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The city has come up with plans to address the Unified Government’s funding cuts to Tiblow Transit and Bonner Springs Senior Center.

At Monday’s meeting, the Bonner Springs City Council approved the third extension of the mill levy services contract with the Unified Government of Wyandotte County.

Through the UG, the city receives a portion of the county mill levy from the Area Agency on Aging for the Senior Center and Tiblow Transit programs. But the UG — which is facing its own budget dilemmas — had notified the city that this year it was cutting its contribution to the Senior Center by 54 percent, or $11,450. The UG’s funding for Tiblow Transit was being cut by 50 percent, or $4,555.

To make up for the revenue losses, the Senior Center is reducing from 20 to 16 hours per week for a part-time assistant director, eliminating mileage and meal reimbursements, paring back its newsletters to save on printing and postage and eliminating professional development.

In addition, the city will contribute $3,382 from its general fund contingency reserve to assist the center.

For the Tiblow Transit, several steps are planned to make up for the loss in funds. These actions include:

• Requesting a combined donation from Wal-Mart, McDonald’s and Price Chopper of $8,500. In the past, Tiblow Transit has only been granted a combined amount of $4,750 from these establishments.

• Submitting an application to the Goodcents Foundation for $1,500.

• Looking for ways to reduce fuel costs, such as being more efficient with routes and shutting off the vehicle when letting passengers out. Department head Rita Hoag said she expected fuel costs to be reduced this year by about $6,000.

As a last resort, and only if the above three actions don’t offset the entire decrease, Hoag said other actions could be taken: reducing the dispatcher’s allowed work hours by one half hour per day, which would save $635.25, and or reducing service hours by a full hour each day, which would save $2,250.

The UG’s purchasing division had notified the city that the amounts were subject to change if there were any future changes made to the mill levy and state funding.

City manager John “Jack” Helin said the city would have to face that challenge as it arose.

“At this rate, we’re trying to deal with the numbers we’ve got and not trying to pre-anticipate something,” Helin said. “So obviously in the middle of the year, if we get hit again, we’ll just have to deal with it at that point in time.”

Mayor Clausie Smith said it was important to keep these programs going, as they are vital to the community. Hoag illustrated his point by making one of her own.

“We continue to hear that people move to Bonner because it has public transportation,” Hoag said.

In other action, the council:

• Unanimously approved the minutes from the Dec. 14 meeting.

• Unanimously approved supplemental claims for city operations totaling $154,665.13 and regular claims totaling $819,921.

• Unanimously approved Public Housing Authority claims totaling $14,415.76.

• Unanimously approved the reappointment of David Bass to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee and the reappointment of Don Mills and Gayla Reeves to the Cemetery Advisory Committee.

• Unanimously approved the Kansas Department of Transportation construction engineering agreement for the 138th Street at Metropolitan Avenue to Kansas Avenue project No. 105 N-0490-01.

• Unanimously approved zoning map amendment to include a special use permit SUP-122 for Best Brands Corporation’s uniform locker facility.

• Unanimously approved an ordinance to amend the off-street parking and loading regulations to allow for parking stalls of at least 9 feet in all off-street parking spaces. Council member Bob Reeves noted that some parking spaces in the city were proving to be too tight of a fit for some cars.

“I’m wondering if there’s something we can do to accommodate that,” Reeves said.

Planning commissioner Don Slone said 10-foot parking stalls had been looked at but that city staff and members of the Planning Commission were resistant to take this step as 9-feet was the standard width for most off-street parking spaces.

He said the parking stalls in Wal-Mart were 10-feet in width and the parking stalls in the upcoming Burger King would also be 10-foot, however.

• Heard City Council items. Several of the council members noted how well the Public Works crew had handled snow removal thus far and thanked Public Works director Kevin Bruemmer, who was present at the meeting.

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