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Assistant city administrator named

By Shawn Linenberger - | Aug 29, 2012

Estuardo Garcia

Tonganoxie has a new assistant city administrator.

The council approved, in a special meeting Thursday, the hire of Jennifer Jones-Lacy as the city’s next assistant city administrator.

The council approved Jones-Lacy to the post by a 3-0 vote. Council members Andy Gilner, Jim Truesdell and Dennis Bixby were present, while council members Bill Peak and Chris Donnelly were absent.

Jones-Lacy comes to Tonganoxie from Kansas City, Mo., where she worked for the city there as special projects manager of the Parks and Recreation Department. She was responsible for a variety of managerial and administrative work ranging from public presentations, budget development, capital improvements and grant writing to human resources management and payroll, McCommon said.

Jones-Lacy’s salary will be about $58,000. She will start Sept. 10, McCommon said.

Delaware Street work

Work on Delaware Street is complete and finished at a lower cost than expected.

City Administrator Nathan McCommon said at Monday’s Tonganoxie City Council meeting that the project was estimated to cost $60,000, but final costs were about $2,000 less at $58,008.

The project involved replacing the surface and installing curb and gutter. The construction area ran from Pleasant Street west to Elmwood Court.

In other business, the council:

• Approved, 3-0, payments of $5,886.62 to BG consultants toward the fire department addition, $3,826.15 to Kelly Bingham for work on Delaware Drive, $29,680.28 to the Kansas City, Kan., Board of Public Utilities, $2,480.42 to BP for fuel purchased, $2,720.85 to the City of Basehor for building inspector services and mileage, $5,177.41 to First State Bank and Trust for semi-annual loan payment for a 2011 Crown Victoria police vehicle and $2,490.40 to Univar USA for sewer chemicals. Absent from the meeting were Bill Peak and Jim Truesdell.

• Approved the Aug. 13 minutes after a requested amendment from council member Dennis Bixby. The minutes reflected that Bixby, who earlier had volunteered to do touch-up painting to the former city shop at Third and Main, no longer was available to do the work. He explained that he had proposed doing the volunteer work two months earlier, but needed a release to do the work, but he didn’t receive the release from City Attorney Mike Kelly.

“This makes it sound like it’s all coming back on me,” Bixby said. “I’d like to clear that up.”

Kelly said he did not get the release to Bixby in time and that it should be reflected in the minutes.

The council approved the minutes with the amended wording.

• Heard from J.W. Evans about progress on gaining easements for the Chieftain Trail extension. Evans, who is working with landowners to acquire easements, said two landowners did not want any liability with regards to the sidewalk and wanted a letter from the city stating they wouldn’t be liable for any accidents.

He said he was making reasonable progress with landowners.

• Heard from Rural Water District 9 representatives about possibly purchasing water in emergency situations from the city. The district recently had problems with one of its lines that left the district with a water shortage. The council directed staff to look into whether the city could resell its water, which it receives from the Kansas City, Kan., Board of Public Utilities.