City Council - Regular Meeting

All rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

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.

I'd like to call this meeting to order. Now is the time for the open forum. Which is the time for any resident of Jefferson to speak in council on any item that is not on the agenda with a limit of three minutes. Dennis, you're up.

Thank you. I'm going to ask you to turn that around, Craig. I find that intimidating a little bit, but I'll stop after three minutes. Honest, I promise. Now, I wore a shirt as close as I could to camouflage, but everybody's still looking at me, so I'm kind of in trouble. There's two things I want to talk about very quickly. I'm going to rush through these. If I don't get them completed, if anybody would be interested in what further I had to say, you can certainly contact me sometime. Two things I want to talk about, zoning and the parking lot. Yes, parking lot. I don't understand the zoning, and I'm not criticizing anybody for anything tonight. I'm just, but here's the way I gathered this. This darn thing is 160 pages long, and I looked it up, and it looks to me like we got two major things going here. We have district, and then we have the actual code itself, and it looks to me like you looked at a map, and you kind of generated, you know, this is commercial, and this is commercial. fine with that, but as I understand it, anything within that has to abide by the regulations within that district, is that correct?

Okay, I got some nods there.

The thing that I noticed on this, and I just wanted to know where it's going to, I've got a lot of notes here, I'm gonna skip over them. But it says that any building within that, let's say it's the city square here, which is commercial. And if any building is adjusted or renovated or whatever, and it's in that district, it has to meet the rules of that district. And that's fine. I did notice that The Camden Enterprises Inc., Shriver Apartments Inc., Riverside LLC, those are all considered to be residential multifamily. And as I understand it, the 203 West Harrison or the Jeffersonian, that is commercial. So even though the definitions are exactly the same, they have to abide by the commercial regulations. Am I correct? I think I am. Okay. The thing is, is that At some time at a later date, if these districts are made up differently, is there a chance that the Jeffersonian would be called in a multi-residential? Would you look at that and say, well, we need to move that to a multi-residential? Because that's the definition of it. It doesn't fit the definition of commercial.

And I defer to Chad on these things and really encourage you to talk with Chad.

Let me point out something. 16I28 of your code says that multifamily dwellings have to provide one parking spot for each lot. On the lot for each dwelling. It doesn't, the Jeffersonian doesn't have to do that where all these others do because they fit into a different spot. Now I kind of looked at that. I don't think the Jeffersonian can provide that. It just owns that little section. I don't know how it's going to put up 20 or 30 parking places to meet that code. But then again all of a sudden I realized it doesn't make any difference anyway because you've got this board of adjustment that can change anything anyway. So I kind of wish I hadn't even read this or even brought it up. But this is supposed to consist of five people, none of them on the council and none of them to be purchasers or owners of commercial real estate. I don't know who they are. I'd kind of like to know, but that's beside the point. And I'm not running down the Jeffersonian. I'm reaching a point where I may very well end up there sometime. But I just found this interesting as far as zoning is concerned. Now, as far as the parking lot, I'm an ag boy, so I cut that block into quarters. And so the south half of the southwest quarter of that lot the city of Jefferson already owns. And you have that in Beacon. I get my information from Beacon. You have that valued at $4,800. Now, the north part of that, which would be the north half of Southwest Quarter, that's owned by Iowa Railway and Light Corporation. And that shows no valuation on Beacon and it shows that there's no taxation on that land. Then the other one, which is the whole southeast corner, is owned by Interstate Power and Light Company. And their address is Madison, Wisconsin. And that also shows no value and no taxation. But it was sold to them by the Jefferson Telephone Company in 2009 for $11,100. As I understand, all those are under the umbrella of Alliant Energy now, yeah. A little bit concerned with that darn pipe sticking out of the ground over there on that property, and I looked it up, and it states that interstate power, the purpose of that was to provide natural gas to 230,000 customers or something like that. Don't quote me on that, but some large amount. So I'm a little concerned what's underneath that sweat. Now, the comment was made, I think, at the last meeting that the previous owner has full responsibility for any contamination on that property. I just want to point out that that must be a law change because that didn't used to be. When I was examining a bank, the bank had a real estate loan on a gas station. The guy couldn't pay his debt. Bankruptcy. The bank started the process. They found out under those terms, they were responsible for cleaning up the mess because of the bankruptcy. And it says other things that may exist. So the bank had to write off their entire debt and give it back to the guy. Who would want it? So, you know, you want to be a little bit careful. Make sure T's are crossed and I's are dotted in that particular area because it wouldn't want any liability to come back. And it specifically is recommended that in your purchase agreement that you have that stated aligned energy will be responsible. So that it's understood and I just wanted to caution you a little bit on that. Now, based on the value, a telephone company sold it for $11,100 in 2009 for that whole quarter. If I apply that to the three parts that we're buying, in 2009, it would be purchased for around $16,650. Now, I think you're purchasing it for about $23,000, $23,600. Yeah, some around $23,000, $24,000. What I did, now that's been quite a few years ago, 2009. But what we're giving for those three, based on what the telephone company sold them for, would be a 69% increase in the purchase price. So how do I bring that out in my mind? Well, my mind says that in 2009, if you had a house, which this is not a house, but it was valued at $100,000, and it increased 69, then that house would have to sell for $169,000. So that's kind of the increase that you're applying to the purchase price of these lots, 69% over these period of years. So I just wanted to point that out also. Another thing too that I wondered about when I was listening to the meeting was that there are a lot of questions raised here. And I don't know that any question was really answered. It was said, well, we'll decide all that once we own the property. We'll make whatever rules up that we want. Maybe you're comfortable with that. I found that just a little bit disturbing, but not a big deal. The one thing that I picked up on was snow. Now, a couple of meetings ago, I had a long conversation about how we're going to get this snow removed out there. We can't do it in time. How are we going to prolong it? All this and all that. Now you realize that you picked up a whole half a block of a parking lot and you're just not going to scrape the snow somewhere. You're going to have to pick it up. You're going to have to load it. You're going to have to take it somewhere. You're going to have to dump it. And that's going to be on top of the responsibility you already have. over here in the western part of the city. So that I found to be kind of an interesting thing that I just wanted to mention. I think, am I still under three minutes? No. Try to wrap it up. I'm done. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for listening to me.

Christy.

Good evening Craig and Roxanne and Scott and council members. My name is Christy Hurley and my husband Bob and I have lived at 313 Southwest Street in Jefferson for 45 years. We are here to dispute an unexplained $1,376 water and sewer bill for the June 15th through July billing cycle. We just learned on August 24th that our address was added to this city council agenda for August 25th regarding sewer forgiveness. The city never notified us and because of the lack of communication we missed the formal agenda deadline and I am speaking now during the open forum. Administrator Scott Peterson told us we would be responsible for a $700 water bill even if the sewer forgiveness is granted. We respectfully disagree. This massive spike is structurally impossible without a household plumbing failure, which our licensed plumber proved we do not have. We have proof that this spike is a city system error, not a household leak based on three facts. Number one, we hired a private plumber and paid a premium price of $300. He completed a comprehensive inspection and dye testing. He confirmed there were zero active leaks on the property. He checked our water meter and the dial was completely stationary. Solely as a proactive routine preventative maintenance measure, he replaced the toilet tank repair kit. Our plumbing is completely sound and a slightly worn seal cannot physically cause a $1,300 spike. Number two, Bob and I were on vacation and we're entirely out of town from June 14th through the 25th. No one was in our home to use water or run the toilets for nearly 40% of that billing cycle. Number three, two weeks before the bill arrived, a City of Jefferson service truck was parked directly in front of our house. When Bob approached the two workers, they stated they were responding to a reported water leak at our address. Neither Bob nor I made that call. When we told the workers this, they stayed outside for quite some time. and they said they were calling the office. However, they never asked us to have them come in, check our water meter, or inspect the toilets or fixtures. This proves that the city's system or data flagged a glitch before our bill was even generated. The city was clearly aware of an unusual spike in our account activity yet no official notice or emergency alert was issued to us. Now, I want to take just a few minutes to say that Scott did come up to us as we entered and he said that something new has appeared and he just found that out this afternoon and our water bill is considerably high. So we understand that maybe something else is going on We are here tonight, we want to cooperate with the council and we want to do whatever we have to so that we don't have to consistently worry about a high water and sewer bill. We are here to work with you in case you have other residents in Jefferson that have the same problem. I don't know if I wanted to have you grant us an official agenda slot on the next meeting to vote for full forgiveness, but now other information has been given to me. And I want to thank you for allowing me to come up before your meeting and speak. But again, Bob and I have lived here for a long time. We have a very good history, payment history, and we were not aware of having any kind of water leak in the home. And we always are very good about home maintenance. So thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

So Scott, what's the situation then? So for the second month in a row then, the meter reading is exceptionally high. So knowing that it was high, the water department had been out there last week, has changed the water meter. So what we're able to do then tomorrow, and again, everything just comes to light at the end of the day today, but tomorrow we'll go out and take a reading and be able to know what the usage has been over just the course of a few days. And out of that you can really easily determine if usage is normal or if it's high again. So that's what the next steps are going to be.

And may I say something? Our water bill has averaged about $115 per month. We've not had a problem like this before.

Do we, I mean, it's probably hard to predict, but. So it's possible it's a problem with the meter and not that much water is being used.

No, just very, very, very unlikely. Water meters, they don't have problems. And Christy was right about this. Our interaction was she'd ask about forgiveness of any water charges. We work with folks on sewer charges, but if water is metered, they would be charged for the metered water. Right. Okay. So we did. We have changed the meter. And get some more affirmation and more information tomorrow about the status.

Okay. Because surely they would notice something running or something going on. Yes or no. I guess I don't know. I couldn't speak to that.

We have never at any time ever had running toilets. Yeah.

Yeah.

The toilet can definitely cause, I mean, you don't always know it. It's not always running. The only way you're going to be able to figure out is the die going. If you let it stand and the die goes there, you know, your flapper or something is, yeah. I mean, it's not unusual for us to have toilet larger bills or like somebody leaves a spigot outside. It's just not unusual for that high of bills. I mean, they're usually $600 to $1,000, but Yeah, I mean, we occasionally do have those.

That's making me nervous. Chad, can I change that flapper on my own? Thank you.

On to the consent items. Move to approve.

Second.

Jackson.

Aye.

Sloan.

Aye.

Weitrich.

Aye.

Winkleman.

Aye. Under new business, item A is now is the time for a public hearing concerning grant of easements to Redline Renewables for solar installation.

The public hearing is on two properties in town. The first is on North Wilson Street. The city has a lift station out there that we would have solar power then for this lift station. The lift station itself sits on an easement from property owned by a private individual, but the city is the adjacent property owner. When we went through this process originally, we just did the easement property, and we needed to add the city property. So the location of the panels will be on city property. And then the other one is the Alliant parking lot for solar panels there.

And both of these are on the ground? They're not on a building?

They're not. It's different. The lift station one is a traditional grounds type of setup. And the one at the parking lot would be a canopy setup, so you park underneath them.

Have you heard any public comment? No. I entertain a motion to close the public hearing.

Second.

Winkleman? Aye. Weitrich? Aye. Sloan? Aye. Jackson? Aye.

NMB is resolution approving the red line in Jefferson Solar LLC solar powered generation easement.

Yep, this covers both of those locations.

Move to approve. Second.

Sloan?

Aye.

Jackson?

Aye.

Winkleman? Aye. Weichert?

Aye. Item C is resolution approving 702 East Lincoln Way application for PLAAD survey.

I received an application for PLAAD survey for 702 East Lincoln Way from Darren Charlson. There's kind of two primary structures on this property, which have separate addresses, separate utilities, and you'd like to split one of those buildings and part of that property off to sell that to Shawn Olsen. And I would recommend approval of this plan of survey.

I move to approve. Second.

Jackson? Aye. Sloan?

Aye.

Weitrich? Aye. Winkleman?

Aye. Under reports, Jim? Tower inspection project. We're hoping to see the report here in the next few weeks. There's no change. Emergency response plan for the water department. Should have that to the city for review real soon. Like I said last time, that's not due until December. Fuel farm at the airport, no specific updates, still punch list items we're getting close on and then final documentation for the next meeting I believe and we're still waiting to hear final approval of the state grant for the additional paving work out there. I don't think we've heard officially yet. And then High School East Shared Use Path, we did receive the TAP grant and was awarded that, so we will get that project started and get moving on that one. And then the Westwood Sidewalk Project, we got the final verification of the contractor's insurance yesterday, reviewed contracts and bonds. We found nothing wrong with them, so those have been delivered to the city for them to review and for signing. We had the pre-construction meeting yesterday. The contractor intends to start the week of September 7th, so right after Labor Day. They are planning to start at the west hospital parking lot entrance there and proceed west from there. Tentatively, the scheduling is that they will start there, work on their underground items as they move along the concrete work, grading, forming, and boring will work behind them. They'll be on West Lincoln Way out around to Westwood. And then the next segment would be on the north side of Westwood from Briarwood Bend up to Grimmel. And then they would jump back to the south side of Westwood and go from West Lincoln Way up to Rush Ridge. And then after that they would move across to Grimmel and go across Grimmel from Westwood to West Lincoln Way. And then the last piece would be the alley over at Dock Stadium. They're figuring three to four weeks on the West Lincoln Way part, probably about another three to four weeks on the north side of Westwood and two to three weeks on the south side of Westwood and the Grimmel portions. I would, Expect at some point that fall weather cold weather will halt that for the winter So you don't know how far they'll get by the time that happens that could be end of October could be end of November So we'll just they don't have a set date that they're going to stop construction They will just keep working as long as the weather is favorable I've put together a construction update that will go to all the residents on the project and all of those in the immediate area of the project, especially on the south side of Westwood, so they have an idea of what is going to be happening. We'll also send it to the city to post on their social media pages. that we will also have bi-weekly progress construction update meetings once the project gets going. And my intention is after every one of those to send out an update as well so that as schedules and progress changes, we'll be able to keep people updated as best we can. it's most likely definitely going to change from what I just said. That's completely weather dependent and rain dependent. So we'll just try and keep everybody up to date as best we can. But that one is moving forward.

Once they start and they tear up someone's yard, they plan, right? That they're not going to leave it torn up all winter or something, right? Well, it depends on what you mean by torn up.

They are going to work on... getting the sidewalk and driveways and stuff like that put in. They will backfill the sidewalks and stuff as they go. But the seating, final grading and seating will not be done until spring. Just because once we get past September 30th, we're out of the official seating dates. And so then it's kind of on them and so they most likely won't do that and we won't by the end of September won't have a whole lot of it done yet. But if they're actively working on something and the weather goes south, we did stress to them that they have to get any kind of an access point whether it's a driveway or a or an intersection or something like that. They have to get that finished and poured and put back so that it's usable for the winter.

Right. Yep. Okay. And then for the school path, when is that thought to be finished or started?

The intention is for construction next summer. I believe it has to be a DOT-led project, so we have to follow their schedule. So we will be looking at... A date that we want to bid that and then backing that in and trying to get that to fit into what we can get done. But the intention is for construction next summer.

Okay.

Roxanne. No report.

David. No report.

Scott.

Just a little bit more information than on the school trail project. Because we did just hear a couple days ago that we were awarded this grant. So it's a $250,000 grant. Okay, in the regional transportation enhancement monies. So again, this is a joint project between the city and the school, where basically the city's involvement in this is to pay the engineering fees. The total construction cost is more than $250,000, so the school would stand the additional cost there. So again, this path goes from central then out to the school, but then tees off and goes over to the dog park and animal shelter area. So as far as maintenance goes then in the future, just that each entity will be responsible for the maintenance of the sidewalk on their property. So most of it is school, but the city would have maintenance responsibility on the section going over to the dog park.

Remind me, was that going to be paved again or gravel?

It's paved.

It's a nice, I think, 10-foot wide concrete path.

Yep, 10-foot wide concrete path.

And when you say central, that's continuing from central all the way out to Grimmel and then Grimmel up to?

No, when you're not in central, and there's a shared use path and it stops there. And you'll see a radius that turns to the north, right at that stopping point. That is where this is proposed to take off. The path itself will basically hug the east property line. And that's it.

Okay. Since Greg isn't here, we'll go on to the departments. Mark, anything? Chad?

Just to give a little update on the progress out at the Weldon.

I'm sure you all have driven by there many times. Most of the underground plumbing has been completed there. I think they were working on the last one today, the seven buildings. The footings are all done, of course, for everything. And they've poured slabs on three of them. And when I visited with them out there this morning, they anticipated that framing would start on the buildings around September 14th. Once that starts, things will start to look dramatically different in a hurry.

Thank you.

Matt? No report. Chad? Before the meeting today we were able to get a demonstration from Jack and one of his fellow firefighters on a new tool for the fire truck to make it one man operable and I think it's a good tool and will make the department you know, have enough people and some people can't get there to do their job and so they're all an asset to this community.

Luke. The police committee met yesterday morning and one of the items of discussion was the recent officer-involved shooting, which that investigation was initially led by the DCI. They then met with the Iowa Attorney General's office as well as the Greene County attorney. And that information has been shared with the Iowa Attorney General. So we are awaiting a determination from that official. And we are eagerly awaiting having our officer return to normal duty. There was another meeting finance committee meeting Yesterday again yesterday morning after the police committee We're going over some old policies that need refreshed and updated to meet current practice and current language We can get progress on that They'll report I've got a couple of things first one is I had a

uh assessor's conference board last night which ended up being just a barrel of laughs that's all the further i'm going to go on that one i do have a proclamation to read whereas the centennial block building has stood proudly in downtown jefferson for 150 years serving as an important part of a community's history and bring witness to generations of businesses families and stories and whereas this historic building represents more than bricks and mortar. It is a lasting connection to Jefferson's past, an important part of the character and identity of our downtown and whereas, When the future of the Centennial Block Building was uncertain, the ladies of Why Not Us joined with the City of Jefferson in a collaborative effort to save and preserve this historically significant building for future generations and, whereas, their vision, determination, and commitment demonstrate what can be accomplished when citizens and their city come together to protect the places that make our community special. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the City of Jefferson proudly recognizes and celebrates the 150th anniversary of the Centennial Building and honors the many people who have contributed to its history and preservation. Be it further proclaimed that we extend our appreciation to the ladies of Why Not Us, the City of Jefferson, and all those who helped ensure that this treasured building will be continued to be a part of Jefferson's story for generations to come. And we're done.