Platte City voters will have a chance to decide if the city will renew an existing sales tax of three-eighth of one percent for street improvement and other transportation purposes.
During the board of aldermen’s monthly meeting on Tuesday, June 26, four of the five voting members agreed to go ahead with the request.
Steve Hoeger, Brad Wallace, John Higgins and Vickie Atkins voted in favor of the resolution. Tony Palolillo voted no, while Debbie Kirkpatrick was absent.
The current term doesn’t expire until 2025 and it generates $370,000 per year and a share of the county’s three-eighth center transportation sales tax expires in 2023 and it generates $210,000 per year.
In a staff report given to the council, it said an early extension will allow for better street improvement planning and able to schedule and approve high-priority street improvement projects.
Long-term assessment, planning and maintenance over a 10 to 20 year-time horizon is more effective, city manager DJ Gehrt noted in his report.
Some of the projects he noted that could benefit from this was the Platte Falls/Kentucky Avenue signals – the highest priority — W. Gates Drive/Fourth Street intersection/sidewalk improvement, Fourth Street/Highway 92 intersection and completion of the Highway 92 sidewalk/trail project.
If the extension is approved, working on one major project every other year, the list could be completed by 2024.
Options for the board are extending it indefinitely, for 10, 15 or 20 years – the latter would go through 2045.
The issue will be on the April ballot.
Another big item in the meeting was approval to request qualifications from for a preliminary site assessment and option development for a possible aquatics/park/recreation use on a six-acre parcel at the site of the former Rising Star Elementary School.
The request for qualifications (RFQ) would help develop conceptual site plans for the land the city acquired in 2017 at 1009 Second Street.
The city plans to complete the destruction and removal of the 22,000 square foot building by December.
Potential uses include aquatic complex, neighborhood park, civic/recreation center replacement or upgrade, civic/recreation center with a water splash pad or other use or combination of aquatics/recreation uses.
The deadline for professional service companies to submit a RFQ is July 12.
Economic Development subcommittee
Approval to renew all city liquor licenses for the period of July 1 to June 30, 2019.
Approved special use permit for the Pool Hall on Sept. 7, from 4:30-11:30 p.m. that will feature a live band, food vendors and beverage sales.
Approval to pay Platte County Economic Development Council $2,000 for providing a variety of services, acting independently and not as an agent of the city to help in business attraction and retention, one of seven items listed.
Gave the go ahead for a declaration of surplus property — broken, worn out, obsolete or no longer used by the city – which will be destroyed, donated or offered for sale.
Public Safety
subcommittee
Gave a recommendation for a special event permit from the Platte County R-3 School District for a homecoming parade from 3 to 4 p.m. on Sept. 21. Traffic won’t be able to drive on Fourth Street, starting at Thomas Drive and ending at School Drive, with the entry/exit from Clark, Academy, Almond, Wilson, Wells, Hillcrest, Myers and Blake being blocked.
Forwarded legislation for a firework stand application on a vacant lot at Platte valley Plaza to OSKIE, which started Jun 20 and will close July 4. The city will receive an application/permit fee of $1,500.
Chief Carl Mitchell’s report showed calls for service are down 12 percent and traffic stops are down 24 percent compared to last year’s numbers. The number of traffic citations, given the previous number, is also down, but warnings and DWI are up from last year’s number in the year-to-date category.
Public Works
subcommittee
Approved a water shutoff agreement with Public Water Supply District No. 4 of Platte County. It will apply to utility customers within the city limits served by PWSD, located south of Highway 92 and east of Interstate 29. The first notice is sent 15 days after payment is due and 15 days is given for payment. A second notice with seven days to pay notifies customer failure to pay may result in legal action. Notices from attorneys will then follow.
Three change orders for the east side lift station project were approved. The largest was slope stabilization along I-29 at $30,939.70 to M Con Construction. The company also saw a $15,820 change order for permanent stream crossing. With a total of six change orders, there has been an increase of 8.8 percent – a little over $78,000 – to the project that is now inching toward $1 million. The two requests increases the total costs to $941,091.60. Shafer, Kline and Warren also had a change order for $17,462.69 for survey, permitting and design of slope stabilization. The original cost was $122,700. The original budget was $1.4 million and with all project expenditures is $1,301.800 with a completion date of next month.
The spring clean-up picked up 46 tons of trash and three tons of scrap metal.