By ALEXANDER SIMONE

Staff writer

Questions about Marion’s downtown revitalization project will be answered at a community forum at 5 p.m. Thursday at Marion City Building.

KDOT and project contractors will arrive at 3 p.m. to start reviewing details with city officials, city administrator Roger Holter said at Monday’s city council meeting.

Construction is expected to start in April but could be set back by weather conditions, EBH engineer Darin Neufeld said.

“The last thing we want to do is have a bunch of stuff open that is either wet or frozen,” he said.

On other matters, Holter is awaiting Kansas Power Pool’s response on a city proposal to install solar power arrays. The options for locating them are a parcel of land at US-56 and Roosevelt St. in the city’s industrial park, Sunflower Rd. at the south edge of town near the city’s sewage lagoons, and north of Washington St. near the county waste transfer station.

A resurfacing project of portions of K-256 within city limits also was discussed. The design will cost $27,000, Neufeld said, while a construction inspection will cost a maximum of $42,000, which is covered 100 by a grant.

Inspection costs fluctuate greatly depending on the surveyor and how many city employees are needed to assist them, Neufeld said.

Council members voted unanimously to approve construction and inspection.

Holiday dates for city employees also were changed Monday. The two-day Christmas holiday was moved from Dec. 25 and 26 to Dec. 24 and 25, giving employees a four-day weekend.

Council members also instructed Holter to look into having city employs pay for a portion of their health insurance. The city currently pays for all of the cost of an individual policy, but prices are 27.36 percent higher than they were when the Affordable Health Care Act took effect, he said.

On another matter, Prairieland Partners manager Mitch Guederman was appointed to the Marion Municipal Airport board.