The Fort Scott City Commission voted 3-1 on Nov. 3 to suspend its award for the solar project it approved two weeks earlier so the city can look for other bids. Commissioners also tied 2-2 on a $558,564 sewer cleaner truck and put off decisions on selling lake lots and hiring a new tourism marketing firm until Nov. 17.

Commission President Julie Buchta presided, and the meeting ran about three and a half hours. Mayor Kathryn Salsbury was not there, so every vote was among the four other commissioners.

Solar award suspended

Buchta opened the meeting by saying it had been brought to the commission’s attention, “and rightfully so, that we agreed to do the solar panels without going out for bid, which is not appropriate.” The commission added the project to the agenda.

Commissioner Matthew Wells, who made the Oct. 20 motion to go ahead with SEK Solar, said the city has done energy and engineering projects before without bids, and that the policy on quotes covers buying equipment. It was also noted that the project includes a lot of equipment. Commissioner Tim Van Hoecke asked whether others had received letters of concern from people in the solar industry. Wells said new bids would have to be in by the next meeting or the city would not be able to claim some of the tax credits. He also said the company’s bid is now public. “Everybody who wants to bid against it can now underbid this guy,” he said.

“I recognize that, but we should have thought about that in the beginning,” Buchta said. She added that SEK Solar can come back with a bid, and that the city has not signed a contract with the company.

Van Hoecke, the lone no vote on Oct. 20, moved to temporarily suspend or revoke the award until the city can get another bid or bids. Commissioner Tracy Dancer seconded, and the motion passed 3-1 with Wells voting no.

Sewer truck ties 2-2

The city’s wastewater and water crews share one Vactor combination truck, a 2007 model that Bill Lemke, the water distribution supervisor, said is in good shape but is “taking a little longer to get out of bed.” A second truck would take demand off the old one and let water, sewer and stormwater crews work different jobs the same day, he said, and the crews could clean storm drains. Public Works Director Tom Coffman said the 2007 truck cost $298,000 new.

The city would buy a new single-axle Vactor 2100i from Key Equipment under a Sourcewell purchasing contract. The packet shows a Sourcewell price of $532,564.47 plus $26,000 for added features, for a total of $558,564.47. Van Hoecke said the 2026 budget had $600,000 for the truck. City Manager Brad Matkin and Ben Hart of Baker Tilly, the city’s financial adviser, both recommended paying cash rather than taking one of the lease options in the packet, which ran at 6.85% interest. Hart said the wastewater fund is scheduled for a $200,000 surplus in 2027.

Wells said he had found about a dozen used trucks with the same specifications for about $250,000 each, mostly 2017 to 2019 models, in California, Alabama and Iowa, and a 2024 truck in California priced at $389,000. Dancer asked about two options staff had listed, a 2012 truck at $175,000 and a 2007 at $59,000, and said those are not an apples-to-apples comparison. “If it saves us $300,000 and we still get a good truck, I’ll fly you out there and we’ll bring it back,” Wells told staff. Van Hoecke said a used truck can mean “buying somebody else’s problem,” with no real warranty, and Buchta said the department has a record of getting the full life out of what it buys.

Wells said at the start of the meeting that if solar needed bids, the truck needed them too, and later that he could find only one quote in the packet. Matkin said the city has three quotes, and Coffman said the Sourcewell contract had already done that work for the city. “Even if we have it in the budget, if we don’t have to spend it out of the budget, that means we still have it,” Dancer said.

Van Hoecke’s motion to buy the truck, seconded by Buchta, would have paid $250,000 each from the water and wastewater funds and $59,000 from stormwater. It tied 2-2, with Wells and Dancer voting no. The commission then voted 4-0 to table it to Nov. 17, when Van Hoecke said he expected five commissioners to vote, and told staff to bring the other options Wells and Dancer asked for.

Lake lots tabled over sewer capacity

Matkin asked again to sell five city-owned lots on the east side of Fort Scott Lake as a first phase. Wells said he “had no idea” those were the lots under discussion, because the talk had been about lots on the west side. Van Hoecke said he had been talking only about the east side lots and that those are the ones surveyed. Wells said the city paid to have the west side surveyed too. Van Hoecke said during the meeting’s rate discussion that he hoped lot sales could pay down debt, and Hart noted that the budget passed without that money in it.

Harold Martin told commissioners during public comment that the lake sewer system is already overloaded, and that the county and city said when it was built that there would never be more than 141 lots. “We’re already at 145 plus the school on Indian Road,” he said.

Lemke said the Indian Road lift station has run well since its worn impellers were replaced, but he could not say what its limit is. “My personal opinion is if it’s just five additional homes, it will handle it,” he said, while deferring to the engineer’s numbers. He also said he understands the county still owns the station. Jason Dickman of Earles Engineering, the city’s consulting engineer, said he could provide a capacity calculation. Martin said the original engineer, Schwab Eaton, recommended a six-inch discharge line and the county chose four inches because there would never be more than 141 houses. The commission tabled the sale to Nov. 17 on a 4-0 vote and asked staff to contact Schwab Eaton and find out what an upgrade would take.

Alley parking comes back, on a 3-1 vote

Wells objected to adopting the 2026 Standard Traffic Ordinance because the version passed last year made it illegal to park in an alley. He said the city’s law allowed it for 70 years as long as there was eight feet of clearance. City Attorney Bob Farmer said he would rather have one clear rule. “I think either park in alleys or you don’t,” he said. Police Chief Jason Pickert said officers don’t patrol alleys looking for violations and respond when someone complains. “I think people should be able to park in their alley if they can do it without blocking,” he said.

A single vote on the traffic ordinance and the Uniform Public Offense Code tied 2-2, with Wells and Dancer voting no. Farmer warned that without the offense code the city could not prosecute state misdemeanors in municipal court and those cases would go to the county attorney. The commission then split the two, and Ordinance 3804 adopting the offense code passed 4-0.

Pickert and Farmer said a city cannot make a rule less restrictive than state law, but Farmer then said the commission could amend the ordinance anyway. “If the Attorney General wants to come down here and do something, I guess they can do something,” he said. Wells moved to approve Ordinance 3803 with an amendment letting residents park in an alley if someone can get by and there is eight feet of clearance. It passed 3-1. Dancer, who had noted the less-restrictive limit just before the vote, voted no. Pickert said the biggest change in the new traffic ordinance deals with using a cell phone while driving.

Tourism contract goes to Nov. 17

Natalia Varzea, the city’s new tourism coordinator, recommended a 12-month, $35,000 contract with iFocus Media of Overland Park beginning Jan. 1, which she said is within the existing marketing budget. She and Rachel Carpenter met with eight agencies and narrowed the list to three. Simpleview’s proposal ($58,200 on the agenda) was suited to a larger community, she said. Cumulus Media, the city’s current digital marketing firm, offered $42,000 and nothing new strategically, she said. She said there had been a pattern of incorrect information and analytics that weren’t performing well, though those problems were fixed and credits were applied. Cumulus does the website hosting well, she said, and would continue hosting the Visit Fort Scott site for $75 a month.

iFocus found the website captures about 4% of the potential online search visibility, Varzea said. She also reported more than 3,000 people at the new Summer Jam in August, five Haunted Trolley Tours that sold out within three days, and more than 1.3 million video views this year. The commission tabled the decision to Nov. 17. Varzea said it is needed by about Dec. 1.

Wall Street and the Davis lift station

Dickman said the railroad approved two of three permits for city projects but basically denied the one for US 54, so the stretch between the medians at the tracks would get a mill and overlay instead of full-depth work. The rest would stay full depth, he said. He plans to pursue the crossing as a separate KDOT-funded project and hopes to keep the road bid on track for October next year. That led Matkin to question the Wall Street project itself. He said the city’s share would be $400,000 this phase, $600,000 the next and about a million more for later phases, by his estimate, compared with the $140,000 the city spent on a past mill and overlay. “That’s a lot of mill and overlay we could do ourselves,” he said.

Wells said Wall Street has no base and is the entrance to town from the east. “Why would we not do it right once?” he said. “Why do we continue to want to do the cheapest option possible and not fix things the right way?” Dickman said a mill and overlay lasts five to seven years on average. Buchta said considering another option is never a bad thing, and Van Hoecke asked to move the discussion to a road work session on Nov. 17.

Dickman also reported a washout under the driveway at the Davis lift station from a water line leak he thinks ran more than a month. A crane had also been parked over the area. He said the cause and timing are still under review and that a contractor is generally responsible for utility damage under the contract. Van Hoecke said he will not vote for the city to pay. “I can tell you who ain’t paying for it this time. It’s the city of Fort Scott,” he said.

No city Lake Advisory Board for now

Dancer brought up reinstating the Lake Advisory Board, which the commission abolished at Dancer’s first meeting, saying the lake is the city’s drinking water source and residents are extra eyes on it. Ed Allen said a board gives the city eyes on the lake and could bring ideas for revenue. Diane Striler said many owners are second-home owners who spend money in town and feel they lost their voice. Van Hoecke and former commissioner Josh Jones said a city board isn’t needed, and Matkin said he didn’t know if one was. “I just don’t see why we need to bring back another advisory committee,” Van Hoecke said.

No vote was taken. Residents can form their own group, Dancer offered to meet with it, and commissioners said it won’t be a city-assigned committee. Commissioners also offered a city gym, or possibly an airport hangar, for a meeting of all lake owners.

Other business

• Ordinances 3806, 3807 and 3808 raise sewer, water and stormwater rates 3% for 2027. All three passed 4-0. The basic sewer charge goes from $26.42 to $27.21 a month. Van Hoecke caught a typo in the stormwater ordinance that listed the smallest tier at $573 a month instead of $5.73. The commission passed it as amended, and Matkin said the corrected ordinance will come back at the next meeting. Wells said the small yearly increases keep the city from needing a big jump later.
• Joan Brown told the commission the Homeless Alliance is now Hope Outreach of Fort Scott and is forming a nonprofit. She asked for a nonvoting city liaison at quarterly board meetings, said the group isn’t asking for money and said it does not plan to build a shelter. The commission named Buchta, 4-0. The county commission took up the same request a day earlier.
• Business Development Director Mary Wyatt presented a $300,000 Community Development Block Grant for housing rehabilitation through the Kansas Department of Commerce, with a $5,500 city match. It passed 4-0. The money is for low-income homeowners and mostly exterior work, and she hopes to take applications in early 2027. The 27 pre-applications that went in with the grant request will have to reapply.
• Ordinance 3805 raises the maximum on the city’s salary ranges 3%, and the commission approved Ordinance 3802 codifying city ordinances and the 2027 holiday schedule. All passed 4-0.
• The consent agenda, including $773,469.42 in bills, passed. Van Hoecke pointed out about $261,000 of that for runway lighting at the airport.
• Van Hoecke warned parents about underage riders on minibikes and go-karts on city streets. “I am terrified that somebody’s going to get wiped out on one of these things,” he said.
• The commission went into a 20-minute executive session on financial affairs, with the subject given as baseball. Afterward it directed Matkin to gather more information and send it to commissioners as soon as possible.