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Much of the focus was on street work Monday night, as the Bonner Springs City Council discussed street repairs that have been completed and future plans yet in the works.

During a workshop prior to the council meeting, Public Works Director Kevin Bruemmer outlined a list of streets where pothole patching has taken place. In a memorandum included in the evening’s agenda packet, Bruemmer stated since Jan. 1 of this year, $7,650 had been spent on repairing 2,242 potholes on streets that include Metropolitan, Riverview and Kansas Avenue.

Thus far, Bruemmer said, repairs have been made to the surface of the asphalt where potholes have formed in a process called skim patching. But he said a process called mill and patch, where repairs will be made beneath the surface, will get started within the next two weeks, weather permitting.

Streets that will benefit from the mill and patch include Lakewood, Second Street, Commercial Drive and the intersection of Garfield and Insley.

Also during the workshop, the council discussed an interlocal agreement between the city and Leavenworth County for maintenance of 142nd Street, half of which runs through Leavenworth County. The item was also on the evening’s regular agenda.

“This has been a long time coming,” Bruemmer said of the agreement, the terms of which would hand the responsibility of 142nd Street from the dead end south of Loring Drive to Kansas Highway 32 to the city and the responsibility of Kansas Avenue to United States Highway 24-40 to the county.

Formerly, Bruemmer said, the city had been responsible for the entire stretch of 142nd Street.

“We’ve been maintaining that road for some 25-odd years,” he said. “And right or wrong or indifferent, we finally went back to (Leavenworth County) and said, ‘hey, why?’”

Bruemmer said Leavenworth county maintained there had been an initial agreement that gave entire responsibility of the road to Bonner Springs, but he said during an investigation of the matter neither the city nor the county could locate such an agreement.

This new interlocal agreement was signed by Leavenworth County Commissioners J.C. Tellefson, Clyde Graeber and John Flower on June 14. Flower, who was contacted by The Chieftain following the meeting, said he felt it was a “fair and equitable” agreement.

“And everybody goes home happy,” he said.

The agreement was unanimously passed by the city council during the regular meeting.

Also on Monday, the council:

• Made a proclamation designating July as Parks and Recreation Month.

• Unanimously approved the minutes from the June 14 meeting.

• Unanimously approved supplemental claims for city operations totaling $148,731.72 and regular claims totaling $275,209.89.

• Unanimously approved Public Housing Authority claims totaling $64,923.38.

• Unanimously approved a cereal malt beverage license for Evergreen Chinese Restaurant.

• Unanimously approved final payment for the new Bonner Springs Police Department administrative building, which now resides in the building formerly occupied by Atmos Energy, 130 N. Nettleton. The payment was in the amount $1,100, making the total cost of renovations of the new building $11,750.

• Unanimously approved a bid totaling $177,782.95 to O’Donnell and Sons Construction for mill and overlay work on streets throughout the city in 2010. O’Donnell and Sons had the lowest of six bids.

• Approved, 7-1 with Jerry Jarrett opposed, a new ordinance to establish residential trash and recycling fees of $11.90, effective July 1, 2010, and $12.10, effective July 1, 2011. The new ordinance was established as a result of a mistake made in the Unified Government’s contract with the city that stated the July 1 trash and recycling fees would be $13.65. City Clerk Rita Hoag said she had determined this was an incorrect rate during her investigation of the matter.

• Heard a report from City Manager John “Jack” Helin, who said Kobi’s owner Vicki Kobialka had been parking a flatbed truck for use as a stage on Wednesdays and Sundays in the parking lot behind her business. Helin said this was an “obvious circumvention” of approaching the council for permission to use the lot, which is owned by the city. The city requires private businesses to apply for such uses of city parking lots.

Council member George Cooper called the inability of Kobialka to use the parking lot without the council’s permission “tyrannical,” saying it was “selective enforcement” by the city.

The council took no action on the parking lotissue.

• Heard city council items. Disagreements continue between the Bonner Beautiful Commission and the Bonner Springs Parks and Recreation department. Council member Lloyd Mesmer, who also serves as representative to the commission, said the flower planters throughout the city were not being watered by the department.

Mesmer said Parks and Recreation did a good job with the recreation aspect of its duties, but the parks aspect was still lacking.

Harrington asked Mesmer, Helin and Parks and Recreation Director Skip Dobbs get together to discuss their disagreements with how maintenance is being handled throughout the city.

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