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Current City Administrator Dennis McKinney laid out his vision for Greensburg law enforcement at last week’s city council meeting with a recommendation to start small owing to it being “easier to ramp a program up than vice versa.”
While his predecessor, Steve Hewitt, had explained at his last council meeting of January 17 how he thought Greensburg could employ and equip a full-time town Marshall, McKinney said, “My recommendation is to start out with someone at 20 hours a week.” He later told The Signal, “That could be an off duty officer or someone who’s certified to serve part time.”
As for equipping a 20-hour-a-week cop, McKinney told council members the City owns a vehicle that could be converted into a serviceable patrol car. He later told The Signal the City owns a Ford Crown Victoria, a former Kansas Highway Patrol vehicle that could be equipped with radio equipment and lights by former Sheriff Ray Stegman.
City Attorney Gordon Stull added that the City would need to pursue several loose ends, such as:
nNegotiating an agreement with the County as to the use of the County Jail whenever an individual arrested by the town cop would be in need of incarceration;
nFor the sake of protection of city residents, agreement would also need to be reached with the County as to shared use of 911 facilities, to handle scenarios in which city residents “call into the County wanting the town officer to respond.”
nAn updating of the town’s traffic codes, such as deciding as to whether to authorize the town cop to handle DUI’s, which is not currently allowed for in the City code.
Priorities…
McKinney later asked council members to share the points of enforcement they’d like to see emphasized in a town cop’s capacity.
Councilman Matt Christenson put his finger on “enforcement of traffic code and truck routes.”
That comment seemed to evoke on ongoing concern of two other members, Gary Goodheart first saying, “I don’t think much of the fertilizer trucks coming down on Bay Street. Olive Street and (Highway) 183 are the designated truck routes.”
“Don’t you prefer farmers coming down Bay rather than Main?” McKinney asked.
“They can come down the designated streets,” Good heart returned.
“We invested a lot of money in redoing our streets and it’s also a safety issue,” Councilman Mark Trummel injected.
“We could have a conversation with a Co-op representative about this,” McKinney said. “We don’t want to disrespect a good part (agrarian) of our local economy.”
Current City Administrator Dennis McKinney laid out his vision for Greensburg law enforcement at last week’s city council meeting with a recommendation to start small owing to it being “easier to ramp a program up than vice versa.”
While his predecessor, Steve Hewitt, had explained at his last council meeting of January 17 how he thought Greensburg could employ and equip a full-time town Marshall, McKinney said, “My recommendation is to start out with someone at 20 hours a week.” He later told The Signal, “That could be an off duty officer or someone who’s certified to serve part time.”
As for equipping a 20-hour-a-week cop, McKinney told council members the City owns a vehicle that could be converted into a serviceable patrol car. He later told The Signal the City owns a Ford Crown Victoria, a former Kansas Highway Patrol vehicle that could be equipped with radio equipment and lights by former Sheriff Ray Stegman.
City Attorney Gordon Stull added that the City would need to pursue several loose ends, such as:
nNegotiating an agreement with the County as to the use of the County Jail whenever an individual arrested by the town cop would be in need of incarceration;
nFor the sake of protection of city residents, agreement would also need to be reached with the County as to shared use of 911 facilities, to handle scenarios in which city residents “call into the County wanting the town officer to respond.”
nAn updating of the town’s traffic codes, such as deciding as to whether to authorize the town cop to handle DUI’s, which is not currently allowed for in the City code.
Priorities…
McKinney later asked council members to share the points of enforcement they’d like to see emphasized in a town cop’s capacity.
Councilman Matt Christenson put his finger on “enforcement of traffic code and truck routes.”
That comment seemed to evoke on ongoing concern of two other members, Gary Goodheart first saying, “I don’t think much of the fertilizer trucks coming down on Bay Street. Olive Street and (Highway) 183 are the designated truck routes.”
“Don’t you prefer farmers coming down Bay rather than Main?” McKinney asked.
“They can come down the designated streets,” Good heart returned.
“We invested a lot of money in redoing our streets and it’s also a safety issue,” Councilman Mark Trummel injected.
“We could have a conversation with a Co-op representative about this,” McKinney said. “We don’t want to disrespect a good part (agrarian) of our local economy.”
Changing the direction of the conversation, Mayor Bob Dixson asked McKinney, “This individual (future town cop) would also assist with enforcement of building codes?”
“Anything in the city code,” McKinney replied.
Airport/Industrial Park…
McKinney told council that seeding of grass in the Industrial Park project would get underway soon to provide for erosion control. He also reminded council that a six by eight foot sign identifying the Park at its entrance would be erected soon.
As for progress on construction of a new airport McKinney said Ed Young, KDOT’s head or general aviation, had recently advised him the City would stand a better chance of receiving a grant from his agency toward a new airport if they asked for smaller amount in its initial asking.
“So I’ve decided we should reduce our request from $1.2 million to $320,000,” McKinney said. “There’s a limited amount they have available in any given year and the number of those applying is pretty big so asking for a smaller amount increases our chances of getting our request.”
He went on to say that $320,000 should be enough “for land acquisition and get operating with a grass runway at first.” A match of $32,000 from the City would be needed if the request were granted, McKinney suggesting the County might be willing to help meet that sum by providing equipment and labor for some of the dirt work. He added that local aviators he spoke to are “in favor of this course of action.”
“We get the new grass runway and then we could get in the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) system for their help,” McKinney said. That “help” would be in the form of a 95/5 grant in which the City would be expected to provide five percent of the funding.
“The State has targeted Greensburg for years for a paved runway to medical evacuation,” Dixson added.
Asked when the City might begin to undertake land acquisition for the new airport, McKinney said, “I’d like to get the funding ($320,000) before negotiating with land owners.” Council authorized McKinney to shave the request to KDOT from $1.2 million to $320,000.
As for when KDOT might be finished with its feasibility report on a new airport, which would includes three possible locations, McKinney said he hopes to have the report within a month’s time.
Water treatment…
City employee Mick Kendall covered details of a preliminary sketch of the proposed new water treatment just finished by PEC of Wichita.
The drawing shows untreated water entering the plant and a certain percentage of it being diverted to ionic exchange for removal of nitrates. That treated water is later mixed with the untreated portion before being released for consumption. Kendall said a monitoring system would determine by constant monitoring the percentage of inflow need to be diverted to treatment.
He also said the end product would be useable water with a nitrate level in the range of six to seven parts per million of nitrates. Anything under 10 parts is considered allowable by government standards.
In addition, chlorination would also be undertaken in the plant itself, rather than at each well site as is now the practice. Kendall said the site of the plant is planned for “the Ohio (Street) property east of the old maintenance shop.”
McKinney added the possibility of a “salary enhancement for the person responsible for oversight of the new plant.”
