Charles City Council receives insurance dividend, discusses budget, other topics

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City Council discussed tax levy rates, façade grants, and parking lot leases during its workshop meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 15.

Kicking off the meeting on a positive note, Bob Ingram of Sisson & Associates presented the city with its annual dividend check for participation in EMC Insurance’s municipal utilities program.

The city has received a dividend check from EMC every year for more than 20 years, with the exception of 2020 and 2021 due to severe weather. This year’s dividend check will return $13,075 to the city.

“It doesn’t quite make up our budget deficit, but it helps,” said Mayor Dean Andrews.

The city’s budget situation will be on the council members’ minds as they consider the max levy rate for the upcoming fiscal year.

The council has been waiting for state legislators to determine what this year’s property tax rollback percentage will be and how that will impact the city’s revenue.

“We’re trying to hit a moving target here,” said City Administrator Steve Diers. “Long story short, the rollback came out this year being 56.4% when it should have been 54.6%.”

A bill has passed through the Legislature to correct the rollback percentage and give cities an extra 30 days to adjust their budgets accordingly, but an amendment that would see the state provide extra funding to help mitigate the lost revenue was voted down.

The change in rollback rates will affect tax rates in certain categories, pushing the overall rate up by a total of about 31 cents higher than the current year. Even then, the city is still anticipating a loss of about $47,000 in revenue.

Diers lamented that while high property taxes in Iowa are a common complaint, state legislators are quick to cut them without enabling cities to generate revenue in other ways.

“That’s the only tool we’re given to fund these different ongoing [expenses],” said Diers. “We need to be looking at finding different ways of finding revenue.”

On the subject of property development, Chamber of Commerce Director Mark Wicks presented the council with two Façade Grant applications submitted by Josh Mack, who is working to restore two buildings on Main Street.

Mack has applied for grants to help fund renovation projects at 217 N Main and 219 N Main, requesting the maximum of $10,000 to go toward a $24,000 tuck point project on the former and another $10,000 to go toward a $26,000 upper-story renovation project on the latter.

Wicks explained that the façade account currently has $16,357 available, though there is money available in the Culture and Entertainment Fund that could cover the difference if the council chooses.

Fully awarding the applications would inhibit the committee’s ability to award new applications until the next fiscal year, which begins on July 1. At the same time, Wicks also noted that the facade committee did review Mack’s applications and recommended their approval.

“They do feel that they are strong projects and would also preserve two of our historic buildings downtown,” said Wicks.

It was also noted that Mack is working against the clock, trying to time grant approval with the availability of contractors as projects need to be approved before work begins.

Updating the council on the plans for North Iowa Area Community College to expand its downtown Charles City center to accommodate a high school careers academy, City Engineer John Fallis presented the council with a proposal from NIACC to lease part of the parking lot for the contractor to use for storage during the construction, starting in April and running through May of 2024.

The council also reviewed a proposal from Hy-Vee to lease about 10 parking spots worth of space from April through June to hold mulch and soil for this spring’s garden center.

In other business, the council discussed a request for a reduction of retainage on the 2022 street paving project. With the project substantially complete, the contractor is requesting a reduction in the retainer, from 5% to 1%, which would allow the freed up money to be paid for the work already completed before the final payment. Fallis noted that the remaining 1% should cover the remainder of the work to be done.

Due to the President’s Day holiday, the next regular council meeting will be scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 22.