KANOPOLIS — The Kanopolis City Council approved participating in the 2021 Ellsworth County Neighborhood Revitalization Program, a collaborative process with the cities in the county. It offers a tax abatement program for small communities for residents that increase the value of their property more than $5,000.

In other business from the Oct. 12 meeting:

• Annette White and Robert Thille asked about hooking up the sewer to their property. City clerk Debbie Kralik said that since they did not have water yet, that there was no need to hook up the sewer. White asked about a payment plan for the water hookup. Mayor Anthony Hopkins said that he would not like it more than one year long and the city attorney would have to draw up an agreement for the payment plan.

•Tom Bosquez asked about his water. Mayor Hopkins said that city employee Mike Bunch tried to contact him at least twice to get a temporary hookup to his water. The temporary hookup will need to be back flushed because there is dirt in the lines. The council thanked Bosquez for cleaning up his property.

• City attorney Patrick Hoffman said council president Michelle Schwerdtfeger asked him to come to a council meeting and do Kansas Open Records Act/Kansas Open Meetings Act training since the council has so many new council members. Hoffman said that he plans to the training after the elections to catch all new members.

• Engineer Thaniel Monaco of BG Consultants emailed Kralik and said he is waiting on the building permits for the water project through the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. It will take two months to get the permits. Monaco will also be sending the bidding documents to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, this week for their review. Once everything is back from KDHE, the council can discuss timing of the bid and set up advertisements accordingly.

• During an update on property abatements, it was noted that 112 S. Missouri looks good.

The buildings at 220 N. Colorado have been torn down, but the trees need trimmed and the limestone rocks in front of the property need to be removed.

Resolution 2021-R-08 was drawn up by Hoffman for 304 S. Colorado and approved by the council. A public hearing on the property will be conducted Dec. 14. The Resolution is on Page B9.

The completion date for the clean up at 420 S. Iowa has been extended to Nov. 30.

No progress has been made on the properties at 116 S. Missouri and 128 S. Missouri. The property at 520 S. Iowa has been mowed but there is still a large amount of junk items that need cleaned up.

• Hopkins suggested the council table consideration of a local leadership team for the KDHE drinking water protection program. Consideration will be delayed until after the pandemic or until KDHE contacts the city.

• Hopkins reached out to the Kansas League of Municipalities regarding the use of American Rescue Program Act funds to fund sidewalks and curb and guttering. He was told those funds would be put to better use on the water tower.

The council approved a motion to move forward with the Kansas Department of Transportation cost share grant for $31,026 for the sidewalks only.