City council approves purchase of lights for Charley Western Trail bridge

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City Council approved a resolution for the purchase of five lights for the nearly completed Charley Western Trail bridge at Monday’s meeting.

The cost of the lights, from Crescent Electric Supply Company, is not to exceed $13,835. The city will contract separately with an electrician to install the wiring and the lights on the bridge.

City Engineer John Fallis explained that lights were not included in the initial bridge plan, and that the five new lights will match the rest of the lights along the trail. Fallis said that the bridge should be completed, open and ready for use by the end of the summer.

“We have been working with KSA Lighting to develop a lighting plan for the Charley Western Trail including the trail bridge,” Fallis said. “Godbersen Smith continues to work on the bridge construction, and they are ready to cast the concrete pilasters which will support the lights.”

Fallis said the work with KSA has included the selection of a pole so anchor bolts can be cast in the pilasters at the time the concrete is poured.
The poles will be 12 feet in height placed on a concrete pilaster, so the five light fixtures will be approximately 16 feet above the bridge deck.

The cost of each light was originally quoted at $2,767, for a total cost of $13,835, but Fallis said that he learned recently the fixtures would cost less than that, although he didn’t yet have solid numbers

Mayor Dean Andrews explained that there is ongoing fundraising being done to purchase the lights, and the city will be reimbursed at least some of the cost.

“The trail committee cannot actually purchase the lights, so the city is purchasing them,” said Andrews. “The trail committee is doing the fundraising to pay for them.”

Andrews said that the quotes were needed for the lights and the installation, so that the trail committee would know how much they needed to raise.

Also Monday, the council approved a task order with Fox Engineering for a sanitary sewer service extension review, at a cost of $15,500.

“To really know the costs associated with extended sewer services, this is the first step in finding out,” said City Administrator Steve Diers. “We’ve identified a couple areas around town that we want to focus in on.”

Diers explained that the city is investigating possibilities for sanitary sewer service extension in various parts of the city and adjacent property.

“We’ve generally talked about the extension of city services in and around the city with potential annexation during our recent goal-setting process,” Diers said. “One of the key pieces that we’ll need to know before we can do anything is how sanitary sewer service would need to be provided to various areas.”

Diers said that since the system is gravity fed, it takes more time and research to determine extension options compared to that of water or street/storm sewer work. He added that the review would give the board a good idea of what it would take to extend into whatever direction the city might want to extend toward.

Diers said the city was prioritizing some areas on the southeast side of town, so that the study could be completed by the end of July for those areas. The rest of the study is scheduled to be finished by the end of August.

In other business on Monday, Diers told the council that he had received very good news from the DNR, informing him that since Charles City qualified as a disadvantaged community, the total cost of the city’s water resource recovery facility (WRRF) project will be reduced by $1 million.

“In addition to the $1 million we were granted for the project, we’re also getting $1 million in relief,” Diers said. “It’s very exciting, I wasn’t expecting that at all.”

Diers said the money comes from a federal program which offers financial relief for grant applications submitted by disadvantaged communities that filed for grants in 2019 and 2020. The WRRF project, scheduled to completed by the end of the summer, has been estimated to have a total cost of $19 million.

“Whatever the the total cost is, it will be reduced by $1 million now,” Diers said.

In other business Monday:
— The council approved a request to close parts of Kelly Street, Blunt Street, North Main and North Jackson Streets around Central Park during the planned July 4 weekend (Friday-Sunday, July 2-4) celebration and during “Party in the Park” events on Friday, June 11, Friday, July 30 and Friday, Aug. 13.
— The council also approved closing Blunt Street between North Main and Jackson streets adjacent to Central Park on Sunday, July 11 from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the request of the Charles City Lions Club, which will be hold its annual pancake breakfast that morning.
— The council announced that the next council meeting will be a planning session, Wednesday June 16, at 6 p.m. The meeting will be held remotely, via Zoom. Diers told the council that the following meeting, on June 21, could possibly be a “hybrid” meeting, as the city is installing equipment to allow the meeting to be held both in person or via Zoom, if necessary.