Marion council seeks to reassert its role
Staff writer
Marion City Council took initial steps at a work session Monday to reassert its role in two areas that increasingly have been left to city staff.
For the past two years, the council barely discussed budgeting until immediately before tax levies had to be established.
Starting May 5, the council will discuss budgeting at each of its semi-monthly meetings until final adoption of a tax levy in September.
“I know last year we kind of rushed through the budget,” interim Administrator Mark McAnarney said. “I want to lay it out a little bit better.”
His plan lists specific funds to be discussed at each meeting.
Discussion will begin with an overview May 5 and continue with discussion of the city’s land bank, special highway fund, and special law enforcement fund May 19. Its bond and interest fund, library fund, and special parks and recreation fund are scheduled to be discussed June 2.
A new city administrator should be in place by then.
“I really, really, really like this,” Mayor Mike Powers said. “Hopefully we’ll have a new, full-time person to replace Mark, [but] I doubt that they’re going to complain about having this schedule set out.”
Street repair
Powers also expressed interest in asserting more of a role for the council in deciding which street reconstruction projects would be undertaken each year.
As recently as this spring, city staff informed the council which block would be targeted for work this year.
“My perception is the council would like to have at least an opportunity for more input and / or discussion about streets, since we have a limited number of streets that we can work,” Powers said. “I understand in the past, that’s been a decision made by staff.”
Three or so years ago, EBH Engineering was hired to drive city streets and report their condition. A list of projects was drafted, but projects were not prioritized.
Council member Zach Collett, who worked for the engineering firm at the time, suggested Monday that the council review the list annually and rank projects by priority.
Several council members suggested that the far northern portion of Coble St. might be the most urgent target for improvement.
Powers added that the city might consider abandoning its strategy of paying to do one block a year out of normal funds and instead borrow money to do several blocks at once.
The city then would wait what he suggested might be seven years, until the bond could be paid down, before doing additional work.
Council members discussed whether project costs might decrease if more projects were undertaken at once. They did not discuss how interest on borrowed money might increase the total price of improvements.
Income survey
The council also discussed at its work session Monday ways to obtain more generous grants that might support a wide array of projects.
The most commonly mentioned projects were a splash pad, park playground equipment, and a water park, but a much longer list of potential projects also was presented.
The first step would be to challenge U.S. Census Bureau data on the percentage of Marion households with low or moderate income, as defined by the federal government.
The 2020 census put Marion’s percentage at 43.4%, McAnarney said. To qualify for more generous grants that will pay for 80% instead of 50% of total cost, the low-and-moderate-income percentage must be at least 51.1%, he said.
McAnarney recommended hiring Government Assistance Services, a firm based in his hometown of Lawrence, to conduct a survey at a cost to the city of $7,500.
The survey would challenge census numbers using procedures approved by the Department of Commerce.
Garrett Nordstrom, a partner at the firm, spoke by speakerphone about how the survey would be conducted.
Residents would be told the purpose of the survey, but unlike in the census, not every home would be contacted.
Instead, his firm would go door-to-door to interview a sample of households selected by Commerce.
Residents would be asked how many people were part of their household. Polltakers then would show them a piece of paper listing the cutoff point for low and moderate income for households of that size and ask them only whether their total household income was greater or less than that number.
Although the firm would have to obtain answers from a predetermined number of households, it would receive extra addresses that could be contacted in case no one was at home.
Nordstrom did not say so, but this could result in more retirees and unemployed householders being contacted, thus increasing the percentage of low- and moderate-income households.
He said his firm recently had performed similar surveys in Council Grove, Lebo, Olpe, and Osage City.
Yield signs
As part of their wide-ranging work session discussions Monday, council members also discussed the need to clarify who has right of way at various intersections in the city.
Interim Police Chief Zach Hudlin said his officers were recommending that S. Roosevelt St. be designated as a through street, with stop or yield signs on cross streets.
Powers asked McAnarney to look into the cost of purchasing and installing yield signs before deciding where they might be needed.
“I’m not talking about a lot of stop signs,” he said. “I mean, I don’t think you’re gonna make people stop for no reason.”
Still, council members noted that, rather than follow rules about right of way going to the first vehicle to arrive or to the vehicle immediately to a driver’s right, Marion drivers seem to follow unwritten rules that give some streets priority over others.
‘Hillbilly’ signs, other items
Powers and community enrichment director Margo Yates suggested that several signs in the city, especially one for a parking area across the street from the city building, were in bad condition.
“It looks horrible. It looks awful. It looks like somebody painted it in their backyard,” Powers said. “That sign — the message it sends is that this is hillbilly alley.”
- Powers also asked that a radar sign checking speeds of Main St. drivers where a 20-mph zone begins just east of Cedar St. be moved further east, to where the speed limit drops from 55 mph to 35 mph.
- Council member Kevin Burkholder suggested that the city consider providing at least modest financial support to Marion Senior Center.
- Powers suggested that McAnarney be retained “for as little money as possible” as an occasional consultant after he is replaced by a full-time administrator.
- Council members also discussed continuing difficulties in connecting surveillance cameras to monitor against vandalism at Central Park restrooms.