Jon Halbgewachs summed up Monday night’s regular meeting of the Ellsworth City Council in

a few words.“There’s a lot going on,” the senior vice president at Kirkham Michael Consulting Engineers told officials following a review of city projects.

However, before the review, council members cleared up a piece of business from an earlier meeting. At the suggestion of council member Steve Magette, a bill for $21,000 to Harrison Electric of Claflin was added to the monthly list of invoices and approved.

The bill was for work Harrison did on the city water tower by the old hospital. Council members had delayed payment because the work was done without their approval in violation of city purchasing policy.

Here is a summary of the updates:

• The CDBG Housing Grant — Rehabilitation completed on three homes; five more awarded in most recent bid with construction to start in the next week; six homes will be razed with the start date expected in the next 30 days. The state has set a completion date of Feb. 28; however, the council expects to approve an extension request at a future meeting.

• Mayor Mark Kennedy, city clerk Patti Booher and attorney Patrick Hoffman met this past week about improvements to the municipal airport. Reconstruction of the taxiway is complete with $252,225 due to the contractor — 10 percent of which is the city’s responsibility.

Design of a new runway is expected to be 95 percent done by the end of the year and sent to the Federal Aviation Administration for review, after which it will be returned for final changes. Bid letting is set for March 13, with bids to be opened April 15. Bid approval should be on the agenda of the April 27 meeting. Construction should begin in fall 2020.

• Stormwater detention ponds at K-14/K-140 intersection — Construction bid letting is tentatively set for July 22.

• Street projects — K-156/8th Street turn lanes, construction is set to begin no later than June 30; 8th Street from K-156 to Charles, contractor bids tentatively scheduled for spring/summer 2020; K-156/K-140, construction bid currently set for Novemer 2021.

Kennedy said it’s possible Ellsworth could see construction at the airport and of the detention pond at the same time.

“There would be a lot going on,” he said repeating the words of Halbgewachs.

[State and federal funds will pay for the bulk of the projects; however, the city will need to issue temporary bonds to bridge the gap between the time the bills are due and reimbursement from the FAA and other agencies.]

In other business:

• Council members voted to renew the city’s health care agreement with Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Booher said premiums are set to increase about 11.5 percent. That compares to much bigger increases in other towns, she added.

• Police Chief Emil Halfhill received permission to check into the possibility of installing a large television screen behind council members so spectators can see any paperwork being discussed by officials.

• Council member Wayne Scritchfield said he attended a recent meeting, where city officials were put on notice that the issue of medical marijuana was expected to be discussed in 2020 in Kansas. Can recreational use be far behind? Cities need to be prepared, he said.

• No action was taken after council members went into a 10-minute executive session to discuss non-elected personnel.