Water and roads occupy council

HUMBOLDT — Infrastructure expenses took up the bulk of Monday’s Humboldt City Council meeting. Discussion spanned from water line replacement to resurfacing roads. Funding for the projects will involve general obligation bonds, a Community Development Block Grant, a USDA Rural Development loan and federal stimulus funds administered through Kansas Dept. of Transportation.
The city received a $400,000 CDBG towards a $1.6 million water distribution project involving replacing aged water mains, fire hydrants and valves.
The city approved issuing $1.2 million in temporary notes at 3 percent interest to fund the project.
“It gives you the authority to issue bonds up to that amount,” explained Rick Ensz of Cooper, Malone and McClain, the city’s financial advisor. “It does not mean you have to issue that total.” Instead, Ensz said, the notes are “identical to a construction loan on a home.” The city will make interest payments, then finance the whole project once it is complete.
Rural Development has agreed to loan the city $1.1 million, repayable over a 40 year period, to finance the project.
The Council was originally asked to consider a bond amount of $1.1 million, but an extra $100,000 was needed to cover water lines to the cemetery and to increase the size of mains laid in areas where future development is expected.
“We just felt with the future growth of the city, we need to have the infrastructure in place to meet that growth,” City Administrator Larry Tucker said.
Federal Stimulus Funds will be used to complete a street project involving East Bridge, Central, 13th and 14th streets, Tucker said.
Because the KDOT is funding 90 percent of the project with federal stimulus dollars, an engineer must be hired to design the project and work must be inspected by a KDOT-approved inspector. The city will chip in 10 percent — $35,354 — of the total project cost, Tucker said.
Project plans must be 80 percent complete and submitted to the state by Oct. 1 to secure the federal funding. Completed plans are due Nov. 1. The project will be bid by the state in March 2010.
The work will include curb, gutter and handicap access along the affected length of 13 street.
Concrete improvements, including curb and gutter, will be made on one block of Indiana Street between 8th and 9th streets north of the swimming pool, Tucker said. Funds for the $67,800 project will be drawn from the city’s consolidated street fund. A bid from Hofer and Hofer and Associates of Humboldt was accepted for the work, which should commence in September.
In other business, the council voted to approve purchase of a used tiller for $800 to do preparatory work on the city’s new walking trail , rather than continuing to rent one. Rental fees were $80 per day.
Two pumps will be purchased for the city’s lift stations at a cost of $3,482 each, plus shipping. Rebuilding the pumps would have cost the city $2,850 each. The new pumps come with a one year warranty and have an expected life of 10 years.
Tucker announced that a moratorium has been placed on expenditures from KDOT’s Transportation Revolving Fund. Until state funding improves, no new loan applications will be processed, Tucker said. The funds had been available for qualified street and bridge work.
Work continues by the city to remove nuisance properties, with Kenneth Rowe, who has ignored repeated city appeals, being cited to court.