WILSON — A report on the plan to improve the city sewer lagoon topped the agenda Monday during a meeting of the Wilson City Council.

Doug Goetz and Drew Hoops of Wilson & Company of Salina presented the council with three options for a non-discharging system, as opposed to the discharging system Wilson has now.

Goetz said he received information on seepage rates for the Wilson sewer system, which will aid in the development of the first step of the plan — a primary engineering report.

“Basically, KDHE (the Kansas Department of Health and Environment) has a timeline established on us for the end of the year for our next steps in the project,” he said.

He noted the ground on which the sewer lagoon is located on is clay, which makes the soil extremely tight.

Goetz briefly reviewed the three viable options. The first would add a seven acre storage cell on property to the north of the sewer lagoon to retain the flow of wastewater. The second option would be to build a four acre irrigation cell and reduced footprint. The third option would be some form of irrigation system on adjacent property.

“All of these options are on the table,” Goetz said. “I would like to have irrigation in the permit no matter what.”

He said the price range for the systems would depend upon whether or not federal and state funding (grants or loans) or local funding was utilized. If federal or state funding is utilized, the preliminary cost for the system could be between $389,000 and $555,396. If the local option was chosen, the prices would be 15-20 percent less.

No action was needed on the options yet. First, Goetz will prepare the primary engineering report and send it to KDHE.

In other business:

• City attorney Theresa Staudinger gave a brief overview of a draft abandoned buildings ordinance. She noted the purpose of the ordinance is to help with blight in the community. The ordinance would have an enforcement officer examine a property and make a recommendation. The property owner can appeal the first recommendation to the enforcement officer. A second appeal could later be given to the city council. Staudinger said the ordinance provides every way possible to notify the property owner and that violation of the ordinance would be enforced by an administration fee added to the property owner’s taxes.

After a five minute executive session with Staudinger to discuss matters pertaining to attorney-client privilege, the council tabled consideration of the draft ordinance until the newly elected members of the council take their seats.

• Police Chief Joshua Tipton said beginning Monday, Nov. 25 through Sunday, Dec. 1, the Wilson Police Department will join other police agencies across the state in the Kansas Thanksgiving Safe Arrival traffic enforcement campaign. The campaign will focus on seat belt and child restraint enforcement and also removing impaired drivers from the roads.

• After a five minute executive session with Staudinger to discuss contractual negotiations, the board approved approaching Lawrence Soukup to be the contract attendant at the city burn pile. Since he would be a contractor and not a city employee, Soukup would have to have his own medical insurance coverage. If Soukup isn’t available, the council will then ask Fred Barton and Richard Stroup.

• Approval was given to reimburse 90 percent of the cost of medical insurance to city employee Don Browning. Browning’s completion of his probation period as assistant city superintendent was also approved.

The next meeting of the Wilson City Council will be at 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 2, at city hall.