The Eudora city staff will prepare an ordinance that would allow residents to benefit from the excess sustainable electrical energy they produce.

The Eudora City Commission had a workshop on the issue at its Monday meeting after receiving a request from a resident who intends to install solar panels on his home. In a 2009 compromise reached between then-Gov. Mark Parkinson and the Sunflower Electrical Power Corp., Kansas investor-owned utilities are required to purchase from customers excess power produced from solar or wind sources.

Municipal utilities and rural cooperatives were exempted from the requirement, but Parkinson did encourage them to voluntarily offer net metering as well, city commissioners were told.

The measure discussed at the workshop would do just that in Eudora, which owns the electrical distribution system that serves the city. Specifically, the measure presented to city commissioners would have the city install two-way meters for customers with the means to produce wind or solar energy. The customers would then be credited for excess they produced during a billing period.

Commissioners instructed staff to return with an ordinance for consideration.

Commissioners turned down a request of the Eudora Amateur and Softball Association to sell fireworks next summer at the old Nottingham Elementary School on Church Street, as they have in recent years.

The rejection came at the recommendation of City Administrator Gary Ortiz, who warned that granting the request could increase the city’s liability coverage on the property and put at risk its tax exemption, which requires “exclusive municipal use” of the property.

Ortiz also noted the city might not own the property in June because a request for proposals meant to find a developer for the Nottingham property is now on the streets.

Barack Matite, assistant city administrator, said six property owners attended a recent workshop about extending a tax increment financing district on the Nottingham property to include businesses east of Church Street. The interest was enough that the district would be extended, he said.