Larned City Council Meeting 8/5/24 Highlights
By Lucky Kidd
LARNED, Kan. — The Larned City Council Monday approved appointment of eight members to the city’s Tourism Committee as recommended by Mayor William Nusser. Vicki Gillett, the current Committee chair, was appointed to a one-year term, with Dawn Skelton and Beverly Howell appointed for two-year terms, Dody Burkey and Gary Clark for three-year terms and George Elmore, Richard Lartz and Mike Gilmore for four-year terms.
Council members reviewed updated budget sheets from a work session July 15 during Monday’s meeting. The Budget as proposed calls for a 51.085 mill property tax levy, fractionally lower than for 2024 but 4.5 mills above the Revenue Neutral Rate, which Larned will exceed for the first time since RNR was put in place by the Kansas Legislature.
The levy proposed will generate $114,000 in additional revenue for the city. In terms of the levy components, an increase in the general fund part of it was offset by declines in the levies for the library and industrial purposes, with a fractional increase in the airport levy.
As part of their budget review, a report was given on a meeting with Pawnee County Commissioners related to dispatch funding and plans to add an additional dispatch position.
There were a pair of discussion items during Monday’s meeting. One item brought up by Council President Kim Barnes was a policy related to advisory committees, stating that the recommendations those committees make to the Council are recommendations only. Another item brought up at the request of Councilman Jacques Molleker was the downtown Christmas lights. On that item, the Council discussed working with a Larned Area Chamber of Commerce committee on that. The meeting also included an update from Water Department staff on the projects it is currently involved with.
The Council set a work session for Sept. 16 on energy related issues. City Manager Brad Elits told the Council he recently met with the city’s energy consultant Greg Wright, during which they reviewed a number of issues that need to be discussed in depth. These include the purchase power contracts the city has with Midwest Energy and the Grand River Dam Authority along with contracts with NextEra Energy.
Current and anticipated developments with behind-the-meter solar could factor into future plans along with issues on distributed and parallel generation.
