Council hears update on watershed project at planning session

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Doug Johnson explained the goals of the Charles City Watershed Project to the Charles City Council at its planning session Wednesday evening.

Johnson is the Charles City Watershed Project coordinator for the Floyd County Soil and Water Conservation District. He oversees the 35,000-acre Charles City watershed.

Johnson told the council that the project’s goals include Charles City continuing to install additional urban stormwater management projects and that farmers and operators within the watershed will plant a minimum of 10,000 acres of cover crops by 2024.

He also said that a minimum of 30% of farm operations in the watershed area will adopt additional water quality protection practices by 2024, and that farmers and landowners within the watershed area will install 15 bioreactors and/or saturated buffers.

Farm operators within the watershed will also increase the use of no-till/strip-till farming to 10,000 acres/year by 2024 and increase the use of precision nutrient management systems to 7,000 acres per year by that time.

Johnson said that the overall reception to the watershed project has been positive.

“For the most part, everybody agrees that we need to do something, even if they’re not sure exactly what needs to be done,” Johnson said. “Most people are receptive to ideas for change, although we all know that change comes easy for some and hard for others.”

He said that every operation has different obstacles to overcome, whether those obstacles are financial problems, equipment needs, or “denial.”

“Most people say they want to move toward changing their operation, as it’s better for their bottom line and will have a positive effect on the environment,” Johnson said.

Mayor Dean Andrews told Johnson that it’s good to have him in the position of watershed project coordinator, a job Johnson started last February.

“I think you’re getting a lot of information out, and different ideas to different people,” Andrews said. “We talk about these things a lot, but you’re actually doing it.”

In other business at the planning meeting Wednesday, the council discussed allowing a county representative on the city planning and zoning commission. Under consideration is allowing one of the seven seats on the commission to be filled by anyone within Floyd County who lives within 2 miles of city limits.

“We’ve had an ongoing need to fill spots on the commission for the last couple years,” said City Administrator Steve Diers. “Recently we were able to achieve a full board of seven, but that ended when Larry Johnson recently passed away, and now it would appear that Emily Garden will need to resign as she is moving outside of city limits.”

Diers said the losses come at a critical time as the commission is working on major City Code updates with a private consultant. The council will make a decision at a future meeting.

In other business, the council discussed the completion of the Main Street Bridge repair project. City Engineer John Fallis told the council that the construction work has been completed, final paperwork submitted, and the city has received a recommendation for final acceptance from Calhoun – Burns and Associates.

The purpose of the project was to protect the existing structure and help extend the life of the bridge. The repairs consisted of injecting polyurethane material under the pavement within the bridge’s arches to solidify the existing fill material.

The total project cost was $327,059.80. The amount of Jasper’s contract and approved change order was $309,176.00. The additional overrun costs resulted from additional sidewalk removal and replacement quantities and modifications to some of the storm sewer intake outlet pipes through the bridge sidewalls.

The council plans to have the project’s acceptance and authorization to make the final payment on Monday’s regular meeting agenda.