By SALINA POST
Bid awards, zoning, soil transfer, and recognition of Major Dennis Pugh Remembrance Day are among the items on the Salina City Commission agenda for Monday.
About the meeting
Study sessions and city commission meetings will take place in–person in room 107 of the City-County Building, 300 West Ash Street, and via Zoom until further notice. Meetings also can be viewed at the City of Salina YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/cityofSalinaKansas.
To participate via Zoom, citizens will need to use the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89275984587.
The meeting also can be accessed by phone at 1-346-248-7799. Enter Meeting ID:892 7598 4587 when prompted.
If citizens wish to speak, either during the public forum or when the mayor requests public comment on an item, citizens attending via Zoom must raise their hands so that the meeting host can allow them to speak. Those who attend the in-person meeting will have the opportunity to speak at the podium.
Citizens can also send written comments or questions to City Commissioners by visiting the City of Salina’s website at www.salina-ks.gov and using the “Email City Commission” icon on the home page.
In order for the commissioners to have an opportunity to review comments in advance of the meeting, please email your comments or questions by 5 p.m. the Sunday prior to the Monday meetings.
Study session
Commissioners are scheduled to meet in a study session at 2:30 p.m. Monday. The topic of the study session is Infill Housing Strategy.
Regular meeting
The regular meeting is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m.
Among the items on the agenda is a request for Mayor Mike Hoppock to proclaim March 19, 2023, as Major Dennis Pugh Remembrance Day. Jason McIntire, commander of the Sons of the American Legion, is scheduled to read the proclamation, according to commission meeting packet information.
Pugh, who graduated from Salina High School in 1962, also graduated from the United States Air Force Academy in 1967, according to information in the proclamation. He went on to earn a master's degree in qualitative analysis-mathematical methods from UCLA before going to Mather Air Force Base in Sacramento, Calif., where he was in navigator's training. Pugh also went to Combat Crew Training and Survival schools before he was sent overseas.
In September of 1969, he was sent to Ubon, Thailand, to fly F4s. While flying as a weapons/systems officer on a March 19, 1970, mission over the Ho Chi Minh Trail in the Khammouane Province of Laos, the aircraft took fire, the proclamation noted. Pugh and his pilot ejected safely.
Initially, search and rescue personnel had radio contact with Pugh, but were unable to rescue him and his pilot because of darkness. The following day, radio contact was re-established, and Pugh reported that enemy forces were nearby. According to the proclamation, Pugh requested that ordnance be placed on his position and he held down the transmit key on his radio. Asian voices were heard, followed by 15 to 20 shots. Then silence. Ordinance was placed on his position and there was no further contact from Pugh.
While Pugh's pilot, Captain Richard A. Rash, was rescued on March 21, 1970, Pugh's body was not found.
To read the full proclamation, click here.
Other items on the Salina City Commission agenda include the following.
●Consider awarding a bid for the 2023 chip seal project to APAC-Kansas, Inc., Shears Division of Emporia in the amount of $278891.53 with a five-percent ($13,944.58) construction contingency, and consider authorizing the city manager to execute a contract with APAC-Kansas, Inc., Shears Division of Emporia.
●Consider approving on second reading a proposed ordinance that would change the zoning district classification of the west half of the property at 509 E. Elm Street from I-2 (light industrial) to C-1 (restricted business) to unify the zoning of the CKF campus and to allow addiction treatment housing on property CKF is acquiring from Saint Francis Community Services, Inc.
●Consider approving a bid award for a Centennial Road project between W. Water Well Road to Arnold Avenue for $2,188,388.51 with a five-percent ($109,420) construction contingency, and consider authorizing the city manager to execute a contract with TRR, Inc., dba T&R Construction of Salina for the work.
●Consider approving a proposed resolution declaring the city eligible to submit an implementation grant application to the Pathways to a Healthy Kansas, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas grant program, in partnership with Live Well Saline County, and consider authorizing the city manager to submit the application.
●Consider authorizing the city manager to execute a purchase agreement with Foley Equipment Company, a Kansas corporation dba Foley Caterpillar, to purchase a new landfill compactor in the amount of $978,000.
●Consider authorizing the city manager to execute an agreement with TRR, Inc., dba T&R Construction, in the amount of $523,380 to load, haul, stockpile or place soils from the Schwan's detention pond to the City of Salina Solid Waste Municipal Landfill at 4292 S. Burma Road, the old city dump site at 1960 State Street, and the pond in Jerry Ivey Memorial Park at 2465 Edward Street. Additionally, commissioners are to consider authorizing the city manager to execute a 30-day equipment rental agreement for a dozer and excavator with Foley Equipment Company, a Kansas corporation dba Foley Caterpillar, in the amount of $21,042 to prepare the old city dump site at 1960 State Street for cover soil remediation work.
To see the full Salina City Commission agenda for Monday, click here.