In the event of a disaster, Wamego is prepared. At Tuesday’s City Commission meeting, City Manager Merl Page asked for approval to join KSMAP, a standardized collaborative mutual aid agency. Page said after recent natural disasters in Greensburg and Reading ,FEMA said if a community requested aid, they needed to belong to a mutual aid agency and KSMAP was formed. According to Page, the group encompasses all utilities that would be affected in a disaster. He said KMEA (Kansas Municipal Energy Agency) will remain independent, but will be joining KSMAP.
At the last meeting, the Governing Body asked the Assistant City Attorney Jake Pugh to review the agreement before authorizing membership. Pugh said the agreement was non-binding and lays out how aid will be distributed. The Commission approved a resolution that authorizes the appropriate City individuals to sign the mutual aid agreement.
Construction will begin at Wamego’s power plant soon. At Tuesday’s meeting, the board approved the contract with Construction, Inc., to construct the building to house the new engine for the municipal power plant. According to City Manager Page, the preliminary contract was written, waiting on the construction permit from KDHE (Kansas Department of Health and Environment), which was received several weeks ago. Assistant City Attorney Jake Pugh reviewed and approved the “very straight-forward” base building contract with a cost of over $313,000, the Governing Body authorized Mayor Bill Ditto to sign the contract.
In other business:
· the Commission approved a phone-system upgrade for all the City departments at a cost under 6-thousand dollars for the equipment from Wamego Telephone Company.
· the Commission approved renewing board appointments:
a. Dave Karnowski and Dennis Butler to the Construction Board of Appeals
b. Lorraine Richard and Matt Totten to the Wamego Airport Board
c. The board appointments are for another 3-year term that expires September 3, 2015.
