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Charles City Council sets bid date for Main Street Bridge project

Charles City Council sets bid date for Main Street Bridge project
Charles City Council members (from left to right) Phillip Knighten, Phoebe Pittman and DeLaine Freeseman sit in on a regular meeting on Monday evening. Press photo by Kelly Terpstra
By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

The Main Street Bridge that spans the Cedar River in downtown Charles City has seen its fair share of use over the years.

The 110-year-old concrete barrel-arch-style bridge creates a passageway over the water that unites each side of  the city, but now it’s time for a repair job on the 250-foot-long structure, and that could also include a fresh coat of paint.

The City Council approved the preliminary plans and specifications for the Main Street Bridge Project at a regular meeting on Monday evening.

The purpose of the project is to extend the life of the bridge without compromising the historic integrity of the structure that is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

“The overall bridge is in fair condition, which … in bridge jargon is a good thing,” said Mayor Dean Andrews. “So it’s not like the Main Street Bridge is falling down. We’re just doing some repairs to keep it from getting to that condition.”

Soil borings have determined that the fill in the arches has settled and needs to be solidified.

The plan is to inject more than 10,000 pounds of polyurethane material into the spandrel arches that will actually lift the pavement to maintain drainage into the intakes on the bridge.

City Engineer John Fallis said the intakes will then be resealed and this will also keep water out of the fill material.

Fallis said a separate add alternate on the bid to paint the bridge will also be considered by the council.

The letting date is tentatively set for Feb. 27 and a public hearing for March 2.

Also at the meeting Monday, the council discussed the city budgeting process.

The Legislature last year enacted new requirements on the process to approve city and county budgets that now requires two public hearings before the budget is approved.

The first hearing deals with the maximum tax levy the city can collect in certain accounts, and the council approved setting the date for a public hearing for the max levy to be either Feb. 18 or 19. Once that hearing is held, the second public hearing for the fiscal year 2021 budget can be set sometime in March.

City Administrator Steve Diers said he hopes the new process doesn’t confuse people, because the “maximum” property tax listed for the hearing will actually be less than the total collected, because the max levy doesn’t include things such as the aviation levy, library levy and debt service levy.

The total increase in tax collected under the max levy fund accounts is less than 1 percent from the current fiscal year to the next fiscal year beginning July 1.

The maximum tax rate is $14.04 per $1,000 of assessed taxable valuation. That rate is 2.6 cents lower than the current year because of an increase in total property valuation in the city, according to Diers.

“For these particular ones, this is the maximum amount we can do. We can look to back these off some yet as we get closer to approving the budget, but we can’t increase them,” Diers said.

A unanimous vote to reject the lone bid for the Charley Western Trail Bridge was also taken by the council.

The bridge project, estimated at $1.2 million, had been proposed to be completed by late summer.

The council agreed to open the project up for bids again after receiving just one bid, for $1.6 million, or 33% higher than the estimate, from Ida Grove company Godbersen-Smith.

Fallis said the city is now looking to let bids on the project sometime in May, with work to begin sometime in the winter of 2020-2021 and a potential completion date of September or October of 2021.

The council also approved a motion to apply for a Wellmark large match grant for up to $100,000 that may go toward construction of the Charley Western Bridge.

Charles City has secured $330,000 in federal TAP (Transportation Alternative Program) funding to go toward the new bridge.

The city approved a preliminary plat to build a seven-lot subdivision on 195th Street, just south of Wandering Acres. This resolution passed also includes waiving further requirements for plat approval.

The subdivision is within two miles of the city’s extra-territorial review limits.

Raymond and Karen Holzer submitted the seven-lot subdivision to Floyd County for review and approval.

“We’re essentially asking the county to enforce their subdivision ordinance and we’re waiving the enforcement of ours,” said City Attorney Brad Sloter.

A resolution was approved for Terracon Consultants to conduct testing on the soil that is being removed at the College Grounds that will be used in the construction of the $17 million WRRF (water resource recovery facility).

More than 7,000 cubic yards of dirt is being excavated from the site of Charles City School District’s new athletic complex and some of that dirt will be used to help build equalization basins and reed beds at the WRRF.

Geotechnical work will also be done at the new site at Shaw Avenue during construction. That engineering service work includes concrete observation and steel inspection.

The total cost for the consulting work is estimated at $114,000.

The project to fix the roof at the Cedar Valley Transportation Center was recently completed by Moss Roofing for $320,000. The cost of the shared state/county/city facility was split three ways. The Iowa Department of Transportation and Floyd County paid 36.6 percent of the project. The city’s share was 26.8 percent or $85,000.

The council approved the final payment from the city for $4,000.

The next scheduled City Council meeting is a workshop that will take place on Monday, Feb. 10, at 6 p.m. in the council chambers.

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