City Council approves bond for Charles City renovation projects
By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com
The Charles City Council talked wastewater rates, street closures, and cyber security during its regular meeting on Monday, Feb. 3.
The meeting began with a public comment from Deb Holzer, who presented the council with a statement expressing her concern over proposed water and sewer rate increases following the closing of the Pure Prairie Poultry Plant. Due to the loss of expected revenue from the plant, the city may have to consider a higher than planned wastewater rate increase to make up some of the difference.
The public comment portion of the meeting is for people to bring up topics that are not on the agenda, and the council members typically do not respond to any comments.
In regular business, the council approved issuing a general obligation bond which will pay for the City Hall/Police Department renovation and Lions Field Pool improvements. The city will be borrowing $4.385 million in a 15-year loan that will combine the needed financing for both projects.
“This is the final piece to put those two pieces in place,” said City Administrator Steve Diers.
For projects already done, the council approved the final payment for the 13th Street Extension project, which extended 13th Street westward to connect to Corporate Drive.
Coming in at a total of $310,779.70, the project was completed for roughly 6.2% less than its original bid.
“I love it when projects come in under budget,” said council member Phoebe Pittman.
The 13th Street extension was done to facilitate new housing developments in the Southwest Development Park.
To that end, the council also approved a resolution directing the Planning and Zoning Commission to review and make a recommendation regarding the vacation of easements in the park.
The city has an unused right-of-way which bisects Lot 4 of the park’s first subdivision that will not be needed as the property will be developed for an apartment building by Commonwealth Development.
The council decided to table action on moving the city’s financial software, gWorks, to a cloud-based platform. While the city has a financial incentive to approve the transition before March 31, council member Phillip Knighten asked for more information about gWorks’ privacy and security policy.
“I just want to make sure we are covered if something were to happen,” said Knighten.
Also at the meeting, Mayor Dean Andrews made a proclamation declaring February as Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month.
“One in 10 high school students face dating violence,” said Renee Harris of Crisis Intervention Service, who listed some of the unique issues that young people can face when experiencing relationship violence.
Harris said she is hoping to coordinate with the school district to provide programming to educate teens about dating violence and the resources available to help.
The mayor also approved the reappointment of Jeremy Heyer and Linda Klemesrud to the housing board, along with the reappointment of Kip Hauser to the North Cedar Aviation Authority, which operates the local airport
Reviewing a street closure request from the Charles City Rotary Club, the council discussed the club’s plans for this year’s Rotary Club Car Show.
Scheduled for Saturday, July 12, from 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., the Rotary Club intends to return the car show to Main Street, after being moved to parking lots near the Cedar River last year because of the Main Street reconstruction project.
Ryan Boehmer, who owns property on Main Street, spoke against the closure, stating that in previous years the car shows have blocked access to his business and that he had not received notification for this year’s event.
With no representative from the Rotary Club at the meeting, the council voted to reject the application until a Rotary Club member could attend and ensure that all impacted business owners and residents have been notified.
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