Several organizations presented to Edgerton city council at their last meeting of the year for contract approvals. City Council members approved all action items.

ElevateEdgerton!

A funding contract for 2023 was approved that is exactly the same as the contract the city approved for last year.

James Oltman, ElevateEdgerton! President, gave the council a review of the organization’s activities of the past year.

“When you look at the totality it is by far the most successful year we have seen,” he said.

Oltman said the industrial market is still hot, the deal flows haven’t slowed down and LPKC is still full.

“We are looking for another big year in 2023,” he said.

Oltman said their big focus is housing.

“The Dwyer project is still moving forward, and it has been a big, long time coming,” he said. “We are close to the fruits of our labor paying off.”

Oltman said the city’s new home beautification program for small businesses and expanding businesses known as the Edge-Grant Program really paid off.

“It has started to pay out on the program already,” he said. “There will be additional opportunities for the small business side of things.”

Oltman said other areas of excitement for Edgerton in 2022 were the continued expansion of the Intermodal, the new Mr. Goodcents and the Midwest Real Estate panel.

He said the Intermodal donated $5,000 to the City of Edgerton over the course of the year.

“Always tried to do its best, and this year they stepped up more and hope to continue,” he said.

Oltman said the Midwest Real Estate panel hopes one day someone will do a case study of LPKC.

“You always hear perspective outside the bubble,” he said. “Edgerton is held in high regard for development and in industrial spheres.” Don Roberts, mayor, said they had met with five cities in the U.S. “who won’t even mimic what we have down here.”

Oltman said when a subjective eye is put to it a lot of things have been done right in Edgerton.

“It may not be what other communities do,” he said. “But we have formed true partnerships between entities really working together for the greater good. It is a huge benefit to the Southwest region and State of Kansas.”

Josh Lewis, council member, said he appreciated the grant money he had received for his business to purchase a pitching machine that allows them to serve the kids.

Roberts said he appreciated what Oltman does for Edgerton.

“It’s by far been the most successful year,” he said.

ElevateEdgerton! was created in 2017 as a public-private entity to help push forward development for the city. In Summer 2022, the city approved 2023 budget request for $55,000 membership plus $10,000 as a special grant for targeted allocation to the Commercial Development Recruiting Fund. This fund provides the ability to leverage money from other partners for commercial development recruitment activities. A $10,000 of in-kind contribution of time from the Marketing Communications Manager was also approved.

The agreement between ElevateEdgerton! and the City of Edgerton is for Jan 1, 2023, through Dec. 31, 2023. The agreement includes services for marketing, existing business relationships, business recruitment, development proposals, performance standards, compensation, no agency relationships, indemnity and insurance.

Greenspace Project A contract with Incite Design Studio for the second phase of the Greenspace design and an agreement with Henderson Building Solutions for representative services during the construction phase were approved.

An agreement with Incite Design Studio was originally approved in August for the first phase. This phase included the finalization of public input, schematic design, delivery method assessment and the scope and construction final estimates. This first phase has been completed.

In September an updated scope, budget and schedule was approved after a work session from the previous month. The presentation from the City’s project team included project history and priorities from the public engagement. The current construction market and inflation costs were discussed.

The second phase agreement includes the design development phase that is finishing up, a construction documents phase they are diving deep into, competitive bidding and visits from the architect, who can reject work not in compliance and architecture, interior, food services and aquatics design. Phase two will cost roughly $424,943. The total Greenspace Project is set to cost $615,193.

In November last year an agreement with Henderson Building Solutions for owner representative services was approved. This agreement included services only for the pre-construction phase for implementation of the first phase. The new agreement is for the second phase of construction.

These services include representing the client at progress meetings, construction site visits weekly, advising client on need of scope, presenting updates to city council, advising on responses to question from the design team, preparing correspondence requesting client initiated change orders and more. The estimated cost for the agreement is $140,000.

Beth Linn, city administrator, said they are looking for expertise in vertical construction.

Streetlight Study

On September 29, the city requested analysis of the city’s current streetlights within city limits and LPKC.

Olsson, Inc. has been selected for the study. The project is budgeted for $66,500 from the General Fund as part of the 2023-2027 CIP future projects. As part of the project Olsson will assess current street lighting, recommend street lighting and design and analyze the existing system and buyout of Evergy lighting equipment. The design criteria will be used to identify areas of lacking street lighting.

Jeremy Stretz, project engineer with Olsson, said there are two major areas of lighting between the city and LPKC that have different criteria.

Don Roberts, mayor, said they technically don’t have code for industrial and from a safety standpoint they should implement standards for industrial lighting.

“I want all the light I can get without getting yelled at by people who don’t want the light,” he said.

Dan Merkh, public works director, said it could be as simple as the residential standards when it comes to different levels for different roadways.

Roberts said he wanted to know if the trail systems could also be included as they look to the future for better lighting.

Merkh said they hadn’t had discussions for the trails yet, but they could look into it.

Linn said they could possibly add it into the trails master plan.

“At some point we need to plan our trails system too,” Roberts said.

Stretz said the options are out there.

Edgerton Museum and Historical Society The 2023 agreement is the same as agreements with the city in the years before. In the past years city council set the fee at $1 for the historical society’s usage and maintenance in the museum.

The Edgerton Historical Society opened the museum in 2013.

Charlie Troutner, curator, said in October 2013 Mayor Don Roberts looked at him sand said did he have any idea the number of visitors they would have that first year.

“I said I don’t know, maybe 50,” he said. “I hadn’t thought about it.”

The first year the museum had 500 to 600 visitors.

Troutner said he was pleasantly surprised and now they have had 5500 visitors from all over the world.

“It’s been successful and beyond whatever I have dreamed of,” he said.

Troutner said, however, he was looking for help to maintain the safety of the handicap ramp during the winter, because his health was preventing him from it.

“I ask the city to take over the responsibility,” he said. “I hate to ask because the city already has a lot on their plate, but I ask for help for the cleanup of snow. The city doing it I know it’ll be done and rest easy.”

Linn said the challenges were the city isn’t there every day when the museum is open.

Troutner said if anyone else had other ideas like a volunteer group he was willing to have any help.

Roberts said he loved the idea of having volunteers involved.

“We start down that path and go from there,” he said. “I would think someone would step up to the plate. It’s a positive community aspect.”

City council members Josh Beem and Josh Lewis volunteered to help. Lewis said he had two teenage boys that would “love to help but don’t know it yet.”

Troutner said he thought it would be a great thing for teenagers to do.

“The ramp can be precarious,” he said. “It is slick. It is not the easiest to clean. It can be kind of trick as it is slick and treacherous.”

Lewis said they would get it figured out.

“And if they learn something while they are there even better,” he said.

Bank of Knowledge Building A maintenance agreement and an agreement with Johnson County Library for improvements were approved.

Roberts said he thanked staff for working diligently.

“And library staff helped spark some of this,”he said.

Roberts said the library had been at a challenging point with threats to shut down, but hopefully they had made a turn to recognize the facility as it is used a lot.

“It is a beautiful facility,” he said. “Kudos to both sides.”

In 2009, Edgerton approved an agreement with the Board of Directors for the Johnson County Library Board of Directors to use the facility.

The biggest change in the agreement for 2023 is the Johnson County Library agreed to pay an increased monthly rent from $1500 from $500. This is the first rent raise since 2009.

The improvements to the building are part of the 2022-2026 capital improvement project to replace the roof and repair and replace the bricks, primarily on the west wall and east wall adjacent to the patio and the patio walls and stairs. The library is splitting the cost of the brick repair and the city said there had been a lot of removal already.

“It is the best brick work I have ever seen,” he said.