Council approves route for Lighted Holiday Parade, set for Dec. 4

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Charles City’s Annual Lighted Holiday Parade will go on as planned, fireworks and all.

At Monday’s Charles City  Council meeting, the council unanimously approved requests for street closures for the event, which will take place on Friday, Dec. 4.

The parade  will go north on Jackson Street, east on Ferguson Street, south on Main Street, and west on Riverside, and end at Blunt Street. The council approved the closure of the streets.

Presented by Community Revitalization, the parade will begin at 6 p.m. and is open to all, free of charge. Parade entries must be lighted in some fashion. This year’s theme is “Hometown Christmas.” Masks will be required for participants and attendees this year to comply with current COVID-19 safety guidelines.

“This has been a really nice event for several years now,” said Charles City Mayor Dean Andrews. “It’s such a lighted parade, and it has a lot of festivity in it.”

The council also voted to close the Main Street bridge from 5:45 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. to shoot the fireworks off of the bridge. The fireworks show will be staged in the court house parking lot.

“Last year some volunteers put together a brief fireworks display at the end of the holiday parade, and people really enjoyed that,” said Mark Wicks, community development director. “Those volunteers are again working on that, and they’ve put together the funding and submitted a permit.”

Wicks said that both the Police Department and the Fire Department have signed off on the fireworks show and the bridge and street closings. He said that all public health measures will be followed — masks will be required for all participants as well as by the public attending.

Also at the meeting Monday, Andrews issued a proclamation encouraging Charles City residents to wear masks in public.

“We have been encouraged by the school, the county and the hospital to provide a more encouraging word to wear masks,” Andrews said. “There are still a lot of people in the community who are not wearing masks in public situations, so we are encouraging them to please do so.”

Andrew said that the number of COVID 19 cases continues to increase in Floyd County, and 1 out of 20 residents have now tested positive. Although the city does not have legal authority to issue a mask mandate or enforce such an order, it has been shown that social distancing, washing hands and wearing of masks helps to slow the spread of the virus, he said.

“The governing body of Charles City, Iowa, does hereby encourage all citizens of Charles City to adhere to these guidelines and follow the practice of wearing masks in any public setting or facility, as well as social distancing, to help protect the safety of all residents of Charles City and Floyd County,” the proclamation said, as read by Andrews.

As Andrews was issuing the proclamation, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced at a press conference that beginning today, all people in Iowa age 2 or older must wear a mask or face covering when inside an indoor space that is open to the public and within 6 feet of individuals who are not members of their household for 15 minutes. Reynolds has resisted issuing such a mask mandate in the past.

In other business on Monday:

• The council held a public hearing for conveyance of property to the Iowa Department of Transportation for a needed right-of-way for the 2021 U.S. Highway 18 project. The DOT is acquiring right-of-way and easements from property owners throughout the Highway 18 HMA paving project limits.

The project includes the removal and replacement of the traffic signals at the Clark and Brantingham intersection. Additional right-of-way is required for the signal base at the northwesterly corner of the intersection. The size of the deeded property is 179 square feet.

• The council approved a resolution setting Dec. 21 as the date for a public hearing regrading expansion of South Grand Urban Renewal Area per the development agreement between Crown Point Builders and the city.

In August, the city approved a letter of intent with Crown Point Builders to finish the buildout of the Parkside Housing Development. There are 18 remaining twin homes and six remaining single-family homes to be built. Parkside Developers are proposing to sell the lots as needed, four lots initially to build out twin homes and single-family homes until the development is complete.

The city has agreed via the letter of intent to cover the cost of infrastructure per lot up to $17,500 each. It is proposed that the city would use Tax Increment Financing to collect the available incremental tax value to reimburse the city  for this upfront cash payment.

• The council approved the lease of the Clark Street Parking lot, behind what is now called Union House Apartments — formerly known as McQuillen Place — at a rate of $10 per week.

Dean Snyder has been hired to work on the building, and due to construction needs of the site, the job site trailer cannot be placed on the private property, so a request was made for the job site trailer to be located in the city parking lot adjacent to the building.

• The council approved the annual urban renewal report for fiscal year 2020 and approved TIF certification for all TIF districts for certification.

•  The council approved a payment estimate of $879,064.94 to Portzen Construction for the WRRF Project, for construction work on the reed beds including the reed bed piping and synthetic liner, oxidation ditch, equalization basin, and headworks building construction.

• Andrews proclaimed this week to be observed in Charles City as American Education Week, a time to “appreciate and support our schools.”