All Kiowa County Signal content owned by Gatehouse Media 2011-2013.All articles, photos and layout by Patrick Clement, unless otherwise noted.

patrick clementNews Writing Portfolio

patrickmichaelclement@hotmail.com323.517.8198

hard news

City, BTI moving forward on sewer line and annexationGREENSBURG — Twoweeks ago, Interim City Ad-ministrator Jay Newton spokestrongly in open session aboutthe alleged “handshake” Cityof Greensburg/BTI sewer lineagreement. “This is not theappropriate way to conductbusiness,” Newton said, ad-dressing the city council andMayor Bob Dixson. Newton’s frustration was notdirected at BTI, or the Mayor,or the city council, he says itwas directed at all parties in-volved.“I don’t think there was any-thing underhanded about any-thing BTI or the city weredoing, they were trying to ex-pedite their building processand to get things done,” saidNewton. “I think we shouldalso recognize that the citywas going through a rebuild-ing process and they had somany things going. I thinkdollars were probably anissue.”When he arrived in Greens-burg he found a stack of legaldocuments that had accumu-lated among city officials, cityattorney Gordon Stall and BTIand rediscovered the deal thathad passed through the handsof the three previous city ad-

ministrators. “The problem was that it hadnever gone to the council forapproval, for action. This dealis almost four years old. Iwould have taken it to councilfour years ago — because itlooks like someone is trying tohide something. I don’t thinkanybody is, but the processhas kind of stumbled along.So my frustration was, ‘whydid they let this linger?’”The long delayed agreementwas officially addressed twoweeks ago Wednesday, whenthe city council unanimouslyvoted to “pursue the agree-ment” in which Greensburgwould purchase the BTI-owned sewer line that con-nects the GreensburgIndustrial Park to the citysewer main on the north sideof the highway for $103,500in exchange for the annexa-tion of BTI and it’s surround-ing land.“We’ve understood from thebeginning that was more orless our agreement,” said BTIco-owner Mike Estes. “If wecan get everything solved withthe city, with regards to thatline and of course the moneywe’ve invested in that linewould come back to us, thenwe would be fine with the an-

nexation.”The deal has existed since2008 and Mike Estes of BTIconfirmed that the agreementwas initiated handled by pre-vious city administrator SteveHewitt. Under the proposed agree-ment the annexation would in-crease the city’s assessedvaluation and the additionalproperty taxes would add rev-enue to city coffers. “[BTI]are part of the community,they are using the services ofthe community and they aregiving back to the community,I think it is appropriate forthem to be annexed into thecity,” said Newton.BTI has said that it has noproblem becoming part ofGreensburg, a city it has beena part of since 1996 when itpurchased a local dealership.“We’ve been a part of thiscommunity ever since we’vecome here, in a big way,” saidEstes. “We want to continuethat relationship moving for-ward and expand on it if wecan. We’ve never had a bigissue with [annexation]. Yeswe’re going to pay more taxesbut we would be inside thecity limits at that point andthat would be ok.“We’re very happy about

everything that is going on inGreensburg,” continued Estes.“We think they are moving inthe right direction. I’m aheavy supporter of the greeninitiatives and sustainabilityinitiatives in Greensburg. It isa progressive community andit’s the community of future.”Once the deal was revisited,Newton scheduled a meetingbetween Mayor Dixson, PECCity Engineer Ben Mayberry,the contractor who built thesewer line, and representa-tives from BTI to discuss thedeal, during which Newtonsays he reiterated the city’sposition.“I told them that we needed toget this wrapped up becausewe can’t officially use a pri-vate sewer line. If a businessmoves into the industrial park,as it currently stands, wecouldn’t use the current lineand we would have to run ourown line. I also put the annex-ation back on the table. [BTI]said ‘Yes we did agree tothat.’”Estes and Newton both pointto the Greensburg IndustrialPark and its future occupancyas a motivator in expeditingthe official close of the sewerline deal.

“The reason for the delay isthat the city had not developedthat business park,” saidEstes. “The deal was contin-gent on the city [developingthe business park] or bringingmore businesses out that di-rection. That is why it hastaken so long. The city finallygot that park developed andthat’s to their credit. Withoutthat it would still be delayed.That’s the plain and simplereason.”

In discussions with the engi-neer, Newton was told that thecost of building a new sewerline under the highway wouldbe comparable to the amountrequested by BTI. But Newton says that there area number of hurdles to jumpbefore the deal can be com-pleted, including a possibleproblem with the line. “There appears to be a sag inthe line that runs under thehighway. I told BTI that Iwouldn’t recommend [thecity] purchase that line until itis corrected,” said Newton.“It has to sit correctly; other-wise we’ll have no interest init. It needs to flow correctly.”Newton has scheduled a re-view of the line on Wednes-day and will report hisfindings to the city council.Newton has also requested of-ficial plans and a site map ofthe sewer line, which he saidhad not yet been disclosed tothe city. Publicly, both the city andBTI seemed to welcome thedeal, which could potentiallybe finalized before the end ofthe year, pending the sewerline inspection and the officialannexation of BTI into theCity of Greensburg. “There will be a positive eco-nomic benefit to the city [fromthe annexation process]. Iwouldn’t have pursued thisotherwise,” said Newton.

sports

editorials