– A $1 increase to the base charge on your water bill. Blame the rain for that one. The city says it fell $3.5 million short of its projections because people aren’t watering their fields and lawns as much as they usually do. By adding a $1 increase to the base charge, the city can count on a steady cash flow from its 140,000 customer accounts. More increases are expected when the city council votes on the 2009-2010 budget on Aug. 12. Of course, that base charge increase will still be there when a dry year comes along. The increase gives the city an extra $1.68 million a year, which will help pay of debt for the next phase of the aquifer recharge project.

– The council will also set the maximum amount of taxes levied for their 2009-2010 budget. That could spur another debate over budget issues, such as whether to fund a downtown police bureau and how to staff fire stations. (Previous Eagle story.)

– Council members will also vote whether to shift $500,000 in emergency money to pay for repairs and Chapin Landfill, which has been closed since 1987. Late last month, officials found methane was leaking from the old landfill. It forced the evacuation of five homes. (Previous Eagle story.)

The agenda and some supporting documents are available in a PDF file.

The city of Wichita spent about $4,100 on travel, food, beverages and other expenses for meetings regarding and receptions for city manager candidate Pat Salerno during April and May, records show.

Charges from April 10 to May 19 include a party at the Wichita Art Museum where the city ordered canapes (appetizers) and dessert from the museum’s cafe for $16.50 per person. The charges also include a $342.42 tab at Southwinds for steaks, salads and drinks enjoyed by the candidate and his wife, Wichita’s interim city manager and his wife, and Steve Martens and his wife.

The city also paid for Salerno’s $297 stay at the city-owned Hyatt and flew City Council members Sue Schlapp and Carl Brewer to Sunrise, Fla., at a cost of $691 each. Salerno paid for his plane ticket to come to Wichita; the city will reimburse him later.

In April and May the city also paid $7,000 to The Mercer Group for its role as a search consultant. Mercer billed the city $5,000 on April 8 for supplying the names of four additional candidates for the city manager search. On May 5, Mercer billed the city $2,000 for essentially a finder’s fee because Salerno had been recommended as a candidate to the council.

But while there’s plenty of open spaces in Wichita, it’s not a great place for a stroll, according to Prevention Magazine, which published its nationwide walkability ratings recently. Wichita was near the bottom of the list in Kansas and the nation. That distinction is also published in the latest issue of the Kansas Government Journal, the publication of the League of Kansas Municipalities.

“Although it does have a decent Walk Score — 89 out of 100 — it has the third lowest ratio of parks per square mile in the state, a huge hindrance to walkers,” the rating explanation says.

Want to know more? Check out walk scores for any given address online, and see an Eagle story about plans to improve walking.

Of course, the Democrats have had their blog — Buffalo Blog — for about a year and a half. Their most recent post takes a shot at Congressman Todd Tiahrt for delaying debate on critical issues by asking for a re-vote on a resolution celebrating the role of mothers. “Tiahrt then joined 177 of his Republican friends and voted against their mothers, and ate up 28 minutes of their day in doing so.”

Nothing like more strong dialog in the Kansas political blogosphere.

You can also view it online. (It wouldn’t play in my Mozilla Firefox browser, but it worked on Internet Explorer.)

Now it appears the Big Day has come. The Council is finally poised to discuss and vote on a smoking ban. And everyone seems to expect a showdown. Clean Air Wichita, for example, announced by e-mail that speakers from the American Lung Association, American Cancer Society, a local health care group and their leaders will be at the meeting. They oppose the ban because they say it doesn’t go far enough — they want something that bans smoking at all businesses, not just food service businesses.

The votes line-up in favor of the compromised ban — the critical four votes being Mayor Carl Brewer and council members Lavonta Williams, Sharon Fearey and Jeff Longwell. But all things political can change. Some of those most actively opposing the ban couldn’t be reached early Monday afternoon for this post about who’s showing up at the meeting. But if history is a guide, those opposing the ban will show up in force as well.

The council meeting starts at 9 a.m. The ban is number 12a on the agenda, meaning the discussion probably (no promises here) won’t start until after 9:30 a.m. — if not 10 or 10:30 a.m. The proposal would ban smoking anywhere that kids under age 18 are, which means most restaurants will be smoke-free unless they have a smoking room that, among other caveats, has its own ventilation. The bars, meanwhile, could just card folks at the door to make sure they’re older than 18 and post a sign outside to warn folks that the air may not be so pure inside.

The full proposed law can be found on page 269 of the PDF council agenda.

“He was passionate about his direction, and we were passionate about ours, and he decided to go his way, and we went our way,” Brewer told The News and Observer Monday.

Former Mayor Carlos Mayans was not so kind. “He’s a very charming person, but very, very divisive,” Mayans told the North Carolina newspaper.

Kolb, no stranger to these questions, defended himself as he has in the past. He said he keeps council members informed, handled Sunflower appropriately and resigned because of “philosophical differences.” But he also used his community interview to boast the progress he felt he facilitated in Wichita.

Prompted by community member questions, Kolb said minority contractors obtained about 10 percent more city business under his watch, which appears to be true — or close to it — based on the most recent city-generated reports. He also highlighted the city’s partnership with private philanthropists to build the Boys and Girls Club on 21st Street. (Kolb said it’s a model for the nation, but he didn’t mention that President Bush liked the idea so much he came out to see it.) And he said if he gets the job in Durham, he will hold himself and city staff accountable. “People ought to be held accountable for what they say they’re going to do,” he told the crowd.

Kolb, who said he felt has been mis-characterized in past Eagle articles, also seemed to acknowledge that being city manager is a job done under intense pressure, and that it’s not always pretty. “Sometimes these things can be boring,” he said of the community forum. “We’re not professional actors. We’re not professors who stand before a class, although some of them can be boring too.”

Wichita is in the running for the American Planning Association’s 10 “Great Neighborhoods.”

Wondering why? Check out the city’s video, one of their more extensive productions. You’ll hear a bit of developer David Burk, a bit of former Mayor Bob Knight and some old school footage showing what Old Town used to look like.

The winners won’t be announced until October — AKA National Community Planning Month.

Homelessness: This move wouldn’t commit the city to any spending, but it would let Interim City Manager Ed Flentje work with County Manager Bill Buchanan to develop yet more recommendations on what local governments should do to help people who are on the streets.

Amtrak: It has been 28 years since Wichita had passenger rail service, and now many are calling for an extension of existing rail lines through Wichita. That would provide train service from Fort Worth to Kansas City. This resolution wouldn’t authorize any spending, but it would formally encourage the project.

Cowtown: The museum is set to re-open May 9, and the city wants to hire and advertising firm to get the word out via a marketing campaign. The gig would go to Jajo, Inc., a Wichita company that would use e-mail, radio and other tactics to “generate buzz” and bring people into the struggling museum.

Cargill: The parking lot is located near First and Water streets downtown, which is near one of Cargill’s buildings. The company has been expanding downtown, and it is adding more and more employees.