City Council - Regular Meeting

with liberty and justice for all.

I'd like to call this meeting to order. Now is the time for the open forum. This is the time for any resident of Jefferson to speak to the council on any item that is not on the agenda.

Good afternoon. Daniel Cunningham, 505 South Maple Street. I apologize if this is a redundant topic, but I'd like to talk about e-bike and e-scooter ordinance. I notice on the city website there is no e-bike or e-scooter ordinance. And I sit on Maple Street, see lots of e-bikes and e-scooters going up and down, especially being so close this summer to the city pool. I have some questions I just want to throw at you. For you to think about, I know the answers, so I'll give them to you. Number one, true or false, some drag strips have outlawed Tesla S Plaid versions from entering races. True or false? The answer is true. Why? Because electric vehicles have a considerable advantage in acceleration. The ability to put torque, to put power to the drive wheels is considerably different than that of a regular vehicle. Number two, true or false, Greene County Medical Center's ER has seen an increase in children's injuries as a result. of e-bike and e-scooter usage over the last year. I'll let you go investigate that for yourself, but you'll find that that is true. How old does a driver have to be for a motorized vehicle like a golf cart or an ATV here in the city? Do you know the answer to that? Is an e-bike a motorized vehicle? Let me give you a little background on what the answer might be. Popular tourist destination Mackinac Island, Michigan, known for not allowing motorized vehicles, does not allow e-bikes or e-scooters on the island they are considered Motorized vehicles now this may seem unconnected, but I think you'll understand why I asked this question What percentage of motorists coming to the stop sign on South Street at Maple Street actually stop? 100 percent 75 percent 50 percent or 25 percent 25 percent would be my best guess There is not a week that goes by that I'm not trying to get across South Street that I don't have to stop for somebody who's run that stop sign. So I ask this body to pass or urgently pass an ordinance governing the use of e-bikes and e-scooters. Examples of other city ordinances are available. All you have to do is look online. Undoubtedly, there will be pushback. People with libertarian leanings will say, oh, that's terrible. Too many regulations. You're being mean to the kids. But you understand and I understand your role in this community is not to make friends of the public. It's to benefit the public safely. So I thank you for your time.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Is this in some committee?

It is. There's been thorough discussion about this, and it's in the mix right now, Dan, I tell you. It's in the police committee that's working on this, and it's gone through a couple different drafts, and would anticipate actually some action on this in the near future.

And if I might say, Chief of Police has said it kindly, but there is a police officer with a silver bandage point to that intersection that I have. So I'm sure that police officer would come up with the same percentage of people stopping if that stops on the site.

Thank you. Thank you.

And one of the consent items. Scott, when that does come out of the committee, we anticipate a public hearing regarding that.

We certainly can. We don't have to, but I think we likely would because it is an issue that people will be very interested in, I'll tell you that. Dan, if you stick around afterwards, I'm happy to discuss with you.

When you say people aren't stopping, are you just talking about the e-bikes and the e-scooter?

I'm talking about cars coming to the stop sign on South Street. Just roll it or don't even stop. And my concern is, my dread is that day that I'm sitting in my house or sitting on my porch when I hear the screeching of tires trying to come to a stop and screws. Does it? It's likely to happen at some point. And again, this summer with the increase of kids on those types of vehicles, it's just really bothersome.

Good point. Thank you. On to the consent items. I'll second.

Aaron Holtz? Aye. Jackson? Aye. Sloan? Aye. Weitrich? Aye. Winkleman?

Aye. Under new business, item A is ordinance amending the Kona Ordinance in the City of Jefferson 2017 by amending provisions pertaining to water rates.

This would increase water rates, retail water rates two percent. This would be the third reading of the ordinance and we've heard no comments. I've heard none.

I move to approve. I'll second.

Winklevin?

Aye.

Weitrick? Aye. Sloan? Aye. Jackson? Aye. Aaron Holtz? Aye.

Item B is ordinance amending code ordinances in the City of Jefferson 2017 by amending provisions pertaining to the collection fees for solid waste and recycling fees.

Again, this is third reading of the ordinance. Biggest impact in this ordinance is to raise the landfill fee from $3.50 to $6.10. That's just passing along those increased landfill fees from Metro Waste. Also has some different changes in there for bulk items and increases some of those costs. And this would be third reading of the ordinance.

I'll move to approve. Second.

Jackson. Aye. Aaron Holtz. Aye. Sloan. Aye. Winkleman. Aye. Weitrick. Aye.

Item C is resolution approving the 2080 agreement with the city of Grand Junction.

Yeah, so this 2080 agreement is actually about use of the animal shelter. Okay, so... Of course the animal shelter is there and we utilize it for Jefferson purposes. We have an agreement with Greene County then in the sheriff's department about the use of the facility for the county. With the other communities in the county though, we had said that we need to have a 2080 agreement in place individually with those communities. and that there's then a $200 fee per year for the community then to utilize our animal shelter. A couple things on that. That if an animal comes into the shelter, it can only be brought in by a city official. So it can't come in from any citizen of Grand Junction in this case. It has to be somebody who's been authorized by the city. And then as soon as that animal is here, there's still accruing fees. right so and then the the fees would be either paid by the animal owner or or potentially then by the city so certainly do understand they understand that and have wanted to enter into this 2080 agreement I have a question so the agreement with the county is with the sheriff's department yes well it's with the county court of supervisors okay so

where rural city such as sherdan that does not have their own police force and instead contracts out to the sheriff's department would that then fall under that just think about the contract with green county to serve the unincorporated areas unincorporated okay very good and these uh municipalities they have to designate

their official, you know, they can't just, oh, now I'm a designee because I'm bringing an animal over. They have to do it before.

Very likely it's a city official, either a city employee or an elected official.

Right.

Whichever is the shorter, what list of towns, incorporated areas in town, are partnered with us or are not partnered with us? What's the shorter ones?

Our two here, Grand Junction and Scranton, and then Rippey has done this in the past. Okay. None of the others? Did not. Well, they certainly have had inquiries from Sherdan again recently. Increase interest or increase drop-off? increase interest about participating. And that just largely comes from asking questions. You know, they have a problem with an animal that they need to address. And unless they're partnered with us, they're not able to use the facility. Have we had any from outside the county? Well, I'd never say never, and I guess I could, but I couldn't speak to that.

They are not supposed to intake animals unless they are from Jefferson or from the rural parts of the county or with cities that have a 28E agreement. this was you know back to when the shelter was being built it was offered for all these communities to be kind of part of that but they declined at the time so if they're coming from those communities uh i would guess all the time they're brought in by the sheriff's department right

They're not individuals.

Well, that's been attempted, or at least people have called or said or whatever. But no, the Sheriff's Department is only to bring in animals that were loose in the county, not in town. And I don't think the Sheriff's Department's leaping at wanting to be an animal control thing anyway. I don't think any... of our police really find that to be the most pleasant part of their jobs. The animal control joy.

I need to approve this.

Second.

Sloan? Aye. Weitrich? Aye. Winkleman? Aye. Jackson? Aye. Aaron Holtz? Aye.

Item D is resolution approving 28e agreement with the city of Scranton.

Same animal agreement with Scranton. Second.

Aaron Holtz? Aye. Jackson? Aye. Sloan? Aye. Weitrich? Aye. McQuinn? Aye.

I mean is approval of hiring of Steven Scheffler as a recycling employee.

Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, we have went through the recruitment process to fill our recycling position and Steve Scheffler would be recommended for hire. Steve's here and Just a couple words. Steve, anything about yourself? Highlight your fire department service.

Good evening. My name is Steve Scheffler. I've been on the Jefferson Fire Department for 13 years now. So I've been dedicated to the city and the people in it along with the surrounding areas for that long. Mostly because I've been on the other side of the fire department. I have been through a house fire and lost everything, including pets. So I don't just do it to say, I'm a firefighter. Definitely don't do it for the pay, because we're volunteer. I do it because I don't want to see someone else go through what I've gone through. And so, you know, I just strive to do my best in everything I do and hope that you guys will approved me to join the city of Jefferson employees and I will strive to do my best in that position as well. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Certainly are anticipating really, really good things from from Steve. No concerns. But when I did ask him to highlight his fire department service because I think that's important. We do not have any employees currently who serve on the fire department.

Okay.

But this is just, it's one way to know that we have one additional person in the community who's largely able to respond during the day. And just another important asset that Stephen brings.

And our management, his management, and his schedule is amicable to being able to leave whatever his assigned duty is to respond to those fires while he's on shift?

For the most part, you know, it's... So these main duties deal with recycling, okay? That doesn't always keep him in town. You know, you're running drop box or you're going to the landfills or drop off areas. So it doesn't always keep him in town. But when he's in town, I sure do hope so. Be an excellent responder.

Second.

Winklevon. Aye. Sloan. Aye. Jackson. Aye. Aaron Holtz. Aye. Weitrick.

Aye.

With no tomorrow, 6 a.m. Good night, y'all. Get a good night's sleep.

Under report, no engineer here. We will move on to Roxanne.

No report. David.

No legal report, just a quick note. City Crews I think just did an awesome job cleaning up after that storm on the first. They were out there real quick and did a really, really good job on those.

scott just on on the trees again just a little update that we consider everything to be picked up right now and so there's no ongoing pickup efforts there are several trees that would still need to be taken down so there are several that are on the list and they will keep whittling away out of here in the very near future For the airport fuel farm project, we received just today a pay estimate, so that'll be considered for next time, and a change order. So the update on the project is it's largely complete. The tanks are set, all of the equipment is set. They're finishing up a little bit of wiring and some lighting, this type of stuff. When we consider this next time, we'll have a change order to consider with that. The biggest part of the change order is removing something from the contract and that's removing the demo and the removal of the existing fuel setup. So what's happening there is city staff is just going to do that. So we will remove that and we're working with Greene County Conservation who will then take the existing fuels system and they'll utilize it. Okay, so just that, there's no fee associated with that, we're not charging them anything, but it is going to be put back into public use with Greene County Conservation. So just on that, You know, for the demo work that's associated with that and some new paving out there, that's a savings of about $70,000 to the project and it's important because that money is not eligible for reimbursement from the FAA grants. There's a little bit of additional money for some over excavation and some refill and some additional compaction and $24,000 of that, but that money is eligible for the cost share then with the federal government. So they're largely paying for that. So in total when we consider this Next week we'll have a negative change order for $46,000, which will help make the project cash flow a lot better for us on our local share. Recycling agreements with other communities. We'll be working largely with three other communities. Payton and Rippey, I have their 2080 agreements. They've signed them. They're ready to go. The city of Sherdan will be intends to enter into the agreement with us they would like to consider the city's agreement at the same time that they consider the agreement with green county so again that the each of these cities has will sign an agreement with jefferson that says they pay us the entire amount of what their fees are okay and then they have a side agreement with the county that says the county will reimburse each community then 50 of what there's what their charges were By the time that the county reimburses that, the fees for everybody go down for all of the communities. So, just that Shernan wants to consider both of those agreements at the same time and know that they're both in place. The community that we do not have a new agreement in place with then is Dana. We only offer them there once a month. Under this new structure their their cost would actually go up quite a bit and the county then has talked about the need to reimburse Dana more than 70 more than 50 percent of what their costs are Those things are still in the in the works there. It's not a huge huge undertaking for us. It's once a month And Discuss the fire department. I'll be quick attack, but maybe we'll let Chad or Luke discuss that when we get over there.

Okay. Under departments. Mark.

Couple things first. As you notice in your consent items, Bowdoin Begler has been promoted to sergeant. To see Bowdoin around, congratulate him on that. He's been doing above and beyond, and that was definitely the choice. The backfill to that is, Sergeant Zack Martin is leaving our department Sunday, this Bell Tower Sunday will be his last day and he starts next Wednesday with the Green County Sheriff's Office. So thanks to Zack for the service to our citizens.

Thank you. John, got anything?

Glad to be here, glad to get my first seven days under my belt as a new water superintendent. Things are looking good and we're really working on getting some things squared away down there. Big project we just finished was the brine tank that got cleaned out of all that salt. If you didn't know that was going on, that was. We're gonna get it up and running here very shortly. Very proud of the guys that I work with as well.

Senior Iowa State hat, I'd like us to be able to compete with Ames on water, please.

Okay, all right, we'll give her a shot.

Yeah, we had a water streets and a sewer committee meeting this morning. Chad and I were part of that, but Guy, I talked to John on the phone earlier, but today was the first time I had the opportunity to meet him firsthand and participate with his input. And I would say you obviously have hit the ground running, John, and welcome aboard. The other probably big thing that we discussed this morning or spent the most time on was the East Drainageway thing and some of the potential ins and outs that were going to be faced with that. So there could be a lot of work ahead on that project, but it is proceeding. to the extent we can proceed with it right now, but there very possibly are some legal and drainage district issues that will have to be considered. Hopefully we can fast track this thing, but It sounds to me like it's going to be complex.

A lot of the discussion this morning then on that project would focus on the maintenance side of things. And you know they talked about all the ruts in certain segments of the system out there. So they continue to work on what can we do to address the roots right away. They showed up with an extra head that goes on their jetter, and it's about this big, and it cost $1,800. But we had purchased that to do some additional root cutting. And just for the moment, though, things are focusing, I think, a lot more on the maintenance side of things.

So you feel like you're able to get to the root of the problem then?

The root of the problem, yeah.

I think so. So the head that Chad was talking about last time you guys purchased them, or the city purchased them.

We had one, whatever the...

I remember what the name of the demo. I think it's a great opportunity to try it. So if they can go through it, get them out. I think it's a, you know, for cost of the tool. You know, you can use it for multiple things and I think it's. you know, a no-brainer to buy it and try it. And, you know, if the city can blast some of those ruts out and maintain it, it's a lot cheaper than any replacement or slip line. And, you know, if we buy these tools, we have to use them, we have to maintain them instead of letting them sit on a shelf. So, I think it's, you know, I kind of talked it into it because it's an essential part of The machine they have, it'll work and it'll do the job it's designed for.

And that's basically clay pipe, too. I mean, we did look at that chain unit and I think there's a lot of questions about whether that's going to work as well as the concern would be damaging the clay pipe. So, yeah, I was impressed with that jetting unit this morning. I think that'll work. Chad looked at it really close, so he knows a lot more about it than I do.

I think it's a benefit. It'll work if you can get through it, get your other head through it to tear them out. That's what you need to do. Because if you do a slip line project, the cost of that is just going to be expensive.

That's all I've got.

Matt? A few things. Echoing David's sentiment about the trees and talking with Dave Moreland, he was really happy with the teamwork. So kudos to the various department heads that helped make all that run smoothly and quickly and I'd love to see that. along with City Works things. If the stars align, this week for the festival we'll have new banners installed on the overpass, kind of honoring veterans and first responders, so looking forward to seeing that. Maybe get installed this week, if not it'll be next week, but we're hoping to have it happen before everybody for our town doubles for the festival this weekend and then and then just the knowledge acknowledging a variety of of department heads that put extra work in and dedication to the bell tower festival and we've got a great one planned it's going to be probably the biggest as far as vendors and entertainment and all the things this year so hope everybody gets up to enjoy that and you know the city is certainly a big supporter of that in a variety of ways and i think the community will certainly recognize that and just have the weather cooperate and we will come out on the other side of it next week but they just kudos to everybody who i mean it's it's a massive undertaking and a lot of a lot of partnerships and hard work so looking forward to that happening that's it thank you chad um i believe those banners are supposed to go up tomorrow aren't they they're supposed to go up tomorrow okay that's that's it there's uh the the updated shipping is between 9 50 and 1 50. I will be I got game on speed dial whenever they they arrived.

We had a fire department meeting Luke and I a week ago and the LEC has had a or the sheriff's office has had a Humvee there with. low miles on it for a few years and they've decided to incorporate that into the fire department for a quick response vehicle and I think it's a great idea to use a vehicle, not spend a lot of money, and utilize it for multiple services. I hope Jack gets that done sooner than later because it's a vehicle that was sitting there doing nothing. I think it gives the fire department a better opportunity to do the job they need to do.

The Board of Supervisors has considered that. They'll approve the transfer of this vehicle to the city, then for the fire department. Be a unique situation where you have one of those quick attack vehicles. He has those two quick attack trucks downstairs. This would replace one of those. It would really end up being somewhat unique. But looking forward to it. I know the department And all the department members have a lot to do with this about how this truck will come together. Because it'll be pretty unique, but they'll take the sunbeam and get it all painted up red and it'll look like a fire truck.

That's it.

Lou.

I will echo what many others have said on the fantastic job that...

I'll interrupt you because I did want to say several of our local tree service guys have worked their butts off too.

I was out before the storm was over checking on some damage and the police department Torrential rain, they're out there barricading streets, ensuring that hazards, there were plenty of live power lines down. They were out there barricading streets, notifying the fire department. The fire department was out before the rain stopped. Many of them bringing their own chainsaws to clear streets, expose hazards, and again, barricade those hazards. So really, a lot of kudos to the police department. Literally the first responder and then fire department right after that overwhelming Overwhelming teamwork to really get things opened up because I know I couldn't have gotten where I needed to go if the streets hadn't been cleared and then As each layer unfolded the city's the streets department Fantastic teamwork. I know the projected timeline was to clear all this tree waste over three weeks blew that out of the water and didn't interrupt recycling or trash. So those deadlines were met as well. So on top of their already existing duties, they addressed this in a really efficient way. And I think that could not have happened without a twofold approach. One was the efficiency of the streets department and all the other department heads that were reassigned or all the other staff members that were reassigned to assist the streets. and the community. I know a lot of times we'll send out messages and sometimes the community pays attention to them. Sometimes it kind of floats under the radar. But really making sure that the branches were cut, arranged in an early fashion so the team, when they're picking these up, could pick them up efficiently. It could not have been this efficient without everyone working together. I love it. It was a sight to see. So I'm impressed.

Thank you.

Someone told me that the sounds, they heard the storm and the hailstones. Almost on top of that was the sirens. Almost on top of that was chainsaws. So just how quickly that all was. Library board of trustees met last night. with the foundation, one of the things they had was Ambridge came by, that's the fundraising group, and they had 63 patrons and participants there having their picture taken as they were using the library in various ways, and they were very good pictures that I think they're going to have on a website for people to go through.

Yeah, there was groundbreaking at 430 today out at the new KCG site It was extremely warm out there, but everything got done and they are Turning dirt and doing a lot of good stuff I was told to expect uh foundation wall work uh roof work should be done before winter and then interior work after that uh they're looking and cj said they're looking at possibly uh first rentals will be in june of next year And they're hoping by, what was it, September, October? September, October to have everything ready to go. So it's not going to take them that long. That's all I've got. So we're done here.