Goessel council seeking buyer for housing addition

The Goessel City Council discussed during its April 18 meeting finding a buyer for the Harvest Meadow housing addition.

One lot was sold and has a house. But the city recently gained possession of the remaining lots since the previous owner had not paid taxes on them. Those lots are still empty. The city paid for the infrastructure in that development.

“We still owe $300,000,” Mayor Dave Schrag told the council. “If we could sell Harvest Meadow we could look at some things that the city needs.”

He suggested receiving even $250,000 would help. The council expressed interest in finding a single buyer who would buy all remaining lots.

Park repairs

The council discussed repairs at the city park. Councilor Larry Lindeman suggested that the shelter house windows should be replaced. He also said someone broke into the shelter house and left the refrigerator and freezer “wide open and turned way up.”

Lindeman said leaves and dirt blow under the doors of the shelter house, and he said the restroom doors are often left open; leaves, twigs and dirt blow in, and the restrooms have to be cleaned almost daily. The latch on one door has been broken.

The council authorized Lindeman to fix the doors and buy paint for painting the shelter house.

Some picnic tables have been stolen and all five recently were moved. The council discussed bolting the tables to the concrete, but it was noted that sometimes all five tables are used together for serving a large number of people. Bolting them down would not allow that.

Sign project

High school teacher Crysta Guhr and two students talked about their interest in erecting a sign listing school state championships.

Guhr said a state championship sign had been erected along Kansas High­way 15 years ago, but that sign is no longer there, and no one seems to know where it is.

Guhr and her students found it would be a lengthy, expensive process to obtain state permission to erect another sign by the highway. Therefore, they are proposing a sign on city property, visible to people driving into town.

Councilor Dean Snelling commended Guhr and her students for their work: “It sounds exciting.”

Schrag agreed it is a lengthy process when working with the state on signs. He said it took him 10 years to get the state to change the sign by U.S. Highway 56 so that it lists Goessel instead of simply K-215, which is the short stretch of state highway that leads from K-15 to the city of Goessel.

Streets discussion

The council spent considerable time discussing city streets, but made no decisions. Lindeman had invited Bob Phillipi of APAC-Shears to the meeting.

Phillipi noted the city’s “solid, well-kept gravel roads” and commended the work of Public Works Director Karen Dalke: “What you’re putting down right now is about the best you can get.”

The council learned that paving only certain streets would cost $712,705, but curb and gutter would cost more cost because of engineering, and the streets cannot be paved until the infrastructure beneath them is replaced.

Consequently, it is not likely that streets will be paved anytime soon. Phillipi said some streets in town are narrow and also that “not every street has a ditch.”

Mosquito planning

Dalke reported she had attended a class about mosquitoes, along with city maintenance employee Gaddis.

Dalke would like to purchase mosquito pellets and make them available to residents. She said the pellets cost $400 for a box, or $1 per pellet. One pellet covers a 10-foot area. They can be effective up to 120 days, although rain washes them away.

Dalke said the pellets are not harmful to birds, fish or pets. She said the city spends $2,000 a year on fogging mosquitoes; she said it costs $350 every evening that the fogging machine is used.

Dalke thanked Councilor Duane Adrian for his work on a city mosquito fogging machine that will be safer for city employees to use. Adrian said that three engineers from Bradbury have helped him.

Other business

In other business, the council:

• appointed Kevin Klas­sen to fill the unexpired term of Councilor Jeff Boese, who recently resigned.

• appointed Cindy Gad­dis to the Goessel Housing Authority. She will replace Schrag, who is resigning his position on the GHA. Schrag said Gaddis already does maintenance work at the Sunflower Apartments.

• heard that community women continue to meet on the second and fourth Fridays of each month in the city building’s community room. About 13 women come every time, and as many as 15 at one session. They appreciate the opportunity.

• heard that preliminary work is being done to replace the city sign along the highway.

• heard Chad Linde­man report that the Goessel Recreation Commission would like to erect a new scoreboard at the baseball diamonds and replace the two sheds with a bigger shed. They discussed watering the new sod that the GRC would like to install.

• heard the new mower has been working well.

• heard Dalke had installed a new culvert at the burn site.

• heard the city’s pickup truck has been fixed.

• noted that burning is not allowed within city limits, and burning outside of town has to be done at least 1,000 feet from a house.

• heard that workers compensation is now provided through Kansas Municipal Insurance Trust.

• heard that a skunk, opossums and three cats had been seen at an abandoned house in town.

• heard Dalke has been putting asphalt millings on “heavy traffic” streets.

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