City Council - Regular Meeting

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right, welcome everybody. Just want to note that Barry Lamos will not be with us today. He's not feeling well, so he stayed home. And we thank him for that. First item is approve the agenda. Entertain a motion to approve the agenda as posted and sent to the news media 24 hours prior to the meeting.

I move we approve the agenda.

I'll second.

Motion by Mr. Davies. Second by Ms. Rohde. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Next we have the mayor's leadership statement. The city of Hampton endeavors at all times to promote and model the principles of professionalism, trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship. conducting this evening's meeting we expect that all participants will be asked in a perfect respectful manner consistent with these principles thank you workshop report we did not have a workshop this week so there is none next item up is the public comments so if there's anybody that has any public comment this evening Hearing any or seeing anybody jump up, we will move on. Next public hearing, we have a public hearing on the fiscal year 26 budget amendment. So this being the time and place for the public meeting, public hearing for the fiscal 26 budget amendment number one. Aye, Mayor Buerkle. We'll open the meeting, open the hearing at 6.02. Mr. Dunt, review the details, please.

Thank you, Mayor. So as published, this budget amendment number one for fiscal year 26 shows total revenues and transfers in a total of $490,498, and the expenditures plus transfers out $714,000. dollars for a net difference of two hundred and twenty three thousand five hundred and two as we it's been a while since we went over this it was in late April but just as a recap a lot of the items that we're amending for are related to grants that we received that weren't budgeted for. And so we had purchases as a result of those grants that weren't budgeted for. Also, a large portion were related to the hail storm roof damage from last summer, a number of roofs that were replaced. And so we had some insurance revenue related to that, as well as expenditures for roof replacements. Any questions on the budget amendment? As for any public comment, Mayor?

Is there any public comment on the budget amendment? Hearing none there, and no written objective, right?

That's correct.

So with no comment, we will close this public hearing at 6.05. and move on to resolution 2026-11. This is the resolution adopting the budget amendment number one for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2026. As Mr. Dunn had just let us know what's going on here, so I don't know if you have any additional

Yeah, no, it's a brief resolution, basically stating the public hearing has been held and then that the council is approving the proposed budget amendment number one for fiscal year 26. The city manager would be authorized and directed to file the adopted budget amendment with the Frank County Auditor and the Iowa Department of Management. Thank you.

All right. Any other further discussion on that? If not, I would entertain a motion to approve resolution 2026-11. So moved.

I'll second.

Motion by Ms. Griepe, second by Mr. Davies. This will be a roll call vote. Mr. Davies? Aye. Ms. Rohde? Aye. Mr. Holmstrom? Aye. Ms. Bay? Aye. Ms. Griepe?

Aye.

And again, variable value most is absent. So resolution is approved. Next item is old business. We don't usually have any of that. We just take care of business. So we'll move on to the new business, and this is considered awarding May 26th image of pride to Lynn and Joe Ellen Ahrens for a property located at 19 8th Street Northeast. I don't see they're not here.

They are on their way.

They are? They are. Well, if you guys are okay with that, we can just slide that back a little bit. We're good there? That's great. Thank you. Let's do that. All right. Well, we'll hold that and we'll go pay some bills. I'm going to entertain a motion and a second to approve claims as submitted by staff in the amount of $127,776.81. I move we approve the claims. I second. A motion by Mr. Davies, second by Mr. Holmstrom. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. All right, next item, we got another resolution, 2026-0109. This is a resolution making award of the construction contract for the storefront stabilization for 4 and 6 First Street Northwest. Mr. Dunn, do you want to kick that off?

Yeah, I will. I'll just review the resolution wording, and then I'll invite Caleb with ISG to the podium to provide some further details. So resolution 2026-09 is resolution making award of construction contract from the storefront stabilization project four and six for street Northwest. Section 1, the following bid for the construction of certain public improvements described in general as a storefront stabilization 4 and 6, First Street Northwest project described in the plans and specs adopted by the city council being hereby accepted, and the same being the lowest responsive responsible bid received for such work as follows. The contractor is Tri-State Construction Group of Waterloo, Iowa. The amount of their bid, and this is the base bid plus alternates one and number two, is $300,500. In your packet, you have a copy on your blue pages of the resolution, as well as a cover letter from ISG outlining the bid. The base bid was $268,000, with alternate one is $21,300. alternate number two is eleven thousand two hundred Kayla will go through what the alternates are as well they are recommending the city award the contract to tri-state construction group for the base bid and I'm recommending that the council also award alternate one and two The last page is the actual bid tabulation. It shows you the three bids that were received and the amounts. And so I would invite Caleb to the podium to review some more details.

Good evening, everyone. A few details that I wanted to go over tonight, being the base bid is for the removal of the additions that are on the rear of those storefront buildings and then repairing that rear wall. It will be completely reconstructed. We'll be pulling off the second floor section and then repairing it entirely. And then we will also be doing a new foundation wall in that back section of the building in the basement. Um, that's the primary focus of the base bid as well as repairing some of the interior brick. We approximate about 200 square feet of brick that needs to be repaired, whether it be with tuck pointing or replaced. And then alternate one would be the replacement of the windows on the front side of the building. Some of the glazing had to be removed because of the abatement work that was done. So it's currently boarded up. We wanted to help you guys make it a little bit more attractive to get it back into the private sector. And then alternate two is removal of interior walls in building four. Similar scenario where we want to just kind of help clean it up and get it to a point where it's easier for the city to get that back into development. We did go through an extensive verification process. You may see that they had checked a line item that they are less than three years old as a company. So we do a bit more of an extensive process as well as the swing between the bids. They were significantly lower. We did ask for professional references. being previous clients that they had worked on. And I contacted them personally, talked through it with those clients about how the projects went. They all had really good things to say. And with my connections within the construction industry, I contacted some contractors as well as some other architects to see if they had worked with them. The few that had had said they did a really good job. They were happy with them. And nobody had anything outright bad to say about them.

I would just clarify one thing, Caleb. You mentioned alternate number one is replacement of windows. It's upper story windows is correct? Correct. Yes.

Second story of the front side of the building. That's right. Correct.

Thank you.

Question. So we're not replacing the storefront on the first floor? Because I know one of those is cracked.

Yeah. That's something.

They'll eventually need to be replaced. Yeah.

And we will end up talking about that as well at some point. Very good.

Thank you.

Great question. Do you have a time frame on completion of this structural finishing?

So I have talked to the contractor, and they have indicated our time frame was actually pushed out pretty far. I want to say final completion was in November. They are indicating that they're estimating eight to nine weeks, and they are ready to start within the next couple of weeks. So once we get through the contract process and a contract is approved by city council, they are ready to get rolling with their subcontractors.

Any other questions for Caleb at this point? I'm just really happy that we're at this point, that we are moving forward and getting this thing, getting this moving. Yeah, absolutely. And we're ready to get something taken care of.

So I would imagine the next step is that if you award the contract, then ISG will process the actual contract, get the contractor to sign it and submit it to the council for approval of the written contract. So a couple things yet to do before they can get started, but it sounds like they're ready to go. Thanks, Caleb. All right.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. So with that, I would entertain a motion to approve Resolution 2026-09. So moved.

I'll second.

I have a motion by Ms. Fay, second by Mr. Davies. So we'll call a vote as well. Ms. Rohde?

Aye.

Mr. Davies? Aye. Ms. Fay?

Aye.

Ms. Griefe? Aye. Mr. Holmstrom?

Aye.

Again, Mr. Lamos is absent this evening, so resolution is adopted. Thank you. All right, let's back up here a little bit. Go back to the Odom, the warning the image of bride. to Lynn and Joellen Ahrens at property located at 19 8th Street Northeast. I don't know if that's Miss Bay. I'll fill the details for you. I'm not sure what my microphone's doing.

Joellen and Lynn Ahrens have been nominated for the May Image of Pride Award by Denise Grell. Denise wrote, the Arns keep their front and backyards very neat and have beautiful flowers in front and back. Joellen and Lynn purchased their home at 19 8th Street Northeast in 2005. They jumped right in by replacing the windows, furnace, and AC. Next came the kitchen remodel. As with many hamptonites, they recently got a new roof and siding after the 2025 hailstorm. Over the past 21 years, they have terraced the backyard, added flagstone paths and tons of flowers. Joellen, who works at North Country Landscaping, calls herself a bleeding heart collector, as she has multiple varieties of that plant alone. More recently, they have started square foot gardening for their vegetable gardens, employing a method where plants are planted within a square foot rather than in rows. Their vegetable gardens are the only part of the yard that is fenced. They considered fencing the rest at one point for their dog, but ultimately decided against it, feeling that it would break up the flow of the neighborhood and how the yards connect to each other. Considering their neighborhood seems to be a theme for the Arnes. Denise also described how Lynn helps neighbors with mowing. Denise concluded by saying that Joellen and Lynn take great pride in maintaining their yard.

so i would like to make a motion to award the image of pride for may 2026 to joellen and lynn arntz all right thank you so we have a motion to award it uh was there a second miss griefy any other further discussion on that any comments I just want to add that I've known the Arnses for a long time, like way back to childhood, and it just feels good to have people that stay in Hampton and really develop their yards and make them very nice, so appreciate that. So we have a motion and a second. All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? carries congratulations

Thank you. I can't stand this side of the camera. No. No, you can get in there. Hey, Steve. All right.

All right, can we get in here? That's all right. Got to look at the camera now, Joe. Look at the camera. I want the front like that, though. Okay.

All right.

Mr. Devone.

Yeah, he went south. Thank you. Thank you very much. You bet. Thank you.

Thank you. Congratulations. Congratulations.

All right. Pick up where we left off. Next we have Resolution 2026-10. It's a resolution setting the base wage for fiscal year 27. Mr. Dunst.

Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, this is a base wage resolution for full-time positions and for fiscal year 27, which starts on July 1st. The clerk is authorized to issue warrants, checks less legally required, authorized deductions from the amount set forth below, and make such contributions to IPERS or Social Security for other purposes as required by law or authorization of the City Council. Um, so these are all reflective of the council's, um, decisions regarding union employees and non-union employees, as well as. Uh, employees under employment agreements, contracts, as well as, uh, the police captain and would note there that the police captain's wage will be set at 80% of the chief's wage to be adjusted annual or adjusted on July 1st of each fiscal year.

All right. We've discussed this and stuff. I don't know if there's any further discussion that anybody has. If not, I would entertain a motion to approve Resolution 2026-10. I'll approve.

All right, we'll move and approve.

A motion by Mr. Davies. I'll second. Second by Ms. Rohde. Let's also roll call vote. Mr. Davies? Aye. Ms. Rhody? Aye. Mr. Holmstrom? Aye. Ms. Bay? Aye. Ms. Creepy?

Aye.

Again, noting that Mr. Lamos is absent. So resolution is approved. Thank you. Okay, next we have the consent agenda. This includes several items this evening. One is to approve the previous minutes as drafted by Thursday, May 14th, 2026 regular session. Schedule the next regular session for Thursday, June 11th, 2026 at 6 p.m. in the Hampton City Council chambers. approve alcohol licensing for franklin county consent convention center at 1008 central avenue west franklin county for fair beer garden 10 20 12 7 central avenue west uh for la cosita 20 24 Let me start. 24 First Street Southwest, Casey's General Stores, number 1605, 719 4th Street Northeast. And also approving alcohol licensing ownership update for Dolgan Corp at 510 Central Avenue West. So I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda.

So moved. I'll second.

I'll second by Mr. Davies. All in favor? Aye.

Can we ask questions?

Sure.

OK. Can you please explain that approve alcohol license ownership update for?

Dollar General.

Dollar General.

Yeah.

Oh, Dollar General?

Yeah. Yeah.

Okay, it's just kind of set over like it's special. Okay, what's that? Okay, never mind.

All right.

Thank you. No problem.

All right, all in favor?

Aye. Aye.

Okay, and opposed? I just wanted to back up, make sure we got everything. I'm not opposed. Okay, we're good. Mass motion carries, thank you. Brings us to our staff reports. Chief Morrison.

Yeah, I just have a couple of things tonight. One is on the hiring thing. We still continue to look for two new officers. We have a couple of them coming in next week for interviews and some testing. So hopefully coming up with something out of that. I hope to have one hired by July 1st and one by August 1st. So we're continuing to work on that. Other than that, we had a court today on nuisance properties. We had two of them, which resulted in court orders. So we'll be working with Public Works to get those cleaned up. Other than that, that's all I got, unless there's questions.

Any questions for Chief Morrison? Thank you, sir. Mr. Dunn, or I'm sorry, Mr. Tarr. He got a promotion, didn't even know it.

Thank you, Mayor. Just a reminder to the citizens of Hampton, please take care of the grass and the weeds. It started out fairly well, and then it's kind of grown a little bit, but so is the grass and the weeds. We're working on it. I do want to remind folks, when you receive a notice, It's not the end all end. It is a reminder. It gives them a whole nother week to get things mowed once they get that reminder before any action's taken place. But we did issue 11 municipal infractions after the first couple rounds here. So those folks we'll see in court, I guess. But we try not to do that. We try to be reasonable. Folks call and say, hey, I got a problem. We figure out what it is. Is it a legitimate excuse or not? We're going to work with people, but unfortunately there's people that get super offended with the notices, unfortunately, and then the social media explodes, and then we get all excited. So we're just dealing with some drama a little bit with it. So if you have any questions, though, feel free to let me know. I'll be glad to answer any questions you may have. And then open for questions now. There's a lot going on, so I'll try to do my best to answer your questions.

All right. Any questions for Mr. Tarr?

I don't have a question. I'd like to see a reminder published. I like to mow grass in the street, and I have an excellent picture of a sewer drain completely occluded with a mound of grass, if you want to use that for the paper.

That would be great. Please forward to the girls, and I'm sure Kelsey and I can get something put together. That'd be real easy. I think a reminder went in to do the mowing recently.

Today, I'm not exactly sure that had that in it, but there was a reminder about that.

Okay, good. Thanks.

You bet. Thank you.

Any other questions for Mr. Tarr?

I have a request. Okay. The property that we had discussed about where the chunk of sidewalk is missing in front of the empty lot on Central Avenue, would it be possible to, in the interim, spray some fluorescent paint or put some combs there or something, just so that people coming along that aren't aware maybe that it's there, that it's missing, that it's not there.

No, that's absolutely a good request. I think we can kind of accommodate that fairly easy and not a problem. I have sent notices to the property owner in the past regarding that. They failed and ignored it. So maybe we'll just have to get a little bit more forceful with that.

I just don't want to see anybody get hurt, kids riding their bikes along there or something that don't realize.

I agree wholeheartedly.

All right.

Any other questions for Mr. Tarr? OK. Hearing none, thank you, sir. Thank you. And we'll move over to Mr. Dunn. Thank you, mayor.

Um, so FCDA, uh, if you recall has an op an option, they secured an option to purchase, uh, I think 35 acres, a 35 acre parcel out on olive avenue, uh, for the industrial park expansion. And, uh, so part of, uh, the next steps, uh, there have to look into. what the city can do for infrastructure for streets, water, and sewer. And so I've been working with Crawford Engineering on obtaining infrastructure cost estimates for those utilities for this parcel. And as soon as I get all the information put together, we'll present some information to the city council at a workshop of that. things are and how they're coming together and what we can look at as far as expenses and how we will finance something like that. And I've been researching necessary council proceedings for disposal of some of the infill lots that we own through some of the nuisance properties that we end up taking title to through 657A, and we demolish the home, and we get everything put back, grass seed. We need to dispose of some of those. And so there's resolutions that we need to have passed, public notices, and then we can do sealed bid on some of these properties. A couple of the properties are actually situated in an urban renewal area, which law requires that we treat them a little differently than any typical lot as far as the process for disposing them. There's a longer time period that we have to give for public notice, and so we have to kind of treat them differently, which adds time. But working on getting those lots disposed of so we can get them back in the hands of the private sector for private development, hopefully. Today I received the fully executed Community Catalyst Grant Agreement, which just means the city has signed it, now the state has signed it, and so basically they have said they're ready for us to, when we incur expenses, they're ready to reimburse, so that's good. And as we heard tonight from Caleb, it won't be long and we're gonna be starting work on that project, so that's good. Also continuing work on the low SAP for the firefighters retirement incentive. That is a length of service award program for firefighters. If you recall, we set that up, set the structure up. And now working with a company to manage the funds as they come in. And then the bid letting for the HMA Street project will occur on June 10th. And Mark will present information on that as well. Any questions?

On the lots for disposal round, is it possible to get a listing of all the lots that you want to, the residential lots that you'd like to dispose of?

Yeah. Yeah, we can do that. In this initial round, I mean, I think I'll do that on a workshop. Is that all right if I do that on a workshop, go through the ones that we're doing? I'm proposing we do... There's one we call the Penning Lot. It's on 6th Avenue. It's a corner of 6th Avenue Northeast. And then the Wentzel property on 3rd Avenue Northeast. That one actually has a structure on it, the old house structure that we feel the bones are good enough that someone might want to rehab that structure. Third one is... Just west of the Dollar Store, that corner lot, we tore down a house there. It's right behind the car wash there.

Yeah, you don't have to list them now. I was just hoping. One more. Can I finish? Yeah.

All right. And then the other one is Kitty Corner from St. Paul Lutheran Church, which will be 121st Avenue Northwest, which we just, staff just pretty much finished getting the dirt work done there and getting it seeded. I don't know if it's been seeded yet, but... So we're proposing to do them four this first round. And two of them are in urban renewal areas. We have other ones that we can continue to talk about. But those are the four that we're going to come with next. Sorry to interrupt you, Bill. Did you have anything else to say?

No, no, no. No, that was it. I was just hoping to get a listing of all the residences that are currently available.

Yeah. Yep. Yeah, we can do that. Yeah. Anything else?

Okay, thank you. All right, thank you. Move on to council reports. Ms. Rohde.

I don't have anything tonight.

All right, thank you. Mr. Davies.

Yes, the Friends of the Cemetery had a very successful cemetery walk on Sunday. We were down in attendance, but up on donations and proceeds of the cemetery walk go towards cemetery improvements. And this next week, I will be attending a Preserve Iowa Summit in Ankeny, representing the Hampton Historic Preservation Commission as a required training session. And that's on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. So I'll be going down to Ankeny on that. And I have an image of pride for June and my nominee nominating property will, the people, owners will be present at the next meeting. That's all I have.

All right. Thank you. Ms. Griefe.

I was approached by a citizen today, and she brought some lovely pictures with her. She daily goes to Progress Park and picks up trash. And it's a very, very busy park. It's constantly kids are there, and it's wonderful to see that, but the trash that's left behind is atrocious. And I believe there's only one trash receptacle in that park.

No.

I think.

There's at least two. There's one by the basketball court and one by the tennis court.

OK. Two. All right. There might be more. I just want to keep that in our thoughts as we start talking about our parks and what we're going to do to improve our park system and maintain our park system. It's really, really the debris that's left behind by citizens is sad and there's nothing you can do about that besides make it easier for them to dispose of their things, but sometimes that doesn't work either. But I do want us to keep that in mind and maybe we can get creative with stuff. Flower baskets are up, they look great. We, um, volunteers are stepping up, thank heavens, which is wonderful, but we still need volunteers. I think we have people assigned to every day, someone that's going to be responsible for every day of the week, but it's a two man job. So for myself, I take one day a week. I need someone to help me. I usually get Arnold up out of bed and when it rains, he said, thank God. But, um, need other people I'd like to have a list of people that I can call and say hey can you help me water flower baskets tomorrow morning so yeah feel free to give me a call or send me a text mark I'm sorry did I say but we've got the truck now thank you so much that is so much easier so much easier to water the baskets with and it goes pretty slick anyway so please feel and you won't have to ride the gator anymore i won't have to drive it and hit poles it'll be great okay so please send me a text contact me some way or another and volunteer it'd be great to see our city council members excited about keeping our downtown beautiful okay thank you all right thank you mr holmstrom

I don't have a lot to say except I'd like to thank Doug for all of the work that he does keeping the cemetery and the parks looking so nice. I know he's had difficulty with obtaining help to help mow and problems with mowers, but somehow you're getting through it because they look really nice. I was very impressed on some of the walks I've been on around town. Looks nice.

All right. Thank you. Ms. Bay.

Well I have been learning a lot in the last week or so about snakes in Iowa turns out so little background I grew up in Cedar Rapids so in southeastern Iowa and then I lived the majority of my adult life out in Colorado totally different types of snakes out there so Iowa according to the DNR has only four venomous snakes so we don't have to be super worried about getting bit by snakes around here which is a good thing so even though they may totally creep some of us out We're probably going to be okay. Their bites are rarely fatal if treated. And the Massasauga and the timber rattlesnakes, they're rare but found in eastern and southern Iowa. and then the prairie rattlesnake and copperhead are even rarer in our state. I would like to say that only garter rattlesnakes can be legally caught, collected, or killed in all counties. The timber rattlesnakes are protected in 14 of Iowa's 99 counties. excluding within 50 yards of an actively occupied residence so if you saw one within 50 yards of your house and you felt like you could kill it you go for it you can do that without a scientific collector's permit that's a whole other thing the reason I bring this up is because I had a resident tell me that she and her boyfriend excuse me were out for a walk recently and they saw a timber rattlesnake which is extremely rare in this part of the state near the cemetery which is right at the end of my street so I just wanted to encourage people to use this as a learning opportunity Google what a timber rattlesnake looks like so you know what it looks like show your kids make sure the kids know that they should not go looking for it that it's very dangerous very venomous and to stay away from it you know just be on the lookout basically keep your eyes and ears open i let doug know about it as soon as i heard because of the guys that are in the cemetery all the time you know doing the work and doing such a great job like bill said not wanting anybody to get hurt. And a lot of people walk through the cemetery on walks. I had a neighbor that I know, she always walks in the cemetery, so I let her know so she wouldn't be, or if she was walking there, that she would, you know stick to the path and be on the lookout for them she said I'll probably just walk our street from now on for a while but just wanted to let people know make people aware that that was a possibility at this point hopefully it'll move on to greener pastures somewhere else and we won't have to deal with it at all but and hopefully nobody will get hurt and mostly if you just stay away from it if you see it turn and walk the other way don't run don't take off don't do something stupid don't throw rocks at it you're just asking for trouble if you do that kind of stuff so but make sure you know what one looks like just in case absolutely all right thank you

Well, for my report, I have two things, really, really quick. Number one, ISG and Caleb, I just want to thank you guys for all the due diligence that you guys have shown. This has been a long project, and we're not done yet. but you guys you guys have been there in in our corner and and work walking us through this and and i think we're getting to the point where we can actually make some stuff happen so i appreciate that very much thank you we appreciate the opportunity too And the other thing is the hazardous waste collection day is coming up on Monday, June 8th from 3 to 6 p.m. at the airport. And this is for citizens, not businesses. So if you've got any to get rid of, paint cans in the garage, you know, I had a few of those. But I just wanted to remind everybody that that is coming up, and it's a good time to get rid of some of that stuff. And with that, I would entertain a motion to adjourn this regular session of the Hampton City Council.

So moved.

Second. A motion by Ms. Griefe, second by Mr. Holmstrom. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? We are adjourned. Thank you.

Eugene, could I take a picture of you?