Iola likely will alter how it handles future cleanup weeks because of rule changes at the Allen County Landfill.
Iola City Administrator Judy Brigham told Iola commissioners Tuesday that with a new trash cell open at the landfill, the city must ensure brush and lumber — which could potentially tear a special liner in the cell — are not included with daily refuse. Those items are to be taken to other designated areas at the landfill, Brigham said.
The changes have prompted the city to extend the pickup week — now into day eight — so residents have more time to segregate their trash piles. An April 2 wind storm also meant Iolans had larger amounts of limbs and brush than had been expected, complicating cleanup week efforts, Brigham said.
Brigham said the city also will suspend its Reserve A Truck service until new usage rules can be implemented to prevent residents from combining different types of refuse.
COMMISSIONERS granted a request from Code Enforcement Officer Jeff Bauer to deem a number of abandoned trailer houses on South Vermont Street an “immediate hazard” so they can be boarded shut. The trailers have opened or missing doors and many have been ransacked, Bauer said.
Bauer said he would return to a subsequent meeting with paperwork to initiate condemnation hearings on the trailers.
Commissioners also asked him about the old IGA building on West Garfield Street. Bauer said no improvements had been done to the building in recent months, and that the recent wind storm blew debris from the roof.
Commissioners directed Bauer to resume plans for condemnation hearings on the building.
TUESDAY’S meeting was held at Iola High School as part of the 19th annual Student Government Day, in which students tail city officials to become acquainted with how local government operates.
Noting last week’s advisory referendum, in which 45 percent of voting Iolans favored seeing a five-member commission, Commissioner Bill Shirley said the city should begin work to draft charter ordinances so the new governing body can be seated soon.
His comments were echoed by Maness.
Commissioners approved a bid from WCI Company, Paola, to replace the Jefferson Avenue bridge spanning Coon Creek. WCI’s bid of $222,640 was the lowest of five received. Eighty percent of the costs for the project will be paid for by federal funds administered through the Kansas Department of Transportation. The city is responsible for the remaining 20 percent.
The city will pay the Southeast Kansas Mental Health Center $5,155.25 for drug and alcohol treatment services. The funds come from the city’s drug and alcohol fund, which is built through a tax on alcoholic drinks served in the city.
Commissioners also hired Ken Hunt as the city’s new human resources director.
THE CITY is unlikely to pursue plans to install a stoplight at the intersection of Lincoln and State streets.
Assistant City Administrator Corey Schinstock said the Kansas Department of Transportation declined to pay for a traffic flow study because there had not been enough reported traffic accidents at the intersection.
Stoplights were taken down at the intersection shortly after the inland hurricane of 1986, Schinstock said.
A recent study revealed fewer than 10 accidents at the intersection over the past year, not enough to warrant a full-scale study, Schinstock said.
Commissioners expressed no desire to pursue the matter further.
