Wichita previews Feb. 11 agenda with Brewer Center change-order authorization, stadium sculpture loan and multiple grant applications

Wichita City staff on Friday previewed a slate of items for the Feb. 11 City Council meeting, highlighting a change order and a request to increase staff authorization for future change orders on the Brewer Center construction contract, a one-year loan agreement for a sculpture at the Delano entrance to Equity Bank Stadium, an amendment to the Crown Uptown Theater planned unit development (PUD) and several grant applications including the Community Services Block Grant and Kansas Arts Commission requests.

City Manager (staff) told the council that “Page 4, number 1 would amend the Crown Uptown Uptown Theater PUD. You have valid protest petitions, so this would require 6 votes for approval.” The same agenda review noted a one-year loan agreement for the stadium sculpture at the Delano entrance and explained the city’s past loan payments could be credited toward a future purchase: “The loan payments that we have made over the last few years will actually be credited to us if we decide to buy it.”

Why it matters: Council members pressed staff for budget clarity on one project that would require an ordinance-level change-order process and for explicit distinctions between contract amounts and overall project budgets. Those distinctions determine whether staff can authorize minor contract adjustments without returning to council, and whether an approval affects the district capital-improvement budget already adopted by council.

On the Brewer Center parking-lot storm-sewer replacement, staff described a change order of roughly $85,589 that would increase the construction contract. A council member summarized the arithmetic during the review: the original construction amount was $9,027,000, the proposed change order is $85,589 and that would bring the construction contract to $9,113,251. Staff also explained a separate request to authorize up to $361,107 in additional change-order authority so staff could approve future, smaller change orders without bringing each one back to council. City staff emphasized that raising the change-order authorization cap affects the contract amount, not the overall project budget: “It does not change the project budget, so we can't exceed what the council’s already approved for project budget. If we're ever to get to that point, and we needed additional funds, that would come back to the council.”

Council members asked whether the public-art cost was included in the project budget; staff said they would verify whether public-art dollars had been set aside in the capital improvement program and provide the July 18, 2023 budget approval file to council members.

The agenda review also listed a request to apply for 2025 Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) funds, described in the briefing as “approximately $1,100,000,” and an item to apply for Kansas Arts Commission grants for Cowtown and City Arts. Staff identified other items for the Feb. 11 meeting, including a contract with Lexipol to help the Wichita Police Department develop operational policies and training and to support the department’s work toward accreditation; an equipment purchase for the Real Time Information Center (RTIC) that staff said is majority grant-funded and was procured through an RFP; and a grant application to address drainage issues in the Murdoch Corridor from Broadway to Lorraine.

Council members also asked for a clearer accounting of the sidewalk repair assessment program. One council member asked staff to report how much of the city’s sidewalk-repair budget was used in 2023 for assessments versus other city-funded sidewalk work. Staff said they would check whether intersection curb-ramp work was billed separately from property-owner assessments and provide the requested breakout to council members.

Other previewed items included periodic solicitations for farming leases around Jabara Airport and routine change-order authorization language the city uses on larger construction projects. Staff said routine change-order-cap increases are requested “because of where we've gotten to” on large projects and to avoid project delays caused by returning small change orders to council for approval.

Staff promised to send the council the detailed contract and budget files, including the July 18, 2023 budget action, before the Feb. 11 meeting.