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What's New Utility Audit The City is in the final stages of the utility audit. This project was started in November, 2004 with a feasibility study of the water system. It was found during this initial evaluation that the City had several water meters that were running "slow", or they were allowing more water to pass through the meter than was being registered on the meter. Therefore it was determined that the City was losing revenue through inaccurate meters.
Based on this information the City Council authorized a study to determine the water loss being experienced through the water meters in the system. A company called T.A.C. was hired after an RFP (Request For Proposal) process was completed to conduct the utility audit. A proposal was made by T.A.C. to replace all water and electric meters in the system with new meters that had radio read technology, retrofit the existing gas meters with radio read technology, and upgrade the lighting in several buildings. The total cost of the proposed project was $553,506. The project was approved by the City Council on September 19, 2005.
These new meters will allow the meter reading process to be shortened from about 15 days to less than 2 days. It will also reduce the manhours required each month from about 120+ to less than 16. This will also allow us to reduce the amount of time between the use of the utilities and the time the bills are due to limit the amount of exposure to the City and to landlords in the community.
Phase 1 Water Project
This project has been under consideration for quite some time. The current status of the project is that contracts have been signed by the City for a new water tower, pump station upgrades, and several new lines in town.
The water tower is currently being fabricated by the contractor and they are anticipating starting work at the new site just south of the old nursing home in the next 30 to 60 days. The pipeline contractor will be ordering pipe in the next couple of weeks and is planning on beginning work on the project around the first of April.
Look back at the City's web site to stay informed as to the progress being made on this project.
Grocery Store
The rumors are flying about a new grocery store, so we are going to try and settle some of the rumors regarding this issue.
At this time there has not been much progress made. The City hired a firm to conduct a feasibility study for a new grocery store. This study has been completed and has provided the City with some information regarding service area and anticipated revenues that a new store should expect.
A potential site was identified by staff and the firm that conducted the study. The firm stated that a new store should have about 10,000 to 15,000 square feet of floor space, front exposure to the highway, and about 50 off street parking spaces. With this information staff presented an idea for a store to be located across the street from the fire station. The new store would face Santa Fe Avenue and would utilize the land currently owned by the City next to the library for a parking lot. While this location was not perfect, it did provide the most positives and the least amount of negatives.
There has been discussion about the City using condemnation to take this land. It is not the desire of the City to use its power of condemnation for this project. All the property owners affected by this proposal have been contacted and given all the information available at this time. The City anticipates hiring an appraiser to review the necessary properties to give both the homeowners and the City some information to work with.
An individual was contacted about opening a store here in Burlingame, but no action has been taken to date. The individual is waiting on some issues to be resolved outside of the City's control before he will be ready to pursue this venture. In the meantime the City will be actively looking for some other interested party to open a new grocery store.
Another issue discussed has been possible incentives for a new store. The survey conducted for the City indicated that some incentives may be necessary to open a new grocery store to make it profitable. Some of the possible incentives discussed by the City Council have included utilities, land, building(s), property tax abatements, and/or tax districts. None of these options have been discussed in detail, just that they are options that could be considered by the council. It may be necessary to offer one or a combination of the above incentives to allow a new store to open. These issues will be discussed in much greater detail once an individual comes forward that is interested in opening a store.
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City of Burlingame 101 E Santa Fe Ave Burlingame, Ks 66413 Phone: 785.654.2414 Fax: 785.654.3612 911 EMERGENCY
Police Administrative 785.654.3329
Fire Administrative 785.654.2407
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