Star-Journbal Editor
If and when it decides to put the project in gear, Emprise Bank will have a green light from the city to build a drive-through on Main Street in downtown Hillsboro.
At its regular meeting May 1, the Hillsboro City Council voted 3-0 to approve the project, which six months ago had neighboring businesses in conflict and concerned citizens ringing council members' phones off their hooks.
The council's yes vote was a literal U-turn from its position in November, when it unanimously rejected the bank's first plan.
In fact, the council agreed to consider the project again only after revised plans had been reviewed and approved by the city planning commission.
But now that the project has been approved, Emprise Bank president and newly-elected council member Bob Watson said Monday that he couldn't say when actual work on the project would begin, if ever.
"We're not absolutely certain it will begin," Watson said. "The first step was to see if we could build the thing. I know it will be quite awhile; I don't know if it will happen this year or not.
"There's no big rush to get it done," he added. "I guess the sooner the better, but Emprise as a whole has a whole lot of projects going on, so it will be awhile."
Before his unopposed election to the council on April 3, Watson, in his role as president of Emprise Bank, had been the driving force behind the bank's quest to build the drive-through.
The drive-through proposal was approved by only three council members last week because Watson abstained from the proceedings.
Instead of Watson, it was Emprise vice-president Brad Bartel who presented the bank's proposal. Before Bartel began, Watson excused himself from the council table, saying he was going across the hall, to the public library.
Watson wasn't present during the discussion, and didn't return until after the vote.
So, what changed the council from 4-0 against to 3-0 in favor of the drive-through?
Simply put, nearly everything.
Since the first proposal was defeated, the bank worked on a Plan B that overcame virtually every objectionable issue raised by the council, including parking slots, traffic safety, and aesthetics.
Under the revised plan, only three parking places will be removed, and all of them are in front of the bank-owned building at 106 N. Main Street, which will be torn down to make room for the drive-through.
The original plan would have taken these slots and three more parking slots from the building next door at 108 N. Main, occupied by Prudent Tours.
Before the first vote in November, Prudent Tours owner Hank Wiebe sent a letter to the council asking it to deny the proposal.
But Wiebe was present at the May 1 meeting to tell the council that, with a few reservations, his concerns had been resolved.
"At the planning commission meeting the other day I withdrew my opposition based on the parking issue," Wiebe said.
To preserve Prudent Tours' parking slots, the bank's second proposal reverses the traffic flow from the original plan. Instead of traffic entering the drive-through from the alley and exiting onto Main Street, the new plan calls for traffic to enter from Main Street and exit through the alley.
"This plan does not encroach upon Prudent Tours' building at all," said Bartel, who added that the new plan also preserves the handicapped-parking space in front of the bank on Main Street.
In addition to their concerns about lost parking slots, council members also objected to the first plan because the city's traffic engineer had warned that the city could be held liable for accidents caused by drive-through traffic pulling out on Main Street.
The engineer also was concerned that traffic coming from the north would create a hazard by turning left across the double-lines and in front of oncoming traffic.
Under the approved plan, only traffic coming from the south on Main Street will be allowed to enter the drive-through, through a curbed-in entryway. The same curbing will make it impossible for drivers to enter from the north, so traffic will not turn left across the double-yellow line or in front of oncoming traffic.
The single lane access would take customers into the drive-through area, and divide into two lanes, Bartel said.
"We don't see traffic backing up onto Main at all," he added. "It would be flowing through fairly quickly. The hope is that we can service customers more efficiently here than what we do in our present drive-through."
With traffic flow reversed and Main Street access only from the south, the traffic engineer's reservations also disappeared.
Also, the bank addressed concerns that the new drive-through would put an ugly gap in the line of buildings on downtown Main Street.
The first proposal came under sharp criticism from Mayor Delores Dalke, who objected to what it would do to the newly-designed downtown.
A deluge of phone calls to council members from citizens against the plan made the 4-0 vote against the proposal a foregone conclusion.
But while the bank would level the old brick building it owns at 106 N. Main, and will leave a 25-foot-wide open space, Bartel said to keep downtown looking as it does now, the bank would build an arch over the entrance, between the bank and Prudent Tours.
"There wouldn't be a gap," Bartel said. "We're working on an arch or facade that would look like an entrance to a parking area, or to a courtyard.
"There would be something across the drive."
Wiebe told the council he was concerned about the integrity of the wall that Prudent Tours shares with the bank's former building. After the old building is torn down, that wall will become the outside wall for Prudent Tours.
Mayor Dalke told Bartel that the bank was responsible for making sure the wall was protected. Bartel agreed.
Council member Shane Marler suggested more should be done to protect the wall, "should Grandpa accidentally hit the gas pedal instead of the brake."
Bartel said the raised curbing should keep wayward cars from running into the building, but agreed to look into installing a protective post as well.
After these details had been addressed, council member Byron McCarty asked, "What benefit would the citizens of Hillsboro derive from the drive-through? Would it be to their benefit, or to the bank? I'm not against the project. I'd just like to know the benefits."
Bartel said, "We would anticipate that our bank customers, as citizens of the community, would benefit. And the ATM would be open access. Cash availability near downtown merchants is a positive thing."
Bartel added that increased traffic coming downtown to use the drive-through "would have some positive aspects" as well.
"Having an active area like this in the heart of downtown would increase its exposure and frequency of travel," he said.
Dalke asked city engineer Bob Previtera to make sure the project's facade blends-in with newly-remodeled Main Street, and that its curbing match the present brickwork, "to make sure it looks as nice as it was."
Council president Shelby Dirks said he was concerned about pedestrians walking on the sidewalk as traffic pulled into the drive-through.
"That's my only hang up, pedestrian flow," Dirks said. "And to make sure that Hank's happy."
Marler said a Main Street drive-through might be safer for pedestrians than at the present drive-through, where people cross the alley on the sidewalk between the bank and City Hall.
Since the bank was built in 1975 at the northeast corner of Grand Avenue and Main the drive-through has been located on the east side of the building, on an alley that exits on Grand.
"If you're walking east on the sidewalk along Grand and cross the alley front of the drive-through, if you're not paying attention, you're going to get tagged," Marler said.
Back at his desk Monday, bank president Watson said that Plan B wasn't as good for the bank as Plan A, but was pleased that the project could be done without interfering with Prudent Tours' parking.
But council member Watson chuckled when asked if he was ready to move past the drive-through, and on to other things.
"Yes," he said. "I think it's fair to say we are."
In other business,
— The council heard from Marion County Fair Association official Tom Kimbrel, Marion, regarding proposed locations for the carnival rides at the coming county fair.
At issue is whether it would be better to put the carnival on the baseball outfield, which could damage the landscaping work the city and school district spent $50,000 to get into playing condition, or to move it to some other location, such as the pavement on nearby D Street.
But putting the carnival on D Street would require carnival workers to drive steel stakes into the pavement to anchor the rides, and run long electrical cords from the rides to the generators.
In the future, land just west of the fair buildings could be leveled and the carnival could be located there. But something needs to be done this year.
Before making a decision, the council asked the fair board to find out specifically if the baseball field was scheduled to be used for ball games at the same time as the fair. The mayor said the council would hold a special meeting, if needed, to resolve the issue in time.
— The council stopped its regular proceedings to honor former council member Len Coryea, who was presented with a plaque for eight years of service, from 1999 to 2007.
Asked if he had any comments to make, Coryea joked in a mock mocking tone, "Yea, I was just wondering why you don't put a dome over the pool, and why these streets are so bad?"
Dalke said, "Ha! you've come to heckle us! Well you're welcome to stick around and heckle us some more."
With plaque in hand, the ever-jovial Coryea bid a fond farewell.
— Council members heard from city grant consultant Rose Mary Saunders regarding some funding options for a proposed addition to or replacement of the city's cramped fire station.
Options vary from outright grants, to projects that involve locally-donated labor, to floating more bonds.
The fire township board has said it would purchase a new pumper truck for the city to use if and when it has a space large enough to park it, but the current facility is too small.
Adding onto the present fire station, located at the city building, would require taking up the parking lot north of the building, which is used by city workers and employees from other downtown businesses.
Councilman McCarty said the city should "get the ball rolling" and work out some sort of funding plan. Saunders said the first deadline for any of the programs is Jan. 2, 2008, and added that the project would be paid for with 2008 dollars.
Watson said he would like to know more about the issues regarding the fire station, and the council agreed to have an information work session sometime in the near future to bring the new council members up to speed.
— The council heard from city engineer Bob Previtera regarding a snag in the ongoing Adams Street improvement project.
Previtera said that while excavating for the new street, the contractor discovered that 20 old residential sewer lines had been installed too shallow, and were damaged to the point that it made more sense to replace them now than to dig up the new street to replace them later.
The city agreed to pay $20,500 for the additional work; of that $17,000 will come from KDOT funds available for the project, and the balance would come from the city's general operating fund.
Previtera added that the contractor, APAC-Kansas, Inc. had completed 39 percent of the work, and was ahead of schedule. The council agreed to pay out $102,571.42 to the contractor for work done to date.
"Everything's going pretty smooth now," Previtera said. "Everything underground is finished, and now they'll start working on surface."
As work continues, the main north-south thoroughfare in east Hillsboro remains closed from D Street to B Street. Residents living on Adams Street between the barricades have been parking their cars in the alley.
— The council reviewed the city's policy regarding funeral leave for its employees. As written, the policy requires employees to take vacation days or unpaid days to attend the funeral of any family member.
An astonished council member Watson said, "Your mom dies and you have to take vacation for the funeral?"
The council asked the city attorney to change the wording of the policy to allow paid leave not to exceed three days for employees to attend funerals of close relatives of the employee or his or her spouse, such as children, parents, siblings, and grandparents.
But the policy should stop short of naming relatives beyond that, such as cousins and aunts, Dalke said.
— After finding no company willing to provide a second bid on the project, the council agreed to have of House of Glass in Newton replace the six worn-out doors at City Hall.
— In the mayor's report, Dalke told the council that the April 25 fire at the city-owned AMPI building would not prevent the city from adding the building to its property insurance policy.
"The agent said they never thought fire was something to worry about, and that they were more concerned about storms and tornadoes taking the roofs off," Dalke said.
Watson suggested the city get a "major catastrophe type of insurance" with a deductible of $50,000 or higher to cover the building.
Dalke said that any deductible for the AMPI building also would have to be applied to the other city-owned buildings on the policy.
Dalke added that according to the proposed agreement with USD 410, the city would need to cover the building and the district would need to insure its contents and any remodeling it chooses to have done.
Watson asked if the city's insurance agent could provide a quote for a policy that would cover only the AMPI building with a "major catastrophe insurance."
Dalke said she would find out.
On a related matter, Dalke said she was still waiting on cost estimates on the damage caused by the fire.
— At the mayor's request, Stephen Vincent was appointed to fill a vacancy on the library board. Vincent soon will be retiring as a kindergarten teacher in Riverside, Calif., and moving to Hillsboro.
— Dalke announced that the city had hired Judy Helmer and Marci Cain as co-managers to run the Hillsboro Family Aquatics Center this summer.
"Both have years of experience running pools," Dalke said, adding that she was pleased with the decision. Holly Lindsay will be the assistant manager.
"That will give us a lot of maturity out there and we should have a good year at the pool," Dalke said.
On a related matter, Dalke said that cleaning crews soon would be at the pool to have it cleaned and ready for the new season.
— Dalke announced that water plant operator Tom Siebert has resigned his post with the city, effective the third week of June.
A search soon will begin for a replacement, Dalke said.
— Instead of Tuesday, the next meeting of the city council will be at 4 p.m. Monday, This will allow the council to review the revised 2007 budget in time for it to be published and passed on the first meeting in June.
