A handful of residents have expressed interest in filling a pair of vacancies in Iola’s city commission.
The eight-member commission is down to six following last week’s recall election of former Councilmen Kendall Callahan and Ken Rowe.
Mayor Bill Shirley said Monday he planned to host a special meeting later this week, after last week’s recall vote is certified by the state.
The date and time have not been decided, Shirley said. He plans to host the event in the evening to ensure more residents can attend.
Those wishing to apply for Callahan’s or Rowe’s seat should call City Hall, 365-4900. Callahan served in Ward 1, which encompasses the northwest quadrant of Iola. It consists of all residents living north of Breckenridge and west of Cottonwood streets and includes such places as Russell Stover Candies, Walmart and Highland Cemetery.
Rowe represented Ward 4, which is bounded to the west by Cottonwood and to the north by Carpenter, Second, Douglas, Kentucky and East streets. The Fourth Ward contains McKinley Elementary School and Iola Middle School.
COUNCIL MEMBERS authorized Shirley to formally request the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study Riverside Park’s levee system to determine what would need to be done to protect the park from flooding.
The study was first proposed shortly after the 2007 flood, which filled the park with more than 12 feet of floodwater from Elm Creek after the old rail corridor on the park’s east side was breached.
City crews have since rebuilt the corridor, but that wasn’t enough to prevent the Federal Emergency Management Agency from putting the park in Iola’s flood plain.
The park is protected by levees on the south, west and north sides.
City Administrator Carl Slaugh said the proposed study has been “working its way up the chain” of Corps of Engineers administrators and is nearly ready to commence.
The Corps of Engineers will fund the first $100,000 of the study. If costs exceed $100,000 they will be shared by the Corps of Engineers and the city, with Iola responsible for 35 percent.
Councilman Steve French said he supported the study but worried that authorizing the request would force the city to pay for expensive renovations to the levees or future studies.
The letter only requests the initial study, Slaugh responded, and does not obligate the city to further expenditures.
THE COUNCIL accepted a bid from JCI Industries, Inc., Lee’s Summit, Mo., to lease wastewater flow monitoring equipment to help determine how five sewage lift stations handle the wastewater during rainy weather.
JCI’s bid of $21,868 was the lower of two received.
