Ellsworth resident Don Panzer raised concerns at Monday’s meeting of the Ellsworth City Council about how repair work on the south retention basin project will be paid.

Panzer, a former Ellsworth retail businessman, said during his time in business, if he made a mistake, if he misjudged something, he paid the price.

“That’s just part of doing business,” he said.

Panzer asked what the planned work would cost the City of Ellsworth.

“I believe it should be zero,” he said. “When Kirkham Michael has a business, they are responsible for that product. They should have liability insurance or miscalculation insurance to pay for that — that should not be on the patrons of the City of Ellsworth.”

Panzer, also a former city council member, said he supports the city council 100 percent.

“You guys did everything you could to make this city beautiful,” he said. “We’ve got an excellent golf course, we’ve got excellent parks, a library, everything. No other town has what we have. But I’m just infuriated to find out that Kirkham Michael is probably going to want the city to foot part of the bill for that, and it’s total B.S. When you screw up, you screw up. You admit you screwed up and you fix the problem and we all move on.”

In other business:

• Ellsworth resident Karen Shriner asked when a couch in a front yard of a residence on the north side towards the end of Jelineck Drive will be removed.

“He put it out for the trash people to take, but the trash people aren’t going to take it,” she said. “It’s already been there for over a month. Is it going to stay there forever, or do we have some recourse of being able to get rid of that?”

Ellsworth City Administrator Dustin Stambaugh said he would look into the matter.

• Consensus approval was given to have Melissa Miller, city attorney, correct the description of an easement at the Ellsworth Airport.

Miller said Brad Waller with Benesch, the contractor for work at the airport, found the legal description for one of the easements from the 1980s was incorrect. It was actually rotated 90 degrees.

Miller asked whether the council wanted the information corrected or whether they wanted a survey done.

“In my opinion, it’s pretty clear that they just rotated it 90 degrees and alter those legals to rotate it back to correct the issue,” she said.

The council indicated Miller and Waller should work together to correct the information and not do a survey.

• Approval was given for Mayor Dan Finnegan to sign a letter of support for the National Drovers Hall of Fame.

Stambaugh said Drovers is applying for another Heritage Trust Fund grant for 2023 to further renovate the interior of the old Insurance building. They have completed Phase One with the last grant in early 2021, which removed the existing first floor, poured footings and the basement floor, as well as performed tuck and point work of the basement wall up to the level of the new first floor. The new grant for Phase Two of the interior renovation will reconstruct the new first floor at the level of the original floor, which is three to four feet above street level.

• J.H. Robbins Memorial Library board member Chuck Huslig discussed the possibility of the library purchasing housing in the future.

Huslig said the library has been considering expansion and has been in contact with an architect from Newton.

“They have drawn up some initial plans,” he said. “We’ve also belatedly realized that the property next door to the to the south of the library was for sale.”

He said the library could use that space and not have to build on to the existing library, which would be much more economical.

However, the library board learned that property was already sold.

“So it’s kind of a moot point, but we never know when that property may become available,” Huslig said.“And I think that the issue here is thinking ahead that when it becomes available how do we want to handle this.”

Huslig asked council members to keep the idea in the back of their minds so if at some point the property does become available, they could consider it.

• Miller said she talked with members of the El-Kan Western Riders Saddle Club and wrote up some general terms for a basic lease agreement.

“If you all approve of the general terms, we’ll send it to them,” she said, adding once the Saddle Club approves the terms, then a lease will be submitted to the council for approval.

The term of the lease is 20 years, with automatic renewal for additional terms. The city will pay for water and sewer as presently, with the Saddle Club responsible for maintenance.

• Sarah Goss of the Ellsworth County Fair Association said she received a telephone call from KanEquip potentially wanting to make a contribution to help the association expand and improve its facility.

The association wishes to lease a plot of land directly south of the Ellsworth Health and Recreation Center to build a new arena.

Goss said the Ellsworth County Fair is currently at maximum capacity in the space it is operating.

She is working with Stambaugh to clarify the lease agreements with the various entities at the fair grounds south of Ellsworth.

“Good lease agreements make good municipal arrangements,” she said.

The Fair Association would like to build a new dedicated covered show arena with bleachers that sit underneath a metal structure.

“We would need some sort of alley to get animals from the barn over to the arena,” Goss said.

Additional wash rack space is also desired on the east side of the fair building.

The potential grant would be for $50,000.

Approval was given to allow Stambaugh to enter into discussions with the Fair Association board of directors on a lease agreement.

• Approval was given to rezone the Good Samaritan of Ellsworth property from R3 to RS. Miller said there are cell phone towers on the property which the owner wants to make improvements on. The owner has asked for a building permit.

Finnegan noted the owner of the towers is T-Mobile.

“As part of the process, we found out that is not the correct zoning for this to be under,” Miller said.

The next meeting of the Ellsworth City Council will be at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 10, at city hall.