The automated metering infrastructure installation project planned by the City of Ellsworth is a go.

At the May 11 meeting of the Ellsworth City Council, authorization was given to an expenditure of $92,000 to Suez for the project, which reads water usage and is more user friendly to city employees, when funds from the American Rescue Plan are received from the federal government.

Rusty Varnado, city administrator, said Ellsworth expects to receive $414,000 under the plan. That expenditure will be part of that. Varnado said Suez will do the installation, not city employees as originally planned.

In other business:

• The council adopted Resolution 21-0311, issuing 2021 general obligation bonds to pay off 2019 temp note for city infrastructure projects. The total is $3,280,000.

• Jon Halbgewachs of Kirkham Michael & Associates reviewed several project updates with the council, including the Eighth Street project. He noted a ribbon cutting is scheduled for May 14.

Other projects include the neighborhood multi use path. He said Kirkham Michael is working on right-of-way and temporary construction easement acquisition. Plans were sent to utility companies on April 7. He anticipates the Kansas Department of Transportation will bid the project in this fall.

• Carol Kratzer and her husband, John, introduced Keren, the Immanuel Lutheran Church’s comfort dog, to the council. Keren is a two-year-old Golden Retriever. She is the first of her kind in Kansas and one of just 130 dogs in the nation. While the Kratzers are Keren’s primary care givers, she has a total of nine handlers. A secondary care giver takes Keren on the weekends.

• Approval was given to a request by Brent Herlan to have a fireworks stand at 512 Webb Street.

The next meeting of the Ellsworth City Council will be at 5:30 p.m. Monday, May 24, at city hall.