By Regina Goff
Pratt City Manager
Special to the Tribune
*Editor’s Note: In an effort to provide better communication with constituents, the Tribune will publish a monthly message from Pratt City Manager Regina Goff with updates, plans and timely information. These updates, along with other division leader’s reports may always be found on the City of Pratt website, https://www.cityofprattks.com/249/Managers-Corner.
Happy 2025! I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas with your loved ones! Please see the department updates below.
Commission Workshop – The annual end of year commission workshop took place on December 16, 2024. All commissioners and commissioner elect, Monte Hostetler were in attendance. At this meeting the commission discussed accomplishments in 2024 as well as items to address in 2025.
2024 Accomplishments:
1. Improved communication between management, staff and commissioners.
2. Hiring permanent City Manager
3. Taking steps toward a water treatment facility
4. Completion of the Dog Park.
5. Renovations at the Scout Cabin.
6. Organization and inventory of documents at the Municipal Building.
7. Grants for Electric Department substation redundancy, LED street light replacement,
computer replacements for Water Department, Wastewater, Electric Department and
City Hall approved.
8. Hiring the Tourism Ambassador.
9. Succession planning for retiring department heads and supervisors is being addressed.
10. Commission and the public are receiving detailed monthly reports from City Manager.
11. Financial investment of idle funds has dramatically improved.
12. Budget explanation, understanding and planning have all improved.
Areas to address in 2025
1. Increase engagement and communication with public.
2. Infrastructure funding for street improvements, water treatment, and replacement of our
electric steam generation needs to be addressed -likely with a sales tax initiative.
3. Process of annexing properties that benefit from City services and properties to make
the City of Pratt city limits contiguous and harmonious needs to begin.
4. Strategic Plan – need for a clear spreadsheet of capital improvement items being
planned.
5. Continue to engage State and Federal leaders regarding stalled trains.
6. Commissioners would like meeting agendas by Thursday evenings instead of Fridays.
7. Ask for any amendments to agendas at the beginning of every commission meeting.
8. Commissioners would like to be blind copied on more email discussions.
9. Speaker system in commission room needs to be improved.
10. The large volume of technical information for equipment and projects can be omitted
from future agendas.
11. Readdress the ordinance regarding chickens and ducks within City limits, perhaps
remove prohibition and make nuisance animal ordinance broader.
12. Perhaps plant trees along new sidewalk from Main Street to Lemon Park.
13. Continue discussions on need to add a sewer line north of PCC.
14. Continue to pursue Municipal Building rehabilitation.
15. Pursue project to move the Pratt Police Department to a new location.
16. Plan legislative luncheon with our legislators and continue those engagements.
Water – At the Commission Workshop, Commissioners discussed the need to plan for water treatment infrastructure to address emerging contaminants. Any long-term expensive project will require financing, which may include bonds. The City of Pratt has been advised by the State
of Kansas that since our water rates are significantly below the State average, those rates would need to be adjusted in order to qualify for bonds. Therefore, our water rates were adjusted higher for 2025.
EBH Engineer, Mike Younger has been working on updated proposals for two potential sites for a future water treatment facility. He presented estimated costs of each of the options at a water workshop for commissioners on February 3, 2025.
The Well 17 reimbursements for the preliminary engineering planning and test wells have been received from the forgivable SRF Loan. This funding will pay up to $3 million for the new well, well house, generator, and water line.
Streets – The City of Pratt Street Department has been working around the clock clearing snow and treating ice for the last week and a half due to heavy snowfall. I am thankful for their dedication and perseverance. Roy provided a summary of the Street Department’s response to the first snow storm, and I have included his summary below.
“From Saturday 1-4 to Wednesday 1-8 the Street Department put down approximately 60 tons of salt sand mix during the ice portion of the storm. We had three spreaders running. When it began snowing, we started plowing using our three-dump truck mounted plows and our one
pickup mounted plow. Russ, with his plow, the Water Department and the Cemetery helped also. Later in the storm on Sunday, we had our cat grader out pushing snow also. From the start of the storm Saturday 1/4/25 through Wednesday 1/8/25 at 5 pm, the Street Department’s seven men put in approximately 392-man hours. On Tuesday night, 1-7-2025, we began hauling off the snow from the downtown area. The Street Department had four large dump trucks, three one-ton dumps and two-wheel loaders. The Water Department had one large dump and one ton
dump. The Line Crew brought one large dump and one one-ton. The Park Department helped with one one-ton. We also hired Jeff Weber and his large dump truck. This totaled seven large dump and six one-ton dumps for 13 trucks total. Wastewater supplied two men and Recreation
supplied one man. With all these people and equipment, we were able to accomplish this task in six hours. No major breakdowns or any accidents.”
The South Main project is underway. Russ has been assured that the contractor and State of Kansas are monitoring the temperature of the concrete to ensure the snow and cold weather will not affect the quality of the finished road.
Parks – The Parks Department has done a great job removing snow from the walking paths at 6th Street and Lemon Park the last few weeks.
Recreation – Security cameras have been installed and are now in operation at all the Green Sports Complex areas and the Municipal Building. We are hopeful this will cut down on vandalism, and accountability to individuals that attempt to damage City of Pratt property.
Basketball practices began last week, with games starting this coming week. Larry, Tiffany and I met with several local baseball and softball traveling team coaches on Wednesday, January 8, 2025, to discuss increasing the number of teams that come to Pratt for weekend tournaments. We received good feedback and tips from the coaches.
Our tourism ambassador, Tiffany, is continuing to work on the social media footprint for the City to announce our activities and promote tourism. She is using the new Facebook page called Visit Pratt. We continue to discuss potential activities daily which could bring visitors to our community, and certainly welcome ideas and suggestions.
Municipal Building – Sadly, the Climate and Energy, and the University of Colorado, Bolder, application for the EPA Community Resilience Grant, which included a request for funds to retrofit the Municipal Building into a Community Resilience Hub was not selected. Therefore, the City of Pratt will need to continue to seek grant opportunities and donations to continue to work toward restoration of this beautiful Pratt landmark.
Although the Municipal Building was available during the snow storms, no citizens requested shelter.
Electric – The Electric Department untied from the grid completely on December 17, 2024 and provided power to the City of Pratt by running Units 6 and 7. This enabled needed maintenance to be completed. It was also a great exercise for the Power Plant employees to prepare them
for any future event in which the City’s generators are the only power source available. The line crew worked during December to trim trees and work on transmission lines. This maintenance helped prevent outages during the snow storms which have occurred during the month of January. Only two outages occurred during the storms, and power was quickly
restored. They also finished the LED street light replacements. As always, the community appreciates the many hours of work by the line crew hanging and taking down Christmas lights and assisting with the Lemon Park Lights project.
City Clerk – More customers are using the new Paya payment system. While this system will save the City of Pratt a substantial amount of money, there are some hiccups in the process that the front office is working through.
Police Department – Unfortunately, it is common for the Police Department to see an uptick with mental health related crisis during the holiday season, and December 2024 saw this uptick. Thankfully, our PD has been trained to respond to these crises, and our community is fortunate to have them.
The law enforcement officers and dispatch personnel that heroically assisted the Pratt Fire Department with the tragic house fire at 706 W 3rd in December have all been offered any mental health and support services they need. The department has also offered peer support services and the personnel seems to be doing well. The Police Department hosted a Cram the Cruiser food drive charity event at Wal-Mart on December 14th, which benefited local families.
Dispatch – A member of the dispatch team will be transitioning and training to become a law enforcement officer, with another moving into the Animal Control position. Therefore, interviews are ongoing to hire individuals to fill the vacancies.
Fire Department – Some awesome news to share is that Todd Hoffman has agreed to serve as the permanent Fire Chief for the City of Pratt. Therefore, he will be sworn in at the January 21, 2025 commission meeting. A huge thank you to Todd for his bravery and willingness to step up and lead the Pratt City Fire Department on a permanent basis!
Pratt City Fire Fighters responded to the tragic house fire at 706 W 3rd in December, where a man lost his life. The members of our team were heroic in their response. As with Pratt PD, all fire fighters involved in the incident have been offered any mental health and support services
they need. The department has also offered peer support services.
Engine #2 pump is in need of repair or replacement. This will be expensive, but it is a necessary expense.
There was a recent fire call at Pratt feeders. Our fire fighters were able to contain the fire to the conveyor system putting out hot spots.
During the month of December, the Fire Department responded to several calls regarding elevator alarms in hotels and apartment buildings. In order to avoid getting billed for City Fire Department calls, these establishments need to ensure regular maintenance is completed on their elevators.
Code Enforcement – Code Inspections are ongoing at Sacred Heart Catholic Church and Pratt 382 Bus Barn.
The Planning and Zoning Commission is scheduled to hear Full Cycle Waste Solution’ application for a special use permit for the solid waste portion of their business on Thursday, January 16, 2025.
Code Inspector Brad Blankenship has announced that he will retire effective April 1, 2025. Interviews for this position are scheduled to take place this week. We have received approximately 17 applications. We have scheduled interviews with 6 of the applicants.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns regarding any of the information presented, please do not hesitate to contact me.
