposal involving general obligation bonds and be ready to discuss the alternative funding at the next meeting.
— heard from city treasurer Stephanie Ax the licensing period for tagging pets ended Jan. 31 and 119 pets remained untagged. A list of those animals and their owners has been given to the police department to pursue.
— heard from Ax a proposal to more efficiently collect bad debts from out of state residents. Ax reviewed year end financial statements as well.
— discussed community logo and branding issues with Peabody police chief Pohlman and advised him that his department would need to come under the internal policy regulating logo use. Police officers have been using a Warrior head similar to the school mascot. Remaining uniform patches were given to the department to use for trading purposes.
— approved a request from Susan Marshall to allow Peabody Main Street to sell the privilege of naming the city park sports complex and circle drive.
— reviewed a report sent to KDHE of the wastewater discharge into Spring Creek at the South Olive bridge.
— agreed to look into the possibility of providing pool time for Marion swim team this summer while their new pool is under construction. More formal talks will take place later in the spring.
— heard from Main Street director Kristen Hooper about county micro-loan program and the IWW funds available through Peabody Main Street. She told members the city business directory will be coming out soon and heard a report on Marion County Economic Development Committee projects.
— approved the formal bid from Hett Construction for the replacement of curb and guttering and street resurfacing at the corner of Division and Sycamore following a water leak several weeks ago. The curbs were installed in accordance with ADA regulations. The cost was $5,921.50.
— heard the annual Consumer Confidence Report on water quality has been prepared and will accompany the city utility billing this month.
— heard the fire department will be purchasing rescue air bags and pass alarms. Funding will be split between Marion County Fire District #4 and the city.
— reviewed the ad for the new compliance officer position and heard from Benbrook that no applications have yet been received.
— accepted a letter of resignation from animal control officer Marvin Lirley effective March 15.
— learned that Ax and Benbrook have seen demonstrations about new utility billing software and will be making a recommendation soon on the purchase.
