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McPherson City Commission Approves Replacement of Shelter 4 at Lakeside Park

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McPHERSON, Kan. — McPherson City Commissioners have approved the replacement of Shelter 4 at Lakeside Park. This is the one on West Lakeside Drive across from Washington Elementary School and will be of the same design as four other shelters replaced earlier.

There are four contractors involved with it including Happy Playgrounds for the actual structure, Central Kansas Construction for a concrete slab, Cody Heiman Construction for the actual erection, Hedlund Electric for the wiring work, and purchase of picnic tables from Uline with a total cost of just under $118,500. Unruh House Removal will take out the existing shelter in exchange for ownership rights to it.

The Commission released a request for proposals for a classification and compensation study. The study would look at job classifications, market and benefit analysis, pay compression, and updating of the current compensation system with a focus on sustainability. Proposals are due back to the city February 28th, with a consultant to be selected in early March.

A six month Police Department Skillbridge position was authorized for US Air Force Intelligence Office Victoria Curtis. The Skillbridge program is designed for armed forces members who are getting ready to transition out of the service to gain outside experience,

Curtis will be working in an analyst role with the patrol and investigative divisions to identify threats to public safety, criminal hot spots, camera system locations, drug dealers, theft rings and criminal connections to other communities. Her salary and benefits will be provided by the military.

The Commission also approved payment to Superior Emergency Response Vehicles of Andover for electronic system installation in a new police command truck.

The Commission approved an $8,695 purchase of ten pagers for the Fire Department as McPherson County Emergency Communications is completing the move to digital paging. These pagers will be issued to the paid-call firefighters, with full time personnel getting new pagers last fall. The existing pagers are also at their end of life and require frequent repairs.

Also for the Fire Department, Commissioners approved annual maintenance and repair work on their hydraulic tools, and another payment to Hutton on the Fire Station 2 project. This payment covers retainage fees for subcontractors, with the only remaining payment to come after rework has been completed.

Commissioners approved purchase of two backflow preventers for the biosolids building at the Wastewater Treatment Plant after a door blew open during the winter storm and froze pipes in the irrigation and reuse pump room, which broke those two items along with assorted pipes and pumps. 

The Commission authorized spending just over five thousand dollars with Central Salt in Lyons for another 100 tons of salt. It approved a bid from Midway Motors for a new 4×4 quad pickup for the Park Department, based on a state bid price of just under $38,000. Midway had the lowest of three bids obtained.

It also approved renewal of the software system Public Works uses for fleet management, work orders, sign inventory and sewer management, and sending out a payment for school crossing beacons purchased last year which for some reason never got paid, with this payment reauthorized to be made from 2025 funds.

In other administrative actions, the Commission approved paying the Loyd Group for administrative training and facilitation of strategic conversations this year, renewal of a utility software package through the Board of Public Utilities, and approved use of the Lakeside Park Bandshell by New Legacy Church for a Church in the Park/Fun in the Park event April 26.

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