Charles City Council reviews capital improvement priorities, continues speed camera discussion

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City Council reviewed its priorities for the city’s capital improvements and received more information to consider as the city looks at installing speed cameras, during its workshop meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 16.

The council has been working with municipal consultant Patrick Callahan to develop a capital improvements plan (CIP), which would determine which projects the city will focus on for the next several years.

At a previous meeting, city department heads presented the council with more than 60 potential projects to consider, ranging from relatively minor purchases like $19,500 for new tables for the library, to major investments like $1.5 million to build a new clubhouse for the golf course.

Since then, council members have been working their way through the list of suggested projects to rank them based on factors like immediate need and expense.

Compiling the council’s feedback, City Administrator Steve Diers presented the results of the council’s rankings, sorted out by fiscal year and focused largely on projects that would require use of the city’s general fund.

Starting off with the 2024-25 fiscal year, the council’s highest ranked priorities are improvements to the Charlie Western Trail and the formation of a shared ambulance service.

Creating a new ambulance service would cost an estimated $150,000 from the city’s general fund, with other general fund projects named for that year including improvements to the pedestrian mall, HVAC replacement for the library and tree replacement.

For fiscal year 2025-26 the highest priority for the council is $500,000 in new amenities to White Water Park, which would be paid for through grants, donations, and a general obligation debt.

Two other large scale projects were the next highest ranking priorities for the year – the proposed $2.4 million pool renovation project and a potential $2.5 million remodeling of City Hall, both of which would require multiple avenues of funding to achieve.

Making plans beyond two years is more of a challenge as it’s difficult to predict the needs the city will have, what revenue will look like, or even who will be on the council at the time. Still, for fiscal year 2026-27 and beyond, the council discussed new tables for the library’s Zastrow Room, shrub removal and a new clubhouse for Wildwood Golf Course.

Council member DeLaine Freeseman expressed his desire to have the existing clubhouse professionally assessed to ensure that the historical building cannot be saved before a decision is made to demolish it and build new.

“We need to have something from somebody else that knows more than any of us do,” said Freeseman.

After running through the list of priorities, discussion turned to the city’s ability to pay for them, with Callahan pointing out that how the city’s CIP looks will depend on the council considering enacting franchise fees to pay for projects that would utilize general funds.

“If you’re not on board with doing that you need to tell Steve right now,” said Callahan.

The council will gather more information about how franchise fees could be implemented and how they would affect people in the community, with the next step for the CIP planned to be discussed during the Sept. 13 meeting.

In other business, Darci Tracey, representing Main Street’s businesses, came to the council to request a street closure for the upcoming Harvest Moon Festival scheduled for Sept. 28.

The festival is a new downtown event to celebrate the start of Fall, with plans to feature live music, photo ops, and various themed specials. Tracey is asking for Kelly St., from Main St. to Jackson St., to be closed for the day of the event to facilitate food trucks.

Updating the council on the city swimming pool, Parks and Rec Director Tyler Mitchell reported that the board has decided to postpone bonding for a proposed multi-million dollar renovation project in favor of a plan to borrow $900,000 for necessary repairs.

Mitchell said that the repairs could shorten, or possibly cancel, the 2024 swimming season.

“It’s kind of up in the air until they actually start,” said Mitchell. “Hopefully we can stay open in 2024.”

Finally, Police Chief Hugh Anderson presented the council with more detailed information about traffic incidents on the streets where the city is considering installing automatic speed cameras. A study done last April recorded traffic on the city’s major entry points, such as South Grand Avenue., Highway 18, and Highway 14.

“They’re the ones that we get accidents on,” said Anderson.

To exemplify that point, Anderson also included photos from a Grand Avenue collision that had happened just days prior.

The council, members of the community, and even Anderson himself have expressed reservations about utilizing speed cameras. However, the ability to set the cameras to ignore vehicles until they reach a certain amount over the speed limit (the average speed on the streets studied ranged from 1-4 mph over the posted limit) and that flagged violations will still be subject to human review by a local police officer, has helped assure the council that the cameras will be used to reduce the number of blatantly excessive violators and not as a “gotcha” for everyday drivers.

The council is expected to discuss and potentially make a vote on the matter during the next regular meeting.