City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you and welcome everybody. First item on the agenda is to just entertain a motion to approve the agenda as posted and sent to the news media 24 hours prior to the meeting.

So moved.

Motion by Ms. Bay. Second by Ms. Greepy. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. That is the 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. In conducting this evening's meeting, we expect that all participants will act in a respectful manner consistent with these principles. Thank you. We had no workshop report because we didn't have one on Monday. So we'll go move right into the public comment section. So if anybody's got a public comment, I just want to add that if there's any items on the agenda that you need to share input on, now would be the time to do that as there would not be a lot of open discussion once we take action. So be back.

Hello, good afternoon. Thank you for this opportunity to stand before you and speak.

State your name for us, please.

Oh, my name's Matthew Meyer.

We know who you are, but just for the record, thank you.

All right, I come before you today for the change to the, let me make sure I get it right, Animal Protection Control under the Code of Ordinance of Hampton, Chapter 5-5, states that there will be no livestock inside the city limits of Hampton, except for with written permission from the council or from the zoning board. In doing so, I'm currently in the process of trying to purchase 1208 Central Avenue East, which has had sheep on the property for probably as long as I've been alive. So I come before you today in questioning, how do I maintain this tradition? How do I keep this going? I need I mean, do I have to submit a request through you officially? How do I do this? Can anyone help me out?

Well, I think since this is on the agenda, we will go ahead and discuss this really quickly. If the ordinance update that passes tonight and the third reading, that would remove any council approval for any livestock in the in the in town other than his own agriculture on the north east part of town and that would be restricted to horses and cattle only if somebody asked for a for a variance on that one but as far as livestock in hampton once this passes there would be no There's really no avenue to get sheep for your property.

Okay. My apologies. I must have an old code that is not updated yet. Okay. So my question is to them, was there a poll or was there a census done or anything that stated that we do not want livestock within the sea limits of Hampton? And the reason I ask this question is because I talk to my neighbors and I ask them if they didn't like the sheep being there, and none of them cared. And if it's not affecting my immediate neighbors, who is it affecting?

I think basically where we're going to look at is... I mean, the ordinance says no livestock in the city limits without approval of the council. We're looking at taking that out of there. Because I think during all of our chicken stuff we discussed about governing with our town with ordinances rather than exceptions. Because once you start doing exceptions, it just snowballs. So we're trying to get to a point with Hampton where, OK, here's the ordinance. This is how we're going to run it.

I'm happy that you brought that up about the chickens. So in the current ordinance that you guys do have, it does state that any animals that are left outside have to be in an enclosed structure or leached. So having just chickens in your backyard would not be authorized. You have to make sure that they cannot spread onto public fairways or to someone else's property. If so done so, there would be a misdemeanor. So we have currently ordinances in effect that allows us to still maintain our freedoms of what we would like to do with our properties. And they're already in writing. So changing one thing, all it's doing is neglecting other ordinances.

Well, I think I think the ordinance kind of speaks for itself. Any livestock, chickens, dogs, cats, whatever, if they're at large, that is an offense for them. So that goes for all of them. They can't just run around. They have to be in a closure if we had a good ordinance for that at this point. This is the fix for the chickens, unfortunately for the sheep, and going forward on how we're going to handle it.

I see. So I am clear, and to my understanding, no matter what I say, no matter what information I bring upon you, we are pushing forward with this ordinance. Correct. Copy that. Well, I thank you all for your time, and I appreciate it.

Thank you, Matt.

Yep, go ahead. I'm Jim Meyer. And some of you were back when I moved to town, and I had them. Dutch Richmire's always had sheep there, as long as I can remember. And I came to the council ahead of time, asked to see if we could still put the sheep in, and it got passed. We didn't have to do an ordinance change. We didn't have to do anything. It just got passed that night, and it was done. This whole deal with us being upset about it is because he just wants me to pass it to him. I want to sell it to him. but the only way to get around is i got to keep it i don't want it does the city want to buy it if you're going to sit there and not put the sheep in then that's got to stay under six inches you ever tried to mow that much i mean the city doesn't even take care of other parts of town that supposed to be under the six inch rule I mean, I don't understand why. I don't care about the chickens. I don't care about anything else. I got just that five acres. He's trying to get a loan through the government to pay me for it. You take that part out of it, well, then all of a sudden, they don't want to give him that much. I don't understand why we couldn't have just Let me do it. Let me give it to him. He's not going anywhere. And then it's done deal. It's under the carpet. And you're done. You can do the chicken thing. You can do whatever you want in the rest of town. I still don't believe you can still have horses and cattle out there. I mean, if a cow gets out, you're going to hit that with a car? Because that's what they told me. Well, I couldn't put cattle. In that little spot, I want to put a cow calf. I don't dare and they said no way. What if it gets out? Well. I just don't understand how the turn around has changed so much. And. I don't know. Thank you.

Thank you. Alright, anyone else public comment? If not, we'll move on. Public hearings, we don't have any of those tonight. Old business, we don't have any of that. So let's go on to our new business. First, we have Brad Shoup with the Franklin General Hospital presenting information on the FGH solar project.

Welcome. Thank you, Mayor and council members. My name is Brad Shoup. I'm the facilities director at Franklin General Hospital. And I appreciate the opportunity this evening to share what I and what we feel is an exciting project nearing completion out at the hospital. What are we doing? Simply stated, we are adding a renewable energy source in the form of solar on the FGH campus in effort to lower our utility costs, support environmental sustainability, and strengthen our energy independence. I think we've got just a handful of pictures here tonight. Probably, if we can go to the next one, this is basically pre-construction, a picture of pre-construction. And if we advance to the next slide, just a couple of miscellaneous pictures throughout construction. Construction began last fall, really ramped up this spring. There's just a few random pictures in here. And the last one that comes up, you can see a nearly completed project. So why are we doing this? Well, I guess it's cut right to the chase. We're doing this... For financial sustainability, it really comes down to economics. And that's a very large contributing factor on what we're doing. This array is technically three separate projects, three separate meters, and is expected to generate about 80% of what the hospital consumes on an annual basis. It'll also generate what the assisted living and the Franklin Wellness Center consume on an annual basis. It'll generate 100% of those buildings. So just for context, at the hospital and assisted living, we are anticipating to receive about $180,000 reduction in our electric expense for the first 12 months of operation of this project. We've got a nine-year return on investment. Really, to be honest with you, the Inflation Reduction Act was a substantial contributing factor in why this project was able to proceed. We are going to receive 30% back from the federal program as a baseline for adding renewable energy, and another 10% is added to that based on this project being constructed in an Iowa low-income area. Upon completion of the project, we'll get 40% of our spend back in the form of a check from the government. So ballpark, $2.5 million project for the hospital and assisted living, and we'll get a million-dollar check back. That's amazing. Also, and I don't talk about it a lot, but renewable energy credits or carbon credits, there's potential in Iowa in upcoming years that Iowa will, these renewable energy credits will have monetary value. We don't currently in Iowa, we don't assign a monetary value to that. But if you look at our neighboring state, Illinois, it's very lucrative. So we're going to hold onto those credits for now, and maybe something will change in Iowa in the future. Sustainability is another contributing factor of our project. In health care, sustainability refers to the implementation of cost efficient, environmentally friendly practices to support healthy and resilient environments and communities over time. Health care is an energy intensive industry. We need ample power to help provide a safe environment supportive of our patients' recovery, healing, and comfort. This project is likely nobody can tell me otherwise so i'm going with it it is likely the largest on-site solar project for critical access hospital in the state of iowa nobody can tell me otherwise so i'm claiming it this solar project presents an opportunity to harness a natural resource the sun in this case to generate a portion of our own electricity by investing in solar energy we can help to stabilize long-term energy costs, the bills aren't going to go down. Reduce our reliance on traditional energy sources and direct more resources towards the care and services we provide our patients and community. Along with some of the new technologies with this solar field, By the way, these solar panels are bifacial, so they'll actually generate some portion of electricity on the backside, on the bottom side, through ground reflectivity. We're going to be adding a native pollinator seed mix to that area as well, which will support honeybee populations and other habitat with the intent of eventually restoring that land to its native prairie state. It'll take time, but we should get there. There's even, we don't have any plans for this, but there's even some advancing technology called agrivoltaics, where a crop is produced within the solar field, underneath the solar panels and everything. Iowa State's doing a lot of research with that. So, you know, who knows what the future holds, but it's interesting stuff. We'll be planting some trees also, especially around the west perimeter and much of the south perimeter of that to help reduce some glare. So basically, in essence, bottom line, this project really encapsulates FGH's mission statement summarized in this way. The addition of this renewable energy source on the hospital campus will lower utility costs, support environmental sustainability, and strengthen our energy independence. The savings generated through this project can be reinvested into our mission of meeting the needs of the whole person through high quality health care and health related services. By reducing operating expenses, we can direct more of those resources towards patient care while continuing to uphold our values of compassion, respect, excellence and stewardship for the communities that we serve. Lastly, with any bit of luck, and some programming in there as well, some scheduling. Assuming that the final electrical inspections, witness testing, network, there's lots of little things to get across the finish line at the end of the project, as you are all well aware of. And some commissioning tasks shortly. We anticipate to be generating electricity through that field by the end of this month. Do anybody have any questions? I did have Councilperson Fay pass out. There's lots of geeky stuff on there, but it's good stuff. Yes?

It says the modules are Canadian solar. Are they made in Canada, or are they made in China?

They're made in Canada, from what I understand. They were distributed through Texas for us. Good question.

Who's the contractor on that?

So we did a public bid in Vicor out of Sioux Falls. South Dakota is our general contractor on that. Very, very excellent to work with. Very happy with their performance. Thank you. Great question. Thank you. Any other questions?

There's a celebration coming up?

Yeah. Next Wednesday, we are holding a what you might call a traditional ribbon cutting ceremony at noon. We're putting a little twist on that ribbon cutting. But yeah, we're going to celebrate the grand opening, if you will, next Wednesday.

Anybody else?

I think that's a big project for you guys to undertake. And I think that's going to go a long ways for our local hospital to sustain growth.

Yeah, thank you very much. We're very excited about it. We hope we're paving the ground for some Iowa projects like this.

Thank you. Thank you.

You're welcome. Thank you. All right, thank you so much.

Thank you.

All right, moving now to the chamber request for street closures for the Christian Motorcycle Association of Iowa Heritage Heartland Rally.

Yes, I am here.

Go ahead.

On behalf of, yeah, the CMA rally that will be held July 24th and 25th. They have a couple road closure requests. So it should, I mean, you guys all have a copy of this. But First Street Southwest, they would like closed after 5 o'clock on Friday and then all day Saturday to have food vendors and then their bike show. And then First Avenue Southwest. same that one would be closed a little bit earlier on Friday at noon and then closed all day Saturday for a stunt bike show that they have coming in and then South Federal ideally after close of the post office on Friday and then after close at the post office on Saturday as well so

think you know this will be a second time second year that they can be their second year yep and I think I think overall that everything went really well last year in fact you know the cleanup and everything I'm going really well so I'm Has anybody got any other discussion items that they want to go touch?

I just mentioned I had the opportunity to work with the group last year as the interim director and yeah, they are excellent to work with and in fact, I don't have a copy of it, but they received a tourism grant and then they gave a report after that and I was just really impressed with the detail of the report and just how much money they contributed to our local economy, because I think they really feel it's important to patronize the businesses. And I think I never heard any issues last year with the closures, and I think it's pretty much the same closures as last year.

Yep, pretty much the same. This is the same paper that was last year. And then I just changed the dates, really. So most of it's the same.

Yeah, it looked familiar.

Yeah, thanks, Interim Director.

Why reinvent the wheel?

The group that comes in, they're great. They're polite. And it's such an interesting concept, because you see these giant bikers, and they're handing out little mini Jesuses. And it's cool. But anyway, so.

And are they going to do their store again? Yes. Yeah, because I think that's neat. Anyone can go in there and take a look. They have a lot of products that they sell related to their mission and motorcycle, and it'd be worth looking at. Yeah.

I was in Mitchell, South Dakota a couple years ago, and they had stunt bikes on Main Street there, and they were jumping 30 feet in the air and spinning around and riding on the front wheel, and the kids were just going wild.

Yeah, I don't know that they're doing. I think that if you've seen that giant ball that like motorcycles ride around in, I think that's what they're setting up. But yeah.

I think it's great.

Just want to mention one more thing. I think this is their 51st year of having this rally. And because I know when they first came here, I mean, they were like, again, I mentioned they're very impressed. But I think Hampton was just a really nice location for them, too. And that's they wanted to come back.

Yeah, they were really excited to come back. And I had to break the bad news that it happened to be our fair week, because fair was moved up last year. So they were at this week's fair. And so I'm like, you'll have to push it back if you want to. But then they made it all work. So yeah.

Any other discussion go ahead Jen I just wanted to say I appreciate the advance notice in plenty of in advance of the event to give us time to consider it I actually thought I was a little behind even so okay good It's not the day before Anybody else any discussion

If not, I would entertain a motion to approve or deny this Greater Franklin County Chamber request. We'd move. We approve. I'll second. Mr. Ben Davies to approve. Second by Ms. Grapey. All in favor? Aye. And opposed? All right. Let's have a rally. Thank you so much. Thank you. Next item, we have Caleb Hayes with ISG, requesting this is some three things, some pay applications, change doors, and another item for authorization.

So I will turn it over to Caleb at this time. Good evening, everyone. Good to see you again. I just want to give quick updates on the project for anybody who hasn't stopped by. They are making really good progress. Both of the additions are off. They've actually done some of the backfilling already. And concrete was poured yesterday. And they were doing some finishes on it today. They're planning to pour foundation wall on Monday of next week. So that'll have to sit for a week. And then they'll be able to do backfilling, provided the weather cooperates. I know you guys have gotten quite a bit of rain lately. So as long as that all works out. Today I would like to go through a few things and get approval on those. First item being pay application one and two. Pay application one was the original one that we got not too long after contracts were sent out. That just covers their bonding and things of that nature. That's why it's a fairly small pay application. And then pay application two is to cover where they're at in construction now. So I believe I can give the amounts on those as well. Pay application one is $7,596.07. Like I said, that's for all their bonding requirements and things that they have to get together paperwork-wise. And then pay application two is $91,613.40. And I did go through and review their schedule of values, which is what they give us of their breakouts for who all the pay is going to between the other different trades. And I didn't see any discrepancies in it and approved that and sent that over to Ron for his knowledge as well.

All right, since I'm going to stop you real quick right there, we've got it kind of broken out a little bit. So the first item is the pay application one and two, which Caleb just described. So is there any discussion on that item there? If not, then I would entertain a motion to approve pay application number one and number two.

So moved. Second.

Motion by Ms. Griefe, second by Mr. Holmstrom. All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? All right, we've got that one. Now we'll go to change orders one, six, and nine.

All right. So next, the change orders. As we've gotten through the demolition and the removal of those additions, we've found some items. And there's some other change orders that are still being worked through. The contractor did get costs on some of them and rejected the costs initially from subcontractors because he felt they were too high. So we like to see that. That's really good to see. And that's why you'll see there's kind of they don't fall in order one, two, three. Yeah. I can elaborate on that. Change order one, that is for the sanitary line. It was actually found to be disconnected from building six. So I went out there and reviewed some items and then Doug Tarr and Ron also went out there and we felt that it would be best to reconnect that. Otherwise it becomes a huge issue and you end up tearing up either the alley or behind the building to get to that sanitary line. That change order is $571.34, pretty minimal cost. But they will stub that right through their new wall and make that connection, provided that one gets accepted. And then change order six, that one was after demolition on building six of the addition, we actually found another wall, another brick wall in the basement where the new foundation wall is going to go. So that brick wall needed to be removed as well as some limestone to be able to carry through the new foundation wall and the frost footings for the demolition. new pad that's going on the back for the walk door. And I have reviewed the costs on these estimates and against the data that we have, and I found them all well within where I thought they should be. The cost for that one is $7,304.99. And again, that one is additional demolition, and it would be an extension of the concrete, because there was more wall there than what was anticipated. And then change order nine is cutting a trench into the existing concrete pad that was underneath the additions. So after review, once they got that all out of there and got the basement kind of cleaned up, we took a look at it. And where the footing is going to end up, if we don't cut the pad in there, there's a chance that water can begin to build up. It basically becomes a bowl because that concrete is sloped. So it'll slope it all to the building. If it hits a certain point, it'll start to freeze. And then that could cause it to push in the new foundation wall and could cause frost heaving. so what we would like to do is and what we talked about talked to the contractor about doing is just cutting a two-foot trench putting in some clean rock in there so that when it flows down that hill that trench will be right by the new footings and it'll flow into that trench rather than sit up against the new foundation wall and potentially freeze and blow that out and the cost for that is 4 681.49 all right

Any other questions, discussion?

Mr. Lamos? Right now, do you put sandbags in there to keep water from going in the other businesses or anything?

They've been doing the best that they can to maintain it. One of the drains actually did plug, one of the floor drains in there, and the contractor went and rented a powered auger to clean that out so that he could get that clean and get that space drained because that basement had flooded down there. But now they've built back and they do have the new footings in, so that's acting as an additional barrier.

Are you on site every day?

No, I am not.

Once a week?

Once a week, typically. Otherwise, we do have biweekly meetings. Today was our first meeting. Otherwise, I've been out once a week to verify field conditions.

Thank you.

Any other discussions on the change orders? Hearing none, I would entertain a motion to approve change orders 1, 6, and 9. I would approve. Motion by Mr. Davies. Second by Ms. Rohde. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? The motion carries as well. The last item on here for Caleb is this is a... a motion to authorize city manager authority to approve change orders under $10,000, which are time sensitive to keep the storefront stabilization project on schedule. That seems like a no-brainer to me with the type of the work that's going on. You know, you uncover something, we need to handle it. or we've got to wait two weeks for another meeting. So I think providing Raines or Ron some variance on that to make some of these suggestions. Let Ron do it.

Do you have anything to add to that?

Yeah, so we've used this in the past when we work with city councils. Some school boards required as well. It just really helps with expediting. One of the big things we're currently waiting on costs back to one of the items that the contractor pushed back on. There was a section of wall that had been removed at some point in the past that we found when the addition was put on that will need to be put back. And we'd like to get the building enclosed as quickly as possible. So just giving Ron the ability to have that authority to make those decisions on just path critical items and to keep construction moving. So it wouldn't be any major changes, but it would be stuff that's necessary for the completion of construction.

All right.

And it would be things that are time sensitive to not slow up the contractor, not necessarily every change order under $10,000, simply the ones that there's a risk of slowing up the project. And then even if the council approves this and I give authorization on a change order request, that all of them will continue to come to the City Council as well so just because I approved it it's still going to come in front of you and get explained is there gonna be enough money That's what he recommended, the $10,000. In your opinion, that's enough?

I feel that that's enough for kind of the past critical items, just basing on past experience and then some of the things we've run into, like that additional wall. And this contractor has been very fair on change orders. So that wall was quite a bit of wall that they ended up taking out and quite a bit more concrete that they put in, and they still came out to $7,000. So I think that's enough to... authorized change orders to keep the project moving. And then if they exceed that, we'll bring them to council anyways. I feel that they should be able to wait.

Thank you.

Any other ideas, discussions? I think it's just my two cents. It is an importance that we keep this thing moving, and we've got it moving now. And like you said, let's get it enclosed as quickly as we can. Absolutely. With that, I would entertain a motion to authorize city manager authority to approve change orders under $10,000. So moved. Motion by Ms. Bay. Second by Mr. Davies. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion carries as well. Thank you very much. Thank you, everyone. Appreciate it. Next item is to consider application number 11 from Henkel Construction for the Water Treatment Plant Project. Yeah.

So this is your blue pages in your packet. Jason Petersberg is not here he he did submit an email explanation attached his pay estimate number 11 for Hinkle construction for the water treatment plant project the quantities and values of work completed have been reviewed by Veenster and Kim and payment is recommended as shown He also gives a project update that VNK has been working with Andy and the contractors to finalize the control sequencing for the automatic backwash of the filters. All equipment piping valves have been installed. Official startup of the new water plant automation is scheduled for early August. This pay application is in the amount of $117,960.27. And the percent of the project complete at this point is 96.6%. Thank you. All right.

Thank you. So we're in the home stretch here on this one. But is there any other discussion regarding this pay application? Hearing none, I would entertain a motion to approve pay application number 11 from Hinkle Construction for the water treatment plant project.

So moved.

A motion by Ms. Griefe.

I'll second.

Second by Ms. Fay. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Next item, we have a consideration of designating City of Hampton public notice locations for fiscal year 27 in conformance with House File 2490. Mr. Nutt.

Yes, so House File 2490, part of it is a requirement for government entities, cities, counties, schools, to annually declare where they are going to be posting their agendas and public notices in a prominent and conspicuous location. And so we will have you make a motion that we will be posting our agendas and notices on the front and rear doors of City Hall and on the city website in conformance with House File 2490, and this is for fiscal year 27.

Any questions, discussion? If not, I would entertain a motion. to a post agenda meeting notices the city Hampton government bodies on the front and rear doors of City Hall. I'll make that a motion. A motion by Mr. Holmstrom.

I'll second.

Second by Ms. Rohde. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Next we have Jim Davies with the 2026 Preserve Iowa Summit Report.

Thank you, Mayor. Council members, you all have a copy of the report, but for the public, I'll just briefly go through and summarize. As a member of the Hampton Historic Preservation Commission, I attended the Preserve Iowa Summit that was held in Ankeny on June 2nd and 3rd, and this conference serves as a required training event for Commission members. The first session I went to dealt with historic architectural survey. And basically, those surveys help identify properties and support Section 106 review. And what this Section 106 review is, it's a mandated process under the National Historic Preservation Act that requires federal agencies to consider the effects of their projects on historic properties. An example of that where we've done a survey was the cell phone tower that's at the Aquatic Center parking lot. We had to do that, do a survey to make sure that it didn't interfere with anything historic in that property. And the main reason there is because it requires a federal license and so it falls under that section. So that's an example of what like our certified local government did. Another session I went to, well, the welcome session was the keynote speakers were from the Campaign for Historic Trades and Iowa's Office of Apprenticeship. And this dealt with exploring how registered Apprenticeship programs can support developing trades people in Iowa and it was more specifically towards historic preservation So there's it would be maybe similar to what Nyack is doing for the different for like nursing but you have the opportunity and they're trying to recruit people to go into the trades that can work on historic buildings After that, as the Preservation Iowa Awards coordinator, I presented the Preservation Iowa's preservation at its best awards during an awards ceremony, and we gave seven awards out for that. Then on Wednesday, the next day, the first session I attended dealt with tourism readiness. An example of that would be putting wayfaring signs and outdoor interpretive panels out. Another session I went to dealt with different resources for doing research, such as like the State Historical Society, the Iowa's Library, the Archives Research Center, and so forth. So if you're doing research specifically like for grants, you need to look up a lot of, and this would give different resources you can go to to find information that you would need to, I guess what would be, help your chances on getting that grant. Another session I went to was how Main Street and the certified local government can partner together. And we do that now. Our Main Street design committee meets with the certified local government. We meet jointly. And what was nice about that is there were panelists from Osceola, Greenfield, and Mount Vernon that shared examples of how they work together. And then the last presentation I went to was a state historical preservation officer and different partners discussed the implementation of Iowa's 2023 to 2032 statewide historic preservation plan. But overall, the summit was valuable provided valuable information on historic rehabilitation projects research resources and successes of other communities also provided a nice opportunity to network with other communities as well as with the state historic preservation professionals thank you very much thank you any discussion around the the report that jim just shared with us if not then i would entertain a motion

to receive the 2026 Preserve Iowa Summit report.

So moved.

Motion by Ms. Fay.

I'll second.

Second by Ms. Rohde. All right. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Next, I entertain a motion to approve claims as submitted by staff in the amount of $185,148.86. So moved. I'll second. Motion by Mr. Holmstrom. Second by Ms. Rohde. Any further discussion on the claims? If not, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Next, we have ordinances and resolutions. First, we have Resolution 2026-17. This is a resolution approving contractor and bonds to Heartland Asphalt for the 2026-2027 HMA project. Mr. Dunn.

Thank you, Mayor. Mark couldn't be here tonight, so I will go through this. Be it resolved by the City Council of the City of Hampton, Iowa, that the construction contract and bond executed and insurance coverage for the construction of certain public improvements described in general as a 2026-2027 HMA street improvement project, and as described in detail in the plans and specifications heretofore approved, and which have been signed by the mayor and clerk on behalf of the city, be in the same or hereby approved as follows. The contractor, Heartland Asphalt of Mesa City, Iowa, the amount of the bid was $666,733.13. And this is for a base bid plus bid alternate number one and bid alternate number two. And then on the following pages, you'll see copies of the contract, which I'm not going to go through. But it is in the amount of $666,733.13, as well as a copy of the bond in the same amount. All right. Thank you.

Any other questions on that? Any further discussion? I know we talked about it the other night with Mark and Mr. Lamos.

I think we ought to add another $1,000. I don't want it to be 666.

I think we'll be all right. All right. With that, I'd entertain a motion to approve Resolution 2026-17. So moved. And motion by Ms. Fay.

I'll second it.

Second by Ms. Griefe. This is a roll call vote. So Mr. Davies.

Aye.

Ms. Fay. Aye. Mr. Lamos. Aye. Ms. Rohde.

Aye.

Ms. Griefe.

Aye.

mr holmstrom aye all right well this resolution is approved thank you Next we have ordinance number 411. This ordinance amending chapter 5505, lost livestock and municipal cold of Hampton by deleting existing section 5505 and replacing with the new section 5505 in the code of Hampton. Mr. Dunn.

Yes, so this is the second reading. And the new section that would be in is 55.05 livestock. It is unlawful for a person to keep livestock within the city except in compliance with the city's zoning regulations.

Any further discussion on this second reading? Mr. Davies?

Well, at the last vote, I voted no, and I just wanted to explain why I voted no. See, currently, the city council can make exceptions to provide flexibility to strict rules that cause unnecessary hardship due to a property's unique situation or location. And if this passes, a longstanding tradition will be discontinued for no good cause to the property owner. And it's been said that if we make exceptions, it snowballs. Well, I disagree with that. There's no proof of that. Now, people can ask for exceptions, but each case should and will be considered on their own merit. And that's why I'm voting no. I guess in my opinion, we should not change what we're doing, and that's why I'm voting no. All right. Thank you. Thank you.

Anything else? Ms. Fay?

Can I ask for clarification from Matt on this? something at this point I'm just wondering have you gotten notification from the loan department that they're not gonna loan you enough money so purchase the property without the sheep or so it's it's not the factor that

I can't get the loan. I can't get the loan. It's a VA loan. I did 20 years in the military, and I get it by being a military veteran. The value of the property they consider significantly less if I can't put the livestock on it because they see it as a potential farm. I'll never use it like a farm. I have no intentions of ever keeping sheep of my own. I am more than happy than having J Van Wert come in, put some sheep in there for a couple of months so everybody can see the sheep drive by and then take them back to his farm. But yes, it does significantly affect the amount of the loan I can get. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. All right.

So following that, I have another question then.

I'll just get back up. I'm sorry.

Do they pay you to put their sheep on your land?

No, they do not pay to put the sheep on the land.

So it is not a business for you.

It will not be a business, yes.

Thank you.

Anybody else? Well, I would just like to add that I appreciate Jim's comments completely and unfortunately in the situation when we began with the chicken request unfortunately it involved the Myers property and I have difficulty with the exception because we have a zoning board that makes the determinations I think that by allowing the exceptions, what actually is the purpose of the zoning board? I mean, that is their job, that is their wheelhouse, that is their decisions. Now, saying that, as of today, we are still under the old ordinance. So as of today, the exceptions are still allowed by our committee, by our council. This is a unique situation where Mr. Myers is selling the property to his son. It's a family business. This operation that's going on with the sheep has been going on as long as I've been in Hampton. It was 26 years and that's shorter than Jim's been in the property. And as Matt said, I have never heard one complaint. I don't know if anybody else has. But at 26 years, I have had no complaints. And I live in the East Park property of the sheep being there. Matt had asked what he could do. About the only thing that he could do as far as I could see is ask to be on the agenda and then ask us to be grandfathered in. We're not really... supposed to be commenting during the public comment. We're here to listen to the public's comment and then take it into consideration. But we're not really supposed to respond to public comments. So that kind of helps maybe Matt understand where we're standing as a council, where if it's on the agenda, we can discuss it. If it's not, we really should keep our comments to ourselves as much as possible. From hearing the views sitting around this council, I would think that if a motion was made to grandfather that in, and there's no business involved in having the sheep on that property, and there's no complaints from their neighbors, it might be considered by the council to be grandfathered in, the same way that it was grandfathered in with Jim. It's kind of a tricky situation with the family. Jim didn't sell it to a business, he didn't sell it, he sold it to his son to keep it in the family. And while this was transpiring, Matt, as the purchaser, had no idea that this was even going to come up. I think it's been such a long running tradition that it was just kind of accepted that it would continue. you know, right or wrong. And I can understand why he might expect that to continue. I guess until we make that third vote, which would be at our next council meeting should it pass tonight, he still has time to ask for that exception. Am I wrong with that, Mayor?

Under our current ordinance, yes, he would have.

OK.

But, I mean, I will stand by my vote to pass this new ordinance because I don't think we should be overruling our zoning commission. And that's what that exception allows. But today I'm operating under the old ordinance. Next week I may not be. But as of today, my vote would stand. I'm not going to overrule the zoning board. That's That's not what I was hired to do or voted on to do, to overrule those people.

TODD BANDUCCI. Anyone else? Mr. Lamo. JAMES LAMO. I think it's kind of frustrating. We're taking something away from someone that's been going on for 50, 60 years.

TODD BANDUCCI. I would just like to. If we're going to do that, it needs to be rezoned then. And that's not our job. Because if we're going to allow this exception here, it is going to happen.

Snowball.

It is going to happen. It's not our job to monitor it. It needs to be rezoned then if we're going to have sheep there. So my suggestion would be to approach the zoning board. I would start there. If they rezone it, then there's nothing we can do about it. They don't need to come back to us for approval.

I don't think you can. It's spot zoning.

Yeah, I don't think we want to go down that road. And I also want to just clarify that we're basically looking with the Board of Adjustment more. on the other for the exception rather than the zoning board but no i don't think we want to get into stop spot zoning our town at all but well there are other avenues to pursue rather than our vote so my my opinion on that is is this you know and unfortunately The Meyers are into this. They're stuck into this if you're selling to your son. As a council, we should be taking a look at what's best for Hampton and how we want to move forward as a city council with our ordinances. And unfortunately, we can't single out homeowners but this is best for them or this is best for them or this is best for that. We need to get something that's for everybody and that's kind of where I'm at with it. Just because it's always been there unfortunately is not the best use, the best reason to leave it there. Unfortunately it does appear to be a farm in town

in hampton and this and what we got that's my two cents worth anybody else i just just feel like we can't say we can't pick and choose we can't say yes to one and no to the next It's not fair.

And then we're managing by exception and not by ordinance, which is not where we want to go.

If we say yes to this, we're going to have chickens again. I don't want to go through that again. We really tried hard to make a good ordinance for the chickens and... All right. Got burned.

Anybody else? If not, I would entertain a motion to approve Ordinance 411.

So moved. I'll second it.

I have a motion by Ms. Fay, second by Ms. Griefe. This will be a roll call vote. Mr. Holmstrom? Aye. Ms. Bay?

Aye.

Ms. Griepe?

Aye.

Mr. Lamos?

Nay.

Mr. Davies? No. Ms. Rohde? No. Second roll of the reading of the ordinance. 411 has been denied. Move forward. Brings us to our, oh, sorry. Consent agenda tonight, including approve previous minutes as drafted on Thursday, June 25th, 2026 regular session. Schedule the next regular session for Thursday, July 24th, 23rd, 2026 at 6 p.m. in the city council chambers. And approve alcohol licensing for fairway stores at 309 Central Avenue West. I'd entertain a motion to approve this consent agenda. So moved. Motion by Mr. Lamos.

I'll second.

Second by Ms. Fay. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Brings us to our stash reports. Chief Morrison.

Yeah, it's been a busy couple of months. This is usually the busiest time of the year for us. We have a lot of event planning throughout this month, and last month we just got through with a good grand festival and July 4th, and now we move right into the fair in the next couple weeks, and so we continue to work on that. It takes a lot of staff, takes a lot of prep time, so hopefully we have another good fair this year. And then we have continued to work through the hiring process. Hopefully have somebody to you in the next couple weeks to month. And we had court today on one case, and I have two next week. So that's the update on the nuisance, if there's any questions. Any success with the hiring? Oh, well, yes. I think we're going to have – I think I should have somebody to you by the next meeting. I hope. Thank you.

Any other questions for Chief Morrison? Thank you, sir. Mr. Tarr.

Thank you, Mayor, Council. Mother Nature has reared her ugly head again with the rain, unfortunately. I think everybody's aware, which is going to start producing mosquitoes. So we've been busy larviciding. We will be out spraying tonight. We also intend on spraying Tuesday. So July 9th, July 14th, we'll be making some rounds trying you know combat those mosquitoes especially with the fair coming and everything else we'll just add that to the other fair prep work that we work on south federal secondary road type work the gravel out that ways that projects well underway so if you've been out by there you might not be able to get through so well this rain didn't help that project a lot but once it's all said and done rains like this won't be as intrusive to the city you know once we get it completed but we got to get there the old pharmacy works been going great fare is coming the UP railroad crossing I had some alarms here recently because they were going to have Highway 3 and a couple crossings on Olive. They wanted to begin that work here this week through next week. And I said, yeah, no, that's not going to work. So anyway, we've had discussions. It sounds like they're going to be putting that off. But about a week after the fair, it sounds like the railroad crossings are going to be redone in some areas just right on the edge of town. And then, of course, on Highway 3 in town, first avenue northwest in town i believe that crossing is getting done as well so they're going to be doing a lot of work here right after the fair um and then of course we got done with that infamous water main break that we had on the highway it went well i'm very proud of staff staff did a an amazing job on that i thought um it wasn't the uh best timing and it wasn't one of the things we learned is that highway 3 is a designated heavy load highway basically so there's some work going on down in texas that a lot of these heavy loads are coming out of milwaukee coming down hitting highway three and then hitting i-35 as you might be aware i-90 is also kind of closed in some areas right now with the flooding but for some reason they come down and hit this highway three and uh... man While we had things coned off, we had to move cones multiple times just to get some of those loads through, even though some of the NOTAMs were put out. Hey, you guys need to pass that. So I had quite a few interactions with pilot drivers that I wish I didn't have to have, but I did, and we got through it. But anyway, staff did an amazing job on that. So it took a little while, but we got her done, and we got two brand new valves on the highway. so that's going to help us moving forward into the future any questions or concerns yes sir what's the cost of the south federal job oh 60 60 yeah right around 60. what uh what size main was that that broke eight inch how old is that very Early 1900s, probably. It was cast iron. But honestly, the coupons that we took out, it was in good shape. I don't know if it was maybe due to some of this heavy load traffic that came through there, because the piece that blew out of it was about 26 inches long and about six inches wide off the back side. We had to run to Fort Dodge to find a clamp that big that would cover it for a temporary fix, which we did on that Friday. And then we had to, because we had some valves that weren't working on the other ends a little bit, we couldn't get it shut down all the way. So we went with those insert valves like we did a couple years ago down on the other end of the highway. And so it worked out great.

City guys did that work?

No, we hired out the insert valves, but we did all the digging and prep work and everything else that went with it, and then we did the concrete at the end.

Thank you. Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Anybody else for Mr. Tarr?

I have a quick question, and then you may not have the answer to this, which is fine. I'm talking about the Beets Lake sewer thing coming through the parking lot. parking lot for the fair, where they conduct that big hole, is that where they generally put the handicap parking? Have they moved that?

Do we know anything about that? I really don't know, Mayor. I wish I had the answer for you, but I do not know the answer to that.

I'll just check and see. That's fine. All right. Anybody else? I'll look into it for you. All right. Thank you. All right. Thanks, sir. You bet. Thank you. Mr. Dunn.

yesterday I attended the NIAC Career Center ribbon-cutting it was a very nice ceremony they had some speakers high school superintendents NIAC president and very good presentation a tour of the facility it's a very nice facility it's gonna it's going to be a great asset to the community to the school districts three different school districts to the and most of all to the high school students who will utilize it and get college credit also attended a webinar which is put on by Iowa State University to try to sort through the property tax reform legislation and how to navigate the changes not to a point yet where we can definitively say how the reform will impact the city of Hampton but I'm attending webinars and any type of meeting where I can gather information as these groups sift through things. So we just keep moving along, and I'll provide information as I get it. Any questions?

Thank you. All right. Thank you, sir. Council reports. Let's start with Ms. Bay.

In case anyone's wondering I had carpal tunnel surgery on Tuesday and just really thankful and that I was able to have the surgery here at Franklin General and not have to go up to Mason for that. It's exciting to have an orthopedist that will come here and do these kind of surgeries along with you know, joint replacements, all that kind of stuff we can do here now too. So that's exciting. And then I also wanted to thank Brad for coming and sharing with us about the solar project at the hospital. I think that's going to be good for Hampton. I think it sets a good precedent for other companies possibly to do the same in Hampton as well.

All right. Thank you. Mr. Holmstrom.

I just want to give out a shout out and congratulations to Jeff Winters and Steve Hewling for all of their work and success in designing and implementing the new 18-hole disc golf course on East Park. It's well designed, easily marked and mapped, and it's a challenge for all ages. I played there for the first time last week and found it a perfect way to get fresh air and exercise and have a lot of fun. This Saturday, they're having an organized disc golf event at the East Park for all ages, starting at 9 o'clock. And I'm hoping that they have an excellent turnout and good weather. And I want to thank Doug for making sure that there's some restroom facilities and a water fountain. I understand that's going to be working. And there's more information in the Hampton Chronicle this week. So make sure you check that out and I hope they have a successful event.

All right. Thank you. Ms. Creepy.

I think the windows at the old pharmacy look great. That was a great idea, Jeannie. Thank you very much. Thanks for the council for approving that. They really look good. Yesterday, I had a couple from out of town come into the shop, and they... my god, what's happening to that building? Are you guys tearing that building down? And I said, no, the back is just removed. The city has voted to save the building. They're going to go in. They're stabilizing it, blah, blah, blah. And they were really impressed with that. This little town did that. You guys pulled that off. And I thought, that's really pretty cool. I really liked that. The Chamber of Commerce is on the move. They're moving to their new office. Perfect location, just a couple doors down from City Hall. I think that's going to work out great, and they're going to save some money on rent and so on. I know I said I would never say anything about the flower baskets again, but, God, don't they look good? We keep getting lots of compliments on them, and I just love that. And also, kudos to FGH and their solar project. I think that's fantastic. Thank you so much.

All right. Thank you. Ms. Rohde.

I have no comment tonight.

All right. Thank you. Mr. Lamos. No comment.

Thank you. Mr. Davies. Just one item. Representatives of silos and smokestacks were in town today for a district meeting. And one of the topics they talked about was grants that are available. And two examples that we could apply for grants is And I think there has been a tour of outlying historic sites. There's money there to help put together tours for that. And another one is sort of mini grants for schools. Like it's per building. Like if a class wanted to visit the historical museum, for example, there's maybe a $375 grant. It may not be much, but it would pay for the transportation and the bus driver. So it would help the school give them a little more incentive, you know, and help pay for that. So that was nice. That's all I have. All right.

Thank you. Well, the mayor report, I only have one item that I put on here. And Ron had sent out an email about the library accreditation. I was worried about saying that word. Accreditation. credited yeah that one I think that speaks volumes for our library we have received a tier three level act status which is the highest that we can get The Hampton Public Library has been recognized for its efforts in all areas of library operations including governance and funding, staffing, library collection, services, public relations, access, and facilities. This achievement reflects the Hampton Public Library's dedication to providing exceptional service and resources to our community. I was recruited public libraries are recognized for recognized before for being responsive to their communities and for exhibiting excellence in their provision of a private library of services services and basically what that tells to me is that Susie and her staff are doing a one hell of a job getting our library up to shape. We're working on the building. I mean, there's a lot of stuff going on, and they're doing a hell of a job. So thank you to all of them. And that's all I got. With that, I'd entertain a motion to adjourn this regular session of the Hampton City Council. So moved. I got a motion by Mr. Davies. Second. Second by Ms. Griefe. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? We are adjourned. Thank you.