KANOPOLIS — The owners of four properties in Kanopolis will be given 30 days to begin cleaning them up or face a legal abatement process.

Members of the Kanopolis City Council approved the action Tuesday, Sept. 10, during their monthly meeting. The properties in question are known as the Sneath, Shute, Arensman and Orozco properties.

According to Kanopolis Police Chief Jeff Weigel, the properties have had years of neglect and the houses are “falling down.”

Weigel will send letters to the property owners. If the owners haven’t started their cleanup process within the 30 days, the council will give city attorney Patrick Hoffman the go ahead to start the abatement process.

The council agreed to withhold the abatement on the Shoulders property since it is going up for public auction.

In other business:

• Approval was given to allocate $10,000 to bid on four properties in Kanopolis involved in an Ellsworth County property tax sale scheduled in October. Mayor Anthony Hopkins will bid on the properties on behalf of the city.

“It’s a good opportunity for the city to pickup some properties to sell on an incentive basis,” he said.

• Thaniel Monaco of BG Consultants said everything is going well on the city’s water project. He said crews should be finished by mid October.

Monaco said since pressure testing was done on the waterlines installed on Missouri and Iowa Streets during the next shutdown — assuming there is another shutdown — crews will be able to keep a large part of the new main waterline in service, specifically around Kanopolis Middle School.

“So the school should not have to be shut down again,” he said.

KMS closed its doors for the day Sept. 9 because the water was shut off. That caused the school district to bring the students to Ellsworth.

“We appreciated them accomodating that Monday,” Monaco said. “Hopefully we won’t have to mess with that again.”

Monaco requested approval of the Pay Request No. 3 in the amount of $239,686.52. Council approved the request.

A patron asked Hopkins how the city informs the public about the water being shut off in town. Hopkins said that information is posted on Facebook and displayed on the city’s electronic message board. Acknowledging those two aren’t the best ways to inform everyone, he suggeted city crews put a note on every residence in Kanopolis when the water is going to be shut off.

• An $11,460 bid from City Plumbing in Ellsworth to replace the air conditioner at city hall was approved.

• A $7,404 bid from City Plumbing to replace the air conditioner at the Kanopolis Library was approved.

• A $4,056 bid from City Plumbing was approved to replace the air conditioning at the Kanopolis Fire Department.

• The city crew was instructed to call White’s Construction to see if they can grade some roads in town.

• After a brief discussion on the status of the inground water sprinkler at city hall, the consensus of the council was to use an above ground water sprinkler to water the lawn at city hall.

• Kralik was instructed to call Curtis Kaiser of Kaiser Trash to get a copy of the trash service contract with the city.

• No action was taken on a request received by Kralik to possibly place a recycling trailer near city hall so it could be monitored.

Hopkins noted the county’s recycling trailer was removed twice from Kanopolis because patrons were not putting recyclables in the correct bins or were putting trash in the bins. As such, he said any placement of a recycling trailer near city hall would have to be done by the city. After a brief discussion, the consensus of the council was for the city to opt out of having a recycling trailer and for residents to recycle on their own.

• Council members decided not to go with an social archive system. Managers of the city’s Facebook page are not allowed to delete any comments from page.

• Approval was given to close the city’s petty cash checking account.

• The city crew told Hopkins the city truck needs replaced. He asked them to start looking for a resonably priced, three-quarter ton, four-wheel drive pickup truck with a snow plow attachment.

• Kralik received a complaint from Jeff Hoffman regarding a disconnected water hookup at 107 E. Ohio. His contractor turned the water on while working on the property. Mike Bunch and Kralik made the decision to pull all meters from disconnected lines to prevent water from being turned on in the future. The council denied Hoffman’s request to refund him the money paid for water used at the property.

• The purchase of a grapple fork for the skid loader was approved, not to exceed $2,000.