Galena News

3.27.2025

Citizens of Galena,

Since we are entering storm season in the 4-States, we thought it would be beneficial to provide some information on our various sirens that you may hear every so often in town. We also recognize that we have individuals that have recently moved to town or may only work in town and are not accustom to the few different sirens that we set off. Please read the below explanations of what Galena has and how they work:

• Galena has 7 tornado sirens placed throughout the city. (Empire & Jefferson, 5th & Chicago, Fire Dept., 11th & Dewey, 12th & Yale, 21st & Dewey, Park Hill Blvd.) Riverton also has one tornado siren. 
• When are the tornado sirens tested? They are only tested during the month of March on Wednesday’s at 10am. If the weather is cloudy or stormy, the siren test is postponed until the following Wednesday. However, the State of Kansas may issue a separate siren test at any given time. 
• Typically, our dispatch services set off any rural sirens, allowing cities to manage their own sirens. However, dispatch does have the ability to set them off if need be. 
• During potential upcoming storm events, a trained first responder is always at the Galena Fire Department to set the tornado siren off if the correct conditions are met.
• What conditions must be met during weather events to activate the siren? The tornado sirens are activated during a radar indicated tornado for our local area of the county, or a storm spotter has reported a tornado in our area of the county (e.g. our sirens will not be activated if the storm threat is in the northern part of our county and not close to us.). The tornado siren will also be activated if the wind speed reaches 70mph or above.
• Who services our tornado sirens? Galena’s tornado sirens are monitored by a company called Blue Valley. When the sirens are tested, Blue Valley is notified and monitors the sirens output. This identifies if the sirens are working as intended or if they need serviced. If any resident notices a siren not functioning, or a siren pole damaged, they can call the Fire Department or City Hall to notify city personnel of the issue.
• Does Galena have an air raid siren? No, not officially. But the tornado or fire siren could be used if needed. 
• What is a fire siren? A fire siren was the earliest way of summoning a volunteer fireman to a fire by the ringing of a bell that was either mounted atop the fire station, or in the belfry of a local church. As electricity became available, the first fire sirens were manufactured. The popularity of fire sirens took off by the 1920’s. Since the 1970’s, many communities have since deactivated their fire sirens as pagers became available for fire department use. Some sirens remain as a backup to pager systems. Galena has kept this long-standing tradition in place to honor not only the fire department community as a whole, but also to honor the memory of longtime, former Chief Bill Hall who was determined to keep this tradition alive in our community.
• When are fire sirens Used? In Galena, they are only used to alert volunteer firemen during the daylight hours, year round. Once the sun goes down, they do not deploy the use of the siren.
• How can I tell the difference between a tornado siren and a fire siren? As previously mentioned, the tornado sirens are placed throughout the City of Galena, as opposed to the fire siren, which is only at the Fire Department. While they may be initially similar in pitch, citizens can discern the difference by listening to the tones the sirens give. Traditionally, tornado sirens give off a more long standing wail. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOSTEarWrqQ
• Fire sirens gives off alternating shorter tones. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqGpTn4ggFI     or     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cYIJDlvXFk

We hope that this helps provide some clarity to the different sirens and helps you and your family better prepare for nature’s events that occur more often than we prefer. I personally ask, whenever you hear one of the sirens, say a prayer…you never know whose property or lives are at stake! And we appreciate all of our first responders that are continuously dealing with the impacts of both of the sirens mentioned above!

*P.S. I would like to thank Officer McCool for gathering the information contained in this letter. She worked hard, on her own merits, to obtain this information for the benefit of our community!

Sincerely,

Ashley Qualls Groves

Mayor

Job details

Pay

$400 per week

Job type

• Part-time
• Temporary for the 2025 Summer Season

Number of openings for this position

• 1

Schedule

• Weekend availability
• Monday to Sunday
• Day shift
• Night shift
• Other

Job description

• Manage and supervise pool staff; run weekly in-service trainings.
• Signup lifeguards for first aid, CPR and lifesaving skills classes by a licensed instructor.
• Create and assist in implementation of new procedures to improve daily operations.
• Supervise the pool lifeguards, ensuring and enforcing compliance with all establish safety rules and lifeguard certification requirements.
• Certify in all required fields.
• Interview, hire and train a full staff.

• Provide proper first-aidcare for guests that struggle swimming or other first-aid interventions.
• Maintain, stock, and run day to day concessions.
• Lead first responder for any medical issues that occur.
• Train and certify in basic lifeguarding skills, first-aid, and AR/CPR procedures.
• Complete daily checklist (ensuring pumps, skimmers and drains are operating properly).
• Obtain and maintain required certifications.
• Obtain certifications to maintain position.
• Recruit Lifeguards.
• Be available for daily hours and parties planned.
• Hire an assistant manager to help with the day to day operations when not available.

For more information please call the City Clerks office at 620-783-5265 ext. 1. Applications can be found online at www.galenaks.gov. All applications can be returned to the City Clerks office located at 211 W 7th, Galena, Kansas 66739.

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Submit

The City of Galena, Kansas is requesting proposals for professional services to provide maintenance of cemetery grounds of Oak Hill, Old Galena, and Hillcrest cemeteries.

Qualifications

Proposals will be accepted only from qualified contractors with experience and competency in mowing and grounds maintenance.  Successful bidder(s) will need to maintain a current business license with the City of Galena.

Length of Contract

Length of contract for services requested is for one year, beginning April 1, 2025, through

March 31^st 2026. The contract will be paid by the city monthly, beginning  May 1^st, 2025 through April 1st, 2026.  The City, upon request from the contractor reserves the right to extend this contract as needed based on satisfactory performance.

Nature of Services Required

Oak Hill Cemetery – Maintain cemetery grounds, including all areas within the property occupied by grave sites, future grave sites, grass roadways and the lawn area near the front entrance both inside and outside the rock wall surrounding the East and South sides of the cemetery including the road ditches. In total, this includes maintenance of approximately twenty-two and one half (22.53) acres of area used or reserved for cemetery use.

Old Galena Cemetery – Maintain cemetery grounds including all areas within the property occupied by grave sites. In total, this includes maintenance of approximately nine and one quarter (9.27) acres of area used or reserved for cemetery use including the areas outside of the rock wall next to the streets.

Hillcrest Cemetery – Maintain cemetery grounds including all areas within the property occupied by grave sites and future grave sites. In total, this includes maintenance of approximately thirteen and one third (13.39) acres of area used or reserved for cemetery use including the area outside of the wire rope fence to the south near the highway and the ditch line to the east and north where the property borders the street.

Maintenance provided by the Contractor shall include the following:

  A.                     Mowing of all mowable areas during the growing season to maintain a grass height   not to exceed three (3) inches, and not less than two and one half (2.5) inches. The typical growing season shall be defined as March 1^st through October 31^st.

   B.                      Trimming around all gravestones and markers within the cemetery so that vegetation around such obstacles does not exceed a height of three (3) inches. Includes removal of any grass clippings from gravestones and markers.

C.                      Removing fallen limbs year-round and leaves in the fall.

               D.                     Removing any tree or brush growth from around grave markers or headstones.

               E.                      Removal of old floral arrangements from grave sites.

             F.             Removal of all trimmings from the cemetery. Trimming of trees, brush and grass             may be mulched at a site within the cemetery only upon approval of the site by the City Superintendent and provided such mulch site is properly maintained.

The Contractor shall furnish all labor, materials, tools, and equipment to perform said cemetery maintenance.

The Contractor shall not be considered an agent or employee of the city for any purpose and shall be deemed an independent contractor. The Contractor shall be solely liable for any injury to persons, employees, property of the Contractor or property of others.

The Contractor shall maintain contractor’s liability insurance in the amount of $300,000 for all services outlined. A certificate of insurance must be submitted to the city for the term of the contract on or before April 1, 2025.  The contractor must also carry workers compensation for all workers in accordance with Kansas law.  Failure to submit a certificate of insurance or cancellation of said insurance without prompt replacement will be cause for immediate termination of contract.

Proposal Criteria

Proposals should include qualification and annual maintenance charge for each cemetery listed separately.  The city may select up to three different contractors, assigning one cemetery to each contractor based on the proposal that will be deemed the most advantageous to the city.

Request for proposals should be sealed and directed to:

City of Galena

211 W. 7^th St

Galena, KS 66739

Proposals must be received by March 14, 2025, at 12:00PM.

The City of Galena will answer any question prior to the deadline for proposals. The selection of a contractor will be based on the evaluation of the proposals. The City reserves the right to select a contractor directly from the written proposals. The award may be made to the most qualified contractor whose proposal is deemed most advantageous to the city; all factors considered. Unsuccessful contractors will be notified as soon as possible.

The city reserves the right to negotiate an agreement with the selected contractor based on fair and reasonable compensation for the scope of work and services proposed as well as the right to reject all responses deemed unqualified, unsatisfactory, or inappropriate.

CITY OF GALENA

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL FOR

CEMETERY MAINTENANCE

Contractor Name:  _____________________________________________________                                                                               

Business Name: ________________________________________________________                                                                                   

Address: ______________________________________________________________                                                                                         

City, State, Zip: _________________________________________________________                                                                                

Phone Number: _________________________________________________________    

Number of Employees: __________                                                                               

April 1, 2025 – March 31, 2026

Oak Hill Cemetery Annual Fee: ______________________________

Old Galena Cemetery Annual Fee: ____________________________

Hillcrest Cemetery Annual Fee: ______________________________

 Request for proposals should be directed to:

City of Galena

211 W 7th St

Galena, KS 66739

Proposals must be received by March 14, 2025 at 12:00 PM. 

All questions can be directed to Superintendent Josh Reed at 620-783-1991 ext. 2 

March 3, 2025

RE: Smell in town

Greetings,

To provide an update on our ongoing efforts to pinpoint the smell in town and find resolutions to that smell, attached is a letter from KDHE.

A few things to note:

*Hydrogen sulfide and volatile organic compounds were periodically detected at the top of the landfill in the ambient air. There was an idle truck parked in the area during the time of the observation.

*No carbon monoxide was detected in the ambient air.

*No hydrogen sulfide or volatile organic compounds were detected at a point off-site and downwind, but slight odors were observed.

 After we complete the monitoring plan and KDHE gives their okay, we will provide written documentation with those plans and recommendations.

Again, I know that it may appear like we are moving at a snail’s pace, but we are actively doing what we know we can do to locate the root cause and find viable solutions. If possible, we ask that you continue to keep a record of when you notice the smell (time of day, temperature, wind direction, etc.) as it might help us with the solution. Thank you for being understanding as we continue to work toward a solution. 

Sincerely, 

Ashley Qualls Groves

Mayor of the City of Galena

All City Offices will be closed Wednesday, February 19, 2025 due to inclement weather.

Solid Waste routes will be postponed until further notice. We will keep everyone updated as soon as possible.

For all utility emergencies, please call 620-783-1991 ext 9.

All City Offices will be closed Tuesday, February 18, 2025 due to inclement weather.

Solid Waste routes for Monday and Tuesday will run as long as the weather permits.

For all utility emergencies, please call 620-783-1991 ext 9.

City Council meeting is cancelled for Tuesday, February 18, 2025 at 6:00pm.

Galena Utility Bills were sent to the post office on January 31, 2025. According to our tracking system a delay at the sorting station has occured with a large sum of the utility bills. We have not received an update to as when these bills will be delivered to our customers. Once again this month we will not be accessing late fees. Please accept our apology as we work through the inconvenient delays.

January 30, 2025

Good Afternoon!

I wanted to give an update on the odor in Galena that has been occurring for the past months. To provide a short summary of events to this point, back in the fall we started noticing a terrible odor that coming from the north side of town. To be describe the smell, it was like an awful rotten egg odor. You could not smell it all over town, but definitely could if you were within certain regions of that area. One of the things we also noticed was that it got worse with the colder temperatures and would obviously change course depending on the wind direction. The City, fairly immediately, began communicating with Jordan Disposal (the landfill operators) to try to locate the issue and rectify the problem. Since that time, the City and Jordan Disposal have had several meetings with KDHE (Kansas Department of Health and Environment) to gain some guidance and resolution as to what the next steps should be. I personally had a call with an EPA representative last week to get them up to date and seek some further guidance. As of now, KDHE will remain the lead agency on this effort, but EPA will support when there is need. A team from KDHE came to town yesterday to do some further examination and monitoring. Although no determination was made and no set date of results were discussed, we hope to receive some guidance from them in a reasonable amount of time. Once we can pinpoint the exact issue and location of the odor and what it is, EPA and KDHE said there are some options that should minimize the anaerobic metabolism by bacteria, reducing production of hydrogen sulfide and allowing that gas smell to dissipate. But the source must first be fully identified before a plan can be set and put in place. As City leaders, we are taking this issue seriously and daily working on how to solve the problem. We thank Jordan Disposal, as well as KDHE, for being valuable partners and working alongside us to figure this out. At this point, we are not certain where the smell is exactly coming from, but we are making all efforts to correct the issue.

I personally apologize for the utter frustration and inconvenience it has placed on our residents (especially close by), businesses and all of those that drive through town. We are hopeful that working with these professionals we will find a solution. Thank you for being understanding during this time and feel free to reach out to myself or any council member regarding your concerns.

Thank you for your time,

Ashley Qualls Groves, Mayor