Charles City to apply for grant to extend recreational trail near relocated depot

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Charles City will likely apply for a couple of hundred thousand dollars in a federal grant to continue the Charley Western Recreational Trail about 2,000 feet to North Grand Avenue near the relocated railroad depot.

That was one of several topics discussed last week at a City Council workshop session that will likely be decided this week at Wednesday night’s regular meeting.

The council is also likely to approve the 2022 street paving project for the city, paving five streets with either Portland cement concrete (PCC) or hot mix asphalt (HMA). The included streets are:

• Riverside Drive from Joslin to Johnson, extending a project from several years ago when Illinois and Riverside were reconstructed; PCC paving.

• Leland Avenue, between Riverside Drive and Clark Street. City Engineer John Fallis said it’s by the Edible Arboretum, and the street is “in really poor condition.” “That’s in the flood plan, so we’d use concrete,” he said.

• Riverside Avenue, west of Kellogg Avenue for 300 feet; HMA paving with PCC curb and gutter,

• Kellogg Avenue from Hart Street to 250 feet north. Fallis said it is currently a rock street and one of the city’s goals is to get rid of the rock streets in town; HMA paving with PCC curb and gutter,

• Eighth Avenue between J Street and L Street, another current rock road that would be paved with HMA and have PCC curb and gutter installed.

Fallis said he was putting together proposal forms including a base bid and alternates.

“It will be real easy to either accept the whole project or if we need to cut it back we’ll just not accept one or two of the alternates,” Fallis said.

City Administrator Steve Diers said 100% of the cost of the projects would be paid for with the city’s local option sales tax revenue. He also said the projects were mostly side streets that should not interfere with RAGBRAI traffic this July.

Regarding the city application for a trail grant, Fallis said he would like the council to approve applying for a grant using TAP funds. That’s the Transportation Alternatives Program, using federal funds but administered by the North Iowa Area Council of Governments (NIACOG)

The project would be about $290,000, to extend the trail along 11th Avenue from F Street to North Grand Avenue.

The project funding is 80/20, meaning that if the grant is approved the TAP funds would pay 80%, but the city would need to come up with a 20% match, or about $58,000. In addition, the city needs to commit to maintaining the trail for at least 20 years, Fallis said.

Mayor Dean Andrews said the city made the same application last year, but the available money went to two projects that were more ready to go.

“They certainly encouraged us to apply again,” Andrews said.

The extended trail could be tied in to the use of the relocated Milwaukee Road railroad depot as a trailhead, with parking and public restrooms.

“Last year when we did submit for this, it was, ‘We intend to move the depot,’” Fallis said. “Now it’s been moved. We’re not talking about potential.”

Fallis was asked if that would make a big difference in the grant application.

“I’m going to make it a big point,” he said.

Andrews said the depot committee is looking for a commitment from the city as far as whether there should be public restrooms at the depot as part of a trailhead.

There would be public restrooms inside the building for patrons when the depot becomes part of the American Passenger Train History Museum, but additional public restrooms for a trailhead could be available from the outside, Andrews said, but then he added that discussion isn’t part of the TAP grant application.

City Administrator Steve Diers said the city’s 20% matching funds would likely come out of the general fund.

Fallis said the city has talked about extending the trail even farther, using city streets to get down to the existing trail along the Cedar River to create a loop around the community.

Also at the workshop meeting last week, the council:

• Discussed a change to the downtown Facade Improvement Grant Program that would limit grant applicants to receiving no more than $15,000 for multiple grants in one fiscal year. Grants can be up to $10,000 each to pay up to 50% of the cost of qualifying exterior building improvements.

Charles City Development Director Mark Wicks said, “What this changes is it keeps a single property owner from getting two maximum grants in the same fiscal year, but it does not prohibit them from getting grants for two different projects for the same property.”

The program is funded by the city. A design committee of Main Street Charles City first looks at grant applications to see if they comply with the program’s rules, then it is up to the City Council whether to grant any funds.

During several discussions on the matter at previous council meetings, Wicks had expressed hesitation about making the rules too restrictive, saying the purpose of the program was to encourage projects to improve properties.

Wicks and council member DeLaine Freeseman had come up with this as well as a previous set of suggested program changes, based on council input.

Council member Keith Starr asked Wicks if he supported the latest proposed change.

Wick said, “I do, as long as it does not prohibit projects and it only limits somebody to not getting two maximum grants in the same fiscal year. It does not stop people from doing projects. Most people are not going to get two projects done in the same fiscal year. I think this is fair.”

• Heard a request from Tami Vetter, representing the Charles City Rotary Club, regarding closing downtown streets on Saturday, July 9, for the second annual Santa’s Shine and Car Show and related activities. The request is to close North Main Street between Riverside and Clark Street, North Main Street between Clark Street and Ferguson Street, and Kelly Street and Blunt Street between North Jackson Street and North Main Street.

The event will be in conjunction with a Christmas in July retail event and the Charles City BBQ Challenge, and will include food trucks and entertainment.

• Discussed a snow removal episode from earlier this month where a resident was charged $50 because she had not sufficiently cleared her sidewalks of snow and the city had to pay a company to do it. The woman appealed the charge and the council voted to cut the charge in half because the company had apparently done a poor job of cleaning the sidewalk.

Mayor Andrews had commented at the time that the “after” picture after the company had cleared the walk looked worse than the “before” picture, where the woman’s son had shoveled a narrow path on the sidewalk.

City Administrator Diers said City Clerk Trudy O’Donnell had talked with the company, and was told that about four days elapsed between when the sidewalk was marked for clearing and when it was cleared, because of extremely cold weather. During that time the snow had been walked on, and then warmer weather had allowed melting.

The company said the sidewalk could have been cleared by scraping and salting, but that would have resulted in an additional charge.

“We will work with trying to tighten up the time from the area being marked to when we need it cleaned off to hopefully avoid difficult removal practices,” Diers said, adding that he thinks the City Code is clear that sidewalks need to be cleared to their width and length by residents, and a change in the code isn’t needed.