City commission hears proposal from Emporia Main Street
By Russ Morgan (Contact)
Thursday, October 30, 2008
The Emporia City Commission heard a presentation by Emporia Main Street regarding phase II of the Community Initiated Development process at a study session Wednesday morning. “That is basically the comprehensive planning document for downtown development,” said Kayla Oney, Emporia Main Street executive director. “This includes overall basic ideas about what things we want to see, it’s about putting the vision with the physical aspects” of the process. “Now what we’re looking at is for the planning and zoning commission to adopt this and amend this as part of the city comprehensive plan, to be utilized as a working, comprehensive document,” she said. “This is for developers who want to do a project downtown, this is really going to aid them and guide them in their development.”
Commissioners also discussed the alarm ordinance with Police Chief Gary Smith and Fire Chief Jack Taylor. The discussion revolved around a redesigned fine structure for false alarms in an effort to reduce the number of unnecessary calls the departments have to go out on. “I don’t have the exact numbers, but historically, over 50 percent of fire alarm system calls are false,” Chief Taylor said. Many of the false calls are from malfunctioning alarms, and the fines are to encourage owners to have the alarms repaired rather than risk being fined. The commission reached a consensus to approve the fine structure and to prepare an ordinance for the city to act on.
The commission also discussed health insurance plans for city employees, hiring an attorney for the collection of city debt, and hiring a lobbyist for the 2009 Kansas Legislative session. Commissioners agreed that a lobbyist would be an unnecessary expense, since the city doesn’t feel it has any major issues to push for in the Legislature.