Charles City Council considers selling portion of North Main to Pure Prairie Farms

By Mary Pieper, Special to the Charles City Press

The Charles City Council Wednesday discussed the possibility of including an option to buy in its proposed lease agreement with Pure Prairie Farms for one block of North Main Street adjacent to the former Simply Essentials plant.

The council voted in July to vacate that portion of North Main so Pure Prairie Farms can expand the chicken processing facility before it reopens this fall.

City officials previously discussed leasing the vacated property to Pure Prairie Farms so if the plant closes the area could be turned back into a city street.

However, City Administrator Steven Diers told the council Pure Prairie Farms now wants to buy that property because lenders who are financing the plant expansion want assurance that the company will have long-term access to the loading dock area that is part of the project.

Without that assurance, “that facility is not set up for best success,” he said.

Diers also said it’s unlikely the city will want to use the vacated block of North Main as a public street in the future because of its plans to reroute the rest of the street near the plant.

The city is getting an appraisal on the property to see what the sale price range would be. The results will be presented at the next council meeting.

Even if the city sells the property to Pure Prairie Farms, it could easily get easements for the city water and sewer lines that run underneath it, Diers said.

Councilman DeLaine Freeseman asked if it would be advantageous for the city to lease the property to Pure Prairie Farms for three to five years before allowing the company to buy it. He said this option would give the city a chance to see how the traffic patterns on the re-routed portion of North Main are working out first.

Earlier this month the council approved a plan to create separate turning lanes for the North Grand to North Main Street traffic by offsetting the existing North Grand centerline and eliminating parking along North Grand and the easterly side of North Main.

Pavement markings and signage are being used to redirect traffic until permanent changes to the streets can be made during the 2024 construction season.

Pure Prairie Farms Chief Financial Officer George Peichel told the council he is fine with a three-year lease with an option to purchase the vacated portion of North Main in the end.

“We want what is best for all of us,” he said.

Ryan Boehmer, who owns property at 417 N. Main St., said during the process of vacating the portion of North Main adjacent to the chicken processing plant, city officials said they planned to get the property back and make it a street again if the facility didn’t succeed under Pure Prairie Farms.

The current council may no longer believe they will do this, but a future council may want to if the plant is unoccupied again, according to Boehmer.

“For the majority of the past 10 years, it has been a vacant building,” he said.

Boehmer also has concerns about the traffic changes to North Main.

“What we have now is not near as safe as it was before it (the vacated portion of the street) was closed,” he said. “Right now, it’s a mess up there.”

Boehmer called the new right turn lane at the Intersection of North Main and North Grand “terrible.”

“I did it in my dad’s Tahoe and it was too tight,” he said.

Boehmer said it was even worse with his four-door truck, and he can’t even imagine a semi making that right turn.

City Engineer John Fallis said some temporary pavement will be added to the intersection by the end of next week to open it up for wider turns.

Mayor Dean Andrews said a three-year lease agreement with Pure Prairie Farms for the vacated portion of North Main with an option to purchase after the lease is up would address a lot of Boehmer’s concerns.