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With the city of Ulysses city council passing an ordinance establishing the city boundaries - including new annexations on the west side of town - the city needed the Grant County Commission to sign off on the ordinance.
“The state is requesting that we do this every 10 years,” Ulysses City Clerk Sarah Britton told the county commission at its Nov. 19 meeting. “So, we’ll be turning this into the state.”
In addition to the three new parcels, one property owner de-annexed a portion of his property, which is also reflected in the ordinance.
“That should be the only changes from 10 years ago,” Britton said.
All the commission needed to do was sign off on the resolution and for Britton to attest to the signature.
City Administrator Luke Grimes told the commission about the new housing project the city approved it its Nov. 13 meeting.
“At our last meeting, the council approved (Jesus) Estrella’s plan,” Grimes said. “It’s changed a bit; he partnered with a guy out of Meade, Weston Kroth (and) I’m very impressed with this guy. He knows what he’s doing, he’s been involved in these grants before. He will actually be the builder, he’s going to be the contractor on the project.”
The city is working with the builder on a Moderate Income Housing grant to make rent more affordable.
Phase one of the project - located at South Main Street and Miller Avenue - will be 10 two-bedroom apartments on the west side of the property along South Main Street. The city will install meters and the builders asked for a subsidy of $70,000 for the first 10 apartments as an incentive.
“The city is committed to that,” Grimes added. “We would love help, though. I’ve had discussions with Economic Development (and) they’re not opposed to pitching in. My personal feeling is between the two of us, we can afford that. We’re committed to doing it but if you guys wanted to split it with us, we’d love that. I think it would be great for the community to see us working together on that project - the two governmental entities being committed to our town growing and developing.”
Commissioner John Martin said it could be a 3-way split project between the city, county and Economic Development.
“They’re (Economic Development) not opposed to that,” Grimes said, adding the first phase could be ready by the end of 2025.
•Civic Center manager Mari Honstead asked to defer the request for bids for a new power washer she made earlier this year, saying did not feel comfortable with the bids. The civic center has a power washer that does not work and is more than 15 years old.
Honstead also discussed the security contract, saying that the contract says beer is allowed but now people are bringing other types of alcohol like Twisted Tea and Smirnoff Ice, which are cereal malt beverages like beer, which is allowed. Cereal Malt Beverages are a fermented but undistilled liquor that contains no more than 3.2% alcohol by weight. It can be made from malt, a mixture of malt and malt substitute, or flavored malt.
“They’re cereal malt beverages, but the contract says just beer,” Honstead said. “So I didn’t know if we wanted to change that contract to say cereal malt beverage. Because we can’t keep them out; they put them in the bottom of the coolers under all the ice.”
Bottles are not allowed at the civic center and hard liquor is not allowed.
“The Twisted Teas and the foo-foo drinks, I don’t see that as being a problem having them in there because they’re in cans,” Martin said.
“Either we’re going to have to start throwing people out when we see it and enforce the beer only and really get to be stern with that, or we’re going to have to let it in,” Honstead said. “All that stuff wasn’t around when this contract was written. I think if we have it in the rules we need to enforce it as written or change the rule.”
The commission was okay with changing the contract to encompass all cereal malt beverages.
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