New business at Mound City pool site now unlikely

A proposal to locate a business at the former site of the Mound City swimming pool is now off the table. A rural Mound City businesswoman was looking at the area between Food Fair and the new constructed Cultivate Kindness Garden as site for a storefront. (Journal file photo)

By Roger Sims, Journal staff

linncountyjournal@icloud.com

MOUND CITY – Interest in purchasing the city-owned lot west of the Food Fair grocery store in Mound City has faded since the city council met earlier this month.

Sue Vicory, an entrepreneur who has been the driver behind the community’s emphasis on kindness, approached the Mound City Council about purchasing the lot at 810 Main St. at the council’s meeting on Tuesday, March 3. However in a phone interview on Thursday, March 12, Vicory said she had changed her mind after discussing it with a city council member.

Vicory made her pitch for the property early in the meeting, saying she wanted to build a new store for her The Power of ONE label where the building that served as a pool house for the city’s former swimming pool now sits.

However, later in the meeting city after Vicory left, city superintendent John Bruns indicated that the city should let her know that the former swimming pool contained fill as much as 12 feet deep in the west end where the diving area was and that it would likely be unsuitable for building.

“It would almost be impossible to build there,” Bruns said, adding that while there is no sewer line on the property, the water supply line to the grocery store goes through the property.

The property, which has the city’s water salesman on the west side and the newly built Cultivate Kindness Garden west of where the pool used to be before it was closed. The lot is about an acre less rights-of-way, Bruns said.

Vicory’s The Power of ONE is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit corporation that sells t-shirts, sweatshirts and accessories online and uses profits to further humanitarian causes.

While she said she was no longer interested in purchasing the city property, she said she might be interested in purchasing a suitable property for a shop for her projects.

At the meeting, the council heard a pitch from Jeffrey Deane and Lindsey Kolisch, attorneys for Lauber Municipal Law, a metro-area based law firm that specializes in providing attorney services for cities. The firm currently represents La Cygne, Parker, Osawatomie and Louisburg.

Kolisch, who is an associate attorney for the firm, told the council their normal fee is $275 per hour, however, for cities that use them as appointed counsel, the fee is $215 per hour. If they attend meetings, the charge includes the time to travel one way. For meetings where a Lauber attorney attends via Zoom, there is no travel charge. Deane, one of the firm’s partners, often attends La Cygne council meeting via Zoom.

The council voted unanimously to hire the firm to represent the city. The firm will replace former city attorney Mark Hagen. Last month Hagen, who is assistant county attorney, parted ways with the city following the February meeting when he advised the council that their plan to purchase the shop owned by J.R. Kerr for $175,000 in payments did not meet Kansas statute requiring cities to have funds available before they agree to purchases.

The agenda item to discuss that purchase from Kerr again in March was tabled by the mayor until the council’s meeting on April 7.

City officials are hoping that with Lauber attorneys onboard that several issues can be addressed, including the condemnation of a mobile home on property north of Food Fair.

Ron Nickelson, president of the Mound City Historical Society, has been helping land owner Bruce McCune with the process of removing that structure from the property at 725 Spruce St., and he was at the March 3 meeting asking about the status. In January, McCune and Nickelson asked the city to condemn the structure and help them get landfill fees waived..

Nickelson said that the lost title has now been replaced and the demolition project is ready to proceed.

Doering said that with the attorneys now on board, once the paperwork has been completed at city hall the city will apply for a waiver of fees from Linn County.

In other business, the council:

• Voted unanimously to hire Melanie Grote to fill the city treasurer and court clerk posts following a 10 minute executive session for personnel matters. Grote’s pay will be $20 per hour for the 32-hour-per-week post, and the vote included language to waive the 90-day waiting period for employee benefits.

  
  

• Approved allowing the owner of a residence that has had an ongoing leak a year to pay off a $2,100 water bill at about $175 per month. The motion to allow that, which was unanimously approved, said that any missed payment would result in late-payment penalties being assessed.

  
  

• Heard Brian Flanery address the council regarding the Mine Creek Gravel Battle bicycle races scheduled for March 28. The races, one a 50 kilometer race and the other a 100 kilometer race, will begin and end in Mound City. The start of both races will be at 9:30 a.m. Flanery requested that the mayor be present during the event. Much of the race will take place on gravel roads.