After moving water bill due date back, Mound City rejects requests to waive late fees

After swearing in Shayla Lamb to the Mound City Council, Mayor Wade Doering welcomes her back after a two-year absence. Lamb was an elected city official for 14 years before she took a break in 2024 but was uncontested in her bid to return to office last November. (Roger Sims / Linn County Journal)

By Roger Sims

linncountyjournal@icloud.com

MOUND CITY – Over the past couple of years, the lack of speed and efficiency of the U.S. Postal Service has caused problems for area cities who bill residents for water or gas service.

The change in the system for area post offices has meant that all mail received by the local office is sent to the main office in the metro area for sorting before being shipped to, in many cases, back to the city where the mail originated.

The delay has resulted in Mound City residents and businesses complaining that water bills have not being paid on time and a fine being assessed for late payment. The city in early 2025 moved the due date on water bills from the 10th of the month to the 16th because of mail delays

The Mound City Council is developing a track record of taking a hard line on refusing to waive the penalty, usually less than $10. Last fall, the council refused to waive a penalty for a Mound City business because of mail delays, and at the council’s meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 6, the council again rebuffed a request from a resident.

The city has in the past been fairly generous in helping residents who have had a leak and requested a reduced charge to help them get caught up.

However, the consensus for late charges are that residents and businesses know when the water bills are due and regardless of post office delays, they should be paid on time.

At the Jan. 6 meeting, the council decided to deny a landlord’s request to waive or reduce an outstanding water bill of $695 that a former tenant left unpaid. According to City Attorney Mark Hagen the landlord, Gary Reichle, is in a contract dispute with the former tenant.

Reichle said that he had already spent $1,000 to fix the leak and asked the council for some consideration, but the council declined to reduce the bill.

The council heard a proposal from City Superintendent John Bruns about a pedestrian bridge leading to the sidewalk on the Mound City Historical Park property on the northwest corner of the intersection of Main and Seventh streets. He said the bridge was becoming less safe and needed to be addressed.

Bruns said he wants the Mound City Historical Society to purchase a culvert to install where the bridge is now, however, because the bridge is adjacent to Kansas Highway 52 (Main Street), he is trying to get Kansas Department of Transportation input. He said he would contact historical society chair Ron Nickelson about the project.

In the past Nickelson has indicated he wanted the ditch that runs underneath the bridge and along Seventh Street to have culverts installed and covered over so that the park would have additional parking along that street.

The council learned that City Treasurer Sharon Davis plans to retire from her post at the end of June. Davis will have been treasurer for the city 23 years in March.

The council debated whether it needed to hire a full-time or part-time replacement. City Clerk Shelby Murray said she plans to shadow Davis to learn about the job and will report back to the board on her findings.

Food Fair owner Bruce McCune and Ron Nickelson approached the council about using the city’s demolition funds to take down a mobile home behind the grocery store at 725 Spruce St. on property owned by the grocery store. However, they were told that to use the demolition funds that were set up using American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), the property would need to be added to the city’s land bank.

McCune said he wanted to retain the property, so the council approved having codes officer Jacob Bush condemn the property. Following the condemnation, McCune can petition the county for waiving fees at the county landfill for an expected four containers of debris.

In other business, the council:

• Welcomed Shayna Lamb back as a councilmember. Lamb did not seek re-election to her seat on the council in 2023 after serving 14 years in city government. After a two-year break she won election to a council post in November.

• Learned that the county was updating its radios, and the police department had about eight weeks to get replacements.

• Heard Hagen’s report that he is working on policy covering vacation time and the implementation of an employee sick-leave bank.

• Approved Mayor Wade Doering’s committee appointments, including Fanchion Shadden and Lamb on the finance committee, Josh Baldwin and Cody Beckman on the street committee, Baldwin and Jessie Carr on the parks committee, Lawrence Forbach and Baldwin on the sewer committee, Shadden and Baldwin on the water committee, and Shadden and Carr on the police committee.

• Approved $1 per hour raises for Bruns, Murray, Bush, Police Chief Paul McKee, water operator John Harrington; $1.50 per hour raises for policeman Ivan Squire and compactor operator Jonathan Mauk; and a 50-cent-an-hour raise for Sharon Davis.