Charles City Council sets new address for City Hall and library

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

Charles City Hall officially has a new address following the passing of a resolution during the regular City Council meeting on Monday, Dec. 2.

While the building itself isn’t going anywhere, the council has changed its address from 105 Milwaukee Mall to 900 Clark St., hopefully bringing to an end a long history of people struggling to find City Hall.

“This maybe should have been done 20 years ago,” said Mayor Dean Andrews.

Along with City Hall and the Police Station, the address change also includes the Charles City Public Library, which will now be 910 Clark St.

“The library board, staff and patrons are fully in favor of being anything other than what it is right now,” said City Administrator Steve Diers.

City services won’t be at the new address for long, though. On Wednesday, Dec. 5, bids will be opened for the upcoming City Hall and Police Station renovation project, which will see them relocated to temporary offices for the next 18 months at least. The council will review the bids during its next planning session on Dec. 11.

In other business, the council held a public hearing for the transfer of property to the Charles City Housing Authority as part of the ongoing process of decoupling the Housing Authority from the city.

The council also held the first reading of two ordinances recommended by the Planning and Zoning Commission. The first is a recommendation to allow the reclassification of 605 and 607 S. Iowa St. from residential to business and the second a series of updates to the Charles City Unified Development Ordinance to allow for less restrictive setback regulations, solar panel regulations and other assorted modifications.

The council also approved an amendment to the traffic code, to allow the installation of a yield sign at the newly created intersection of 13th Street and Corporate Drive.

In the Mayor’s Report, Mayor Andrews announced that he has been working with the NIACC Career Center to develop a program to get post-high school people started on a career in construction.

The 70-hour certification course will be held from Jan. 27 through March 12 and teach interested students the fundamentals of working in construction. An open house to promote the class will be held at the Career Center on Thursday, Dec. 12.

“I encourage people to come to this open house,” said Andrews. “We want to get 12 people for this first course.”