Traffic adjustments have been a common occurrence in Emporia over the last couple of years, but now adjustments to traffic control devices may be coming soon.
During the latest Emporia City Commission study session Wednesday afternoon, commissioners received a report from City Engineer Jim Ubert regarding several traffic signals across the community. According to Ubert, those signals, located at 18th and Merchant, 8th and Commercial, 7th and Merchant, 7th and Commercial, 6th and Congress, 6th and Constitution, 6th and Mechanic, 5th and Commercial and 4th and Commercial, no longer meet traffic signal warrants (standards) per the results of a recent Kansas Department of Transportation Traffic Engineering Assistance Program study.
Due to the signals not meeting standards, the city is currently considering removing said signals and replacing them with more cost-effective controls, according to Ubert.
No formal decision has been made on the matter as commissioners chose to table the item until its next regular meeting later this month.
In other study matters, commissioners reviewed the annual financial report, which showed a lower unencumbered ending balance than in 2024 by more than $370,000. Revenues were over budget by $866,000, with expenses under by $555,000.
The full report is available online at Emporiaks.gov, but one fund that drew particular attention Wednesday was the city’s water fund, one that has consistently presented some challenges for the city budget cycle, according to city manager Trey Cocking.
In 2025, water sales were lower than budget by $254,000, which Cocking attributed largely to weather conditions during the warmer months of the year.
Water fund expenses were higher than the budget in 2025 by $409,000, with the fund ending the year with an unencumbered cash balance of $496,701 and a total outstanding debt of just over $33 million, related to various water infrastructure projects over the last decade. Speaking of which, before Wednesday’s study meeting, commissioners convened their regular action session, where they approved an amendment to their Kansas Water Pollution Control Revolving Fund loan agreement with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
According to Ubert, the city agreed back in December of 2016, in an amount not to exceed $28 million at an interest rate of 1.94 percent for improvements to the city’s Wastewater Treatment Plant. The city would then make two future amendments for additional projects, the downtown sanitary sewer project and lift stations 1 and 2, bringing the loan amount to just over $32 million.
Wednesday’s fourth amendment establishes the final loan amount at the 1.94 percent interest rate for a term of 20 years, with 40 half-year payments to run through September of 2038.
Additional details from Wednesday’s meetings can be found online under the agenda tab on the city’s website, Emporiaks.gov.
