By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
Hays city commissioners took one more look at the draft 2027 budget during their Thursday work session.
One minor change was presented by Collin Bielser, deputy city manager, involving involves plans for HVAC upgrades to three city buildings.
The draft 2027 budget originally called for a large project involving the parks, city hall and public works buildings. However, after further evaluation, it was determined city hall and the public works facilities are substantively more difficult projects than the parks facility. The city hall roof also needs to be replaced due to leaks.
City staff recommended separating the parks building into a single project. A low bid of $43,700 from Werth Heating, Plumbing and AC, Hays, was presented and will be voted on at the next commission meeting.
Staff will review HVAC upgrades to city hall and the public works building next year. The two systems are near or exceeding 25 years of service, Bielser said. The project will not affect the city's operational budget.
No other changes were made.
Commissioner Shaun Musil thanked Bielser, department heads and staff for their work on putting together a budget that takes care of employees and maintains operations.
Mason Ruder, mayor, said, "I like that reserves are funded, it's fairly flat for the most part and we're taking care of things—preparing for the future."
At an earlier work session, Bielser said proposed expenditures in the general fund are only about half a million dollars more than 2026. The overwhelming majority (76%) is because of a 2% step in employee salary increases, along with a 2% cost-of-living adjustment.
The mill levy for the draft 2027 budget is 24.153 mills. That is a decrease of about .2 mills.
On Sept. 10, a revenue-neutral rate public hearing will be conducted during the regular commission meeting, along with approval to exceed the revenue-neutral rate. Those will be followed by the budget public hearing and approval of the 2027 budget.
The draft budget is available on the city's website.
General obligation bonds
The other three agenda items involve the city's issuance of general obligation bonds to finance infrastructure at the Tallgrass Phase 4 Reinvestment Housing Incentive District (RHID) and Exit 161 on Interstate 70.
Kim Rupp, city finance director, explained the first issuance is to pay off the temporary notes of $4,035,000 for Exit 161. Final permanent financing is estimated at $1.22 million after considering the economic grant funds received from the state.
Another resolution was presented for the issuance of general obligation temporary notes in the amount of $5.6 million for the Tallgrass Phase 4 Reinvestment Housing Incentive District.
The commission will vote on the three items at the Aug. 28 regular meeting.
Rupp also noted the city received good news this week from S&P of reconfirmation of its AA rating with a stable outlook. "Very happy about that," he said.
Other discussion items
R9 water consumption
David Vilaysing, commissioner, again brought up his desire for the city to have some sort of policy in place so that "no big corporations come in once we have our R9 water supply in place and start guzzling that down."
Toby Dougherty, city manager, said he would recommend crafting a resolution "keeping things as specifically vague as possible ... using broad terms ... as 'guard rails.'"
City attorney staff will write a proposed resolution regarding high water use and conservation for review at a future work session.
"Our community has been (water) conservative for so long, " said Sandy Jacobs, commissioner, " .... I'd be surprised if any major manufacturer that needs a lot of water would even be interested in us, even with the new water coming."
NextGen award winner
Jacobs congratulated Jarrod Kuckelman, assistant city manager, on being named a NextGen Under 30 Kansas honoree in the Policy & Public Service category.
ACCESS Public Transportation survey
Alaina Cunningham and Jacobs are city commission representatives on the ACCESS Public Transportation task force. Cunningham encouraged Ellis County residents to fill out the public survey for feedback about their usage of the service.
Executive session
Dougherty called for a 20-minute executive session to discuss data related to the financial affairs or trade secrets of corporations, partnerships, trusts and individual proprietorships, as well as consultation with the city attorney, to discuss matters deemed covered by the attorney-client privilege, to include the city commissioners, city management staff and city attorney.
No action was taken following the executive session.