Ulysses Scouts Present At March 26 City Council

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Ulysses City Council got a special treat March 26 when Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts from Troop 186 attended the meeting, leading the Pledge of Allegiance and discussing the state of their Scout House.

Scout Leader Undersheriff Craig Hampton brought the scouts for a couple different reasons – so the Scouts can see how local government works, and to give an update on the Scout House building, which is owned by the city.

“We’ve been doing some updates trying to keep it going (and) run into a few snags,” Hampton said. “We just wanted to bring it to your attention, get some guidance and see how you guys want us to proceed on it.”

Individual scouts gave presentations on how they are utilizing the space.

Hampton said the windows at the scout house building have settled, leaving gaps that they have been filling with towels to keep out air and bugs. A window air conditioning unit was donated to the scouts to keep the building cool, but it’s difficult with the gaps bringing in warm air.

“We were going to see if there was any way we could work toward maybe getting some window repair on the building,” Hampton added.

The scouts are also looking for materials to repair the shed, and have recently completed upgrades such as new paint, flooring and a bathroom.

“We’re trying to do our best to take care of the building,” Hampton said. “It is an old building. We’re trying our best to keep our kids safe in the building.”

The city has recently replaced stairs in the building and taken care of a termite problem.

The Kansas Water Well Association is going to build a solar powered well system at the campground that will be dual voltage in order to hook up a generator. The project will allow the scouts to do more as well as invite troops from surrounding areas to come to Ulysses.

“Our long-term goal is we’d like to have some council-level events out there,” Hampton said. “In order to do that we had some hurdles we had to jump through; we had to be so many feet from a bathroom, so many feet from a shelter, so many feet from potable water. That’s our long-term goal.”

Councilman Mark Diaz said the city needs to look at the scout house building as a safety factor for the kids.

“You guys are doing an awesome job with the Boy Scouts and are very involved and I think we, as a city council, or the city of Ulysses, needs to see what we can do to help them out and benefit them and work with whatever they need, within reason,” Diaz said.

Other Business

In other business, the council approved a housing agreement between the city and the builders of the Miller Skies development – the 2.2 acres of land off South Main Street. The council approved the project last November, and tabled it December 11, 2024, in order to give builders Jesus Estrella and Weston Groth time to form their LLC and apply for a Moderate-Income Housing Grant for the project – a 10-unit apartment complex.

The developers did not receive the grant, putting the brakes on the project.

“The MIH Grant we were after we did not get on this round (but) there are a few more rounds this year that I am ready to pursue, the developers are ready to pursue,” said city administrator Luke Grimes.

The agreement approves the sale of the lot to the builders and all of the support agreed upon last November contingent on the builders building the 10 units. But the project is contingent on receiving the grant.

“If we get two years down the road and we’ve never successfully gotten funding and they give up, the property comes right back (to the city),” Grimes said.