City falls short on one grant toward trail bridge replacement

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

Charles City has missed out on a $100,000 state grant to help fund replacing the Charley Western Trail Bridge, City Council members learned at their regular meeting Monday evening.

City Administrator Steve Diers said in his administrator’s report that funding from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources for the city’s application for a REAP (Resource Enhancement and Protection) grant to help fund the $2 million bridge replacement project was denied.

Diers said the Iowa DNR ranked 24 communities approximately the size of Charles City that had requested funds. The top five received funding.

Charles City ranked 13th overall with a score of 95. The top score was 113 and the bottom total was 78. Charles City would have needed a score of 107 to enter into the top five and receive funding. Applications were ranked on different criteria such as the quality of the site and environmental/public benefits.

Also Monday evening, the City Council granted two-year waivers for Mills Inc. and MidAmerican Energy for off-street loading and parking requirements as stipulated in Section XXII of the city’s zoning ordinance.

Kelvin Keifer, owner of Mills Inc., recently purchased the building at 1906 Gilbert St., where he will move his plumbing and heating business from its old location at 312 North Main St. to allow him to house his company’s offices, showroom, vehicles and warehouse in one location.

He will install eight parking stalls on the east side of the building and a driveway approach. Keifer is seeking the waiver in order to keep the remaining driveway gravel.

MidAmerican Energy bought the former Allied Construction Co. building at 1307 South Main St. and remodeled the building and the outdoor areas to store wind turbine parts, tools, etc. There are small areas of concrete paving.

The initial requests by Mills Inc. and MidAmerican Energy were for permanent waivers and were brought before the Planning and Zoning Commission on Sept 17. The P&Z board recommended two-year waivers.

City Engineer John Fallis said he plans to bring before the P&Z Commission an ordinance amending Section XXII and changing those requirements to help create parking in a more economical manner. He said the city could enforce the requirements in the future on a case-by-case basis rather than just having one city-wide requirement.

“If we’re always granting waivers, what’s the point in having it in place?” asked council member Michael Hammond. “Essentially this gives us the opportunity to investigate and actually see what we’re trying to get out of this ordinance.”

The council went into a closed meeting to discuss the potential purchase of property for the wastewater plant project — known as the Water Resource Recovery Facility (WRRF). No action was taken by the council, but City Administrator Steve Diers said negotiations will continue.

“We do want to keep it moving as fast as possible because we do want to try to get that project bid out this winter,” said Diers.

Other developments at the regular meeting:

– The council approved the second reading of ordinance 1120 to change from M-2 (General Manufacturing District) to B-3 (Service Business District) the property located south of 11th Avenue between North Grand Avenue and D Street. That property is owned by the Charles City Railway Company, which wants to create a railroad depot museum in the area.

– Second readings of Ordinance 1121 and 1122 were also approved. These ordinances deal with a request to rezone Express Lube at 600 Gilbert and State Bank at 610 Gilbert Street from a general residential district to a business district. These properties have been business/commercial properties for some time and well before the zoning map was prepared and adopted in 2005. The zoning map appears to be in error.

– The council approved the purchase of a 2019 Chevy Silverado for the Housing Department at a cost of $31,641.60. After trading in the city’s 2009 Dodge pickup and receiving a trade-in value of $12,389, the total cost for the new Silverado will be $19,252.60.

– The Phi Chapter of the Alpha Delta Kappa organization was awarded the proclamation of October 2018 as International Alpha Delta Kappa Month in Charles City. This proclamation recognized the efforts of educators associated with this organization.

– October was also proclaimed Domestic Violence Awareness Month.