HUMBOLDT — Humboldt Council members put in place Monday night mechanics for a half-cent sales tax to fund most of a $1.7 million street improvement program over the next 15 years.
The unknown element is whether voters favored the tax in a mail ballot election, which ended at noon today. Votes will be counted when Allen County Clerk Sherrie Riebel’s office closes at 5 p.m.
If the outcome is positive, county commissioners are expected to go through the formality of reviewing ballots and certifying the election next Monday.
Council members then would meet at 5:30 p.m. Monday in a special session to consider a resolution triggering the tax, a legal requirement that precedes a 90-day waiting period before the tax may be collected. If all goes as anticipated the tax will be collected starting Jan. 1.
The half cent will increase Humboldt’s local sales tax to 1.75 percent and overall tax to 9.3 percent. Of the 1.25 percent already collected for local advantage, 1 cent on every $1 of sales goes to the city’s general fund, a quarter cent to retire swimming pool improvement bonds.
The projection is that a half cent tax would generate as much as $90,000 a year and would be coupled with $30,000 in fuel tax distributions to pay for improvements to 300 blocks of residential street, mainly through reconstruction from the base up. Curbs, gutters and culverts also would get attention.
COUNCIL members approved a contract with B&G Consultants, Emporia, to do a two-phase examination of the wastewater treatment plant to determine what improvements should be made and how they could be funded.
B&G will be paid $11,000 this year and $7,675 in 2013 to look closely at the how the plant operates and evaluate what could be done to better deal with daily flow. Also, electrical and aeration systems will be analyzed.
The outcome will be recommendations, including a review of wastewater user rates and possibilities for obtaining grants and loans.
MAYOR NOBBY Davis was authorized to lift water-use restrictions whenever the Kansas Water Office deemed the drought sufficiently broken to permit unfettered consumption.
Recent rains have greened grass but haven’t been sufficient to noticeably increase flow of area streams and the Neosho River.
A state declaration of a water emergency prompted KWO to order restrictions for users along the Neosho, which is fed primarily during dry times by water released from John Redmond Reservoir north of Burlington.
The projection is that without any substantial rain the reservoir holds enough water to keep the river flowing through the end of the year. Water reserves in Council Grove and Marion reservoirs ensure water for months after that.
Davis and council members Vada Aikins and Otis Crawford will attend the League of Kansas Municipalities meeting Oct. 6-8 in Topeka. Crawford will be Humboldt’s voting delegate, Aikins the alternate. Because of the state meeting conflict, Humboldt’s next council meeting will be Oct. 15.
