McPHERSON, Kan. — The City of McPherson has hired a new Code Enforcement and Sanitation Officer.
City Commissioners Tuesday approved a conditional job offer to Christopher Harrington to fill that position, subject to completion of pre-employment testing. If that all checks out, Harrington will start on Nov. 24. Public Works Director Eric Duerksen said they are making progress in filling the planning and zoning administrator position, which they hope to have filled soon.
Commissioners approved just over $20,000 in radio purchases for the Police Department. This would cover two vehicles and two portable Harris radios from KaComm of Salina. Police Chief Mikel Golden said they had budgeted for five portable radio purchases this year, but are only purchasing the two.
The Commission approved an ordinance adjusting the transfer charge the Board of Public Utilities pays to the city, which will now be 3,05 mills per kilowatt hour consumed, or just over three tenths of a cent. This is part of a rate adjustment BPU is making to achieve cost of service based rates.
Change orders were approved on the Deerfield Estates South projects. One of the change orders is a contract deduct with PLI related to remaining sidewalks which the developer will do outside of the contract. Two change orders were approved with Kaw Valley related to deductions for street, stormwater and sanitary sewer inspections.
These deductions are part of the final closeout of the projects, and will result in a combined cost reduction of nearly $214,000. With this the developer, Twinland II, will get a refund of about the amount of the deductions from the $1.572 million it deposited for the projects, which were also funded through a moderate income housing grant.
In a project update, Duerksen said hydro seeding of yards in the 1100 block of North Elm has been completed. This wraps up that project until the new asphalt paving is laid next year. On the Myers Street reconstruction, some seeding has been done in the 900 block, with sidewalk pouring in the 1000 block about halfway done. They are working with BPU this week to relocate some water meters and finish up that block.
On the Northview 10” sidewalk project walls were poured on the west Culvert box last week, which they hope to finish this week. Sidewalk crews removed existing sidewalks up to Main Street and did prep-work for the new sidewalk. Concrete cutting continued on West First, which started on the north side last week with crews working their way west.
Commissioners also approved disposal of a ten key calculator that no longer works and of a large wooden desk in the Mayor’s office which is being replaced.
Due to the Veterans Day holiday, next week’s City Commission meeting is being moved to Wednesday, Nov. 12.
