Charles City Council drives forward on parking projects

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City Council worked on parking lots, water equipment, and tree removal during its regular meeting on Monday, May 15.

Continuing discussion from last week’s workshop, Jessica Gintz from the Charles City Rotary Club was there to update the council on plans for the Rotary Car Show as the council reconsidered the street closure request.

Scheduled for July 15, the car show will be held on Main Street from the 100 block up to Ferguson Street, with Clark Street left open for through traffic. Rotary will work with Main Street business owners to make sure they have access to their buildings during that time, but otherwise traffic will be directed around Riverside Drive.

The council affirmed approval of the Rotary Club’s street closure request along with approving another closure request from the Charles City Police Department as it prepares for the annual Bike Rodeo.

The Police Department will be utilizing the city parking lot by Hot Shots Billiards for the event on the morning of June 3, with the bike rodeo running from 10 to 11 a.m. and anticipating the parking lot to re-open at noon.

In other parking lot business, the council held a public hearing before approving the final plans for the North Main Street Parking Lot Project. Receiving six bids for the project to remove and replace the parking lot on the 400 block of Main Street behind the Charles City Chamber of Commerce, the council approved Larry Elwood Concrete Inc. with the low bid of $55,250.50. The project will be set for completion no later than Nov. 3.

On a bigger parking project, the council approved the preliminary plans for the 2023 Mill Race Parking Project and set a public hearing date for bids for the June 5 meeting.

It was noted that the plans for the parking project, which will expand the city’s lot from 43 spaces to 128 spaces, will close that lot, along with that portion of Riverside Drive, for up to 30 working days. The council expressed concern about the inconvenience this could cause to adjacent business owners and residents during that time frame and suggested taking steps to make sure everybody impacted is able to access alternative parking in the meantime.

“It’s going to be an inconvenience for a while,” said Mayor Dean Andrews. “Sometimes there’s going to be problems with progress.”

For other summer projects, the council held a public hearing on the final plans for the Southwest Water Main Looping project before awarding the contract to GM Contracting Inc., which offered the low bid of three bids in the amount of $405,558.47.

The council also approved bids for the replacement of the roof at the South Cedar Terrace office building and four residential roofs at Morningside Apartments. Al & Tim’s Roofing was the low bid for the project at $95,176.

North Cedar Terrace will also be getting new windows. After confirming which windows will be used, the council approved the low bid from Isakson Construction in the amount of $178,963.33 to replace 144 windows in the building.

The council also approved preliminary plans for the 2023 Tree Removal Project and set a public hearing date for June 5 to borrow up to $525,000 for the project, anticipating half that amount to be used this year to take down roughly 200 trees and the remainder used next year.

“This will be a much better response to the community to see these trees down sooner than later,” said Mayor Andrews.

In other business, the council also approved an amendment to the fiscal year 2023 budget, primarily due to changes in timelines as projects move from one year to the next.

“We’re not necessarily spending any more money,” said City Clerk Trudy O’Donnell. “Just the period we’re spending it in.”

For the water department, the council approved the replacement of a slaker control unit at an estimated cost of $28,000. Water Superintendent Cory Spieker spoke on the slacking slaker slated for summary succession.

An integral part of the water softening process, one of the two lime slakers at the water treatment plant has been unreliable and needs to be replaced if the plant is to run at full efficiency once the Clear Well project increases the plant’s capacity.

The project will be part of the fiscal year 2024 budget, but needs approval now to account for three to four months of lead time for ordering parts.

The council also approved the purchase of a new sewer camera in the amount of $25,505.

Finally, the council approved an easement agreement to expand the city right of way to allow the installation of the new traffic light on Gilbert Street. The new easement will allow the traffic light to be placed further back, protecting it from future damage. Once approved, the new light is expected to be installed soon.