Goessel council appoints city officials

The Goessel city council made annual appointments during its May 16 meeting.

Jennifer Whitehead was appointed city clerk/court clerk; Greg Nickel, municipal judge; Josh Boehm, city attorney; Donna Cook, city treasurer; and Citizens State Bank, official bank depository.

The council also listened to a pictometry presentation by Jonathan Ballard.

“This is a project we started in 2014,” Ballard said.

Mayor Dave Schrag said, “They’re photographing Marion County right now.”

Ballard explained “top-down” shots and also oblique cameras.

“We have five images of everything on the ground,” he said. “There’s no other company (using pictometry.)

“We have 99 planes in our inventory,” he added. “We fly leaf-off because that’s when we can see the structures underneath.”

Ballard said 1,300 counties in the United States are customers of his company. That’s about half of the United States, he said.

According to Ballard, the cost would be shared by the county assessor, sheriff, emergency 911, cities and the county.

The picture-taking flight would happen in 2017. The cost to Goessel would be $1,300.

The pictures will be uploaded to an online database. Any city within Marion County can access the pictures. Aerial photos were done a few years ago, and the current goal is to update those phots.

Ballard, who lives in Tulsa, Okla., said his company offers natural disaster picture coverage at no cost. He said they were in Moore, Okla., within 24 hours and in Joplin, Mo., in 24 hours following the tornadoes in those cities.

The council made no decision about the aerial pictures at the current meeting.

Block grant

The council listened to a presentation by representatives of BG Consultants Inc., an engineering firm based in Manhattan, but with offices in other Kansas cities, too.

The representatives talked about community development block grants that are available to the city. BG Consultants could provide the city with a preliminary engineering report, which is required for block grants. The report would cost $2,500 to $5,000.

Communities can only apply for a community development block grant one time a year. Represent­atives said the state water rate average will be considered. The council was told that it will have to raise water rates if it wants a grant for water lines.

“We’re having more and more earthquakes,” Schrag said. “As the ground starts to move more and more, we’re going to run into problems.”

He said the water line on the north end of town especially needs to be replaced.

Highway sign

The council listened to resident James Wiens report on securing a new sign for the city along Kansas Highway 15.

“I have a new business in town called Sun­flower Promo,” Wiens said.

His business supplies a variety of items to customers, such as signs, ball-point pens, tape measures, T-shirts and shoelaces.

Wiens said he could get a sign for $4,250, whereas another company had suggested a $43,000 sign.

It was also suggested that it would be nice to have a sign labeling the city building and library. The council made no decisions about signs at this meeting.

Other business

In other business, the council:

• appointed Kevin Klassen as a new council member. He replaces Jeff Boese, who resigned.

• heard that Dalke had installed new city-limit signs.

• heard that the city fogger needs to be calibrated.

• authorized the purchase of 400 mosquito tab­lets.

• authorized removal of a tree for $450.

• heard the police report from Tim Young, who said letters had been sent about abandoned cars.

Three notifications have been sent: by certified mail, regular mail and in person to the door. Seven people had not acted on those letters yet, and a violation hearing would be scheduled.

• discussed a sprayer that had driven through town; the council noted that sprayers should go around town instead.

• discussed dogs that have been allowed to run loose. The council noted that dogs can be picked up and taken to the dog pound in Hillsboro.

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