Kiowa City Council has full agenda

A change is getting ready to occur on Main Street in Kiowa in the near future. SCTelcom is moving their business from the old historic ice building to the former People's Bank building at the intersection of 5th and Main by Centennial Park.

SCTelcom Public Government Relations employee Shelly Hansel made a presentation at Kiowa City Council's October meeting Monday night. She told the council SCTelcom would like to sell the building and not see it torn down.

Hansel said SCTelcom is rolling out Smart Rural Town to Kiowa. It's basically a free public wi-fi powered by SCTelcom and means you go outside and connect to high speed internet and not consume your local data or get roaming charges. This is done through internet hubs placed around town.

She said SCTelcom will pay for the signage that says, “We are a town who values high speed internet.”

City council members present when Mayor Bill Watson called the meeting to order were: Janet Robison, B.J.Duvall, Brian Hill and Jason Thayer. Tom Wells was absent. City Administrator Sam Demel sat at the table along with City Clerk Cady Tucker.

At a special meeting, the board set Kiowa's Fall Clean-up dates for Oct. 13-19 north side of Main Street and Oct. 20-27 south side of Main Street. Residents set items on the curb. Contact the city for a list of restricted items.

The city is interested in purchasing the RV Park north of the city shop office on the north side of town.

Doug Swonger is selling it and and Demel said he wants $45,000 for the north lot and $60,000 for both lots. The council took the offer under consideration but took no action.

Police Chief Travis Peterson confirmed they've had youth vandalism at the city park bathrooms. They were caught and had to clean it up. Demel recommends installing cameras at the bathroom.

Demel said it can be done for under $400. The council approved it. They are also considering installing cameras at the swimming pool.

BG Consultants, who headed the water project, submitted an invoice for $549 that the council approved paying.

The city needs to replace 33 electrical poles along the line they are doing on 7th street. Demel said more need to be replaced as some of them are 80 years old.

A bid to replace Kiowa Community Building Doors on the east side was approved. The bid was for $19,847 from Kem Humphrey's company 66 Construction LLC. The doors were rusted through. If the council decides to approve replacement of the doors on the north side it would just double the price.

A transformer purchase was approved not to exceed $11,300.

At a special meeting at the end of September the council held their budget hearing and no one from the public attended to comment or protest. The Newsgram had already reported on the budget information prior to the hearing.

Economic Development Director Lyon Gives Council Update

Julie Lyon, Director of Economic Development for Barber County, updated the city council on her work in Kiowa. She has been working on putting together a grant application to the Kansas Department of Commerce for their SEED (Strategic Economic Expansion and Development) grant. The SEED grant is to help communities in four different areas Childcare and Senior Programming, Community Vibrancy, Food Retail and Libraries. She explained the strategy behind a good grant application, and that the one for the City of Kiowa would check a lot of the boxes they look for.

Lyon also recapped the recent community meeting that she held on Sept. 27. She said that while there was not a large number in attendance, that there has been a large amount of further discussion following the meeting, and that a number of people have reached out to her in regards to opportunities for Kiowa.

One of the main focus areas for Barber County development in the next three months is to complete a housing survey, which would then allow for individuals, builders or groups to apply for housing grants when they are announced next spring. Housing continues to be one of the main challenges in rural Kansas, and she wants Kiowa to be fully prepared to take advantage of any future funding opportunities.