Ulysses City Council Makes Quick Work Of Business

Those operating UTVs (Utility Task Vehicles) will soon need to acquire a plate for their vehicle.

Ulysses City Council approved a design for UTV license plates at their regular meeting August 9.

Chief Ron Vagher presented some license plate choices to the council and they ultimately selected one suggested by Vagher.

"I contacted Sign Source out of Garden City," said Vagher. "(And) I've talked to several officers and we have all kind of agreed on the one we like the most."

Vagher said if the council likes the same plate design, they would like to move forward when the time comes. When asked which design the officers preferred and thought was the most "readable", Vagher said "B", referring to the presentation he put together with four design choices.

"The City of Ulysses portion pops out a little better," Vagher said. "We fill the numbers stick out a little bit better. Of course the expiration stickers we talked about going with just a red and a blue and alternating those every other year, just in case the numbers fade. We could go based off of color. Red for odd years blue for even years - at least by color we would know whether they are expired or not."

The council was unanimous in deciding to go with "B" - the plate preferred by the officers.

Vagher pointed out that after visiting with the Garden City company, it could take one to two weeks to receive the plates and the stickers once they are ordered as long as they have enough plates in stock.

Vagher said just to "stay on the safe side" once (the ordinance itself) is agreed he would like three weeks to have the plates come in. The plates will be similar to the new plates the state of Kansas is putting out, according to Vagher.

They will be aluminum, metal plates.

City Attorney Lynn Koehn asked Vagher if the council approves the ordinance effective October 1, if he thought it would give him ample opportunity to get the plates ordered and in.

"Yes, just as soon as I know they approve it I will put the order in to give me enough time," Vagher said. "We also have Enterpol working on the RMS (Records Management System) side of things so that way we will have a way to keep track of things. I spoke with them yesterday. They said it should be done today or tomorrow."

Vagher said they would have access to the RMS and they could also put it over to the dispatch side, "with Sheriff James Biddle's approval."

An inspection sheet also needs to be gone over to ensure it is ready to go prior to the ordinance taking place.

Koehn said the ordinance could be made effective as of October 1, and that the council could pass the ordinance provided it meets everyone's approval during their September 27 meeting.

Local resident Flor Field spoke to the council about the possibility of getting on South Carter Street.

"With the highway being there, I have an issue with cars driving 40 to 50 miles per hour from where you turn from (highway) 160/Oklahoma Avenue to South Carter," said Field. "I would like to see if we could slow down traffic there. There are also a lot of kids bringing their four-wheelers so there is constant back and forth traffic there. A speed limit sign would be great."

The council did not take any action on Field's request at the time of the meeting.

In other business:

Approved accounts payables of $88,131.61.

Approved the updating of the City's emergency response plan, changing some contact numbers and names.  The plan is needed not only for emergencies, but also so the city would be eligible for some grants.

Approved the agenda including minutes from a special meeting on July 18, and regular city council meeting July 26.