City Council - Regular Meeting

with liberty and justice for all.

Well, as you can tell, I'm filling in for the mayor this evening. He had another commitment, and then Kristen and Bill will also be absent. Is there anyone online? No? Okay. Okay, first item is public comment. Is there any public comment? Okay, seeing none, we'll move on. First item is discuss request from Grant Lee Township Fire District for a mutual aid agreement for fire protection. And I'll turn this over to Rhonda.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. This is a Franklin County Fire 28E agreement, mutual aid agreement for fire protection in and surrounding Franklin County, Iowa. Don Sweeter, who is the fire chief for the Grant Lee Fire District, stopped in and asked if the city would consider approving this. They are asking, well, City of Alexander, Coulter, Geneva, Hampton, Hansel, Latimer, Sheffield, and Grant Lee Township to all sign this mutual aid agreement. They thought one had been approved a number of years ago, but no one can find it. And so they're asking we approve it. And it's basically for the benefit of all fire departments in the area to agree to provide mutual aid to the other communities in the event that it's needed. So I'll just summarize this agreement It's made pursuant to Iowa code 28e and I've mentioned these cities that are involved Whereas in such situation the availability of additional firefighting personnel and equipment from outside sources Might well avert disastrous results The parties are here to our desirous of entering into a 28e agreement to render fire and emergency service assistance upon a reciprocal basis Under the following terms. Section 1, authority to respond. Power to request assistance or provide aid under this agreement shall reside in the member department fire chief or his official designee only. Any member department shall have the right to request assistance from any other department or departments subject to the terms and conditions of this agreement. Section 2, personnel and equipment provided. The requesting department shall include the following in its request for assistance. department number one department number two type of equipment type of apparatus manpower and they shall specify the location where the personnel and equipment are to stage the responding party shall be absolved from liability concerning all acts associated herewith provided that the final decision is made with a reasonable diligence no member department shall make any claim against another member department for refusal to send the requested equipment or personnel Where such refusal is based on the judgment of the responding department that such personnel and equipment are needed to protect the district of the responding department. There's some direction about command at the fire scene in Section 3, Section 4. No member department shall be required to reimburse any other department for the cost of providing the services outlined in this agreement. Each member department shall pay its costs, such as salaries, repairs, materials, compensation, to respond to the requests of the other member departments. Section 5, liability. Each party shall bear the liability and or cost of damage to its member department's equipment and the death or injury to its member department personnel. Whether the injury or death or damage occurs at an incident in the member's fire protection area or in a fire protection area, or the firefighter is working as a member of responding to mutual aid. Each party shall provide appropriate and reasonable insurance for its members' department. Section 6, the agreement shall have an indefinite term from the date of execution and therefore shall continue in effect from year to year. The agreement may be amended by agreement of all parties, and any party may withdraw from the agreement by giving 60 days written notice to each of the other parties by certified mail. This agreement shall be administered by the Grant and Lee Township Fire Department Chairman, which shall periodically review said agreement and attempt to resolve any problems that may arise. Upon execution by all parties, the agreement shall be filed with the Secretary of State and recorded with the Franklin County Recorder. If it's favorable to the city council, we would put this on Thursday's agenda for formal approval. And then I would forward it to Mr. Sweeter with signatures. And then when he gets all the signatures, then he will have it recorded and submit us a copy of the executed and recorded document.

Yes, Barry. So I asked you earlier, what about Dumont?

I don't know about Duvon. We have a 2080 mutual agreement for Mason City, and that encompasses, I think, Latimer and Sheffield for sure. I'm not sure about Duvon.

How about the unincorporated towns?

If they're not listed here, then they're not included in this.

And part of Ackley is in Franklin County too.

Yeah, I mean, I don't know. That's

I guess that would be a question for the fire chief or somebody. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, if it hasn't been updated, I think it's a good idea to get something in writing. Absolutely.

Any other questions or discussion? So we'll go ahead and put it on Thursday's agenda.

Thank you.

Good, thank you. Next item is to discuss littering in the parks. Is there any specific trope for that?

There's some citizens who have been diligently, regularly picking up garbage in Progress Park, and Jerry brought that to our attention and asked that we bring it to a workshop. So I'll just turn it over to Jerry.

I just want to make sure that we just keep our parks on the agenda, because that is one of our goals that we have in our strategic planning session. That was one of the top ones. So I just want to keep it in front of us. I want us to keep discussions going on it. I want to hear ideas. I want to see people thinking outside the box. I shared with Ron, and I shared this with Jennifer, A week ago Saturday, I saw a gentleman in front of Peace Plaza taking a picture of his grandson in front of Peace Plaza. And I was really excited because wow, somebody's using Peace Plaza. So I walked down there and I introduced myself to him and we had a great discussion, but he was from Fort Dodge and he was out looking at other towns and seeing what they do with gaping holes in their downtown district. And so we talked at length about Peace Plaza. He was real impressed that we had an area for food trucks in the back there. But it just made me think, you never know who's in town and who's looking at Hampton and through whose eyes Hampton is being viewed. And I just want to make sure that we're always putting our best foot forward. There's always... litter blowing downtown main street and a lot of people just walk by it there's litter in the parks and a lot of people just walk by it thinking it's not their problem and and i just really appreciate ruth tapp and john lyman they regularly go to peace or progress park and pick up as well as our city workers they pick up before they mow. But I just want us to keep talking about it and just see if we can't come up with some creative ideas and maybe even, you know, a public campaign on. Let's keep our parks beautiful. Everybody needs to pitch in and help. So that's why I wanted to put it on the agenda. I just want to keep talking about it.

I think we need some signs up. You know, there was a, when I had boys and scouts, we always had a motto, leave no trace. leave it better than what you found it you know take your garbage with you it's just a common courtesy and exactly people have kind of forgot about that any other comments i did put one sign up

Fun sign down there. And then just a question I might have for the aquatic center manager would be years ago I managed the swimming pool prior to the aquatic center for two years and I always scheduled two staff members to go down prior to opening to pick up garbage around the park. And I'm just wondering if the aquatic center is doing that now and maybe that's something they would consider doing.

Well, I think we should buy them some of those reach or grabber things. Make it easier, you know?

Oh, yeah, sure. But I'm just wondering if they're doing any other cleanup.

Anything we can help to help others. Yeah, we can ask them. You know, if they're getting paid, they can spend a little time doing that.

I know I spoke with Alyssa at the chamber about it too, and she wanted to create a volunteer list. I gave her Ruth's name and John's name right away, but it would be nice to even have people come forward and say, hey, yeah, put me on your list. When you need something, give me a holler and I can come and help or whatever. But I know we have an event coming up in Peace Plaza on June 17th, and I'm sure hoping I get some help making sure the plaza is nice and clean and weeded and everything and ready to go.

OK, anything else? Before we adjourn, Ron, could you ask the fire chief about the unincorporated towns?

Yeah, I can.

Thanks.

Okay, anything else? Otherwise, we are adjourned.