Charles City Council approves downtown street closures for summer events

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City Council approved the city budget, discussed street closures, and moved forward with water system projects during its regular meeting on Monday, April 3.

Mayor Dean Andrews, attending the meeting via Zoom due to being homebound as he recovers from COVID-19, delegated the running of the meeting to Mayor Pro-Tem DeLaine Freeseman.

However, in spite of his physical absence, Mayor Andrews still read the proclamation to declare April as Child Abuse Prevention Month.

“Child abuse is something that obviously, unfortunately, goes on year around,” said Andrews. “This is a time where we want to bring it to the forefront a little bit more.”

Andrews reported that blue figures have been placed in Central Park by the Child Abuse Prevention Council to raise awareness of the issue.

“If you see those little blue characters running around central park, those are kids that are living good lives,” said Andrews. “We want to make all kids that way.”

Moving into regular business, the council approved several street closure requests for upcoming events throughout the year.

Starting with Party in the Park, Charles City Chamber of Commerce event coordinator Joanna Thompson presented the council with requests for the usual downtown street closures for June 9, June 30, July 14, and Aug. 4.

Street closures were also requested on Blunt Street from North Main to North Jackson Street for Wednesdays and Saturdays from May 3 to Oct. 21 to accommodate the Charles City Downtown Farmers Market.

In addition, Jessica Gintz, representing the Charles City Rotary Club, also presented downtown street closure requests for the Rotary Car Show on July 15 and the Holiday Light show on November 25.

With street and parking lot projects planned for this summer there may need to be some coordination with the city during the events to manage traffic flow, particularly for the car show.

“I’d be amazed if we weren’t doing some work on that parking lot by the middle of July,” said Andrews.

Continuing with old business, the council held a public hearing before approving the fiscal year 2024 budget.

“One of the tougher budgets probably that I’ve ever had in my career,” said City Administrator Steve Diers.

The city’s final levy amount will be $16.51 per $1,000 in taxable valuation, a 30 cent increase from last year. However, that increase doesn’t make up for the drop in taxable valuation and city revenue will drop to $25,151,934.

“With that increase, we’re seeing an overall negative amount of revenue coming in at about $75,000 across the board,” said Diers.

While property values in Charles City increased by roughly $12 million, legislative changes to the business tax credit and taxable property valuations reduced the city’s taxable valuation by about $3 million. This gives the city a smaller tax base to draw from.

“In our case it’s going up by 30 cents, but we’re decreasing collections,” said Diers.

Going into water projects, Superintendent Cory Spieker asked the council to approve the replacement of the variable frequency drive (VFD) which is necessary to operate one of the city’s secondary wells.

The 20 year old VFD is no longer supported by the manufacturer and will need to be replaced entirely at a cost of $24,950.

“The sooner we get this repair made, the better,” said Spieker.

Spieker also asked the council to approve a semi-urgent series of sewer repairs to clear a sanitary sewer main of asphalt and to resolve tree root intrusions along both the storm and sanitary sewer at a cost of under $20,000.

On the subject of tree roots, the council set a public hearing date of May 1 for the 2023 Tree Removal Project. The city has a base bid, with three alternates, to remove between 200 and 240 trees that are becoming liabilities for the city.

“The trees are dying faster than our current methods are removing them,” said engineer Brian Sullivan.

The plan will be split into two phases, with the first portion to be bid in 2024 and the second to run in 2025.