Council signals intent to remain with power pool

The Hillsboro City Coun­cil authorized Mayor Delores Dalke at its Jan. 10 special meeting to sign the city’s letter of intent to approve a new purchase-power agreement with the Kansas Power Pool for the next 20 years once it is needed.

City Administrator Larry Paine, a member of the KPP executive committee, said the power pool is seeking to establish a contract effective date “that is nearly uniform as reasonable” among the 24 member cities that have signed on with KPP through the years and with differing commitments.

“What we ended up with is about three different types of contracts that were approved by the various cities,” Paine said.

“When it comes time to acquire more (power-generating) capacity for the agency, we’re basically going to have a revised purchase-power agreement at that point that could possibly extend our commitment to KPP for 20 years from that day of the contract’s effec­tive­ness,” he added.

Hillsboro signed on with KPP six years ago.

Paine said the letter of intent will make it “a lot easier” to determine the city’s bond rating. KPP’s indebtedness as an organization for purchasing the Dogwood Power Plant in Missouri will not affect the city’s local indebtedness.

“The bond is not in our name,” Paine said. “It’s basically a bond of the Kansas Power Pool. That’s really one of the chief values at this point. It’s not a thing that will affect what (the city) will do or don’t do, obligation-wise.”

Concrete crushing

The council approved a bid of $54,000 from Vogts Crushing to grind an estimated 7,000 tons of concrete rubble that the city has accepted from public and city projects since 2012.

Dale Dalke, street superintendent, said he would like to crush the rubble into rock for use in alleys, road surfacing and for base under reconstructed streets.

Dalke said the city’s decision to accept concrete rubble has “saved businesses and homeowners a lot of money by not having to haul it elsewhere; they usually find a creek somewhere and dump it.

“Now we get to use it,” he added. “Base rock is probably most ideal, but in alleys and the few gravel roads we have, we could use it.”

Dalke said crushed concrete would cost the city less than using base rock, which costs between $11 and $15 per ton.

The bid from Vogts Crush­ing, which included a $5,000 mobilization fee and a per-ton charge of $7, was actually $2,500 higher than the low bid submitted by APAC Construction.

Dalke recommended Vogts because the company uses additional magnets that remove more rebar and wire from the finished product.

He added, “I have worked with Vogts on other projects and I am familiar with their work and know they do a good job.”

Other business

In other business, the council:

• approved a shared-use agreement with Unified School District 410 regarding the use of city facilities for the district’s athletic and physical education programs.

Paine said a new agreement became necessary after the district’s auditors discovered the former agreement had expired.

The agreement stipulates that USD 410 will pay $4,250 annually to use city facilities. The city, in turn, will bear the cost of general maintenance, refurbishment and capital improvements.

The new agreement was approved by the USD 410 Board of Education at its Jan. 9 meeting.

• authorized a 1.5 percent cost-of-living adjustment for city employees. The difference in payroll will total $20,643 in the 2017 city budget.

• heard Paine report the city has experienced a reduction in sales tax of $21,199 this past year, from $653,917 collected in 2015 to $632,718 collected in 2016.

“I think that has to do with Alco, Wal-Mart and Heartland Foods going out of business,” Paine said of the decline.

“In the overall scheme, sales taxes obviously have gone down, but it’s held its own. I’m not disappointed in how far it’s (decreased). I’m actually encouraged by that.”

Paine said it will take a couple of months to assess the economic impact of the new Dollar General store compared to its former location.

• voted to grant the city administrator the 1.5 percent cost of living increase like the rest of the city employees received following in executive session for personnel to review the evaluation.

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