Charles City Council shows Scouts how to spruce up old fire trucks

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City Council decided to move forward with a plan to refurbish two of the city’s fire engines during its regular meeting on Monday, April 21.

During last week’s workshop, Fire Chief Sam Deverell reported to the council that the city’s 1998 and 2003 Pierce fire trucks, designated Engine 251 and 252 respectively, are both in need of major repairs to fix aging components and equipment.

From the upholstery and A/C to a faulty pump, both trucks have a list of needs to be addressed, but the trucks themselves have relatively low mileage and usage hours. With the chassis in good condition, Deverell recommended refurbishment as a good option for adding more years to the lifespan of the fire trucks.

While refurbishing Engine 252 was a given across all three options, the council weighed the pros and cons of what to do with Engine 251. Replacing the 27-year-old engine with either a new engine or at least a newer engine was considered, but ultimately it was agreed that refurbishing the engine would be the safest option.

The city will plan to send Engine 252 in for refurbishment first in July, which will take 6-9 months, before sending in Engine 251.

By sending in Engine 252 first, the city also has a brief, 60-day window in the event that a better option for Engine 251 comes around, such as potentially a good deal on a different used engine.

“There’s options out there if we want to do something with that first truck,” said City Administrator Steve Diers.

Diers also noted that by going with the refurbishment plan, the city should be able to avoid dipping into the $95,000 allocated for repairs to the Fire Department roof as there is little chance for unexpected costs.

“We know what these costs are going to be,” said Diers.

The plan to refurbish also received the approval of the St. Charles Township Board of Trustees. The township shares ownership of the engines and would be contributing 30% of the cost share to the refurbishment. Board member Aaron Hobert reported that the board had signed off on the plan to refurbish and thanked Chief Deverell for his work in putting together the proposals.

“We’re prepared to go along for the ride,” said Hobert.

Hobert was at the meeting coincidentally, as he was accompanying members of Scout Troop 1078, who sat in on the meeting to observe how the city passes ordinances, makes resolutions, and discusses municipal business.

“It’s nice to see you here watching how city government works,” said Mayor Dean Andrews.

The meeting kicked off with the reappointment of Bruce Hovden and Robin Macomber to the Planning and Zoning Commission before the council met with Dennis Donovan to discuss closing Main Street for the upcoming Rotary Club Car Show.

Scheduled for Saturday, July 12, the car show will be held on Main Street from Clark Street to just up to the former Rustic Corner building, so as not to inconvenience neighboring business owner Ryan Boehmer, who has expressed problems about street closures limiting access to his building.

Boehmer, commenting over Zoom, thanked the Rotary Club for the accommodation, but noted his objection to all Main Street closures.

The council approved the car show street closure, pending police approval, along with a street closure request for the upcoming Full Moon 5K.

Scheduled for Friday, April 25, the run will close a portion of Court Street north of Tellurian Brewing for the afternoon.

Demonstrating to the scouts how city ordinances are changed, the council held the second reading of an adjustment to the Unified Development Ordinance that would increase the timeframe for conditional use permits and variances from 90 days to two years.

Unless waived, an ordinance receives three readings to allow the public the opportunity to give feedback before it is passed. The third and final reading will be held at the next meeting.

Likewise, the council also held a public hearing for the FY26 budget.

The upcoming total levy rate will be $15.95112 per $1,000 in valuation, down about 1.4 cents from the current year. Revenues will still see a modest increase due to a raise in taxable valuation. The city will bring in $19,983,761 in total revenue for the year.

The city is anticipating $23,134,772 in expenditures for the year, however that amount does include payments for the in-progress City Hall renovations, which the city has already borrowed money for.

In other business, the council approved a master service agreement with GHD Consultants for monitoring the Shaw Avenue dump sight. The city has worked with GHD for several years, but has never developed a long term agreement.

“I was kind of surprising that we didn’t have it out there,” said council member DeLaine Freeseman.

The council also approved a resolution to adopt a citywide policy for records requests. Adapted from a policy developed by Library Director Annette Dean, it will set a uniform standard for records requests for all city departments.

Finally, it was noted that the Foster Grandparent program will be celebrating its 60th anniversary on Thursday, though the future of the program may be in question as the bulk of the AmeriCorp staff, the federal agency that oversees the program, has been placed on administrative leave.

“They’re not sure what the fate of the program is going to be,” said Diers.

The council expressed concern that the Foster Grandparent program will be among the latest wave of programs dismantled by the federal government’s Department of Government Efficiency.

“It’s something I’ve never heard a bad word about anywhere,” said Freeseman about Foster Grandparents. “To see that go away would be really bad.”