City planning meeting talks parking tickets; theater crosswalk

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

Unpaid parking tickets can be a hassle to collect.

Charles City is looking into possibly solving that problem.

Wednesday’s city council planning session touched on a variety of topics and one right near the top of the list was the issue of resolving unpaid parking tickets – or at least minimizing the sheer number of them.

“Right now we really don’t have a good way of collecting unpaid parking tickets,” said Charles City Administrator Steve Diers.

Diers said that the proposal he’s been looking into has been modeled after how some other cities in the state are dealing with the matter. Parking fines in Charles City run $15 a ticket and grow to $20 if they are not paid on time. Those outstanding parking tickets could be collected via the treasurer’s office when a vehicle is insured for the year or when registration is renewed.

Diers has talked with Floyd County Treasurer Frank Rottinghaus and he is supportive of the idea and the city has also shared the draft 28E Agreement with the Floyd County Board of Supervisors.  

Diers said the fine amount in Charles City is below the threshold of the $50 it takes for the state’s Income Offset Program to be able to collect the unpaid tickets. That state offset program has been utilized by several cities in Iowa to seize income tax refund or lottery winnings to pay for those person’s unpaid parking tickets or outstanding speeding fines, but that would not apply in this instance.

Under the proposal, the city would turn over unpaid parking tickets to the county every month and would then have that information on file. The city would pay the county $5 per past due ticket collected for compensation after the unpaid fines have been settled.

There was lengthy discussion on the subject of a possible crosswalk leading up to Charles Theater. Dale Schmidt, assistant manager at Charles Theater, addressed the council in regards to traffic not slowing down as movie patrons cross the street to enter the building.

“There are a number of safety concerns regarding pedestrians coming to the theater,” said Schmidt.

Schmidt said tenants of Apple Valley Assisted Living often walk to the theater to watch movies and Comp Systems also brings many people for a day or night trip as well. Schmidt stated 90 to 95 percent of the people walk across the street from the parking lot to attend the movies.

City Engineer John Fallis said roughly 300 cars pass by the theater per hour during the day. That total falls to 90 per hour at 9 p.m. – or one car passing through every 40 seconds.

A preliminary cost opinion of installing a mid–block crosswalk is $8,000 – with the majority of that cost coming from making it fully accessible to meet ADA (American’s Disability Act) requirements.

Other suggestions bantered around at the meeting that could possibly improve safety without constructing the crosswalk were placing signs in the theater to remind people about oncoming traffic when leaving the building. Another thought was a sign could be placed in the middle of the street during peak hours or when movies are playing to warn motorists of crossing pedestrians.

Diers also said the city is ordering replacement parts for the traffic signals at the intersection of Hulin and Main Street, as well as Blunt and Main. The lights there are currently flashing yellow – which means proceed with caution.

“I think some people, they don’t know what a yellow blinking light means,” said Diers. “We want to get those back to the green–yellow–red sequence.”

The Request for Information that was sent out by the Broadband Commission has received plenty of feedback according to Diers. Diers stated about a dozen entities responded and could possibly partner with the city on the broadband fiber to the home project. Discussion at the next workshop will be whether the commission moves to the next step for Lookout Point to conduct the business plan and engineering phase.

“That’s going to be our $300,000 commitment,” Diers said.

Other agenda items discussed at the meeting:

– Lanie and Cort Sanvig submitted a facade application for their business – St. Charles Brewing Company. Curt Sanvig said he looks to open his microbrewery at 100 South Main some time in October. The Community Revitalization Design Committee has reviewed the application and are recommending approval. The amount of funds requested is $9,540.

– The Housing Department is in the process of starting a $120,000 project to upgrade the electrical service at South Cedar Terrace. Three transformers and an utility pole are some of the main electrical work that needs to be done on the property. Charles City Housing and Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Heidi Nielsen said MidAmerican Energy will foot some of the bill.

– Tim Fox, Executive Director of the Charles City Area Development Corp., was in attendance to make a request from Cambrex for extension of the High Quality Jobs Program requirements for one year.