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. That calls me to order. the open forum. This is the time for any resident of Jefferson to speak counsel on any item that is not on the agenda with a limit of three minutes.

I'm Margaret Martins. My address is 201 Briarwood Bend. And this item is on the agenda, but I understood I could still speak about the Westwood sidewalk project. I want to say I am completely, absolutely, 100% in favor of this project. I want to work downtown any day that the weather permits. And I have literally had people drive at me. take it as you know my life would have ended then had I not jumped off the street so personally I am very much in favor of that and I think it fits with what most communities in Iowa seem to be doing having sidewalks for people and for one thing it encourages people to be healthier if we provide sidewalks for them. There are many, many families and people of all ages that are walking out in that area all the time. So I just want to say I am in favor of that and thank you. It appears that you have a resolution that's going to pass it, so that's wonderful. Thank you.

thank you thank you margaret do you find it's because at least when i've driven down there it seems like um it's because of the shape of the road and like what time of day it is is a lot of is that what you have found too well i walk on lincoln way

from my street which is one block off of Westwood Street sidewalk project and so between where it bends to go south and the hospital you're on a two-lane There's no extra space. And sometimes there's a semi going down that street. So there's a lot of nice people that move over, but that's kind of also at their own risk because it's a two-lane road with a bend. So they can't necessarily see if somebody's coming around there.

Thank you. I'll go to consent items. Move to approve. Second.

Aaron Hoffs? Aye. Jackson? Aye. Sloan? Aye. Weichert? Aye. Winkle-Mun?

Aye.

Under move business, item A, this is time for the public hearing on the plans, specifications, form of the contract, and the estimated cost of the Westwood Sidewalk project.

Yes, so Westwood Sidewalk Project, just to refresh everybody's memory, is a new sidewalk on West Lincoln Way on the north side from west of the hospital out around the curve and then on the north side there and then around the curve on the west side to Westwood Avenue. On both sides of Westwood Avenue from West Lincoln Way up to East Rushwood Road, And then on the north side of Westwood from Brush Ridge up to Grimmel. And then on Grimmel, it is on the west side across to West Lincoln Way. We approve the plan or had the resolution for the plans, had a meeting, I think it was two meetings ago, and so then it was put out for bid. This is the public hearing that is required prior to bidding and awarding a project, or prior to awarding a project to review the opinion of probable cost at the time we put the plans on file with the city was 884 000 for uh westward portion We also added, as part of that project, as a bid alternate, the one block of downtown alley on the east side of the square, commonly referred to as Dock Stadium Alley. And the OPC for that was 65,000. I reviewed this morning, we have 29 plan holders, 11 of them are listed as prime bidders, so hopefully we'll see at least three or four bids. It bids July 1st at 3 o'clock here at City Hall. Did anyone receive any comments, written or verbal?

No, I think the only thing I heard was, you know, just some clarification.

There's a couple areas on the north and over on the south.

The plan right now does include retaining walls versus back grating in, what, two or three of those areas, right?

For three properties have retaining walls, right. Okay.

I haven't heard anything for some time, for a long time, but I guess in the past it was kind of just some nonspecific or not very detailed reasons against, I guess, in a lot of ways. I think this particular person felt that wealthier people were not losing parts of their home.

Wes, you've got a speaker from the audience.

I don't know why the city is trying to pick up the whole bunch a lot on this. I also don't think it's right that the city is out there going to clean that for eternity. The city doesn't clean anybody else's private sidewalks, so what are we doing now? If the city was going to clean it, that means the width of the sidewalk could be reduced. In turn, the price could be reduced. And I think that's the direction we should be heading.

There are some precedents of the city doing things like this. I spoke to someone that the sidewalk down Lincoln Way, so quite some time ago, that was done by the city.

And was there reason for it?

to provide a sidewalk for people to walk. There wasn't a sidewalk there. This was some time ago. I'm talking about that the person that was on city council at the time was Jim . So that was a long time ago. Yes. And I think it was a good thing then, and I think Westwood will be a good thing now.

Well, I'm against all the citizens having to pay for that. I don't think it should be their burden. It's no different than if he was going to pay the street. Now, I'm going to say, well, I don't want to pay the street, not my house. Well, what would they do? Everybody on that street could pick up an assessment, pay for that street, put it in a curb and gutter. That sidewalk shouldn't be any different. It's a big project. I'll put it up to vote. Maybe I'm the only one who feels this way. I'll put it up to vote on. Put it up to the city to vote on and see how it stands to stand behind us. You know? There's nothing wrong with that. It's been that way for 40-some years. Everybody moved out there, knew there was no sidewalks, plus no surprise. There's never been no closed halls, no desks, or anything else out there. We even dropped the speed limit. There's always a safe. There's some flashing lights out there. Hey, kids ahead. That's a lot of people spending a million bucks. Thank you.

Luke, go ahead.

that have received several comments from both sides. One, that the sidewalk is a good thing and that we do have developments going on further towards the west side of town. So while, yes, to his point, there haven't been any close calls, haven't been any deaths yet, the traffic to the west side of the town and these developments continue to grow, increase in probability.

We are only addressing the sins of our forefathers by the council allowing the development on Westwood not to put in sidewalks back in the 70s and then West Lincoln away. So in a way, we're playing catch up.

So the fact that we have to do it now as opposed to having it been so much easier when the developments were put in, yes, that is a bit frustrating. Because now we have to decide how we're going to pay for it. And obviously, we've taken out this of the sidewalk while there may be past precedent on the city maintaining sidewalks, I do find it dangerous. I do receive word of consternation. I do receive conflicting ideas. And it's not going to be an easy decision based on the input that I receive based on the current draft of plans, on the current layout, or how they will be maintained, and the current placement of the site.

Anyone else? If not, I'll entertain a motion to close the public hearing.

I've had some comments on this. Most of the people are wondering why, you know, we got an assessment going to go towards the drainage district and that's going to cost a lot of people money for that. But, you know, there's no assessments on the sidewalk. going out there, which I feel should be somewhat shared. Instead of the people on the east end of the town having to pay for this drainage issue, that could be substantial. Are we for sure that's... going to happen that we're assessing those people in the drainage? Everybody in that book's names in the drainage district. If it goes, I didn't, I mean, we're not far into it yet, but it's like, we're going to pay for this, but you guys are going to all get a new sidewalk. And a lot of people are unhappy that they're going to do the snow removal and everything on it.

So Scott, any note on the drainage district page?

Just a couple things on that that jabs right as far as the project development yet. You know, we're still working through what a project might look like. And then ultimately, it does end up being a council decision about how things would be financed. And if it's a small maintenance project, it very well could just be financed with city dollars. Well that's more of what I would want to see.

Anyone else?

I'll second it.

He's first, you first. Is there a motion? I thought you made the motion.

Well, I will make a motion now. It's a closer public and then Aaron helps to do second.

I thought that's what I heard anyway. Second. Second.

Reacher?

Aye.

Sloan?

Aye.

Jackson?

Aye. And Holms? Aye. Item B is resolution approving plan specification from contract and estimate of cost for the Westwood sidewalk project.

Yep, so this is just approving the plans that were put on file with the city. Formal step in the process.

I guess some of the reasons why I'm in favor of this is just when I have driven in that direction, especially going west when the sun is setting, it is hard to see people on that. And I know it's been said no one's been killed there or hurt yet. I don't want to wait until that's something that has happened. Mr. Krug? Second.

Jackson?

Aye. Van Holtz? Aye.

Sloan?

Aye.

Weichert? Aye. Mnuchin?

No.

Item C is considered a change of order number one for the airport fuel farm project.

Yes, so this is a project at the airport for the new fuel farm, jet and aviation fuel pumps. This change order removes the demolition of the existing fuel area and pavement around that. That was not a FAA funded portion of the project, so we subtracted it out from the project so that the city could do that with their own forces, save a little money on that. And then it does add in for when they started doing the excavation for the new fuel area. Underneath it was some pretty soft soils so they ended up doing an over excavation and backfilling with aggregate to be able to stabilize that. And so there is a net reduction of $46,666.76 for this. takes the overall project contract price from $836,409.51 to $789,742.75 and we would recommend approval of this. Second.

Sloan?

Aye.

Arnholz?

Aye.

Jackson? Aye. Winkleman?

Aye.

Weichert? Aye.

Item D, consider approval of the pay estimate number two to Avora Energy LLC of $493,074.44 for the airport fuel farm project.

Yes, so this is the second pair estimate is for work basically completed through the month of May. It does include the majority of the work, tanks delivered and installed, control boxes, most of the electrical. reflect the changes to contract price based off of the change order that was just approved. It puts the project at a little over 80% complete. There are a few minor things to finish up, but this does get a majority of the project completed. And we would recommend approval of the payment for 493.074.44. Second. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. So much of the old system was already removed. So what had happened to it was the fuel tanks from that old system then went to the county, and county conservation would be using those old tanks. And then the other parts would just be salvaged. They are basically of no value. But just the cost savings on that, about $71,000 in cost savings, to have city staff do the removals. Now that includes a significant amount of paving. And it is not proposed that we would do this paving then right away. We would not jump into that right away. The one part that's still pending on that is that we still have a grant application into the Iowa DOT to fund part of this repaving of the area. So as far as the repaving goes out there, you won't see anything happen then for the remainder of the summer. If anything were to happen, it would be because we were awarded the grant or potentially some additional work in the fall.

Item E is resolution approving Second Amendment to the Economic Development Permittable Loan Agreement for upper story rental housing at 123 North Chestnut.

So you may recall that there was a previous amendment. This is the CDBG element of this second story affordability part of the 123 North Chestnut. Previous First Amendment to this agreement stipulated that of the $500,000 award that they received, that $475,000 of it was going to be for the applicant, and then $25,000 of it was going to go to Region 12 for their administrative costs. If you recall, the city is basically just a middleman on this. These are not city funds that come through, but the city basically helps dole that out with some assistance from Region 12, which is being paid for. We're now at the point where the project is completed, but this forgivable loan language is not crystal clear as to when the forgiveness is done. And so what this amendment does is stipulates that there will be a five-year period by which this has to get cleared before it can actually be forgiven. So it will remain a loan on the books. It will not be an incremental forgiveness like in some of our 10-year city development agreements. This will just be a five-year deal. And then after the end of the five years, which I think is January 1, 2031, then it will be forgiven at that point. So basically just making sure that we're being clear in our documents as to how that forgiveness happens. So no additional funds, nothing like that, just outlining how that's done.

Move to approve. Second.

Edmonds? Aye. Jackson? Aye. Sloan? Aye. Weichert? Aye. Winkleman? Aye.

Item F is a resolution approving the 2080 agreement with the City of Chardin recycling program.

Yeah, so the next three items will be recycling agreements with Chardin, Whitney, and Payton considered individually. So these are those 2080s. that it does make a change from the way things were built before, before they were built on a per capita basis. It changes and goes to a per-dump basis. It's $250 per dump. So our agreement with each of these communities is for the total amount of their dumps. They have also a side agreement then with the county that reimburses each one of those cities and 50% of that cost so that the dump sites are used for both small city residents and the unincorporated residents also. But everything's in order and ready for action. And remind me again, how often we come and pick up from those communities? For all three of these, it's bi-weekly. It's 26 times a year.

Okay.

Do we have, and then once again, poor memory, but do we have agreements with... some others too, right?

Okay, so both Scranton and Grand Junction we have not provided service to for quite some time. The other community then is Dana. And that's a little different in that Dana is only picked up once a month. And again, when you make the change from a per capita to a per dump type of situation though, Dana was the only one where the cost would increase. And that's a true hardship for them. So the issue remains unresolved as of right now. Still working with Loon County about whether they would pick up a bit heavier of the load then.

I move to approve this agreement with Sherdan Recycling. Second.

Sloan?

Aye.

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

Item G is resolution approving the 20-E grade of the city of Rippey regarding recycling. Same thing? Same thing.

Move to approve. Second.

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

Item H is resolution involving a 2080 agreement with the City of Payton regarding recycling.

Move to approve.

Second.

Wincommon? Aye.

Vandals? Aye.

Sloan?

Aye. Jackson? Aye. Weichert? Aye. Item I is resolution including a 2018 agreement with the city of Whoopee regarding the animal shelter.

This is another one of those agreements then with an outlying community about use of the animal shelter. We approved a couple of these at the previous council meeting. And so we have this agreement with them that for $200 per year we would accept their animals then at the animal shelter that are brought in by designated city officials. So that's the the uh they didn't take their didn't come from the public just from the city officials which we we need to get some listing on city officials then and the other two communities are scranton and grand junction scranton junction yeah second

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Item J is to approve the purchase of a pickup for the water department.

This is proposed to be a 2026 Silverwater 2500HD crew cab. Two quotes on this with the middle one being from Carl. Carl Silver Lake 38872. Did go to the water sewer streets committee as a budget item and recommended for purchase.

Move to approve. Second.

Richerick?

Aye.

Jackson?

Aye. Arnholz? Aye.

Montgomery?

Aye.

Sloan?

Aye. Item K is, now is the time for a report from Thomas Jefferson Gardens.

Good afternoon or evening. My name is Roger Aguilar. I'm representing Thomas Jefferson Gardens. The concept of the gardens was started as a tribute to Thomas Jefferson in 2010 by Wallace Key Garden who donated the money to get the garden started. It was opened in 2012. has been governed by a board and maintained by volunteers and paid gardeners over the time. Over the years we have hosted music concerts, political debates, a wedding, many educational programs, tours, plant sales. We also have a little One of the most important functions of Thomas Jefferson Gardens is to house the Welcome Center for Jefferson and the Jefferson Manor staff. Thomas Jefferson Gardens is the front door for all of the sites and events of Jefferson. As of May 3rd, we have, for our financials, as of May 3rd, we have, oh jeez, guess we have no money. We have $36,000, 36,000 in our checking. And in the Greater Des Moines Foundation, we have 141,895. Our budget for 2025 was 40,315. The actual expenses for 2025 were 41,431. So pretty much a wash. That's what I have. I don't know what I'm supposed to present, so that's what I have. Are there any questions?

Can you just talk about the board a little bit, Roger, and where you're at with the board?

So with the board, we've had, like any other organization, younger people. And over the past years, the board has been not only a board, but also typically volunteers to do the gardening and things like that. So there's been some burnout now over the last couple months where people have been on the board off and on for a long time. I've been off and on since the beginning. But I'm not a gardener. I don't do the gardening. Some people do. So we've had some resignations. So now we've got the, like I was going to say, hired Michelle Book out of Des Moines, who was from Jefferson originally, to come in and maybe just revamp, restyle, repurpose the Jefferson Gardens. And so we're meeting with her. and a few other people that are interested to start the process of revamping, rebuilding Thomas Jefferson Ward.

So do you envision that as revamping, as a physical reworking of the gardens at all, or it's working with the organization?

I think the gardens, there's five or six gardens in there, you know, a farmer's garden, a prairie garden, a rose garden, a children's garden. I don't think that will change at all. We used to have, in years past, a lot of educational programs gone. They've kind of went away for a number of reasons. And I think Michelle has looked at that. that that might be a way to get more people involved. She's asked me to look into getting a list of younger people in the community that might want to become involved. And she envisions the new board as being not a working board, but a board that takes care of hiring or nominating the president, taking care of business, making decisions, making financial decisions. And so, at our last board meeting, we kind of said too, and I think Michelle Book will agree with this, that we're going to hire a seasonal, full-time gardener to take care of the garden. And that will be their job only, and they will not, probably will not be on the board.

Sure. Do you want the full lockup and see how large is your board right here? How many members are on your board? We have three right now. Three now.

We had about seven or eight.

Okay.

Two months ago.

Okay.

We've never really had, since I've been on the board, never had any more than, certainly not more than seven or eight. It's usually been five or so.

Okay. Have you looked at any of the service groups from the school, NHS, that sort of thing?

Yes, we certainly have over the years. I'm just going to say it. We have no interest from basically the garden club, from the school, from other organizations around town. And we maybe brought it to them the wrong way instead of saying, can you come in for one day and do this, and then throughout the year and they're like any organization. They're my age and they don't want to dedicate the whole year to doing something for another organization. It's just hard to get people involved.

I think there's a new leader of NHS and I know there's a new ag teacher. I don't know if they have a horticulture class anymore, but I mean, yeah, I doubt if they can commit to a whole year or anything, but I know that the NHS, they do smaller things like pick up trash out of the ditches and stuff like that.

One year or one day, I mean.

Just a statement really for the council then too, you know the city's a financial supporter of Thomas Jefferson Gardens and we've had an agreement in place with them for several years. So the agreement had stated that for, I believe it's 10 years, that we would support Thomas Jefferson Gardens and its $20,000 contribution that each year comes from hotel monies.

uh expires it was either 2030 or 31 then would be the the last year of payment under the current arrangement so as you can see our budget is forty thousand dollars so your help with the twenty thousand dollars a year is very important to us at this time you know we do get other donations out but ten twenty dollars here in the

Thank you. Thank you.

Under reports, Jim. For the water department, we are working on the risk and resilience assessment. That is about finalized. We just have to review that one final time next week and then have the city look at it. And that is due June 30th. And then the emergency response plan is mostly complete. We'll be looking to have the city review that mid-July. That's not due until the end of December. Tower inspection, Bolton and Mink has been shuffling around people and hopefully we'll be getting that scheduled here in the next couple of weeks for completion in July. High School East Shared Road, or East Shared Use Path. We had submitted a grant on that. We're still waiting to hear on the grant, but that should hopefully be any time here. And then if we did receive the grant, we will move into topo and design on that. And then Drainage District 57, city staff purchased a new type of hydro, for their jetter truck and have been spent most of last week, I think, out there jet-rotting from State Street and South areas. Were able to get through a couple of fairly significant plugs that they thought they'd noticed. And Dave Moreland said that he had talked to a couple of the residents out there. it appears to seem like they've seen a difference and so maybe that has helped and so hopefully we're making progress on getting some of those issues addressed but there's probably still other things that we'll want to do as we go along but the root cutter seems to be working and being able to get stuff cleaned up a little bit so hopefully that's helping.

I'm glad we bought it. That's right.

Yep. Roxanne.

No report.

David. No report. Scott.

Local options sales tax. It has a sunset date on that local option sales tax, and it's June 30 of 27. So for the local option sales tax to continue, it does need to go to the referendum then again. So it would be proposed that the issue would go to the referendum then during general election this November. So there's a timeline that we need to follow. And this will be on the next council agenda then to begin some discussions on that. But just understand that it does sense that we would need to take some action. A couple of the decisions mainly are what the revenue purpose statement would be. We say right now 100% for infrastructure use. and then what the uh if there's a sunset date and if you would choose to have a sunset date or you can do away with the sunset date when the county had reconsidered theirs here within the past couple years they had done away with the sunset date so it's just perpetual um other than that fireworks out at the uh the fairgrounds on july 4th and we thank wild rose for being a sponsor along with the city

Did you leave the League of Cities dinner feeling more positive about where Jefferson is as compared to other communities or? I guess I always feel very positive where Jefferson is compared to other folks. I did too. I mean in, you know, some of our, I think, thinking forward on stuff. Especially when we heard the debt service people speak about the changes that are going to come with property tax and things like that. I think we are ahead of things.

In many ways, that's true, yeah.

Okay, I see Greg is not here. Mark, anything? John? Nothing. Chad? Harry, no report. Matt?

I want to give a nod to County Secondary Roads Department and the City Works and other support through the City for the Bell Tower Festival. And then a whole army of dedicated volunteers to making the whole thing work. So I want to say thanks to everybody who was a part of that and all the support that went into that. It was a good weekend and dodged some rain and made it all happen. So just a thanks to everybody for their partnership and coming together to make it happen one more time this year. That's it.

Chad, no report. Gary. Animal Shelter met on Thursday. One of the concerns that PAWS had was with these 28E agreements as was mentioned that they, and as you said too, that they want as soon as possible the list of city officials and Reading those ordinances, is it that the 28E agreement has not gone into effect until those cities provide those names of city officials? Okay. That's what I told them? Agreed, yeah. Okay.

Luke?

Yes, I'd like to echo what Matt said about the

county support the city support in a multitude of ways to guarantee the success of the bell tower festival and it went well even with the inclement weather we we had a fantastic bell tower this year it's yes it could have been a little bit better weather-wise but all things considered

just a wonderful turnout and due to many hands coming together to make sure that it went well. Also, we had the police committee meeting yesterday.

I believe we're very, very close to with our last polish of the ski, bike, and scooter ordinance. So I would expect to see that on an upcoming agenda for a public hearing so that way we can review that, get some public input. that I believe we have got a goal of implementing that shortly before school starts so that way ideally we can integrate some education to our younger generation because it is their safety that is really the main focus and goal behind this in addition to the safety of the residents and visitors because these are becoming more popular and they have quite a bit of potential to to cause harm and we want to keep that to a minimum. That's all.

Thank you. I just got a couple of things. First one, it was great. Met the guy who bought the Wells Fargo building and had a really nice talk with him. He's very interested in Jefferson and possibly making investments in Jefferson, so that was nice to hear. The other thing I got, I got a letter from Congressman Nunn congratulating the city on the two Main Street awards we got on building rehabilitation and Barbie by the Bells. I'm not going to read the whole thing because it's a lot of blah, blah, blah. But it was great to hear from him that he is interested in Jefferson. So thank you, Zach Nunn. And that's it. That's all I've got.

and use the left.