City Council - Regular Meeting

and neighbors. It is Monday, January 26th. This is a study session meeting for the city council. 8 to 7:00 p.m. and we are called to order. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance 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. [Music]

Okay. City council, do I have a motion to approve the agenda? I move to approve the agenda as presented. Second. Any discussion? Okay. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. All right. That passed. I'd like to welcome back Holly Armstrong as our guest council person for your last time this month. Um thank you. Yeah. Thanks for being here. At this time, I have a presentation of a certificate of appreciation for Beth Hesa. Best, could you join me at the pres at the podium, please?

I'm good. How are you? Well, thank you for your service. This is for um participating in the Waverly Historic Preservation Commission from September 9th, 2024 to November 31st, 2025. [Applause] At this time, you're opening the floor for public comment. This is the time for items not on the agenda. Please limit your comments to 5 minutes unless additional time is granted by the presiding officer. All remarks shall be addressed to the council as a whole and not to any individual member. Okay. Don't see anybody. All right. Moving on to our study session. Do we have the Waverly Chamber of Commerce with our Main Street quarterly update? Good evening, Chelsea Peterson, executive director, Waverly Chamber, Main Street. First, I want to say thank you to everyone who helped make Christmas Greetings on Maine such a success um and a wonderful evening for our community. I especially want to recognize the parks department, Paul and his crew, and the streets department um for their snow removal and coordination. Winter truly is an all hands- on deck season and we appreciate all the work that goes done behind the scenes. So, thank you to the Dirty Parks. Since the start of the year, we've shifted fully into implementation mode for 2026. We're getting very close to launching our new website that will significantly improve how residents and visitors can find out where to shop, dine, and explore here in Waverly. Our committees have also been meeting in their strong excitement about the business development and retail promotions committee. Their focus is business support, downtown vitality, and aligning promotions and events to drive foot traffic and activity in Waverly. I also want to share how we're using data to inform our next steps. Recent market

housing and tourism data provided from Main Street, Iowa, confirms that Waverly is a strong and stable regional hub. Within a 10-minute drive, we serve nearly 12,000 residents and more than 7,600 daytime workers. That's every day, reinforcing Waverly's role as a service, employment, and destination center. Growth is steady rather than rapid, which tells us our opportunity is not expansion for expansion's sake, but retention, reinvestment, and quality of life improvements. Income and spending data show continued growth in areas like food away from home, entertainment, travel, and household services. This aligns well with downtown investment, placemaking, and visitor experience efforts. Housing data reinforces what we're seeing on the ground. Strong home home ownership, rising home values, and continued demand for quality rental housing, especially near downtown and employment centers. This further supports our upper story housing and mixeduse development as a market and driven solution. Side note, construction has begun on 123 East Bremer. That's where the challenge grant is. So that's super exciting. We also look closely at who we're serving. Our primary household segments are established community oriented households who value convenience, quality, and a welcoming environment. In addition, a large share of our customers visit and visitors come from surrounding rural areas um and rely on Waverly as their hub. That makes wayinding, signage, parking, and ease of navigation especially important. Building on all this, we are applying for the first impressions program through the Iowa State Extension Office. This program brings trained evaluators to Waverly as firsttime visitors and secret shoppers. They conduct ext extensive previsit research of our websites and information followed by unannounced visits at different times and different locations. The outcome is a comprehensive third party report often more than 80 pages

with actionable recommendations related to hospitality infrastructure signage visitor services and overall community appeal. Communities across the Midwest then use this data to prioritize projects, strengthen grant applications, and guide investment decisions. So there will be a team um who will be on this committee um or a task force event um if selected that would comprise of city staff um chamber business owners um and we apply through Iowa State if selected pay um independents and was a recent one in 2024 um and so they got great information those um all those in the reports are online and so I think it' be real valuable for us here in Waverly um just as we take those next steps with the bridge open um and that continued momentum. So as always I appreciate the city's continued partnership much of this momentum of course is with collaboration and super grateful for our work together. Any questions?

Nope. I appreciate your time Chelsea. We had coffee this morning and it's really fun to hear what the chamber has um coming up with some of the conversations you've been having, some of the ideas you've got and it's it's fun to see what you guys have in the work. So, thank you for your time. Thank you.

Okay, update on the new aquatic center. [Applause] All right, good evening everyone. Um, we just brought a few pictures uh tonight to share with you. Um, we didn't do an update in December, so you'd think there'd be a lot going, but uh there there has been a lot done at the pool, just not much to look at here. So anyway, to start things off, this is uh the concession stand, garden room, um and the uh admittance area. So that's what we've got there. That'll be the color of uh the entire building. [Applause] Then over here on this, this is the footings on the foundation start for the uh rest of the locker room area, restrooms, and uh the chemical rooms. So that's what this all is here. Pretty much the same picture here, but just a little different angle there for you. Here's a picture with the uh walls actually started. Um next on that will be uh getting this area here back filled. Then they'll put the brick walls up, the block walls up uh and the walls in between uh the locker rooms and such. Down here is a picture just looking at the deep end. Uh they actually have all of the uh tarps and blankets and everything pulled off now. So you can actually as I got down in there, it

actually looks like a pool now instead of just everything covered up. So this is the deep end here. Here's another shot from uh further up looking towards the deep end. This is from about the uh 4 foot area looking straight to the east. Um so up here will be our zero depth entry. Over here will be the slide area, the slide pool and the steps out from the slide. There's a little bit better picture of the uh where the slide will uh end up at. And then the steps again here is from a zero depth entry looking to the west. So here and deep ends over here. [Applause] And finally a little closer up view of the uh zero depth area. Um there are still three more pores that need to be done. That's where these tarps are at. So once they get those uh three pores done that uh hopefully will be the end of this week or early next week um then the entire surface of the pool will be poured. So that's what we're hoping for is uh by the end of this week we'll see if that happens or not. But uh any questions at all on the pool and what we've got there? All right, I'll try to keep up maybe as we go.

Thanks, Garrett. Okay, that brings us to our last item on our study session. So, this is discussion of sidewalk maintenance policy. I'm going to defer to Council Person Jones. This was brought to his attention. Um, so he's going to give a little background on what we're talking about tonight.

Sure. Um, I received a phone call in December. Uh, this is specifically the sidewalk on 10th Avenue um that runs parallel to quite a few businesses along there. and a business owner contacted me um wanted to have a discussion about it. Um I reached out to another business owner that echoed kind of the same comments from the first person and I called James and u he said volunteered to put it on tonight's uh agenda for a discussion. Um I honestly had never given two seconds of thought about clearing the sidewalk on 10th Avenue. Um but it seems like it's probably worthwhile to have the discussion. So that's that.

What were the concerns? Um that it is more of a rail trail than sidewalk and that's for the public benefit. Um not necessarily that they were customers were using it uh to come to their business. Um and it's uh bigger than a normal sidewalk. So, it takes more resources, more time, more resources. Is it identified as part of our rail trail? Um, yes, it is. Can we It's Yeah, I would think it is part of our trail because it comes from goes by the golf course there. Mhm.

And we go along 10th Avenue all the way out to the bike trail that then goes to Shell Rock. How wide is that sidewalk there? Did we say is it 8 foot? I think it's six through there. Six through there. Cuz I know some of the past council minute minutes that we had looked at said a trail was designated as bigger than 8 foot. So 10 foot I think it was, wasn't it? I think that's the technical definition of it. Yes. Just something to keep in mind if we're trying to identify what we're dealing with.

Does the city clear the trail that goes out east like out past um Oh, all the businesses and everything out there out to Elsol. Is that considered a bike trail? No, the city does not clear that.

Yeah. What I gave you tonight is the reason we do have trails or sidewalks cleared. I mean, it's the Iowa law. It's the code section 36412 subsection 2B. And it designates the budding owners are responsible for those areas. Now, if you don't want to clear it, you can do that. You're still liable for it whether you clear it or not. And that is the simplest way I can put it. It's Iowa law. I mean, I don't know what else to say about it. it's you're a budding owner of that property, then it is your duty to clear it. Um, there are places where we as a city have been clearing things that weren't private because before when we started clearing them, they were public. We're trying to nip that as well because we shouldn't be doing those. Um, you know, as we complain about taxes and things of that nature. Well, the gentleman, the equipment, everything that clears that is tax dollars. So, we're going to start trying to trim back some services, things like that. We should probably at least start with not clearing things that aren't ours. And that's part of it. As far as the trail, yeah, I mean, it's part of the Rolling Prairie trail. If you want to have the city clear that, we can clear that. But I guarantee you'll have a complaint, we clear it that there's extra snow in the driveway that's already been cleared or things of that nature. It's just what we run into with these situations. I mean, we have minutes back 27 years ago to have the same conversation, some of the same areas. It just it just continues and continues and it continues. So, uh, it's certainly up to you as a council. If you'd like a city to clear some of these areas, we can do that. Uh, we have limited manpower, equipment. It'll just take longer in some other areas to get things done or they will have to be the last things that are cleared, which is kind of the hierarchy of how we do it. But, uh, is up to you. It's your decision and we will comply and do whatever you want to.

Who clears it now? Uh, it be property owners or someone hired to do it. Uh I don't know who clears necessarily that section. We do up to a point because it's city property and then we stop since it's no longer city property. Is that parks department Garrett? Is it your department that clears to the south of the golf course? That's correct. Yeah. Past the utilities the utility. We go right up the utility area. Okay. And then stop there from uh east to west. And then where does the cities take over again? On the west end. Do is there any place on the west there?

There's no other city area over there. No. Okay. At 16th Street. There's nothing. Correct. Okay. That would be Red Fox or whoever that property owner. Is there a sidewalk? Cuz the trail crosses the road, does not. There's sidewalks along that all the way out to Red Fox. all the way up till three. Correct. Yeah, that's not city property. So, it's not city clearing in it. Correct. But it is the city clearing in. So, there is Well, that I don't know. I'm just telling you what we're trying to get away from is clearing areas that we're not supposed to be in order to get away from this type of thing.

And there is a uh an area along the field there. Um I don't know exactly who owns that. We typically put a snow fence in their uh field to block down snow. uh in that area along 10th and so we clear that uh sidewalk in front of their area for allowing us to put the snow fence in their field. There is not a snow fence in there this particular year because we didn't get it in in time before that uh the big snow is. But that is something we're still looking at doing in the future. So, I'm just trying to make sure I understand this is private property and and privately owned sidewalk, wide sidewalk, but it's but it's part of our rail trail system. Is that correct?

It's listed as part of the rolling prairie trail. Okay. The rail trail itself is what heads out of town from, you know, so it is called the trail and like I said, if you would like us to clear it, we can clear it. It's uh not an issue at all. It just will take more manpower, time, etc. I'm just trying to understand what it is we're talking about. And and I'm hearing you say that there are some other handful of areas that the city has been clearing that are also privately owned that maybe go way back that we're trying to get out of doing because we shouldn't have been doing that anyway.

That's correct. And are those types of properties also um a similar sort of like hybrid where it's privately owned property but it was something that has been used by the community or how did it happen that the city was clearing those?

I don't know the answer to that. That's over 30 years ago. I can't tell you why it was happening. We discovered we were still doing it. We put a stop to it. And granted, we didn't handle it well. I'll be very honest about it. We did that in the middle of the season which we shouldn't have. we should have waited till winter was over and then established we were no longer going forward. So those are again a different situation from you know we have we have a number of things that come in off and on. We have people that have been clearing their property for decades and decide they don't want to do it anymore. We have places that say it's a trail system and it could be and they don't want to clear that. We have areas that we have been clearing we shouldn't have been. We're trying to get away from that. So in a nutshell you have 27 years of hodge podge back and forth. We do we don't. we should we need to clarify where we're going to do or not going to do period and move forward because this is continually coming up over and over different parts of the city. So that's my question to you and of course you can't vote tonight. It's why it's just study session at some point in time. Do you put it on to establish what are we going to clear and what are we not going to clear and why?

And it looks like that's what we're proposing here with the resolution is to more clearly define the discussion. Yes, you can't have a resolution resolution. Sorry, I didn't. So, I mean in in reality, Yeah. Okay. So, we have a designated a trail system because it's a little bit wider. You can name it a pedestrian parkway if you want. It becomes a big sidewalk. What I'm getting what I'm getting at is our entire sidewalk system in town is public use. It's

correct. But it's responsibility of property owners to clear the sidewalk of the property. So it's it's it's in that kind of hybrid or whatever. So I don't know how to me whether it's just a wider sidewalk because it's connected to a trail going through it still is part of it. Now, we we own the rail trail itself, which is goes out from the bridge here all the way west, and that's all city- owned property. So, that would be our property to to clear. Correct.

But other parts of sidewalks, etc. are privately owned. That to me would be private responsibility to clear those. So, yeah, the area in front of the golf course there on the south side, that's ours. That area between the power station essentially and 16th Street is all private and then however going 16th west is with some private there too, but we have some combination of what we're doing with it.

That's correct, sir. And whenever we plow the rail trail, you'd be amazed how many calls we get wishing we didn't plow it. So people can snow ski on it and snowshoe on it. And so we have people that complain we don't plow fast enough. We have some that complain we plow it at all. So I don't know where the middle ground is on this, but this is every single time it snows. This is what we come into.

And again, I'd like to just set a standard, be done with this. This just comes up over and over and over. At some point, we have to put this to bed for good. We thought we did. 1998. Apparently we were wrong. We tried it again 2007, 2011, 2015. I mean, we have the minutes from 27 years of this. And here we are again today. So, if it's a trail, we can just not plow it. Let it be a trail. Let it sit there and people can snowshoe on it. And or if it's sidewalk, it needs to be cleared. It's whatever you want to name it, you can name it. I've talked to legal in De Moine. You can call it whatever you want to call it. It's just a matter of do you intend to approve it or not. It's not really whether it's a trail, it's whether it's publicly owned property, right?

Isn't it? So the like you said, the reason we plow it all the way out to 63 is we own that. We don't own this property. Correct. On 10th,

I think it's to each individual businesses to be taken care of. And that's again where I go back to the Iowa code. It's what it says. The abuing property owner is responsible for the removal of the natural accumulation of snow and ice from the sidewalks within a reasonable amount of time. may be liable for damages causing read through it. I mean, it's 364128 and it goes on to 2C about an ordinance to make it be additional. 2D is about uh certified mail having to be done and 2 E talks about replacing sidewalks, etc. It's a whole code section in the law about it. And that's all I can go off, folks. I don't know the handshakes or wink agreements that were done in the last 25 years who maybe maybe aren't doing them, whatever they may be. Mhm.

All I can go off is the law in front of me and that's all I can tell you. Um, so so was there ever a time that the city was was plowing those sidewalks on 10th other than by the golf course? I don't know. Like I said, I've been here 10 years, not in my tenure, but I mean, okay, when it was built before there was any business out there potentially because it would have been, you know, city put that in or how that went. There was a expansion project. God, I don't have to hear what happened when they expanded sidewalks over to connect certain different areas of the city.

But I mean, we're not opposed, like I said, to any of this. I'm not going to tell you we won't do this. I just don't know what the answer is either. All we're trying to do is follow what the law is telling us. If we've made mistakes, we probably have. We're trying to correct and clean those up so we get a consistent view of what we do and don't allow. And that's what I think I'm after is to have that resolution at some point. What are we doing? What are we not doing? What should we cover? we shouldn't we cover uh Garrett has maps we can pull of all the areas we currently plow um as I said we're trying to get away from ones that we had been doing and shouldn't have been I can't tell you 30 years ago why we were doing it I was still in college I don't know what was happening then so um all I can tell you is where I am today and the law that was pointed out by our legal in de mo this is what it says so past that I don't know what to tell you

I wasn't aware of this uh Iowa statute when I talked talk to the business owner. Ran called you, James. You bet. I wasn't even this. This sort of changes the discussion or viewpoint. I guess this is state code. That's why I called legal. I didn't know what it was. Code. Well, if we make exception for some businesses, then any business could come up and say, "Well, you're doing their sidewalk for their trail. Why aren't you doing mine?" Downtown mergers could say, "Hey, need to do ours, too." Garrett, how many staff do you have that have to do all this plowing?

So, I have four full-time and uh one uh casual part-time and then uh we pull Patrick once in a while from the golf course as well uh to help out with whatever we need. And are they doing the plowing of the streets in the cemetery or does public works do that? Nope. We do the streets in the cemetery as well. Um parking lots. We do trail system. Yeah, we do like the library parking lot, this parking lot, the bridge.

Yep. And then uh I mean I can go on and on, you know, want to hear all the places that we do, but uh yeah, I mean there's all the flood buyout lots uh that we still have as well. Uh those types of places. And was the issue, Brent, was it the cost of doing it or the time or what was the issue? I think it was probably both. Um the inconvenience, the time, the cost cuz they're the business owners are doing it themselves or they've hired it out to their parking lots and that probably most of them hire it out. Um

I don't want to say for sure. I mean, it's but I I would assume they're hiring it out. Um, they have said in past minutes, I think it was from 2012, that the path of removal only needs to be 3 to 4 foot. So, if you're looking at a bigger sidewalk, it's not necessarily more work than a normal sidewalk because you don't have to clear the whole thing. It just has to be a 3 to 4ft path, which is one pass of a snowboard, more or less. Having had a downtown business, I'm struggling to discern the difference between my responsibility for clearing my sidewalks downtown and clearing my sidewalks if my business was somewhere that wasn't isn't downtown.

I agree. It's the same. It's fundamentally the same. Are we can you share some context on this a little bit? It's up to the mayor. It's the mayor's meeting. I don't determine this or anything. Thanks. I'm Jeff Beck uh with the shirt partners which is the I guess the the first one past the first building lot.

Yep. And so what really prompted this whole thing is when we've been taking care of it ever since we've had the building, which is been quite a few years now. And um what brought it up this time is we had a a resident reach out to us and complain about the fact that the ice had been packed down on it and it was and she's a avid runner and was complaining about the the dangerous nature of it. And the reason that it happened that time is because the snowstorm occurred on a Friday afternoon or Saturday morning or something like that. And naturally as business owners, we operate during normal, you know, 8 to 5 Monday through Friday business hours. And with more snow coming, we tell our people that we are hiring to do that to come and wait. And in our case, there was a little miscommunication too on who was doing that stretch. And so that probably complicated a little bit further as well. But but anyway, um the issue is is that people were running on it and everything, you know, Saturday, Sunday. And then when um even in that situation, if our people that come with the plows come on on Sunday evening to do our lot and sidewalks around our actual building, you know, by that point, it's already pretty trampled down and icy. And so there's the potential, you know, the the the concern that this resident had, this uh runner, is just that it was a dangerous spot to be. And um you know, that sidewalk is obviously used by a fair number of kids to get to school as well. And so, you know, we just that's why we we brought it up. We just felt like that was a um you know, it I think it is a little bit different partially because it is advertised as part of the Waverly Rail Trail. Like if you go onto the Waverly website, it is listed as part of the recreational u you know, advantages of of Waverly. And so, um you know, we're happy to do it if we need to. just it's not going to be as as uh useful of a of a trail essentially for our residents because of the timing of it of you know when we're going to get it plowed um and everything. The other piece of it that makes me a little

nervous too is just the the types of equipment that we have coming to plow our lots are designed to do parking lots, not sidewalks. And so there's going to be, you know, heavy trucks with, you know, I don't know how many hundreds of pounds of salt in the back of them. And so I just assume that that's probably not real great for the for the sidewalk and the actual rail trail. And so it seems to me that having a you know piece of equipment that's actually designed really more for that kind of space would would seem to be more logical. Um so anyway, those were just a couple of the the thoughts I had and why I you know brought it up. Appreciate you guys talking about it and uh so yeah.

Um I guess Bridget Bulman um I also own a lot along there in a business and a couple other concerns. You know, that road is 45 miles per hour and you're asking a very small tractor, not actual tractor's lawn mower to exit, drive on a 45 mile per hour road with young drivers heading to school, semis that run along there, coming blind outside of that uh vioaduct from the train tracks and skip our businesses and restart where the farm field is, which again, private property. There is no snow fence this year. Um the city plow, the little one was witnessed doing Midwest Molds Corner today at Highway 3 at the other end of Cedar Parkway. So that extension goes from Highway 3 to the east kind of to Highway 3 at the west. Um are there flashing lights on it like a snowplow? Is there a slowmoving vehicle sign on it? You know, those are concern concerns for the driver. It's a liability for the city if there's an accident out there caused by the snowplow being on 45 mile per hour road without those flashing lights or um slowmoving vehicle sign present. No other time does that really drive on a public road. I would say usually it's either mowing or plowing. Um it plows a private home of jars KJ A R between KC's and the train tracks. there's one private property still owned by the golf course there and they don't lift up the plow and skip that. So, like I feel like we're almost being singled out like, hey, this is the rail trail on the city website, on the Iowa DOT website, on the Travel Iowa website, but we're not going to help maintain it. And so, I guess that's the other concern. Different from other businesses in town, you're labeling this as a trail on all these websites.

Okay. Thank you for your time. Thanks for your time.

Well, I think that points out that there's some confusion, it sounds like, on the part of city staff about what they're supposed to be applying and what they're not. So, I think hopefully this discussion and maybe a um cleaning up the language in the ordinance will help um you know, make that more consistent. I think uh you know I appreciate what you said about you put the plows out twice that long storm people get out there they trample it down it's slippery people need to use common sense also when they are running um that if it's icy I mean I see people out running now and they on surfaces they really should not be running on that's why the orthopedists are so busy um so I think to some degree whether it's the city or a private property owner you do what you can do um based on the elements And then people need to use their best judgment uh if they're out running without krampons on their running shoes, right? So, um but I think um I will have to digest this and think about it, but I think that the big difference for me is whether this is publicly owned or privately owned property.

Um but that's all I'll say for right now. I I would echo that and maybe expound on it a bit in that um if it's if it's publicly owned property obviously we need to clear it and we are responsible for the condition of it and we are also liable if it's not cleared properly and something bad happens and I would think the converse is true if it's privately owned property the property owner is responsible for it and responsible for the condition of it. And and I I would echo also I appreciate your comments about, you know, timing with it being weekend and stuff like that. Um but again, we dealt with that. Downtown business owners deal with that too. Whether they're opened on the weekends or not, you had to have your sidewalks cleared or take the risk that if something bad happens, you're liable for it.

Okay. Okay, I think this gives us some good talking points going forward and some things to look into and get some clarification on. Any other discussion on this before we move on? I would just add that uh and I think this is what James's in city workers goal is to just have some uh uniformity whatever we decide it's enforced uh equally across the board.

That's the hardest part because regardless if the city plows it or you plow it, you're still liable. That is the law as it reads. So it doesn't matter who clears it, the budding owner is liable. So, I would not want to be clearing that. Have a problem. We cause it. Now, we're liable. I mean, it's kind of a tough spot to be in. I understand what you're saying completely. Uh, the other side of it is, and it's, oh god, it's article 3 of the Constitution, section 31. I mean, it goes on and on, not use public dollars for private gain. So, if you as private individuals are getting gains from the city doing yours and not someone else's, that's not legal. Rob Sands will have a heyday. That's the other side. We have to look at this, too. when it comes into play a lot of different things that we as a city were not aware of and are continually trying to get that figured out, too. So, I don't disagree. We're probably hitting that driveway going by Casey's cuz it's just right there. We can stop doing that. We can stop doing that again once the season's over. We're changing all this. We will not be doing any more private anything because again, it puts us at liability because we're the ones causing the issue. So, I understand completely what everybody's saying. We're trying to work through it, too, cuz it's not that simple. It's complicated and this is one of the easier issues when you get in sidewalk removal, replacement, snow removal. We've talked to our attorneys three times trying to get a better clarification on it. They're working around it. The law keeps changing on sidewalks. That's happened twice in the last 5 years. Who is liable? Who isn't. So, it's complicated. I wish it was much simpler. We're going to try and make it simpler on our end so we're more consistent because right now we're not as consistent as we need to be. So, I'll I guess leave it with that. Can can you provide just a little bit of clarification for us to when you were reading the statute it said something about within a reasonable amount of time do you know do you have a little any clarity for us on what that is just again so we understand

most people run about 48 hours okay it just depends that's what we've always considered reasonable but it depends and is it a 10in snow is that a 4in snow I don't think anybody's going to sight you for 48 hours because you don't have it cleared necessarily um but that's what we've always used is reason mult like basically 2 days. Okay. 48 hours. If it snowed on Friday and we had it cleared Monday morning, you don't think that we'd have issues with legal things. Okay. All right. That's good to know. I appreciate that. Thank you. Well, I mean, the blizzard, right, was a perfect example. It's nobody probably should be out there if it's 50 below zero, you know, even if it is still snowing. And so, so if someone wants to run that bad, they go through areas not plowed, I think that's on them. Yeah.

I don't think it's anything we're going to deal with. I guess I just want to say too that I appreciate that this has come to light now because obviously it's something that we need to address. So anything else? All right. Thank you. Moving on. Reports from boards and commissions. You've received the reports from boards and commissions. Is there any discussion? That brings us to staff updates. Mr. Bronner, we have nothing tonight. available. Nothing tonight. All right. City council comments. Council person Rody. Nothing from me. Council person Kangas.

Um just bringing up and I I mentioned it briefly after the budget session on Saturday that next Monday the 2nd is uh caucus night in Iowa. And so um I'm not sure how many are going to want to take part in that. by anyone to be taking part in that. Um, in the wisdom of our political parties to schedule the caucus on a Monday night when various boards and school boards, city councils, etc. across the state, but it is what it is. So, council person,

um, on the subject of the trail, um, you've said that people complain that it's not plowed and people say it's plowed. Um, is there a maybe a compromise like half of it plowed, half it not? Cuz I like snowshoeing and great skiing. And so, um, yeah, I mean, there's two there. It's very big. Do you want it 50/50 each lane? Do you want it half out, half? You know how you go like one way plow and the other one's not? Sure. Eric, just fly off a bit. I I mean, I know that Frog Daddy like was talking about wanting to to rent snowshoes and and skis and stuff downtown and, you know, a lot of people are interested in that and

it's something that hasn't, you know, been you can kind of do it until you plow, you know, right? So we we don't plow the rail trail out of town that way or the trail uh for uh in Brookwood. Okay. So those trails remain untouched so you can use them. Okay. However you like winter activity wise and we do get points that we don't plow it to. Correct. So there is no waiting here. Yeah. Thank you for adding to that frozen drones. Nothing tonight. Council person Meyer. Nothing for me. Council person Mackey,

I'll be at the brewery for anyone that wishes to visit for about a half an hour tonight. Council person Wolf,

just to add to the snow and it's it's a reminder for everyone. Um, as a person who uses a wheelchair, um, curb cuts or the curb cutouts, if you could remember to remove snow from them, I get stuck. And if I'm by myself, I have to sit there in really cold weather. And I know people who use strollers, people who use walkers, you know, want to be outside, too. Um, so if you think about it, and I go, I know it gets packed down just like it does everywhere else. Um, salt them. Um, when you can, and I know after big snowstorms, it is really difficult, too. Um, but as an afterthought once things have calmed down, if you could address those, it would be greatly appreciated for everyone who has wheels of any sort. Are you doing your listening session this Saturday?

Oh, yes. Listening session on Saturday from 1 to 3 at the library. Guest council person Armstrong. Uh, thank you for inviting me to do this. It's been interesting and it's a nice way to get your feet wet in all of this. So, I'll be back in the crowd to attend more meetings. So, I appreciate it. We're glad you're here. So, thank you. Thanks. Mayor's comments. Um, I would just like to bring to the public attention that there are a lot of ways to be involved in the community right now. Um, we hear a lot of sometimes we're unhappy that trails are plowed or aren't plowed and it seems like we have things that we would like to change about the city. So, I would encourage you if you're one of those people who is frustrated with how things are going in the city, if you are a person who wants to see changes in the city, be the change in the city. We have commissions with seats empty. There are people United Way um all in mentoring. They're always looking for volunteers. So, please find a way to help your community this week. That is my big ask. Um, at this point I will take a motion to adjurnn. Move

adjournment. Second. All in favor? I opposed. And we are adjourned.