KANOPOLIS — An inquiry about vacating a street was heard at the June 9 meeting of the Kanopolis City Council.

Kanopolis City clerk Debbie Kralik said Kanopolis resident Tom Wilkinson asked if there was a possibility of vacating Colorado Street on Block 50, Lot 6, due to traffic driving through his property.

Mayor Anthony Hopkins said the city has had two recent requests. One was not approved and one was conditionally approved. Hopkins said the city does not like to vacate streets and asked if it would be possible to put up a “No Outlet” sign to see if that deters the traffic. He said vacating a street will not stop people from driving on Wilkinson’s property.

Mike Bunch of the city crew suggested reconsidering the vacating the street if the sign doesn’t work.

The council approved purchasing two signs for Lot 6, Block 50, on Colorado Street.

In other business:

• Wilkinson complained about the yard at 220 N. Colorado. He said there are cinder blocks and trash on the property, and the buildings that are in disrepair. Wilkinson said he has seen an increase in snakes because of the property condition.

Kralik said she sent a letter to the owners to clean up the property or they will be billed by the city for the mowing.

Hopkins said the city must follow a certain process and asked Kanopolis Police Chief Jeff Weigel to put the property on his abatement list.

• During a discussion of the city water project, it was noted that Thaniel Monaco of BG Consultants emailed and said the new well house would not be delivered until after July 4.

Bunch said all of the wells are hooked up to the telemetry equipment and are working great.

Hopkins said he talked to officials from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. They were going to do a water study before the COVID-19 crisis came along. The study will begin soon.

Bunch said APAC will be in town this weekend to complete the reseeding properties with grass. However, if they do reseed, the grass will not be watered frequently and will not grow. Hopkins suggested the city crew use a fire truck to water the properties that get reseeded for a couple of weeks to get the grass to grow.

• Weigel said all three properties on the abatement list have made progress, but still have more work to do. Hopkins said the notice of hearing was for that meeting and none of the property owners attended to plead their case.

Although progress has been made, it is still not complete. The next step is to pass a resolution to condemn the properties. Weigel will get detailed information to Kralik who will then contact Kanopolis City Attorney Patrick Hoffman about the resolutions to condemn the properties.

•The city-wide clean up is June 25 through July 5. They are depending on the Kanopolis residents to take care of their own property. There will be a dumpster for tires.

• Approval was given to give fulltime city employees an extra floating eight-hour holiday for 2020 only in lieu of a pay raise.

• During a discussion of the annual software contract, Hopkins asked Kralik to see if Wilson Communications could provide the back-up for the city computers.

• Hopkins said the city is still trying to get the map of the city cemetery certified by the register of deeds. He instructed council member Patrick Perez to have Kirkham Michael & Associates of Ellsworth certify the original map if that would cost less than $500.

• Hopkins asked about chip sealing city streets. Bunch suggested putting off chip sealing until next year and the city crew could repair any problems that come up. There has only been one complaint and it was on Missouri, which is a county road. Bunch said the city crew could repair it, but was told the county does not want the city to do that.