WILSON — The City of Wilson may soon have a new full-time chief of police.

At the Jan. 17 meeting of the Wilson City Council, the council voted to offer the job to Jonathan Lawrence who currently serves as the city’s part-time police officer. Lawrence will take some time to consider the offer and report to the council.

The motion to offer Lawrence the job was made after two executive sessions for non-elected personnel (to discuss the police chief position) lasting a total of 15 minutes.

In other business:

• Mayor Mike Peschka said he talked to the owner of the property surrounding the city-owned property southwest of Wilson regarding the plan to move the city burn pile there to accommodate the construction of a new river bridge by the county. Peschka said the landowner did not express any concerns with the plan. The city plans to take action on the matter at the Feb. 6 council meeting.

• Approval was given to pay request 1 in the amount of $39,105 to the Kansas Department of Commerce Housing in relation to the housing grant, and a payment of $12,050 to the North Central Regional Planning Commission in Beloit and $29,805 to Kansas Sand and Construction, as well as any modifications needed to complete the contract with Kansas Sand and Construction.

• During an update on properties listed in violation by the city board of health, it was noted the board of health inspected the grain elevators and found the violations cited were corrected and recommended the council remove them from the violations list. The council approved removing the grain elevators from the list.

Peschka said the owner of the property at 2115 Ave. C has requested he be allowed to finish corrections to bring the property back into compliance. The board of health will inspect the property once the work is finished.

• During the public forum portion of the meeting, Dan Erdman addressed Peschka via speaker phone. He asked Peschka if the city was going to stay off his property. Peschka said the city will follow the order of the Ellsworth County District Court.

Kristopher Ritchie then asked Peschka if he called him. Peschka said yes, he did call Ritchie to let him know he has until noon Jan. 27 to remove his personal property from what is now city property as conveyed to the city by the Ellsworth County District Court.

Ritchie said Peschka told him a letter would be sent to him.

“A letter was sent today,” Peschka replied.

“So why are you calling me,” Ritchie asked.

“To give you advance notice,” Peschka said, “because in the past, you have said ‘I don’t get my mail.’ This gives you advance notice so you can watch your mail.”

Ritchie said he was tired of Peschka harassing him.

“I think that your phone call was basically harassment,” Ritchie said.

Ritchie told Peschka not to call him.

“If you need to contact me, have Susan (Kriley, city clerk) contact me,” Ritchie added. “That’s the way it has been in the past.”

This exchange was the latest in a series of exchanges at council meetings over the last several months dealing with the condemnation of an easement for the alley behind Wilson City Hall. For reasons of guaranteeing public access, the city asked the Ellsworth County District Court for a judgement, since the property was not plotted as an alley, and yet is the only handicapped access to city hall and cannot be blocked to the public. That property was then appraised and the city paid a fee imposed by the court to take ownership of the property from the former owner, Erdman. The city then sent letters to Erdman as the property owner, and Ritchie, who owns several vehicles on that property, to remove all personal property from the newly- owned city property by noon, Friday, Jan. 27.

The next meeting of the Wilson City Council will be at 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 6, at city hall.