BY ANDY TAYLOR
chronicle@taylornews.org
A recommendation from Mayor Dale McBride to appoint Caney resident Nancy Moore to a vacant position on the Caney Valley Recreation Commission was rejected by city councilors on Monday.
The city by-laws require the mayor to issue a recommendation for any vacant position on city boards and commissions with the council granting concurrence to that recommendation. Councilors cannot make their own recommendations, except when it deals with a vacant position on the city council itself.
McBride said Moore, wife of city councilor Jason Moore, was the best choice for filling the Caney city recreation position. Moore currently serves as district governor of Kansas Lions and has been active in various city endeavors, including organizing the annual Caney Mayfest celebration.
Because a proposed community center to be built by Robert and Betty Moore would involve the Caney Lions Club the Caney Valley Recreation Commission, Moore was the ideal choice to serve on the board, McBride said.
Other persons who expressed an interest in the vacant city recreation commission position were Kevin McIntosh and Rick Pell. All three candidates were in attendance at Monday’s meeting, but none of the three were asked to speak.
At the conclusion of McBride presenting Moore’s recommendation to the council, the council garnered only three votes in favor of Moore with five councilors voting against the recommendation.
That prompted a request from city councilor Erin Munday to recommend McIntosh to the vacant position. McBride informed Munday and other councilors they could not make the recommendations; that privilege rests solely with the mayor.
McBride said he would not consider McIntosh for the vacant city recreation commission.
Because the council was unable to agree on the mayor’s recommendation, the vacant city recreation commission position will remain unfilled.
In other business transacted at Monday’s city council meeting, councilors:
• agreed to accept the donation of property owned by the David Howard family on Foreman Street, between Seventh and Eighth streets. The now-vacant property used to be the location of the Howard family home, which was discovered to be the Little White Schoolhouse. The schoolhouse now sits in downtown Caney as part of the Caney Valley Historical Society complex.
Mayor Dale McBride and city administrator Don Whitman said they preferred to see the vacant property be made into a city park because no parks exist in the southern area of Caney.
That idea brought some concerns from councilors, noting that the City of Caney would have to equip the facility with playground equipment, lights and possibly benches at a time when the council was keeping a lid on costs.
McBride said he would rather see the property managed and maintained by the city now; plans for equipping the property as a park can be made in 2011 or with the help of civic organizations, he said.
Councilors then voted 8-0 to accept the donation of the property.
• adopted the city’s 2011 budget plan, which calls for the city’s tax rate in 2011 to be 36.731 mills, slightly down from the 36.747 mills assessed in the current 2010 budget year.
• voted 6-2 to purchase a used Kansas Highway Patrol vehicle to replace a Caney Police Department car. Provisions were made in the city budget to allow for the purchase. Councilors Erin Munday and Jason Moore cast the dissenting votes against the proposed vehicle purchase.
