Thank you Women of Wellington!

Thank you, to the Women of Wellington Club who recently sponsored a candidate forum for City Council candidates. It is quite a task to organize and plan a forum, and their event from extremely successful. It is vital to get to know the ideas and opinions of your future representatives. The forum was taped by Studio 55 and is currently being broadcast on Sumner Cable TV's Channel 55. Thanks again Women of Wellington for stepping up to the plate and keeping the citizens informed.

Projects put on hold

The City Clerk has tallied up the projects that were placed on hold by the City Council at last Thursdays workshop. The Council has suspended over 1/2 million dollars in budgeted items, as well as placed $1.7 million in items that would have been completed with a bond issue. Should the economy turn around by the end of the year, the items can be placed back on the table; if not, the items will be postponed until later fiscal years.

State Income Tax Refunds Suspended

I've just received word that the State of Kansas has suspended all state income tax refunds. It is unknown how long the suspension will last, but apparently the action was taken because the State is unsure if it can meet this Fridays payroll. More information to come.

Council discusses economy/cutbacks

At the work session of February 12th, City Council members met to discuss the current economic crisis and made a contingency plan in the event future cuts are necessary. City Manager Collins and staff self implemented a hiring freeze on all non-essential departments (except Police and Fire), limited training and travel to required certification training, and are conserving excess fuel funds that were budgeted at the 2008 fuel prices. Staff will also look, in the future, to determine if temporary seasonal employees will be needed or if the City can manage without them.
The Governing Body reviewed Capital Improvement projects for the year, and prioritized them accordingly. Those project currently underway in which time and funding has already been invested in them, as well as projects which are mandated by State or Federal laws will be left intact. Remaining projects were discussed according to their impact on essential services to the citizens. While no projects were officially cut, those deemed non-essential have been placed on "hold" until such time as the economy returns and the projects can be re-instated, or if the economy continues to worsen, be postponed until a later fiscal year.
A total dollar figure of the impact of the "held" projects will be reported when it becomes available.

Round-About

While I continue to opposed the 15th and "A" Street Round-About Project, an engineer from Transystems met with the City Council at the February 11th work session to present the initial plans for the round-about. I've added a page to my website, including diagrams of the current intersection and diagrams of the proposal. It can be found at http://www.johntracy.net/roundabout.html.

Traffic Engineer reveals initial plans

While plans are not even 50% complete yet, a Transystems traffic engineer revealed the initial layout of the 15th & "A" roundabout to the Governing Body at the February 11th Council Work Session. The plans call to keep "A" Street an open access point to the roundabout (originally would have ended in a cul-de-sac) and to build a new road connecting 15th and 16th Streets that would run just behind the Cobb Liquor Store. Several questions were asked by Council Members about the design. A tentatively time schedule is to have the plans 50% complete in March or April for KDOT inspection, then finalize the plans by the end of the year. Bids will be let for roundabout construction some time in 2010. Check my website for updates: I'll should be posting a diagram of the proposal soon.

Support "Proposition K"

House Bill 2150, also known as "Proposition K", was introduced into the Kansas Legislature by Rep. Steve Brunk (Park City). If passed, the bill would limit property assessment increases to 2% per year, unless property improvements are made. Currently, many government agencies enjoy budgeting and spending the revenues created from higher property appraisals while touting that the "mill levy" was maintained, and blaming higher taxes on the County Appraiser. If passed, Proposition K would place the blame on higher taxes where it belongs, with the taxing entity. Increases in taxes would then have to be justified by the taxing entity, and not just because property valuations rose. For more information on the process of taxation, visit my article "How the Process of Taxation Really Works" at http://www.johntracy.net/files/taxation.pdf. For more information on Proposition K, you can follow the Proposition K link on my homepage, or point your browser to http://www.propositionk.org/?page_id=2. If you support Proposition K, send your letter of support to Rep. Vince Wetta.

Website Updates

I've made some adjustments to my website. Some of the graphics were loading very slowly, so I replaced them so the page would load more efficiently. I also added a "Projects" page to review current and planned City Projects,as well as a "Reports" page so I can provide more information on data and statistics. Please notify me if you find any spelling errors or broken links.

Recession to be topic of Workshop

The Wellington City Council will meet for a special workshop Thursday, February 12th to discuss our nation's recession, and prioritize spending for the 2009 Fiscal Year. Concerned about the economy and layoffs of aircraft industry workers, the Council feels there needs to be a "plan of action" in the event the City needs to curb costs. The consensus of the Council was that projects and expenditures should be cut before layoffs of employees were considered, therefore the 2009 Capital Improvement Budget will be reviewed as well as other contractual and commodity items. The workshop will be held at City Hall beginning at 6:30p.m.