Emporia city commissioners discussed a possible delay to the 2010 KLINK project to make time for needed repairs at their Wednesday morning work session.
The 2010 project involves resurfacing Commercial Street from 3rd Avenue to 12th Avenue, but city engineer Mike Novak brought up concerns that the freshly overlayed street — expected to last up to 10 years — would have to be torn up repeatedly to deal with water main issues, particularly in the 300 block of Commercial Street. The street also experiences drainage problems during heavy rains.
“The question here is, do you have interest in approaching those other two needs prior to the overlay?” Novak said.
Novak showed estimates indicating that the water main repairs would cost about $110,000 per block on Commercial Street.
“To do the overlay means you’ve got eight to ten years on the life of the new pavement, and it’s unfortunate when you have to go back and excavate to make repairs after you’ve done that kind of improvement,” Novak said.
“It seems like it would be a shame to have a nice black-topped street that you have to keep tearing up,” Commissioner Jim Kessler said.
Novak said there are an average of two to three water main breaks per year on Commercial Street.
City Manager Matt Zimmerman pointed out that it is possible for the city to push the project back and choose other work to do in 2010, but to lock in that agreement with the Kansas Department of Transportation the choice has to be made by early July.
The choice, Zimmerman said, is to push the project back and debate whether or not to do the necessary work on water mains and storm sewers, or to go ahead with the project put those repairs off for another nine.
“It seems logical that we need to know what it takes and how soon it can be done to get it done correctly,” Commissioner Bob Agler said.
“If we’re going to be doing that, then you need to let the Commercial Street project to slip at least a year and give us direction to submit a revised KLINK project to you so that we can get that in to the state and we don’t miss a funding cycle,” Zimmerman said.
“We know about the storm water issues and we know that the water line is old, so we might as well take a look at doing something about it,” Commissioner Julie Johnson said.
The commission reached a consensus to hold off on the resurfacing until repair options could be reviewed.
Commissioners also discussed a draft ordinance that will permit the outdoor sales and consumption of alcohol.
In putting together the draft, city staff reviewed similar ordinances in other cities, including Lawrence.
“It’s interesting that there isn’t a state prohibition on outdoor consumption except as it relates to public property,” City Attorney Blaise Plummer said. “In other words, there are some criminal penalties for having an open container outside, but those relate only to having it on public property. So if you’re standing in your yard, as long as you’re not publicly intoxicated, it’s permissible that you have an open container on your own private property.”
Plummer said that based on that, it is possible to allow the outdoor consumption of alcoholic beverages in connection with an establishment that has an existing license to serve either cereal malt beverages or alcoholic beverages.
“It would be a good idea to have some ground rules, if you will, or some guidance for businesses that want to do that,” Plummer said. “... So in the interest of providing guidance to businesses and in the interest of providing a uniformity which would be beneficial to the city, we’ve drafted an ordinance for the commission to look at and discuss. ...”
The commission also reviewed the first draft of the city’s small fund budgets is it prepares to head into the 2010 budget season. Funds reviewed Wednesday included the library fund, the convention and tourism fund, the special park fund, the industrial development sales tax fund, the special alcohol fund, the drug forfeiture fund, the special street fund and the bond and interest fund.