LONE TREE

The Lone Tree City Council met on Monday, Nov. 6, for their regularly scheduled meeting.

The council approved Johnson County Sheriff Brad Kunkel’s proposal to raise the hourly wages for sheriff presence in Lone Tree by $4, bringing the rate to $53 an hour for fiscal year 2024-25 with 26 contract hours on the book.

Lone Tree has held steady with 26 contract hours since 2009-10. Contract hours are how many hours the Johnson Country Sheriff Department will schedule for deputies to patrol Lone Tree streets each week.

It does not mean that if the 26 contract hours are up that the deputies will not respond to an emergency.

Kunkel also proposed the council approve a flat increase of $4 each year for the next five years to get Lone Tree to cover 100% of what it costs Johnson County to work in Lone Tree ($69.57 per hour).  The council decided they want to re-access each year rather than make that commitment now to prevent hurting their budget elsewhere.

Old business

Within the old business segment of the meeting, Lone Tree discussed a development for the Wastewater Treatment Plant and the Water Plant.

For the Wastewater Treatment Plant: Boomerang is beginning the physical process of removing sludge from the lagoons, which the council noted was a positive update since the updates have come slowly. The Water Plant is seeing Jetco onsite to work on the SCADA system.

Lone Tree also completed their second reading of Ordinance 2023-1 (C-1 zoning, no first story dwelling) at this meeting.

Since their last reading, the council worked to improve the ordinance.

They amended the ordinance to add subsection 30A to section 165.02 entitled “First Story.” The subsection defines what the first story is. They define it as the story that is “in reasonably close proximity to the grade at the front of the building.”

They also modified paragraph A within subsection one of section 165.21 to clear up language, reading: “Multi-family dwellings pursuant to Section 165.18 except that first story dwellings are prohibited.”

New business

A concerned resident came to this meeting to discuss issues they have encountered with the city’s garbage removal program with Hauler. Members of the council along with people in attendance agreed with encountering some issues with the service.

However, the city of Lone Tree has a contract with Hauler until June 30, 2025, a contract signed July 1, 2020.

Members of the council along with City Clerk Stephanie Dautremont offered reassurance that Hauler is working through a transitional period as they deal with turnover of staff and work to train the new staff on-hand.

Mayor Josh Spilman would like to wait before taking action.

As a final motion, the board approved for their January meeting to take place on Tuesday, Jan. 2, as recommended by Dautremont.

Next meeting: Lone Tree will next meet on Monday, Dec. 4, at 5:30 p.m. in City Hall.