By Lucky Kidd
McPHERSON, Kan. — Based on a request from the Fire Department, McPherson City Commissioners Tuesday approved fees for non-emergency water recovery assistance. As presented by Fire Chief Chad Mayberry, the fees would allow for recovery of costs incurred when the department’s dive team is used in such situations as getting vehicles out of bodies of water and the like.
The fees charged will depend on vehicle and equipment utilized and labor involved. No charges will be made for rescue situations, body recovery or assistance with criminal investigations. In other Fire Department items,
Commissioners approved payment of an invoice for a light switch repair done as part of an annual DOT inspection on Engine 3, which pushed the total cost of the repair above the $1,500 limit that requires commission approval and accepted the resignation of a paid call firefighter.
Commissioners approved changes in job descriptions for the four captain positions in the Police Department, including patrol, investigations, operations and administrative captain of standards and training. Related to this, Patrol Captain Jason Cummins will assume the position of Administrative Captain effective December 23rd and the promotional process to fill the patrol captain position was authorized.
The Commission accepted the resignation of two police officers, one of whom is taking a position in his home county, and of an animal shelter technician along with making conditional job offers for two technicians. Approval was also given to purchase a used 4×4 pickup for the Police Department for unmarked purposes, cost not to exceed $40,000 from Midway Motors.
Commissioners authorized a two thousand dollar payment to Treder Tree Service to take out a pin oak tree near the playground of Children With Dreams, Public Lands and Facilities staff had Treder come in to look at the large tree that was posing a safety hazard due to dropping large limbs into the playground, It was found the tree was suffering from Hypoxylon canker and also had fungi at ground level around the trunk, making an emergency removal necessary.
Approval was given for a revised change order with Dondlinger Construction for the grit removal system project at the Wastewater treatment plant. The Change order reduced by a little over 4,500 dollars a change order approved last month to add a valve, actuator, and motor starter bucket for the system.
The Commission also approved payment of the City’s property tax bill which consists entirely of Landfill fees amounting to just over $21,500 dollars, $7,600 more than a year ago and reflecting the addition of a new police substation and approved a $125 bonus for all full time and permanent part time city employees, excluding temporary and seasonal employees.
In a project update presented by Commissioner Larry Wiens, most of the removals are done on the north side of Euclid just east of Main on the Euclid extension of the Elm Street Drainage project, while work is continuing on the south side of Euclid west of Main, next to Citizens State Bank.
There is also some piping work left to do for the Grit Removal System at the Wastewater Treatment Plant, however, the project is nearly complete. Setting and backfilling work has continued on manhole 2 during the past week for lift station 3.
For the Deerfield Estate South projects, concrete paving has been completed on Spring Creek Road, and the base is done except for trimming it on Clubhouse Drive and Twinland Road.
City crews were putting the final touches on the west loop of the Sycamore Area street reconstruction, located between Avenues A and B. That segment is now open for local traffic and was expected to be open by the end of the day Tuesday. Also, in that neighborhood, removals were scheduled to begin Wednesday from the low water crossing to the cul de sac.
