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City Council discusses acquiring Cedar Health Building for possible housing development

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City Council discussed the possibility of acquiring property located at 807 5th Street, commonly known as the Cedar Health building, for a possible construction of affordable apartments for Charles City at Wednesday evening’s work session.

Katie Nolte, Charles City housing director, presented the council with a proposed application to seek matching dollars to demolish the structure. Nolte said the bank holding the mortgage has indicated it would release the mortgage to assist in this effort.

“The request would be through the Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee,” Nolte said, and added that HUD would finance the demolition of the current facility and remove the environmental hazards, which would take the cost of that away from the city.

“The area seems well-situated for developing housing,” she said.

City attorney Brad Sloter said that he did not yet know the total costs involved in acquiring the property.

“We would have to bring the abstract up to date and determine what liens exist and in what amounts, and how much is owed in taxes,” Sloter said. “We know there are at least two mortgages, a workforce development lien, back taxes, and there may potentially be other liens, too.”

The location is the former Cedar Health Assisted Living, which closed about three years ago. City Administrator Steve Diers said that since that time the property has fallen into disrepair. He said he has had extended discussions with potential developers to do something with the property, but everything he’s discussed has been too costly to be feasible.

Diers said that the owners have essentially abandoned the building and the city mows the grass and maintains the sidewalk, assessing the costs to the property, which have yet to be paid.

Diers said that the city housing department would like to seek funding through potential Federal Community Funded Projects, or “earmarks” that appear to be coming available through the federal government.

Due to the time constraints and deadlines for the funding applications, the consensus of the council was to allow Nolte to apply for the funding, because the city can always refuse the money if the council later decides it doesn’t want to pursue the project.

In other business Wednesday, the council discussed extension of the $1.2 million note to the Charles City Telecommunications Utility, which was due to mature in March. The city has extended interim financing to cover expenses associated with startup of a telecom and fiber-to-the-premises network. The initial amount was $1 million and was later expanded to $1.2 million.

It was anticipated that March would be well past the time where financing was to be obtained to repay this amount to the city. However, the telecom project has yet to achieve financing, and while that process continues, the council needs to look at extending the due date for the note. It is anticipated that the note will be extended one year, to March 2022.

The council also discussed a possible $20,000 grant to update the pickle ball courts. Parks and Rec Director Tyler Mitchell told the council that he has applied for a grant to resurface and expand the current courts, which are in “rough shape” with several cracks.

Mitchell said that, as part of the grant, the courts would be expanded to regulation size and be eligible to host sanctioned tournaments. Mitchell has received an estimate for the work from Heartland Asphalt, which comes to over $36,000. Mitchell explained that the grant would cut the city’s cost to just over $16,000, which he plans on paying through the one-day borrowing fund. The council intends to vote on a resolution for funding at the next meeting.

In other business Tuesday, the council:
• Discussed the possible sale of an abated and demolished nuisance property, which is now a vacant lot at 312 15th Avenue.
• Discussed rezoning requests at properties on 808 North Jackson and also at Hartwood Inn.
• Heard from Mark Wicks, who presented the annual CLG report.
• Heard from Bob Ingram, who presented an insurance renewal review.

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