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City officially conveys S. Jackson Street to pave way for construction of LEC

City officially conveys S. Jackson Street to pave way for construction of LECBy Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

South Jackson Street from Gilbert to Court Street is now under county control.

That was a key item on an abbreviated City Council agenda Monday.

Council members voted unanimously to approve Resolution 99-19, which allows Charles City to convey and vacate the street to Floyd County, to be used as part of the property for the county’s new law enforcement center project.

In the coming days, motorists will not be able to drive along the west side of the Floyd County Courthouse where South Jackson runs.

Floyd County Supervisor Linda Tjaden said that after talking with Floyd County Auditor Gloria Carr and County Engineer Dusten Rolando, the street will be closed to the public.

“He is fully prepared to put up some barricades as soon as it’s been recorded,” said Tjaden. “We are for right now going to allow county employees to be able to at least use that street to continue to park. But we want to make sure that everybody is fully understanding that it’s not a through street anymore.”

The resolution being passed is also a signal that in the foreseeable future work will begin on the new $13.5 million law enforcement center that will see new jail and sheriff’s offices built in addition to courthouse upgrades.

City Engineer John Fallis said the city had been holding off on turning the property over to the county so the street could continue to be used.

“Now the county has indicated to us that they do want to get started on the construction of this,” Fallis said.

Now that the third and final reading of the ordinance has been approved and will be published – construction activities should be imminent.

“One more step in moving forward,” said Mayor Dean Andrews.

Steve Diers also had several updates for the council during his city administrator’s report.

Diers said there will be a rough draft to review the 500 N. Grand Building and a proposed 10-year tax abatement agreement at the upcoming planning session on Monday, July 22.

Shawn Foutch is owner of JMAE LLC, a construction company that specializes in historic rehabs and property management. Foutch purchased part of the former middle school building at 500 N. Grand for $1 from the Charles City School District to turn it into market-rate apartments.

In order to move forward with design work and engineering on the project, he’ll need the consent of the council in order to meet his tax abatement demands for the project.

The proposed abatement agreement would be for 10 years and at 100 percent. This would save Foutch over $589,000 in property tax dollars over a 14-year plan laid out by Floyd County Assessor Gary Vander Werf.

Diers also said there would be discussion soon regarding a proposed certified industrial development site and the Charles City Area Development Corp.’s role in that real estate south of town.

The agreement would have Charles City sell general obligation bonds to purchase 75 acres of real estate at a cost of $2.156 million. The bonds would be repaid with incremental tax dollars generated from the South Grand Urban Renewal TIF District, where the land is located.

The city would grant the property over to the CCADC to market and hopefully sell the state-certified site to an industry to locate there. Once the property was sold, that money would also be used to repay the city bonds.

The CCADC is asking if any additional funds or surplus will be available to it after the purchase of the property and those proceeds are used to payoff the debt to acquire the land.

Diers said that he envisions a cost-sharing program with the CCADC to both benefit from any profits on a sale.

“It’s a good incentive for ADC moving forward to be able to have access to some of those funds,” said Diers.

Diers also said that Parks and Recreation Director Tyler Mitchell is working on a temporary solution to fix the rust problem on the slide at Lions Pool.

After more than 20 years of being in operation, the support systems to the slide have corroded and rusted. Diers said the slide is closed now but will be reopened soon after the city works with L&J Industries to get the slide back up and running for the rest of the summer.

“We have a plan in place that’s going to be for about $1,000 to kind of band-aid it and kind of brace it so the structure itself can remain for the rest of the year,” Diers said.

Diers also said a consultant will come in soon to inspect the slide and offer a quote in order for a long-term fix to be made.

Tuesday, July 23, is the date that Diers said the business plan is due from consultant Erik Lampland and Lookout Point Communications concerning the Broadband Project.

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