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It took no less than three motions by Bonner Springs City Council members to grant a request, with one amendment, from Kobi’s Bar and Grill owner Vicki Kobialka for the use of six parking spaces to be used for live, outdoor entertainment.

Kobialka’s request was for permission to use the parking spaces from 8 p.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday nights, beginning May 1, 2010, and ending Sept. 30, 2010. In response to complaints about the noise that have been made in past years, Kobialka presented the council with a petition in support of the six parking spaces being granted. The petition contained more than 400 signatures.

“In the past years, we have been blindsided by those who have opposed the use of our parking lot for outdoor entertainment,” Kobialka said, noting that last year she had received far fewer complaints than normal from area businesses.

The first motion, which failed by a count of 2-6 with council members Bob Reeves and Lloyd Mesmer in favor of the action, was to table the item until the first week in January. The second motion was to grant Kobialka’s request for the six parking spaces on the dates she had specified. This motion resulted in a tie vote, with council members Reeves, Tom Stephens, Mesmer and Rodger Shannon opposed.

It is city policy that whenever there is a tie vote, the mayor must cast the deciding vote.

“I’m going to vote ‘no’ on this and entertain another motion,” Mayor Clausie Smith said.

The next motion was for the use of the six parking spaces, but for the same dates as those that were granted Kobialka last year — from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend.

“I think the use of the city parking lot from 8 p.m. to midnight, which is what we are allowing, is appropriate,” said council member Jeff Harrington in discussion made prior to the vote. “They are going to continue to be responsible for live music and its potential nuisance to anyone else as they were last year. So that doesn’t change.”

Mesmer didn’t agree with Harrington’s thoughts. Citing an analogy of trying to sell his car by parking it in the lot for an extended period of time, he said that allowing the use of the parking lot for music on several months of consecutive weekends was against zoning ordinances.

“Using six parking spots for a bandstand is not legal according to city codes. The lot was intended for parking, and other extended use must also be considered not legal,” Mesmer said in a statement. “We either need to deny her request as stated or change the existing ordinances prohibiting any extended use (in the parking lot) other than parking.”

This final motion carried, 6-2 with Reeves and Mesmer opposed.

“This is the only time we’re going to discuss this this year,” Smith said following the vote. “This is it. We’re done.”

But council members later made Smith eat his words when the subject was brought up again during the City Council items portion of the meeting.

Mesmer again said he didn’t see how the city could allow the extended use of the parking spaces when it was against the zoning ordinances. He also again cited the hypothetical situation of someone trying to sell a car in the lot for an extended period of time.

“There is a difference, a significant difference,” Harrington said of the two scenarios. “We would have to address each and every specific request individually. Each individual request has to be considered on its own volition.”

Following the meeting, Mesmer said there were some inconsistencies in who the council allowed to use the lot and who it didn’t.

“I don’t have a problem with how the council voted, I just think there’s some discrepancies there,” Mesmer said. “I just think we give her something that others aren’t allowed to have.”

In regards to the council’s decision, Kobialka said she was disheartened, saying she felt Smith should have shown more support for her request.

“I was very disappointed,” Kobialka said in a later phone interview. “It wasn’t a good vote for the community … The mayor had the tie vote. I was disappointed in his vote. He should have been for the community, he should have been for me. It’s all about getting along and bringing business into the community … There was not due consideration given to my proposal.”

Also on Monday, the council:

• Unanimously approved the minutes of the Nov. 9 meeting.

• Unanimously approved supplemental claims for city operations in the amount of $40,924.55 and regular claims in the amount of $485,904.82.

• Unanimously approved Public Housing Authority claims in the amount of $16,715.97.

• Unanimously approved a request for the use of city streets, parks, parking lots and facilities for the next Marble Days event on May 1, 2010.

• Unanimously approved parks and recreation fees, as well as sign fees. Parks and recreation fees include a $10 per hour increase for non-alcohol indoor facility rentals and a $5 nonresident increase for all programs and leagues.

Sign fees include increasing the cost to developers for street names or stop signs from $75 to $165 for a street name/stop sign combination, and from $75 to $135 for street name signs only.

• Unanimously awarded the bid for the 138th street project from Metropolitan to Kansas Avenue to O’Donnell and Sons for construction costs totaling $137,668.50. Construction will begin next spring, and there will be no costs to the city as the funds are coming out of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds the city was awarded for street work in March of this year.

• Approved, 5-3, change order No. 1 for the Fire/EMS facility construction totaling $26,700, all of which will come out of project contingency funds. Council members George Cooper, Jerry Jarrett and Wayne Gray were opposed.

The change order includes asbestos removal and the installation of seismic brackets that are necessary for the construction but which the architect, Bucher, Willis and Ratliffe, said were not included due to an oversight. Gray asked that some of the change orders be removed, as the city shouldn’t be responsible for paying for an oversight the BWR made.

City manager John “Jack” Helin reminded the council the change order funds were going to pay the contractor, Combes Construction, which had caught some of the mistakes and was willing to fix them at a fair price.

“He’s helping us put together a good product for us,” Helin said. “The issue is the architect (of the project).”

The council made another motion, which was approved unanimously, that no further payments would be made to BWR until a discussion between the council and the architect had been held.

• Unanimously approved the new ordinance to establish sewer user rates effective April 1, 2010, and unanimously approved sewer impact fee increases effective Jan. 1, 2010. User fees will increase 21 percent, which will be spread out during three years at 7 percent per year. Based on this increase, the average residential water customer’s sewer bill in 2010 will increase $2.15 per month based on five gallons usage. Based on a 10 percent increase, the current sewer impact fee will increase from $2,750 to $3,025.

• Unanimously approved water user rates effective April 1, 2010, and unanimously approved water impact fee increases effective Jan. 1, 2010. Based on the approved increase of 5 percent to user rates, an average customer’s water bill will increase $1.64 per month per five gallons of usage. Based on the approved 4.5 percent increase to impact fees, the current impact fee of $1,870 will increase to $1,975.

• Approved ordinances to adopt the 2009 building codes and the 2008 national electric code. Eight motions were made, with ordinances passing unanimously except for the ordinance to adopt the 2009 international fuel gas code with amendments, which was opposed by council member Bob Reeves, and the ordinance to adopt the 2009 International Fire Code with amendments, which was opposed by council member Jerry Jarrett.

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