City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. We'd like to welcome everybody to the June 1st Waterloo City Council meeting. Madam Clerk, roll call, please.

Mr. Schmidt. Here. Mr. Mauro. Here. Ms. Creighton-Smith. Ms. Berry. Present. Mr. Salamanca. Here. Mr. Martin. Here. And Mr. Simon. Here.

At this time, I'd like to take a moment of silence or reflection. Thank you. Our pledge of allegiance tonight will be by our city clerk, Ms. Kelly Felkley.

Please join me in our nation's pledge of 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.

Justice for all. Liberty for all. Amen.

Who's the star now?

I'm going to ask that the crowd refrain from shouting out during the meeting. If it continues, the people shouting out will be removed. We respect your freedom of speech, but we have to have decorum in the council chambers. So that being said, I need to make a quick announcement. For some reason, our cable channel is out tonight. They can't get a fix. You can watch the city council meeting on our YouTube channel live right now. but the people trying to tune in on cable will not be able to see it right now. With that said, Mr. Simon.

Mr. Mayor.

Mr. Simon.

I would like to make a motion to approve the agenda as amended by removing resolution number 11 and also the approval of the minutes of the May 5th, 2026 regular, council regular session as proposed.

Second.

Got a motion to second.

Roll call.

All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion carried.

Mr. Mayor.

Mr. Simon.

I would like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda. as proposed, as well as the addition of the bill payments of May 26th, 2026, in the amount of $20 million, $847,501.86, and Monday, June 1st, in the amount of $3,911,417.45. Second. We've got a motion and a second. Roll call vote, please, on the consent agenda.

Mr. Schmidt? Yes. Mr. Mauro?

Yes.

Ms. Berry? Yes. Mr. Salamanca?

Yes.

Mr. Martin? Yes. Mr. Simon?

Yes. Thank you. We have two board appointments tonight. One is Sarah Varda, board for the Civil Service Commission, and the other one is Emily Hanson for the Waterloo Convention and Visitors Bureau. Are either of those in the audience tonight? If they are, please stand up. If not, we want to thank you for your service and your willingness to serve on our boards and commissions. No public hearings tonight, so we'll start out with resolutions. Who would like to take resolutions one, two, and three, please? Mr. Schmidt.

First, I'd like to adopt a resolution approving an employment agreement with Rob Duncan. For the position of police chief and authorizing the merit execute said document next, I'd like to adopt a resolution approving a cost optimization engagement agreement. With merchant cost consulting, LLC, we're analyzing merchant services accounts and provide comprehensive cost optimization. Advisory audit. negotiation and vendor management services across our merchant services and authorizing the mayor to execute said document. And finally, adopting a resolution approving an educational services contract with Grout Museum Inc. in the amount of $625,000 to provide educational services and enhance the quality of life for the residents of Waterloo, Iowa from July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027, and authorizing the mayor to execute said document.

Second. Got a motion to second. Does anyone from the public wish to speak for or against items number one, two, or three? Seeing none. Council, questions?

Mr. Mayor.

Mr. Morrow.

On number two, I guess my question is does this cover all city activities or is this spoken on specific?

areas miss Bridget

Are you asking about number two? Yes. Bridget Wood, finance director. So this will go over any credit card processing company that we have. They will go through all of the invoices and make sure that we're not being overcharged for the processing fees. Okay. and then they'll negotiate lower rates and do any of the saving. There's a structure in there for how the savings works. We'll get 60% of it and we'll pay them 40% for finding those savings for us.

So, once they identify the savings, it'll be a 60 40 split that we get the savings and they get a portion of it for doing all of the work. Yep. Thank you. Any other questions?

Mr Salamanca for number 3, Bridget, can you just explain what it is? I had some questions asking about the ground and whether or not they were funded or not. So I just want to make sure that folks understand what this resolution is and what it entails.

Since the grout no longer has a levy, we have to have a public purpose in order to give them funds. So this contract. Fills that stipulation that we need to have a public purpose.

Okay, thank you and we don't have 1 for the library since it's a city entity. BUT I HAD SOME E-MAILS TODAY AND SOME QUESTIONS, AND I THINK THEY HAD A MISCONCEPTION THAT WE WEREN'T GOING TO FUND THE GROUT, AND WE VOTED TO FUND THE GROUT WITH OUR BUDGET IN APRIL. THIS IS JUST TIGHTENING UP SOME LOOSE ENDS, AND THEY HAVE TO HAVE A CONTRACT IN ORDER FOR US TO PAY THEM. CORRECT. THANK YOU. ANY OTHER QUESTIONS? OKAY. ROLL CALL VOTE ON ONE, TWO, AND THREE, PLEASE.

Mr. Schmidt? Yes. Mr. Mauro? Yes. Ms. Berry? Yes. Mr. Salamanca? Yes. Mr. Martin? Yes. Mr. Simon? Yes.

Excellent. Who'd like to take four, five, and six? Mr. Mayor. Ms. Berry?

I'd like to adopt a resolution approving award of Parking Operations and Management Services, RFP, to PCI Municipal Services, LLC, and approving an agreement for parking operations management with said company with a start date of July 1st, 2026, with a five-year term and renewal options as listed in said agreement, and authorizing mayor and city clerk to execute said document. Number five, a resolution approving a second amendment and collateral assignment of the development agreement with BKKS Holdings LLC and Farmer State Bank and authorizing the mayor to execute said document. and a resolution approving first amendment to the development agreement with Perry and Michelle Gamblin, originally executed June 3rd, 2024, extending the timeline by 12 months for the construction of a minimum 24 foot by 24 foot accessory structure, and authorizing the mayor and city clerk to execute said document. Second.

get a motion a second would anybody from the audience wish to speak for or against four five and six please

seeing none council questions for four five and six mr morrow uh not question more of a comment i want to thank uh thank you for allowing me to be part of the parking discussions and based on this uh if you look at our 24 6 expenses versus what's going to be in 27 this will bring the parking situation to a break even this is a this is a big improvement so this is a plus

Yeah, it was a, it was a good, um. RFP, and we're going to get more services that we're getting provided right now. Yes, including cleaning services that, uh. That we were contracting out and also including sweeping of the parking garages and power washing of them. So it's a, it's a great agreement and I'm looking forward to their starting July 1st and lower costs. Exactly any other questions? Mr. Smith.

also i'm part of that item you know we have this conversation about uh downtown parking is that conversation dead or are we going to have further conversation about that with business owners in main street i'm i'm not sure where we're at on that we can always revisit it okay but there's not an active conversation going on right now that you're aware not that i'm aware of okay all right thank you any other questions mr salamanca you look like you have one

Mr. Mayor, for number six, when it comes to extending the timeline by 12 months for the construction of a minimum 24 foot by 24 foot accessory structure, Mr. Noel, can you explain why we're granting them an extension and for what for?

Noel Anderson, Community Planning Development Director. So they've noted that they had some difficulties getting it built on time. It's a smaller 40-foot wide lot next to their house on Conger, so we still think it's a good project to work with the existing homeowner to give them some more ability to have a garage.

Is this for the storage units? Is this the storage units? This is just a residential garage next to their house.

Okay, thank you. Council, any other questions?

Mr. Mayor? Ms. Berry. I met with the homeowners today and they need this garage. They've got lots of nice cars that need a place to park and they're building this structure so that they can remove the cars off the street.

Did they give you a timeline?

They gave me a timeline of they like the year sure they like that But as soon as they can they intend and they are here In fact, they're waving back there good if you like to bring them up and they can tell you more With the owners of the property like to step forward and tell us about their project Step forward and state your name and your address for the record, please

Michelle Gamblin at 127 Conger.

Harry Gamblin at 127 Conger.

Would you like to explain your project to the council and the people in the audience?

Yeah, we can.

Pull the mic down just a little bit so we can hear you. There you go.

Well, our house is not much yard, and some of it belong to the train station. We have to park on the streets, you know. So we're trying to keep our cars off the street from getting hit because we only have like two outside on our property and like two inside. So and I got car trailer different trailers and stuff we want to put away like when we work around the house We need something bigger on that lot because we already keep it nice around there even couldn't train your property in ours, so We kind of really need it.

Have you talked to contractors? Do you have a timeline?

Well, we've talked to a few. I've been waiting for a settlement to get done, but it got continued until January of 28. So we're trying to figure out possibly adding on to our mortgage. Sure. To try to do that to maybe get it done sooner than later.

I appreciate that. The only reason I was asking is I don't want to see you getting bumped up into... next spring and trying to find a contractor and then not be able to get it done, and then we're right back at square one again.

I did have another question. I know they said, like, they had sold us the property for, like, for the dollar, and we put something on it. CAN I GET A LOWER PRICE I CAN GET PAID FOR THE PROPERTY BECAUSE IT'S LIKE 5 000 SOMETHING YEAH IF IT LIKE EVEN IF WE COULD JUST PAY FOR IT AND GET SOMETHING PUT UP LATER YOU KNOW SO WE AIN'T GOING THROUGH THAT ONE WILL IT PAY 2500 FOR THE LAND I DON'T KNOW HOW THAT WORKS SIR UH DID YOU HAVE TO PAY 5000 FOR THE LOT I THOUGHT THE LOT WAS A DOLLAR IT'S A DOLLAR AS LONG AS WE BUILD ON IT BUT IF WE CAN'T

Oh, what you're asking is if the city would sell you the lot. You would have to make contact with Mr. Anderson's office in the future to talk about that, because we would have to resend this development agreement, and then we would have to bring a different agreement to council for the sale and conveyance of the lot.

That way we wouldn't have to ask for an extension again if it wasn't possible.

I could pay so much, and we can pay so much, keep paying every month or whatever, something.

with some type of agreement.

If the council would want to, we could table this item indefinitely, correct? Until they have an opportunity to speak to Mr. Anderson about that.

Mr. Mayor.

Would you be okay with that?

Mr. Martin. I'd like to make a motion to table this until they have an opportunity to talk to Noel.

Second. Motion to second. Any discussion on tabling this?

No, I think it's a good idea. Give you time, gives us the ability to talk with Mr. Anderson and get everything squared away. So thank you for coming.

And thank you for bringing that up. And so how would we know? Well, we're going to vote on it to table it indefinitely. And then I would ask that you'd contact Mr. Anderson as soon as possible to work out the particulars of buying the lot.

OK. OK?

Madam Clerk, roll call on tabling.

Mr. Schmidt? Yes. Mr. Mauro?

Yes.

Ms. Berry? Yes. Mr. Salamanca? Yes. Mr. Martin? Yes. And Mr. Simon? Yes.

The motion is tabled. And thank you for coming tonight, folks. Now we need to roll call vote on four and five.

Mr. Schmidt?

Yes.

Mr. Mauro? Yes. Ms. Berry? Yes. Mr. Salamanca? Yes. Mr. Martin? Yes. Mr. Simon? Yes.

Thank you. Would someone take seven, eight, and nine, please? Mr. Mayor? Mr. Salamanca? Yes.

Number seven, resolution approving a development and minimum assessment agreement with Black River Bells LLC for the construction of an approximately 2,000 square foot commercial building with a minimum assessed value of $1,045,000, including Cura tax abatement located at 2065 Logan Avenue and authorizing the mayor and city clerk to execute said document. 8. Resolution approving a Development and Minimum Assessment Agreement with Highlands Enterprises LLC for the renovation of property located at 4000 University, including 15 years at 50% rebates and a minimum assessed value of $5,500,000 and authorizing the Mayor and City Clerk to execute said documents. 9. Resolution approving a contract with Midwest Cleaning Pros of Waverly, Iowa in the amount of $103,848 annually in conjunction with the cleaning of City Hall, Carnegie Annex, Waterloo Police Training Center, Veterans Memorial Hall, and parking ramp attached to the Waterloo building, and authorizing the mayor and city clerk to execute said documents.

Second.

Got a motion and a second. Does anyone from the audience wish to speak to 7, 8, or 9, please?

Forest DeLavue, 1725 Huntington Road. I would like to speak to number eight, 4000 University. You folks are about to pass something or turn it down. It's already under construction. I went by today. There's a construction fence up. The building's open. The inside looks like it's half gutted. I don't know why we need you folks. Looks like the department heads make the decision and they go with it.

Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Anderson, would you like to address this?

Noel Anderson, Community Planning Development Director. So this is the former Hy-Vee on University. Of course, they have done some work there for the Veterans Services Department that is sitting there today. And then this is the next phase of that. They've been working to clean that out and try to find a tenant, moving ahead with the agreement. And then Chris Williams is here for the project, the developer, to talk about the incentives making it so that the tenant can go into the space.

Thank you. Would the developer like to speak to this item? Please state your name and address, please.

Chris Williams with Highlands Enterprises. Mayor and council, thank you for your time tonight. Obviously, yes, we are working on redeveloping the Hy-Vee. We've obviously bought it a few years ago. And with the current interest rates and environment for the development construction costs, we've been working through. We got the VA in there to expand their VA services to the local veterans, which has been going very, very well and accepted well by the community. And then currently we're just doing some clean out currently on the remaining vacant side, which is about 44,000 square foot. So the whole building was 65,000 square foot when we acquired it, completely vacant. And a part of this development agreement that we've been working with Noel on is to help with the improvement costs of the parking lots and disrepair. When we bought it from Hy-Vee, there's a lot of stuff. HVAC completely was gutted out of it. I don't know if it's stolen or Hy-Vee took it. And then we've also got some additional items we're working on with the water line. That was something we didn't anticipate with regard to the soils around that area. It's very corrosive. And so we're dealing with water line breaks. We've had four breaks in the last five months. So our intent is to try to get obviously every time the water line breaks that shuts down the VA clinic. which is something that we've been trying to combat. And so I think to do it right for the veterans, we're gonna have to replace that whole water line. So part of this is to help offset some of those costs, which are significant in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. And then obviously trying to fill the vacancy with a tenant that will make numbers work with their build out cost, because that whole thing has to be completely gutted and completely rebuilt. So happy to answer any of your questions.

And could you give us the address for Highland?

Highlands is 12911 West 105th Terrace in Overland Park, Kansas. Thank you.

Mr. Salamanca, do you have another question?

Yes. In addressing the gentleman's concerns about work already starting prior to council approval, can you just go into detail about that? I'm familiar with the VA building. I visited. I frequented. I'm I attend it, so I understand that there's remodeling, and I understand that there's updates to it, et cetera, but can you just go in a deeper detail as to exactly what it is that's happening inside the building right now?

Yeah, the only thing that's currently happening is there was former coolers inside the building, which obviously Hy-Vee stored all of their goods in and so we're just cleaning that out because the candidness of it is the reality is there's no way for any other tenant to use those so we're just trying to clean it out to get it to a shell point.

So you're saying that what you're cleaning out right now is separate from this resolution, correct? What do you mean separate? So what you're doing is tied to something different than what, you know, I think there's confusion as to the process of things. Sure. It sounds as if folks are thinking you're already starting to build.

Correct. We have not, we don't have the final, final building to my knowledge. And so we're just cleaning out the inside of the demo piece of it. Okay. Thank you. That makes sense.

Any other questions, Mr. Mayor? Yes, sir. Do you have potential tenants that you're looking at or talk to to go in there?

Yes, yes. Yeah, we have a potential tenant right now that we're talking to that currently is not in Waterloo. So it would be a new facility for them that we're working through details. And part of this final straw of making this thing work is this agreement.

Any other questions from council?

Mr. Mayor, sir, would you like, can you identify who that tenant might be?

I can't write this second. Okay. All right, thank you very much.

Thank you very much for your time.

We don't have public comments now, but that was called before that this is council comments, sorry. Roll call vote on seven, eight, and nine, please.

Mr. Schmidt? Yes. Mr. Morrow? Yes. Ms. Berry? Yes on seven and nine, no on eight.

Mr. Salamanca? Yes. Mr. Martin?

Yes.

Mr. Simon?

Yes on 7 and 9 and no on 8.

The resolution passes. Would someone take 10, 12, and 13, please? Mr. Meyer? Mr. Morrow? Thank you, sir.

Number 10 resolution approving an acquisition contract and accepting a deed to sell real property to the city of waterloo from jonathan sports aka jonathan sports in the amount of sixty thousand dollars for property located at seventeen oh eight and seventeen sixteen lafayette street. And a lot in between and authorize the mayor and close city clerk to execute said documents. Number 12 resolution approving an exchange agreement between or with Peterson contractors incorporated of Ryan back Iowa to allow the exchange of top soil. fulfill material in the warp subdivision and authorizing the mayor to execute said document number thirteen resolution approving supplement agreement number one with a common of Waterloo Iowa in the amount of fifty four thousand two hundred dollars in conjunction with the fiscal year twenty five biennial bridge review program and authorizing the mayor to execute and near to execute said document second.

We got a motion and a second. Would anybody from the audience wish to speak to items 10, 12, and 13? Please come forward. Seeing none, council, questions on 10, 12, and 13. Mr. Morrow.

Number 12. I guess I did a little research, and clean fill is $15 to $25 a ton. Topsoil is $25 to $65 a ton. So I guess I kind of see that if the city gives one ton of topsoil, we should get two tons of fill back. I see a two-to-one change versus a one-to-one based on my research.

Comments? Mr. Knutson.

Jamie Knutson, city engineer. Currently, there is a large pile or a stockpile of topsoil out there just north of International Paper. I say topsoil in a very loose Definition because it's mostly sand with a little bit of black soil in it. I mean everything out at the airport is saying There's just not much Value to that stockpile that's out there in our in my opinion and working with PCI the fill material that we need will We would be paying trucking costs to have that brought in at some point when we go to do more of our warp expansion out there. So this seemed to be a good way for us, for the city to not have any cost for importing additional fill material when we do warp at some point. I don't know what the cost will be at that time, because it may be a couple years out. And in the meantime we've got a giant pile of topsoil that we can't really use because we will be able to strip the topsoil from the warp extensions and use that for what we need when we do that project so

So you're saying that the topsoil really is not quality topsoil.

It is not what you would think if you went out to a nice farm field and good old Iowa black dirt. It is not that.

Is it really fill for fill trade? Is that really what you have?

Pretty much, yes. I mean, it's more or less, yes, that.

Okay, so it wouldn't be something I'd want to go put on my farm field to graze corn.

They do farm that, and that's where it came from when they were out at the airport. I mean, that's what they were farming out there, but they were not getting high-dollar leases out there because the soil was just not that very good.

It's not good topsoil. No, it is not good topsoil at all. I understand. Thank you. You're welcome.

Yes, sir. Our lease agreements at the airport were much less than other areas of town that we have because of the condition of the soil.

All right. If it's not good soil, I get that.

Any other questions on 10, 12, and 13? Mr. Mayor.

Mr. Martin, please. Mr. Anderson, if you could roast the mic for me, please, sir. First question I have for you, who's going to be responsible for abatement cleanup and demolition on that if we propose this? Which one? 10? 10.

On number 10, we would do the demolition and abatement. Which means it's going to cost us money, correct?

That is correct. which means that we're spending $60,000 on three pieces of property, plus we gotta pay for abatement removal and demolition removal and all the other things, right? And then we're gonna turn around and sell the property for a dollar?

That is correct. The return on investment's probably five to eight years on it based on what we've seen in multiple other sites for these smaller lot infill development. Plus, we're also eliminating the blight that's in the area, which will help clean up the area and gather more economic development to follow.

Well, let's see. I'm 55 years old, and that's been sitting blight for at least 40 years. I'm not understanding why we're looking at a $20,000 investment per property for $60,000. I really think we need to reevaluate that because I think that's a lot. Based on what the money that we've got to put back into it.

So, I'm also 55, which means it's been sitting there. We hadn't focused on that area yet. Thank you for sharing that.

No.

Yeah. The positives in the area. Crystal cold has invested over 28Million in expansion and new construction with over 70 new jobs in the area just in the last 5 years. The Northeast Iowa Food Bank expansion, they're doing another expansion again to help support the larger community efforts in this area. We have a partnership with Food Bank expansion. We actually relocated two homes out of there instead of demolishing them, and then they've been rebuilt over on Chalmers Avenue behind the Pizza Hut on Ainsborough to save those houses. The Rath administration, $18 million renovation of historic building for 88 new residential units is about to start. We've had new infill buildings on West 14th, West 16th, Black Hawk, all totaling over 980,000 in taxable value just the last couple years. Um, we just approved another 10,000 square foot building for 850,000, a new taxable value. Um, another infill building at 600,000, a new taxable value on Jefferson street just recently. Um, those smaller infill lots we've seen about 2.43Million in recent activity and, uh, since 2007 from. 6th to 18th Street corridor, or in the 18th Street corridor from 6th to 18th, we've had over 50 million in new taxable value created since 2007. So really it's a matter of when we can focus on the area and clean up the blight, we'll see new development come back in. You know, these small infill lots are specifically ideal for small business development. If we get two lots, and you can kind of see the images that I gave you there. On the second set of images, you can see the two-lot design of a small double, basically a commercial building, or there's a single one. Just to give you an idea, these three lots, even with the two houses on them, right now they are paying a total of $588 a year in taxes total. With the new buildings going on those, we'll see about $16,830 in taxes a year. So even with the tax abatement that's available through the CURA, we're going to have about a five to eight year period from when they start paying taxes, and we've eliminated the blight in that area to further push for more reinvestment. So we actually think it's a very good method that we've been following, and it's really cleaned up that area.

Mr. Mayor, Mr. Simon. So is it my understanding that this is just three lots out of what four, five or six lots in a row right there, starting at the corner across the street from that Lafayette park going all the way to the credit union. Is that correct?

I'd say the ones that we've outlined on the images that I shared with you all, going from Viridian over to Vinton Street, there are seven properties there. Mr. Swartz has the three kind of in the middle, and then there's one on the very corner, and then there's three on the other side. Mr. Peterson and I did go out and tour there to look at the idea of taking some through 657A. One of the difficulties if we can only get one and not the other two or looking at all seven and we can only get three out of the seven or something is then it's a little bit more difficult to get someone to come back in there and invest with the blighted building still next to it if we can't 657A it. When we go through 657A, the building has to be considered abandoned. And specifically like the lots with the trailers on them, they are industrial lots. He's going to say he's trying to rent them or lease them so they're not abandoned lots that we can go after or anything. They have to have a structure on them. So kind of looking at the end result of seeing redevelopment in this area and positive new commercial buildings with jobs, we're just kind of looking at the bigger picture and recommending to move ahead.

So the reason I ask that is because we're, and to piggyback on what Councilman Martin said, if you pull that picture back up, that one house on the corner has been dilapidated since I was a kid. I'm 60, I've got you guys both beat. That's been dilapidated since I was riding my bike down to play baseball in Lafayette Park. So I don't know what the process is for 657A and lots, but I think the city of Waterloo would like to expedite those on the properties that need to be built back up. And this is just an example of something that I think I'm not 100% sure that getting these 3 lots is going to expedite that. If you can, if you can. Guarantee me that we're going to get those other 4 lots and that's going to be I would love to see that area rebuilt like, you like, the goal is, but. We're gonna be years away. We're already 50 years in on that corner lot Who's to say those other four lots are gonna take us another 20 years to get and then we just spent all this money on?

So that's my concern I can let mr. Peterson talk about the 67 a process, but yeah I mean the goal would be to go after them all eventually, but if we can get some positive things started there, but yeah, thank you Mr.

Mr. Schmidt. Are you done, Mr. Simon? I am. I am not 55.

Unfortunately.

56.

But when I originally got on the council in 2008, those properties were in not very good condition then. So almost 20 years later. I'm not a big fan of the way we do some of these things. But unfortunately, it appears like that's the world we live in today. And if you look at some of the developments down about 18th Street and 11th Street and some of those areas, I think had we not done what we're proposing to do here, that would still look a lot like this area. And I would certainly love to have something new going up there tomorrow. I don't think it's gonna happen that quickly, but I'm afraid if we don't do this, we're gonna be having the same conversation 10 years from now and those buildings will still be standing there. So I think we would be wise to take what we can get, move this process along. I hate to keep talking about work sessions, but we should probably have a work session on 657As so the council understands how those work, the timing of it and everything else. And then also, I think we need to talk about, I'd like to formulate a task force to take a look at more emphatically, if that's the right term, enforcing our code enforcement. Because I've heard, again, for 20 years that I've been involved with city council, people call in, complain, nothing gets done. We talked to code enforcement, their short staff. We just need to, we keep kicking this can down the road. We found $2 million to help balance the budget. I think we should be able to find some money to hire some additional code enforcement and get this party started. So that's my opinion.

That being said, we did just hire an additional code enforcement officer. I'm sorry, pardon me? That being said, we did just hire an additional code enforcement officer.

Right, but I'm afraid we probably need about a half dozen and then we could get this done expeditiously.

Mr. Mayor.

Mr. Salamanca.

Mr. Anderson. Don't get too far.

I did want to ask you. Just a second. Just a second. With Mr. Delgado up here, did I not address to ask the public to come up and speak on these items?

You did not.

Then we'll let you speak when he's done.

Fine. Thank you, sir.

I just want to double check. I appreciate it. I didn't mean to interrupt you, sir.

No, you're good, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Anderson. So last time this came before council, I asked Mr. Schrader why there's such a gap between what Beacon Schneider has the properties at, which is roughly $20,000, and why we're wanting to pay $60,000. So could you help me understand that gap? Mr. Schrader, unfortunately, he's not here. Otherwise, I'd ask him as well.

Yeah, I mean, you know, the assessed value is generally a little bit lower than the appraised value. You know, so it's just a matter of, and on Beacon, you can actually, there's actually a property sales tab you can hit now to see what other lots are selling for. So the asking price is $20,000 per lot. Looking at the area in 2024, E&A at the northwest corner of 16th and Jefferson bought a lot for $43,000. In 2025, Blackhawk Electric at northwest corner of 14th and Jefferson bought two lots one with a house on them the house was valued at 56,000 750 they bought it for 90,000 so 33,000 250 per lot or for the land or 16,000 625 per lot of course that was looking at the 2026 equivalent of costs that would put it at about an average of 17,000 658 Mr. Castro bought a lot back in 2013, again, putting the 2026 equivalent of that $15,000 at $21,443. 2017, Three Stooges acquired two lots for $45,000 or $22,500 each. The 2026 equivalent is $30,568. And then there was some vacant land behind 1526 Blackhawk Street that sold for $8,500. It was a half a lot, so the full equivalent at $17,000. So looking at the average lot value in this general, I'm going to say 18th Street corridor on both sides of the river where we found the vacant lot sales that were comparable for infill development, the average is about $25,934. So we're below that, so we think we're doing a good deal.

And did he approach the city at that number, or did the city offer him at that number?

We did negotiate to get to that number.

What was he originally asking?

I'd have to go back and look at my notes. I don't recall.

No worries.

Thank you.

Sorry. Let's let Forrest talk real quick, and then we'll...

Yeah, I'm quick. Forest Dillavu, 1725 Huntington Road. My problem with this, this is in the TIF. Almost all of the ones that Noel mentioned are in the TIF. TIF does not help us pay the general fund. It doesn't pay policemen. It doesn't pay firemen. And when we buy it with taxpayer dollars and it doesn't help us pay our taxes and reduce our taxes, we just are digging a deeper and deeper hole. And I thank you for allowing me to speak, Mayor. Thank you. Mayor, would you like me to address some of that?

Megan Butler, 818 Clough Street. I was just talking to the young man over here that is not 55, my guess, that acquired these properties through inheritance, correct? So he is not responsible for them to dilapidate. He's trying to get rid of them so we can have a beautiful city, take care of things, and not have so many dilapidated buildings in our city. So I think it's a good thing, just like Steve Schmidt was saying, we want to clear out this blight allow new businesses to come in. We just gave somebody from Kansas a tax abatement for 15 years. Why can't we take care of the people here in town and let them get rid of the properties that they don't have the resources to take care of and do something about it?

Mr. Anderson, you were going to say something?

Just a note on TIF. So, you know, the TIF districts... Some people may not be aware. So once you establish a TIF in an area, all the new projects, the majority of the new tax base is captured within the TIF. However, there is a portion called the debt service levy, which is released. So that does help keep our general levy down and help pay for police and fire and other needs. And it's a note that, again, it is in the TIF district. So we are not buying this with taxpayer money outright outside of the TIF. We are using the TIF proceeds to buy these to create more revenue in the TIF so that hopefully we can release more of that in the future.

Before we move on to a vote, does anyone else from the public, since I omitted that a few moments ago, wish to speak to any one of these three items? Seeing none, Mr. Mauro has a question.

I have one question for Noel. Do you have any estimation of when something would occupy this or something would move? I know you told about the development. Do you have anything, shall we say, on the hook?

We generally have people looking for these infill lots. So at any given time, we have people asking us for what we're going to acquire in there. So it's a matter of getting through the process for asbestos. Of course, we have to survey it, then remove it, then demolish it. So hopefully this time next year, we'd be looking at getting someone to build there if we can.

Okay, thank you. Any other questions from council, please?

Mr. Mayor?

Mr. Simon.

I just wanted to be clear that I'm not against buying this property from this individual or individuals. I guess my concern was when I mentioned that is that the slow process of the 657A of the other properties around that, my concern is that that would halt or eliminate people from wanting to buy or purchase build something on those properties and i know there's been discussion about those other properties so i it would be nice if we could do it all at one time and i know you've been working on this noel but um i i just i just wanted to clarify that i'm not against this person being able to sell his property i just wish that we could talk to his neighbors and also get that done so just wanted to clarify thank you thank you anything else from council

Seeing none, roll call vote on those items, ma'am.

Mr. Schmidt?

Yes.

Mr. Mauro?

No. On which one?

Oh, sorry. We've got 10, 12, and 13. No's on 10, yes on 12 and 13. Ms. Berry?

No on 10, yes on 12 and 13.

Mr. Salamanca?

No on 10, yes on 12 and 13.

Mr. Martin?

No on 10, yes on 12 and 13.

Mr. Simon?

No on 10, yes on 12 and 13.

10 fails.

10 failed, 12 and 13 passed. No more outbursts from the public, please. You're all gonna get a chance to speak when the public comments come up, so please save your energy. 16 and 17, or 14 and 15, please, who'd like to take those?

Mr. Mayor, item number 14, I'd like to adopt a resolution approving a cooperative agreement with the Iowa Department of Transportation in the amount of $710,000 in conjunction with the fiscal year 2027, Edwards Street stormwater lift station upgrades, contract number 1158, and authorize the mayor and city clerk to execute said document. And item number 15 is adopting a resolution approving a professional services agreement with Strand Associates Inc. of Madison, Wisconsin in an amount not to exceed $128,000 FOR DESIGN SERVICES, BIDDING RELATED SERVICES, AND CONSTRUCTION RELATED SERVICES IN CONJUNCTION WITH FINAL EFFLUENT BUILDING ELECTRICAL UPDATES AT THE WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT AND AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO EXECUTE SAID DOCUMENTS.

SECOND.

A MOTION AND A SECOND. WOULD ANYONE FROM THE AUDIENCE WISH TO ADDRESS ITEMS NUMBER 14 OR 15, PLEASE COME FORWARD. SEEING NONE, COUNCIL QUESTIONS ON 14 AND 15.

Mr. Mayor.

Salamanca.

Mr. Knudson, seeing that it's such a large number, can you just come and explain what this funding is going to be towards?

Jamie Knutson, city engineer. The city owns a number of stormwater lift stations around town. There is one. It's called Edwards Lift Station. It's on the east side, or excuse me, the west side of Highway 63, up by the overpass that goes over the railroad tracks. It's been there for, God, Randy, 50, since the 50s maybe, even longer. I don't know. It's been there a long time. As part of the 63 reconstruction, The DoT did some things and they are dumping their stormwater into The Edwards lift station which needs to be rebuilt so as part of that Getting that rebuilt. I approached the DoT about getting Help with that and that's what the agreement you have before you is seven hundred and ten thousand dollars from the DoT towards the I think it's a million and a half or so total cost of the reconstruction of that lift station so It's a good deal for us it helps Cover some of our costs and it helps the dot with their underground and eventually all that gets pumped into Verdon Creek and out to the Cedar River Sounds like a win-win it is thank you Counsel any other questions on 14 or 15?

Seeing none, roll call, please, Madam Clerk. Mr. Schmidt? Yes.

Mr. Mauro? Yes. Ms. Berry? Yes. Mr. Salamanca? Yes. Mr. Martin?

Yes. And Mr. Simon? Yes. Who would like to take 16 and 17, please?

Mr. Mayor.

Mr. Mauro.

Number sixteen resolution approving a construction related services agreement with a com technical services Inc of Waterloo, Iowa, and the amount of three hundred and eighty five thousand, eight hundred dollars in conjunction with the in conjunction with the rehabilitation rehabilitate, really eighteen thirty six outside of runway. 1230 Safety Area, FAA AIP Project number 3-19-0094-060, authorizing the mayor to execute said document. Number 17, resolution approving a professional service agreement with HDR Engineering Inc. of Cedar Rapids, Iowa in the amount of $13,525 for a concept statement in conjunction with the Ridgeway Avenue and Hammond Avenue roundabout and authorizing the mayor and city clerk to execute said document. Second.

Motion in a second anyone from the audience wish to speak to items number 16 or 17, please Seeing on council questions on 16 or 17 mr. Mayor tomorrow number 17 I guess I just have a question do we have the expertise in-house to do this or do we need to go out?

Is it something that needs to be done go outside?

Mr.. Knutson, you're the expert I Thought he was talking about engineering

We'll talk to our traffic safety engineer, traffic operations director. Um, we don't have a full time staff that would be able to allocate time on this. Um, our department is quite busy right now with all the construction and all the different projects. Um, it would take some time to have someone do it in house. So it'd be feasible to just have, and this has got a timeline, a deadline. Yeah, these are grants. We have three grants for this project, so we're on timeline.

We have three substantial grants, don't we? Yes. Any other questions from council as long as she's up here? Thank you, ma'am. Appreciate your time. That being said, Madam Clerk, roll call, please.

Mr. Schmidt? Yes. Mr. Morrow? Yes. Ms. Berry? Yes. Mr. Salamanca? Yes. Mr. Martin? Yes. And Mr. Simon? Yes.

Ordinance number one, please. Mr. Martin.

I'd like to make a motion to receive and file consideration and pass for the first time the ordinance amending the City of Waterloo Code Ordinance, section 543-88, substation 88, Kimball Avenue and section 543, Two Streets.

Second.

A motion and a second. Anyone from the audience wish to speak to this ordinance change on Kimball Avenue? Well, since no one's coming up, I would like our traffic engineer, she could address both these real quick so that the audience understands what they are. Would you come up, ma'am? Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Safiya Elahi, Traffic Operations Director. So the first ordinance will be addressing Kimball Avenue as stated as a through street. We're adding just so it reads as Kimball and Chalice will be, Kimball is a through street except for at the signalized intersection as well as the four-way intersection. So we need to add that four-way intersection into the first ordinate. The second ordinate will be always stop intersection, so we need to add the Kimball and Chalice as a four-way intersection. So they would have to go between both of them. We're not really changing the ordinance, we're just adding the four-way under

So basically, Kimball Avenue from Reber to City Limits South, the first ordinance lays out where every stop sign and stoplight is, and then the second ordinance basically is going to be adding a four-way stop, correct?

Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone from the audience wish to speak to this?

We could not hear that.

I'm sorry. Can you hear me? Good.

Good.

Basically, I just explained what it was, what she just said, that the first ordinance is just taking Kimball from Reber to the city limits south and identifying where every stop sign and stoplight is on that path. The second ordinance, which will be read here in a minute, we have to vote on the first one, just deals with placing a four-way stop at Kimball and Shawless. But we got public comments for it. Well, we haven't got to that, sir. All I did was ask her to come up to talk about so that we understood it. We'll get to that. Thank you, ma'am. So does anyone from the audience wish to speak to ordinance number one, the ability to lay out where every stop sign and stoplight is on Kimball Avenue?

What's that?

Oh, I did. Okay. With that being said, council questions. Seeing none, roll call vote on ordinance number one, please.

Mr. Schmidt?

Yes.

Mr. Morrow?

Yes.

Ms. Berry? Yes. Mr. Salamanca?

Yes.

Mr. Martin?

Yes.

Mr. Simon?

Yes. Mr. Mayor? Sir? I'd like to make a motion to suspend the rules.

Second. Motion to second. Roll call vote, please.

Mr. Schmidt?

Yes.

Mr. Morrow? Yes. Ms. Berry? Yes. Mr. Salamanca? Yes. Mr. Martin? Yes. And Mr. Simon?

Yes. Mr. Mayor? Mr. Martin? I'd like to make a motion to consider and pass a second and third time and adopt as said ordinance.

Second. A motion and a second. Roll call, please.

Mr. Schmidt?

Yes.

Mr. Morrow?

Yes.

Ms. Berry? Yes. Mr. Salamanca? Yes. Mr. Martin? Yes. And Mr. Simon? Yes.

Who would like to take ordinance number two, please?

Mr. Mayor.

Mr. Mauro.

Motion to receive, file, and consider and pass for the first time an ordinance amending the City of Waterloo Code of Ordinance Section 544, amending the City Traffic Code by amending subsection 29 Kimball Avenue and Mitchell Avenue of Section 544, all way stop intersections. Second.

Motion to second. Is there anyone from the public that would like to speak to the four-way stop at Shawless and Kimball? Please come forward, state your name and address, and you have three minutes, please. No, Shawless and Kimball, I'm sorry. Kimball and Shawless.

Kimball and Charlotte.

Your neighborhood.

In our neighborhood. This is Mike Henning, 138 Side Hill Drive, Waterloo, Iowa. We live down in the Orange neighborhood.

We've lived on Kimball.

south edge of Kimball for 47, 48 years. And we don't see a need for a stop sign on Kimball. We do see a need for better safety at Chalice and Kimball. And that could be achieved in a lot of ways besides putting stop signs on Kimball that sees a lot of intermittent traffic from the school and from other stuff. It's heavy. I think there should be a traffic study done on what's the traffic between the two directions. Look at doing a roundabout there or up front steps. Right now, there are a couple flashing lights on Chalice, but what you really see is the lights over on, if you're coming east, you see the lights over on Highway 21. So a lot of folks see those, see the green, and boom, here they go. and we have a crash and our neighbor just got injured there about three months ago, and we've had some deaths on that intersection. But if we get the LED lights around the stop signs, we just went through some of them in Cedar Falls yesterday, much more visible than having a little flashing light above it. And there's lots of other things that can be done without shutting down the traffic both directions. That's going to be a horrible intersection because there's a lot of traffic both ways. So I think there's other alternatives that should be investigated first before just let's throw a couple more stop signs up. I don't see that as a fix.

I could ask our traffic engineer to address the traffic study that she did.

Perfect. Thank you.

Because these ordinance changes aren't done without traffic studies and research on crash data.

All right. Appreciate it, ma'am.

Safiya Elahi, Traffic Operations Director. We did conduct a traffic study at this location. Um, we, when we do a traffic study, we look at the crash history, the volume, the speed data, the site distance we did site visits. We look at the. Geometry of the intersection. The most prominent thing with this intersection was the crash data. There was 20 crash happening in the past five years. The past 12 months, there has been 11 crash. that happened the crashes that happened were people stopping and then misjudging the gap or thinking that this intersection is a four-way and then leaving the stop even though they came to a complete stop the study showed that this location is warranted for always stop and it will

Okay.

The always stop is supposed to approximately reduce 70 percent of these types of crashes at this location if we switch to always stop. The roundabout is actually a long-term solution, The most cost-efficient and quickest way to improve this intersection right now would be the four-way stops. And then if we want to put a roundabout at this location, we would have to get finance involved, planning and zoning involved, the council and the mayor involved, and schedule maybe a work session to look at the long-term solutions, which would be a roundabout.

But the quickest method to create safety right now is a four-way stop. Yes. Like we did at Hammond and Chalice. Yes. And our accidents have gone down considerably there with a four-way stop.

I will have to look at that. They have. It was prior to me, so.

Ms. Morrow, do you have a, does anyone, oh, we got public comments. Anyone else from the public wish to speak about this item?

Eileen McPhee, I live on 204 Lichte out in Orange, and I'm the one that had the accident almost three months ago. I totaled his car, he totaled mine. But what I would like to see is continuity between the intersections there. Include Chalice because you got the four-way stop on Ainsboro You got a two-way stop on Kimball then you have lights on highway 21 Then you have four-way stop and on Hammond and no wonder the drivers are confused Is this a four-way stop or a two-way stop? the other problem is when you're coming from the casino area and Chalice and You're at the stop sign. There's a dip in Kimball that you can't see except for the top of the car So you got to be very cautious So my suggestion is maybe a speed hump or bump to slow people down, because you can't speed over that, and there won't be any totals when you do that. And we already talked about the roundabout. How about some rumble strips to alert people it's time to stop? The four-way stop sign's been discussed, but what we do need is continuity. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, and most of these accidents are people turning right or left after the stop on, onto Kimball from Shawless, correct, ma'am?

Yes.

And a rumble strip will not stop that. And I don't believe, correct me if I'm wrong, that we can put a speed bump on a 45-mile-an-hour street.

No. Yeah, it would be 35 or under, or 30.

Thank you, ma'am. Anyone else from the audience wish to speak for or against the four-way stop at Shawless and Kimball? Keep in mind that we will be studying it in the future, correct? Yes.

and working towards a final solution long-term solution long-term solution yes ma'am please state your name and address barbara henning 138 side hill drive i just wondered when was this traffic study conducted just within april okay it was in april when hawkeye was in session orange and orange school was in session like what time of the do you know what time of day it was at

the crashes happened throughout the year, so.

No, no, no, I mean time of the day, the study, was it like all day long, or?

It was an ongoing process of collecting data and then composing it, so. Okay. It took, we got our complaint maybe prior to April, so it took a little while to do it.

Okay, because I think we get a lot of the Hawkeye traffic, and we definitely get a lot of Orange School traffic.

Yeah, okay. The data usually is throughout. It's not just like within the month of April. We look through years and look at patterns throughout the years to see what's going on.

Okay, because we do get a lot of the Hawkeye traffic on Orange because there's all those stoplights on 21. Okay, thank you.

Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Any other members from the audience wish to speak to this item? Thank you. You might as well stay here just for a second. Council, any questions? Ms. Berry.

Mr. Mayor, thank you. And thank you for sharing that. I'm just wondering, would lights on the stop sign help in any kind of way so people can see them further away and begin to slow down?

Well, the crash data showed that people are stopping. Some assume that it was a four-way stop, the intersection of the four-way stop, and some assume they misjudged the gap between the cars and they leave after they have came to a stop. There's, out of the 11 CRASHES, THERE'S ONLY ONE RUNNING A STOP SIGN, WHICH HAD, YEAH, THERE'S ONLY ONE OUT OF THE 11. SO MOST OF THE PEOPLE CAME TO A STOP.

SO THE REST WERE TURNING ON TO KIMBAL. YEAH. THANK YOU. COUNCIL, MR. MARROW.

Mayor, we had from the Orange Neighborhood Association in my ward meeting, we had extensive discussions on this. And I'm kind of wondering, you're proposing a four-way stop, but I'm wondering can we do maybe kind of in a couple steps. If we started off with the stop signs on Chalice having LED lights, but then having a sign that says cross traffic does not stop. So then would that help the situation for them?

We have a sign that says those there, I didn't remember. Yeah, they're, they're there and then the stop sign has a master arm with a huge stop sign, a red light as well as a smaller stop sign. But people are stopping. That's not the issue. The issue is, or they think it's a 4 way stop, or they're misjudging the gap.

Is the cross-traffic-does-not-stop sign, is that pretty easy to see? Is it something that maybe we need to make it a little more apparent? I'm trying to, you know, there was a long discussion in the award meeting about the Orange neighborhood was concerned about all the traffic coming up and down Kimball where the four-way was going to really back it up and cause issues during school times.

YEAH, SO THE TRAFFIC STUDY SHOWED THAT THE VOLUMES ON ALL FOUR LEGS ARE APPROXIMATELY DIVIDED EQUALLY. SO IF EVERYBODY'S GOING TO STOP, THIS IS NOT THE ISSUE OF CAPACITY OR TRAFFIC FLOW. WE'RE LOOKING AT SAFETY ISSUE RIGHT NOW. AND THE BIGGEST CONCERN IS THAT THERE'S APPROXIMATELY ONE CRASH PER MONTH AT THIS INTERSECTION, SO THE SAFEST And the most cost-efficient thing to do right now would be to install the four-way stops.

So if we go forward with a four-way stop like we're talking and we see there's some problems with it, we can come back and talk? Yeah. Will you do a study after it's put in place to understand?

Yeah, of course. We'll look at how it reduces the crash and how effective it is.

How long would you wait before you did that study?

I'd say a year, probably. also look at long-term solutions if we could find the funding and everybody would like to move forward with a roundabout that would also help.

Thank you. Mr. Mayor. Mr. Simon. Just real quick, talking about the signs that were located there, the vehicles that are coming in the direction that do not have to stop, I know there's some busy intersections I see in other parts of the state that have a watch for turning or a watch for cross traffic or a watch for turning traffic. Do we have those signs on either side of that?

No, we don't have any signs.

Is that something we could add?

We could, but they're the cars that are going through are getting hit on the side. It's a right turn angle. So, even if they are looking for cars, they can't predict who's going to leave the sign.

I'm talking about the cars that do not have to stop that. The cutting cars are turning in front of they usually the.

Cars are going on the uncontrolled intersection are getting hit on the side. So that means they can't predict who is going to leave the intersection and hit them on the side.

So it's, I'm just asking if you could put a sign to look into that. So they're watching for those people that are turning in front of them. That's what I'm looking for. That's just down the road. When they're approaching that sign, there's signs across the state where watch for turning traffic or watch for cross traffic. That's all I'm asking. If those aren't there, that would be an additional warning for the traffic that is not stopping so they're watching for the cars that are stopping and then pulling out in front of them.

Yeah, that's a signage is also another option. We looked at rumple strips. We looked at roundabout. We looked at signal at this intersection. We looked at the 4 way stop or adding additional signs. So we took all that into consideration while doing this.

Thank you. It's too late for that.

So I do think, going back to what Mrs. Henning said, that I go through that intersection on an almost daily basis. And when you're on Chalice and you look to the north, whether you're going east or west, There's a low spot there, and especially when the weeds start growing in the ditch, you can't see that car coming until it's right there. So you look, then you look south, then you start at an intersection, and there's a car. So I don't know, I mean, I don't know how you would fix that low spot without spending quite a little bit of money of raising that patch of road. But going back to what Mr. Simon said, wouldn't it, wouldn't it, because I'm concerned about stopping traffic on Kimball. I think there are certain times of the day When school's in session, summertime probably won't be as bad, but when school's in session, I think that's gonna be a mess. But going back to what Mr. Simon said, a way of slowing down, and I understand who's hitting who, but if traffic on Kimball were slower, they wouldn't be getting to that intersection as quickly as they are now coming from the north. So having something there, because that, is Kimball on, yeah, is Kimball 45 there or 35?

I think they're 45.

You know, either look at lowering that to 35 or having, as Mr. Simon said, a sign on each side of Chalice that watch out for turning traffic or heavy, whatever the sign wants to say. But if we can't get it down to 35 on that whole strip, at least we lower it coming into that intersection. I mean, it's just a thought, but And I like the idea of the red lights around the stop sign and I understand people are stopping, but I also know when I'm going East, I do see those lights on twenty one and think, oh, I can go through this. I forget where I'm at. So. Yeah, I guess we give it a try, but but something to think about.

Yeah. And usually if we change our intersection and we do our study, our follow up study, and if it's not actually helping. the problem, then we look at different solutions, so.

Okay, thank you. Mr. Mayor, just one last question. Please. Just, it just occurred to me, I'm wondering if those are, those who were identified in accidents, were they younger people, like students, maybe?

It was, when looking at the traffic, it was all ages and all times of day. specific patterns.

Okay, I was curious since you mentioned Hawkeye, maybe they were more inexperienced type drivers, but okay, thank you.

Any other questions? I can tell from experience, it's literally impossible to cross Kimball at certain times of the day. When Orange is starting and when Orange is letting out. It's extremely difficult and traffic backs up on Chalice considerably from both directions. Thank you, ma'am. That being said, roll call vote on ordinance number two, please. Mr. Schmidt? Yes.

Mr. Morrow? Yes. Ms. Berry? Yes. Mr. Salamanca? Yes. Mr. Martin? Yes. Mr. Simon? Yes.

Mr. Mayor?

Please.

Motion to suspend rules. Second.

Motion and a second. Roll call, please.

Mr. Schmidt?

Yes.

Mr. Morrow?

Yes.

Ms. Berry? Yes. Mr. Salamanca? Yes. Mr. Martin? Yes. And Mr. Simon?

Yes. Mr. Mayor, motion to consider and pass for the second and third times and adopt said ordinance. Second.

Motion to second. Roll call vote, please.

Mr. Schmidt? Yes. Mr. Mauro? Yes. Ms. Berry? Yes. Mr. Salamanca? Yes. Mr. Martin? Yes. And Mr. Simon?

Yes. Thank you. That concludes the regular business. It is now time for public comments. I have an announcement to make before everyone rushes to the podium. This project is going to be located in the South Waterloo Business Park. A site plan and a street layout has to be made first. When the street layout is complete, a site plan has to be approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission. You have an opportunity, it may have passed in December 15th, but you have an opportunity at the Planning and Zoning, and it will either be July or August meeting, to attend that meeting and express your opinions about the data center. So once the street layout is complete, a site plan has to be approved by Planning and Zoning. They will either meet in July or August to approve this site plan. If it passes Planning and Zoning, it has to come back before this full council. The majority of this councilor wasn't here in December of last year, and that would be in August or September of this year for the full council to take a vote. If it fails planning and zoning, enough people show up and the planning and zoning commission does not want to move forward with the data center or the site plan, they have the ability to appeal to the city council. THE PLANNING AND ZONING'S RECOMMENDATION, BUT THAT REQUIRES THREE-QUARTER VOTE OF THE COUNCIL TO OVERRIDE FOR THE PLANNING AND ZONING. SO IT IS NOT A DONE DEAL. IT HAS NOT BEEN GONE THROUGH PLANNING AND ZONING AND HAS NOT COME BACK BEFORE THIS COUNCIL. So I highly recommend that you watch and use our city website for the planning and zoning agendas. Pay attention to when that's coming out. And I ask that you then please come to the planning and zoning meetings and express your opinions, either positive or negative, for a data center. Yes. So then before we get started, I'm going to just remind people, because we have more people than I've ever seen in our audience, the rules for public comment of the agenda. Individuals may speak. Ma'am, let me finish. Individuals may speak one time and one time on one issue for a maximum of three minutes. during the public comments section of the agenda. The public shall not be required to preregister or speak during public comments. Individuals shall only speak on matters not listed on the regular agenda for this date. Any matter presented shall be directed by the presiding officer and addressed if necessary after the meeting. Council members may speak during the public comment portion of the agenda after the public has finished speaking and city staff is not required to provide immediate answers to the matters presented during the council meeting. That being said, please state your name and address for the record, and you have three minutes.

My name is Andrew Glassford, residing at 1121 Midland Street. Good evening, mayor, members of the council. I have copies of a packet that I would like to distribute to you. I put the one for the clerk downstairs, but would you?

And before you start, I'll just ask everyone in the audience to make sure your phone is on silent to respect our speaker.

THIS DOCUMENTATION DETAILS THE ONGOING AND EXCESSIVE TRAIN BLOCKAGES AT THE INTERSECTION OF LONGFELLOW AND DONALD STREETS, WHICH CONTINUE TO COMPROMISE THE EMERGENCY RESPONSE TIMES AND PUBLIC SAFETY OF MY NEIGHBORHOOD. BECAUSE THIS PACKET CONTAINS LOGS THAT REQUIRE EXTENSIVE REVIEW, I FORMALLY REQUEST THAT A COUNCIL MEMBER DIRECT CITY STAFF TO INVESTIGATE THIS ISSUE AND MOVE THAT IT BE PLACED ON THE AGENDA FOR THE JUNE 15TH MEETING SO THAT WE MAY VOTE ON A RESOLUTION AT THAT TIME. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME. THANK YOU, SIR.

Trent Hunter, 4227 Wynwood Drive, Cedar Falls. Sorry, guys. No, I'm here to thank the city council, Mr. Mayor, and the council members for your support for the America 250 Field of Honor. So any questions, comments, concerns, I'd love to address them.

That was on the agenda, sir.

I know, but I wanted to say it.

I do appreciate you thanking him. And we'll just leave it at that.

All right. Sounds great. Thank you very much.

Thank you, sir.

Good evening, Mayor and council members. My name is Carlyle Fritz, 2518 Laurel Street, Waterloo. I'm here tonight representing more than 3,500 members of our community who have signed a petition opposing the proposed Wahawk Data Center project. What makes this position so important is not only the number of signatures, but the fact that many residents did not even know that this project had been approved until the decision was made in December by the previous city council. The issue tonight is bigger than a single development project. It's about transparency, public engagement, and the trust between local government and the people it serves. Over the last few weeks, residents have learned more about the data center and have begun asking questions about the long-term impacts on our community. Questions about water usage, energy demand, infrastructure, environmental impacts, economic benefits, and the future character of Waterloo are not unreasonable. There are exactly the kind of questions the community should be asking when a project of this scale is proposed. Our community is also concerned about the environmental impacts of this project. Data centers are among the most resource-intensive facilities built today. Depending on their design, they can require large amounts of water for cooling and large amounts of electricity to operate around the clock. Well, we have heard assurances about current water capacity, water availability. Today is not the same as water availability decades from now. Many communities across the country are evaluating how large-scale data centers may affect the long-term water sustainability, especially during times of drought, extreme heat, or future population growth. Our community deserves clear, independent information about long-term impacts. There are also concerns about energy consumption. Modern data centers operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and consume as much electricity as thousands of homes. Residents have a right to understand what that means for future infrastructure investments, environmental sustainability, and long term character for our community. This petition is not about opposing technology or economic development. It is about asking whether Waterloo has fully considered the long-term consequences of this project and whether the people in the community were given an opportunity to participate in that discussion before approval was granted. More than 3,500 people have taken the time to sign this petition. They are homeowners, taxpayers, business owners, parents, retirees. They signed because they oppose this project and because they believe their voices should have been heard before such a major decision was made. If more than 3,500 residents are signing a petition after approval has already occurred, that should tell us something. It suggests that there is a gap between the decision-making process and public awareness of this process. Whether someone supports or opposes this project, I hope we can all agree that the major development should be accompanied by meaningful public engagement, transparency, and opportunity for residents to understand and participate in decisions that will affect our community for decades to come. Tonight, I'm formally presenting this position and asking the council to review this project, examine every available legal administrative option. Sorry, these are not just signatures. They're voices of more than 3,500 residents, and we are asking to be heard.

Thank you, ma'am. Sorry about that. I would ask, and I appreciate everyone's applause, but there's a lot of people that want to speak, so please.

Good evening, my name is Jeannie Miller and I have the privilege of serving as an at-large board member for Main Street Waterloo at 512 Mulberry Street. I'm here tonight to thank you for your continued support of Main Street Waterloo and the downtown businesses that are such an important part of our community. Main Street Waterloo serves as both an advocate and a partner for downtown businesses. We work every day to create opportunities for growth, collaboration, and success. Through our downtown business meetings, business owners can connect, share concerns, and stay informed about issues that affect the district. Our power-up small business workshops provide educational resources and professional development opportunities, while brews and business events foster networking and relationship building among entrepreneurs and community leaders. We also actively drive foot traffic to downtown businesses through initiatives such as cash mobs, which encourage residents to spend local and support small businesses directly. In addition, we host and support a variety of community events that bring thousands of people downtown each year, creating economic activity and introducing new visitors to our local businesses. One upcoming event is our golf tournament on June 16th, which raises money for our downtown impact grant. Through this grant, Main Street Waterloo provides direct support to downtown businesses and property owners for projects that enhance storefronts, improve building exteriors, and strengthen the overall vitality of our downtown district. The success of this event helps us continue investing in the growth and improvement of downtown Waterloo. Beyond supporting businesses, Main Street Waterloo works to ensure that downtown remains a place where people want to work, live, and visit. We focus on creating vibrant, welcoming, and lively public spaces that strengthen community connections and enhance quality of life. As an organization, we do not take decisions lightly. We carefully consider the long-term impact of our work and always strive to look at the bigger picture of what is best for downtown Waterloo as a whole. Our goal is a thriving downtown that benefits businesses, residents, visitors, and the entire community. On behalf of Main Street Waterloo, thank you for your partnership, your support of our organization, and your commitment to the success of downtown Waterloo. Thank you.

Thank you, and thank you for all that Main Street does.

Howdy. My name's Blake Smith. I reside at 221 Gilbert Street. I'm also here in regard to the Warhawk Data Center, but I promise I'm not a broken record. I'm not opposed to increased financial prosperity. For this city. I'm in support of this. However, I am opposed to decision-making that negatively impacts the lives of citizens While incentivization for business to come to the city is understandable and even desirable Selling several acres of land for a dollar which is less than a big-buddy pop at Quickstar and then giving a multi-million dollar project a decade-long tax rebate of 50% is robbery is robbery against the city citizens and As the project stands, it appears the city will gain a meager 10 to 30 jobs. If the city wants more jobs, why not incentivize a grocery store and businesses, especially on the largely ignored east side?

Why is the city... Let the speaker continue, folks.

Why is the city going to allow the building of a tax-thieving data center, taking away from the repair of roads and the upkeep of the city, all while our deep sandstone aquifers, the source of our water, await depletion and the citizens an increase in water costs. This project may very well require upgrades to our electric grid, in which case I ask who will pay for these while Walhawk Power gets a 50% tax rebate. I find it suspicious that while the city seeks to build this unpopular data center, the city council is seriously considering getting rid of public comment. Why are obstacles being made to make it harder for people to express themselves and make their voices heard?

Okay, so we're gonna you're limited to one item.

You've already okay in which case I I will say that Whatever positive ideas there may be concerning the status center and its building. I merely ask that the voices of of your constituents who you represent be heard. I truly believe that this project could lead the people to effectively subsidize it due to needs for utility upgrades. Possible increases in the cost of water and electricity for citizens work against the will of the people. Even if the project brings further revenue to the city, this could very well be overshadowed by costs that will ultimately fall on the people. Waterloo already has the highest taxes in the entire state of Iowa, so why should further expenses afflict the people who already pay for gas, groceries, and the expenses of daily life? Thank you for your time.

Thank you. I would like to just address something that you said, sir, is that MidAmerican Energy charges up front to high users of electricity for all of the infrastructure so that they don't have to pass those expenses on to their customers. Just to clarify. And thank you for your comments.

Hi, Jim O'Regan, Heartland State Economic Development Corporation offices in downtown Waterloo. We've had the pleasure of knowing many of the council for many years. Do you have an address for that? 607 Sycamore Street. Thank you. We can chuck a baseball from here. But I haven't spoke with any of the council about this, but I wanted to come up and address things. Fortunately the mayor has already addressed some of these issues the first thing there's been no planning and zoning on this There's not a plan submitted right so since there's been no plan submitted Please let's not all assume that we're going to be using resources that probably are not going to be used second data centers Are lots of sizes and shapes and lots of lots of different things I don't believe this is what what people would be referring to as a hyper scalar data system this is a small ish data center and as far as I can tell it's not using any additional water.

Please, folks, you'll be asked to leave if you keep having outbursts.

And again, I believe the 80,000 square feet is the dirt footprint. That's not the building footprint outline. And again, it's not been planned or zoned. As far as we can say, most data centers use no water or closed loop water. And unfortunately, a lot of people are just uneducated about this. It's too bad. Folks, folks. It's great that it's funny. No, I'm going to stop right now because it's great.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to adjourn.

Oh, no, no, no.

Then I would request that the public respect this man's ability to speak. Mr. Mayor has been very clear as to what the expectations are for our council chambers. So if we cannot follow those expectations, then by accordance to our rules and regulations is within our rights.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

So I'm going to ask one more time. to not have any more outbursts while we have someone speaking out of respect for this speaker. Everyone has a difference of opinion and I respect everyone's opinions and I wanna hear everyone's opinions. So let's give every speaker the right to speak.

Continuing mid-American energy as the incumbent energy provider, like every other incumbent energy provider in the state, obligates large load customers to pay for infrastructure upgrades that may be needed before a data center or any building, whether that's a foundry, whether that's a cold storage facility, be allowed to attach the grid. They will not allow anybody to join their network unless that's done in advance. Same thing with the Waterloo water system. Same thing. So, all of the sets that go through planning and zoning, those entities have to approve these things. None of this is being subsidized. When we talk about the tax dollars, we're talking about a 50 percent tax rebate. So, effectively, we're adding $3 million to the tax base immediately. to the city of Waterloo. That doesn't exist. The current tax base that's on that land, I believe, which is ag, it continues to be paid, and then the upgrade, which I believe is outlined, it's six million. The only rebate's on half of that, so it's $3 million worth of new tax base that's immediately added that adds and pays for services in Waterloo. So I think it's important for people to understand that. Come to the Planning and Zoning Committee. Come to the meeting. See what's actually proposed. When it's proposed, if you don't like that, speak up and say things then. But please, let's not protest before when we're not at it.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. Appreciate your comments. Please approach the podium and state your name and address, please. And you have three minutes.

Kyle Squire, 625 Sheridan Road. Some people before me have already spoken about some of the topics that I want to talk about, so I'll try to be quick and focus on what I want to talk about. I feel that there has been an extreme lack of communication to the public about what this data center will look like in our community. We don't know pretty much anything about it, how it will sound, what the noise pollution will be like, how much energy it might use, what it might do to our air and water. We don't know whether or not We don't know anything at all about WAHAC Power LLC, which from what I could research online has no website or any information about it online apart from the meeting in December discussing this initially. We don't even know exactly what the data center will be used for. We can, however, take some educated guesses, assuming that it may be powering AI, as many recently constructed data centers do. And I did a little research beforehand, and I have some quoted numbers from the World Resources Institute, WRI. It says a single modern data center can use as much power as up to 100,000 homes. Now, of course, that's on the higher end, but It's still a lot. From NPR, a mid-sized data center consumes around 300 thousand gallons of water per day. It's about as much as 1,000 US households. Some of the biggest data centers, which of course this one isn't, will use hundreds of millions of gallons of water per year, the equivalent of over a million homes. That's from the University of Michigan. Some data centers house gas power on-site for day-to-day operations, creating continuous air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the World Resources Institute. Data center construction, rooftop coding systems, and backup generators can be disruptively noisy. Smaller diesel generators reportedly reach 85 decibels, levels that can harm hearing. Larger industrial units can approach 100 decibels, equivalent to a motorcycle or jackhammer. This noise can last for hours or days at a time. That's also the World Resources Institute. Companies claim that they rely on fossil fuels as a temporary bridge until greener solutions become available. Yet in practice, this transition is often delayed or abandoned altogether. That's University of Michigan. Now, I'm not 100% ten percent against this since we don't have answers as to what it will look like yet that's a big part of what i'm concerned about is what it will actually look like and i know that there will be meetings in the future about that but i feel that we should have answers about that as soon as possible thank you thank you sir thank you for your time please approach the podium and state your name and address for the count

Hi, my name is Don Stiles, and I live at 1657 Golden Valley here in Waterloo. And I'm just going to narrow down to something I want to say about the data center, or I should say surveillance center. That's what they really are at the end of the day. So let's just face that fact. 80,000 square foot is still significant. Think about it. At nighttime, the skies are going to be polluted. You can't see the stars. The dew points are going to dry up around there, changing our area forever. And I'm not going to pay for the electricity and not only is this going to have consequences for water loop, cedar falls and the rest of county. So this is going to be a county wide issue. It's not going to just affect Waterloo and the need for them around the country. It has been going up all of a sudden and I find that very suspicious and I'm going to tell you this right right now. I did not. And everybody here in Marlowe did not appreciate going behind our backs because we are your employers. And if this goes through and you don't listen to us, we're going to recall and fire every single one of you.

Am I right, everybody? Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, council, department heads, it's good to see all of you again. My name is Jonathan Greider. I live at 2719 Edgemont Avenue. And I have so many thoughts, but I have a timer, so I'll keep them short and on one subject, which is a rule. I've been up there. I know how you're supposed to make decisions. I know what it takes to listen to your constituents. I know what it's like to have a room full of folks who are mad at you about something or the perception of something that you've done. So I know that that's not an easy job, and I appreciate all that you do. But I am going to say this. We have seen across the country that these data centers do a lot of things that are negative. They negatively impact water supplies. They negatively impact the environment, including raising the heat. They do not overall create a ton of jobs for what they do, because data centers just don't need that many people, unlike other potential development projects. And those impacts are still being studied. We know that they use a ton of water, even if this is a closed loop system, which has not been decided yet. That water still leaks, and it still has to be replaced. The water that data centers have is full of what are called polyfluoride alkali chemicals. or what are called forever chemicals. These are things that get into our water supply. In fact, we've had to close one of our wells here in Waterloo because of these forever chemicals, because of their linkage to cancer, fetal development disorders, and other problems. That is something that we need to consider. The electricity. This council, a couple years ago, passed a resolution that we would be energy neutral by 2035. This data center is going to use a lot of energy. Where does that fit in to our resolution to be energy neutral by 2035 if we're going to be using that much energy? Because Mid-American still does use fossil fuel, and if we're going to up the intake, we're probably going to at least use some fossil fuel for that. The last piece that we need to ask is that most of our water for the city comes from an aquifer. Aquifers are underground water. They do not fill up as quickly as surface water. So when is the last time, one, that there's been a usage study on our aquifer, both for Waterloo and really all the communities that are impacted? And what are the short-term, long-term, and medium-term impacts that this data center and other data centers might have on the very limited supply of water as we know that it's only getting hotter? We are expected to have a flash drought later this week. I do not have the answers to these questions, but these are questions that must be addressed before we move forward. Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you, sir. And welcome back, Jonathan.

Right on. I was going to say that. I'm L.A. Jefferson, Jr., reside at 733 and 1 1⁄2 West 3rd Street, Church Road neighborhood. I'm here again tonight requesting ongoing concerns about case number 3, FECR 234062, and it's related to merging from a proceeding from AGCR 231595. And tonight I'm submitting documents as well and to public record for the purpose of transparency and accountability, including the complaint, uh, that was attached to and has information about bond and arrest a handwritten setting notion reflecting a $100,000 cash only bond on July 3rd or 23rd 2019. It also has a search warrant from that day as well. authorizing the seizure of my blood and urine. And these are associated with the return of service on that documentation, and it appears blank. And there's also a police narrative materials document, custodial questions and random rated statements. Now, the incident report associated with this matter identifies the original event as a 1050 bicycle incident. As the proceedings evolve, the severity of the allegations and the detention consequences and the bond conditions significantly escalated. During my review of the Iowa courts online, I have been unable to locate any corresponding arrest warrant associated with my detention and my incarceration. At my initial appearance, the bond was stated to remain as set previously at $100,000. Yet the public record does not appear to reflect the underlying order establishing that bond amount. That same $100,000 bond was later used in connection with pretrial detention for an alleged urine analysis violation for approximately 0.15 nanograms of marijuana. And it later became the same amount required for me to be here on an appeal. These warrant materials I received reflect authorization from the compelled seizure of my blood on July 23rd, but when the government intrudes into a citizen's body under the color of law and the public record shows clearly the reflect the legal authority and execution procedures and the documentation supporting that intrusion. The records I am submitting tonight also include the police narratives and then the custody. Those same records describe confusion and the lack of understanding and nonverbal responses during that question. These circumstances raise multiple potential and constitute civil rights and constitutional concerns. Thank you, sir. You're welcome.

Appreciate your time.

I can submit these.

You can give them to the chief, please.

Hi, my name is Anders Elliott Ott. I live at 344 Maryland Avenue, and I'm going to tell you guys a quick story really quick. So I work at the Jersey Bikes at People's Square, and one day was a really hot day, and I was working over the grill, and oh no, I'm just like, I just need some way to cool down, right? I go to wash my hands, I splash some water in my face, and the first thing I think of is now, oh, this is such a refreshing... feeling on my face it's oh god it smells like i'm going to the day at the public pool right now smell of chlorine insane right that's just the first issue i have but if we look at all of the studies done in all of the vast amount of things that we can look at online, and even through just our public knowledge at the local library, we can see that Iowa has one of the worst water qualities in the entire United States, which accounts for a lot of the cancerous issues that we all face. I mean, we all know one or two people, maybe even four, I can think of that have had cancer in my life that live in Iowa and honestly this data center is really not what is going to be a solvable issue to any of that. God we can think of all the hypotheticals in the world about like oh what is this going to do with our water like oh even the thought of it is just a disgusting and almost like you're playing in our faces. So really, I don't see any reason why a data center, like besides, sure, there's some economic benefits, but we can look at all of the many buildings that are just left like unused and just blank that we can just find what we could try at least to find some sort of businesses that you know could be there instead of a data center that hey what is that data center going to be used for right if it's going to be used for ai am i going to be able to use this ai most ais are used are protected by a So, no, this is not gonna benefit me directly, neither will it do economically, because people will still not find jobs, my water's gonna suck, and I'll still have to go to school the next day.

Thank you, sir.

My name is Megan Butler, 818 Clow Street. And I would like to commend that young man for coming up and talking, because it's not easy. And he says he has to go to school. So he's got to be a kid in school. And wow. This is an email that I sent to the entire board. So they've already read it. So really, I'm reading it for public comment. 70% of Americans oppose data centers. And that's from a Gallup study that was done in May, I believe. Data centers are more than just a quick 10 to 30 jobs that they would bring Waterloo. We also need to look at the long-term effects. Our parents and grandparents used lead and asbestos in their buildings because of the positive qualities that they had and now, taxpayers are on the hook for taking care of those asbestos riddled buildings that we need to now tear down we need to think about not just how it's going to affect us today and tomorrow in the economic economic development right now but also how is it going to affect my six-year-old when she's 30 and how is it going to affect my six-year-old children when they're born it's not just about here and now in the economic economic development of today but it's also about our future i'd like to also thank steve schmidt for voting in favor of purchasing those dilapidated buildings because we have a problem with that in waterloo and our fire chief could probably want one item talk to us about how many ma'am ma'am ma'am stop one item and you talked about the data center thank you ma'am yeah

My name is Jay Grote. I live at 2229 Edgemont Avenue in an apartment complex. Ladies and gentlemen, I am an experienced mid-career professional in the IT and technology industry. As many of you know, we have orders of magnitudes of computer power in our cell phones. In fact, it was the 1970s when a man named Alan Moore, working at Intel, coined the Moore's Law term, which said that computers will increase in their power by about every year, but these days we are approaching a breaking point. Our computer chips are reaching the point where atomic scale is no longer feasible for us to manufacture them, leading to the glutton and the massive increase of data centers across the country. In the US data center footprint, we have near on 10 times the amount of data centers of the next following country, which would be the United Kingdom. And furthermore, China, as best as the data we can ascertain to get, reigns about 900 data centers from there. The amount of data centers in the United States, we are well full of them. But we've outgrown our number of data centers by that factor of 10. And furthermore, in Iowa, our land, water, air, sound, heat, power, and fuel have become the risk factors, those elements, as those workloads become more intense. highlighting the rise of artificial intelligence as other people have brought up. I'm disappointed in the members of the prior council in the passage of the land near 570 Chalice Road. This representation by the individual's Oaxac power by a dark video from Zoom, whereas the rest of these good business owners today have come up and represented themselves in person and sought public comment and public question. These are good practices which we should adopt. I would like to call on the Waterloo City Council to adopt a few resolutions to assist themselves in possibly continuing their employment with the city and those elections coming up. Stop selling land to LLCs not in Iowa. Have those LLCs and businesses keep a registered agent in the county. and development above a threshold, let's say 60,000 square feet, shall require three ratings and public comment. Please take those into consideration. Finally, I want to talk about the size of this facility. It took me looking through the county's records to find very few number of facilities that outsize this 88,000 square foot building. On John Deere's campus, it takes three buildings to outsize that. The Waterloo, Cedar Valley Sports Complex is only 66,000 square feet. I do not want a building that size in the middle of an unfarmed field. That makes no sense. Thank you, and I appreciate the time.

Thank you for your time, sir.

Aaron Stacy Roberts, 411 Allman. What I'm here for is the same thing I'm gonna stay on, and it's the criminal organization that is here in Waterloo, and when I speak of other cities, it's because it started here, and it has evolved into other cities where I have family, friends, and enemies who have been affected by this. We have three African American black council members, and whether they know it or not, All of them have family members who have been adversely affected by what I have been bringing to you. And what I want you to do is please, council members, make yourselves familiar with one rule that is very important for each one of you. That's rule 18, USC 241, coordinated rights violation, aka benign neglect, if you're just saying it in the streets. You got to be very careful when I've been bringing this to you and not this commit, not this console, but I'm going to be bringing you written concerns that I have. They need to be addressed. I don't know whether you took off or whether it's the law, but I know 1 thing when I'm talking about crime being committed to children, and I'm talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraud. This is something that I'm not asking the city council member to address, but I'm asking you. to take it to whoever you might find. If the police chief can't handle it, maybe you need to call the governor's office on the criminal organization or the FBI in Omaha, Washington, DC. It'd probably be a good idea for you to at least try to act like you're playing a part with this, because I'm not playing with this. And when I say rule 18 USC 241, you better pay attention to what I'm saying. Have a good evening.

Thank you, sir.

Hi there. My name's Melissa Hind. I live at 604 Kirkwood in Waterloo. I'm here about the data center. There's a lot of areas that have them already and they're actually fighting against them even before they're opened. I live over by the Cattle Congress. Almost every day it's noise. It's noise from the highway. It's noise from the cattle congress on a summer day it's so bad that at times we close the windows because it's just so noisy you can hear the cars go on to the tracks you can hear the the cars going the on ramps and then going around on the highway especially the ones that you know have decided to take off their their um kind of like converters and everything. Anyway, what I'm here about is there's a place called Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin. And the people in the area were for it. It was gonna bring in money. The city was very excited about it. And then they started hearing a hum. And it wasn't a small hum. People could hear it inside their houses with the window shut. And that's before the data centers started. They're going to have six data centers in that area, and the house quality, the living quality, is going downhill already, and that is before they have been opened. I think that that area that you want to put the data center in should be kept open. wild it it should not sound like a highway twenty four seven and if you think that that's not a problem then i suggest you buy property there and put a house there and see if you can tolerate that noise because where i live it's horrible it's noise all the time day night and i don't think you'd like it either thank you thank you ma'am

Good evening. Although I am a resident of Cedar Falls, I'm here speaking on behalf of some of my Waterloo friends who are not able to make it due to family or work-related concerns. I am a... Sir, I need your name and address. Oh, Kendall Fuller, 2303 Olive Street, Cedar Falls. Thank you. I'm a student at UNI, so like I said, I'm here speaking on behalf of some of my student friends who weren't able to make it today. There's a multitude of reasons I could speak out against AI data centers, but I'll speak on the one that I identify with most, that being rising bills. I come from a working class family in Des Moines, Iowa, a city that's not really so different from Waterloo, the more that I've been here and got to interact with the people of your community. I'll be the first to tell you that it doesn't feel great not being able to see my mom come home as often because she's out door dashing or doing other things to pay bills when I was younger. That didn't feel good. And I'd have to deal with ridicule at school because I wasn't able to get the right clothes because of financial struggles. And to see the utility expenses go up for the people in this community, it breaks my heart. I'm sure most people have done their research into the damage of AI and how it'll actively increase these utility costs, but I think about my personal connection with some of these students here in the Waterloo School District. I am in the teacher's educator program at UNI, and I have a student taught at both Kingsley Elementary and Frederick Becker Elementary, and to be able to see these students personally, day to day, and see how their lives can be affected whether it be not being able to see their parents as much because they're out working, whether it's them not being able to sleep at night because of a deafening hum preventing them from getting the rest that they need in order to get the education that they need to pursue their careers later in life, or losing one of their parents before they turn the age of 25. I think these are things that all should be considered when moving forward with this plan to build this AI data center. I don't think anybody here supports it. It's not just the people in the back who are pretty passionate and are advocating towards it. It's more than that. Think about all the people that couldn't show up either due to work-related concerns or just not being able to know about this in general. I recommend that you guys move forward with a state of transparency and that you guys move forward with the honesty that these people deserve. Thank you.

Hi, I'm Melissa Denning, 1007 Baltimore Street. I'm a Ward 5 resident, and when the discussion came up tonight about purchasing those three properties, I was actually feeling really good that maybe something was gonna happen to start to make Waterloo look like the city I know it can become. I came to Waterloo by way of Iowa City. My husband and I had a bet that whoever got a job after graduating from U of I first we'd go to that town. We planned to stay here for a little bit, and we've been here since 1989. Thank you. Well, I like it here, and Waterloo has been really good to me and my family overall. But what makes me really sad is that as I travel through my neighborhood, I can see what used to be like, it's like an invisible line, where I can see properties... Just, I don't know. I just want to encourage us to work on code enforcement and make Waterloo look appealing from the moment people get off that exit ramp and start mirandering through our city. Improve the roads. I know that that's a... very very big task but I will say that my car has got so many problems as a result of Waterloo roads because when we fill potholes in Waterloo we don't tap down the asphalt and rock or whatever that substance is we leave it to spray all over our cars and it doesn't fill the hole the hole is now back so I just I want to see Waterloo take some of the money that we're giving to these out-of-state people coming into town, let's invest it in us. Let's invest in our infrastructure. Let's invest in our neighborhoods. I live in a working-class neighborhood. Bought my house for, what, a song. And, you know, I love my neighborhood. But I don't like the fact that we have so many houses in disrepair, and some of them are owned by the city. And I'm questioning why the city isn't demolishing them.

I'm questioning the same thing, ma'am, and I'm addressing it with our economic development man and our city attorney.

I've got a house within two blocks of me that caught on fire a year and a half ago. Thank you. Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Hello, my name is LC Kent, 820 Noel Avenue.

According to Campaign Zero, the article, The Private Company's Quietly Building a Police State, published October 2nd of last year, states the purpose of these data centers is to hook to the flock cameras for the sake of predictive policing. the fourth amendment of the constitution protects us from unlawful search and seizure unless you have a warrant signed by a judge law enforcement cannot have access to information about you and collecting that information en masse is a gigantic violation of our citizens fourth amendment title 18 of the u.s code chapter 13 subsection 242 deprivation of rights under color of law is listed on the fbi civil rights statutes page the doj website and the house website where the u.s code is recorded verbatim from the FBI.gov website. This statute makes it a crime for any person acting under color of law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom to willfully deprive or cause to be deprived from any person those rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution and laws of the U.S. acts under color of any law include acts not only done by federal state or local officials within the bounds or limits of their lawful authority but also acts done without and beyond the bounds of their lawful authority this definition includes in addition to law enforcement officials individuals such as mayors council persons judges nursing home proprietors security guards etc persons who are bound by laws statutes ordinances and customs the Punishment varies from a fine or imprisonment of up to one year or both. And if bodily injury results or if such acts include the use, attempted use, or threatened use of a dangerous weapon, explosives or fire shall be fined or imprisoned up to 10 years or both. And if death results or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt commit aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to kill shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any terms of years or for life or both or may be sentenced to death. In other words, support for building the data center is a violation of federal civil rights statutes and therefore is illegal under the laws of the United States of America. Any authority attempting to participate in the violations of the Fourth Amendment by building these data centers are subject to the laws of the United States. And not only can they be prosecuted under those, but Title 42 of the US Code, Subsection 1983, makes persons individually financially liable for the violations taking place under Title 18, Subsection 242. All that we are asking is that the state of Iowa and the city of Waterloo follow the law. I know I am not the only one here who took an oath to uphold the Constitution against enemies both foreign and domestic. And I hope by educating the people in attendance today about the laws of the United States, I have done my duty in some small part. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, ma'am.

Phyllis Osterling, 4342 Ainsborough Avenue. I'm also a retired nurse, so I have a little more information regarding the aspect of the data center. In Virginia, the state of Virginia, associated with 300 million in annual public health costs and 14 asthma-related health impacts across multiple states has occurred. As of 2026, scientific models estimate that the rapid expansion of facilities will contribute to 1,300 premature deaths and 600,000 cases of asthma symptoms annually in the US by 2030. Harmful pollutants are released as fine particulate matter, microscopic soot particles from diesel exhaust bypass the respiratory system's natural filters, embedding deep within lung tissue. This directly triggers asthma attacks, chronic respiratory diseases, strokes, and heart attacks. And I found that the danger zone radius is .6 to one mile radius. I am right across from the proposed project. So I ask, what is the proposed decibel level? Some of the questions regarding electricity and water consumption have been addressed. I ask also, what fine particulate matter will be released? I propose a moratorium on the project until questions are answered.

Thank you. Thank you, ma'am.

My name is Samuel Gomez. I live at 2122 West 7th Street, and I just want to give you guys just a share of my mind. I moved here in 2021 as a traveling welder. I traveled all over the country. I worked at Cape Canaveral welding rockets and Sturgeon Bay welding a frigate for the Navy. I've seen little towns all across the country, and I landed here. And I've been here since 2022, living in Waterloo. I would just like to tell you guys that we have to follow the laws and your city ordinances on water, what we can and can't do. But you guys are giving data centers land for $1, and you're going to be using up half a million gallons of water per year, or per day, I should say. I'm sorry. So I kind of want to just tell you guys, we want a local government to be on our side in order for us to stay here. I am on the verge of moving out of here because when I moved here, I had an unbiased opinion about Waterloo. It's a charming town, Cedar Falls as well. But as I'm living here for more time, I started seeing a lot of these problems that you guys have that I should be, I've never, even in my hometown of Aurora, Illinois, I haven't spoken to the council because I never had to. So I feel before we start building these data centers, we need to start focusing more on our infrastructure. And I'm sure you guys probably have that on your plate, but I believe we need to start getting more aggressive on that. My streets don't get plowed. My roads are crap. Everywhere I go, I spent over $5,000 on suspension and ball joints. Just driving to work. So before we start thinking about data centers and trying to fill up a hole by digging up dirt from another hole, I feel like you guys got a lot of work cut out before we could start thinking about towards data centers, which I'm not going to get into details with that. There will be further other meetings in the future for that. So I want to see Waterloo improve. I think you guys got it in you. I just don't know what side are you guys on. That's it.

Thank you for your comments, sir.

Hi, I'm Christina Young, live in Waterloo.

Ma'am, I need an address besides Waterloo.

Okay, do we have to do that? Yes, ma'am. Okay, that's fine.

That's our rules. Stop, stop. We're not debating the audience. It's clearly stated in our... Thank you, sir. Thank you for attending.

Clearly states you have to say your address, ma'am. This is my first time. Well, thank you for coming. But anyway, my address is 1821 East 4th. And I have questions. The data center. How will it help Waterloo? How will it harm Waterloo? How is it connected to our bills, the water bill, electricity bill? Is there a connection? Is there a correlation? Also, can I buy some acres for a dollar?

It depends on what you're building, ma'am.

I'm sorry?

I said I would address it with Mr. Anderson. I've been paying taxes for some years. It depends on what you're building.

I'm interested, seriously.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for coming to the podium for your first time.

That was good. Carol Chaden, 147 Summit Avenue, Waterloo. I was born here, so I'm a hometown girl. This is my hometown, and I'm proud of Waterloo. And I debate with Cedar Falls folks all the time that it's okay to drive over here. Kind of pisses me off when they don't like to come here. But anyway, that's beside the point. I'm here about the data centers. And I have way more questions than I have answers, and I think that's kind of what... the folks here tonight seem to be talking about. There's just a lot of questions. I'm glad to hear that it hasn't gone through planning and zoning and we still have time. And you are a new council. You do not have to honor this agreement if you don't want to. And I think, you know, I remember during the election a lot of you ran on transparency and wanted to see more transparency and I was glad for that. And I hope that you can put your money where your mouth is. And I hope that we have more transparency going forward and that the community can work together about this. There's nothing wrong with bringing in some more economic opportunities into the area, but at what cost? I think we need to put the people before profits. And that's all we're asking for. And I did write to my council person six weeks ago. I still haven't had one single question answered. And I know we're supposed to only talk about one topic, but what alternative do we have? if we don't hear back from our person, and we can't make a comment during the meeting. So I guess we just organize protest. And it's OK to protest. We don't need anybody's permission to do that. So I hope that you will listen to us going forward. I would like to ask for a moratorium. I'd also like to suggest that we do a town hall. where the council members are present and we can ask questions. Waahawk Power is present, we can ask questions. You know, I went back and I watched that December 15th, 12th, whatever day it was, meeting, where it was unanimously approved, and I didn't see any presentation by Waahawk, I think, One of the council members asked some questions about water, and that was it. And then we had a vote. So we just have a lot of questions. And I hope y'all are willing to sit down with the community and get a little bit of community buy-in on this. Okay? People before profits. That's all.

Thank you, ma'am. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Amy Jo. I'm at 810 Congress Street. And I would just like to quickly remind all of you that you work for us. And if you're not aware of what's going on in the air recently, we are tired of the corruption. And I am really good at being a pain in the ass. So get it together, or we'll get it together for you by removing you. Thank you. Also, sorry. Even if you don't give people the chance to consent, that doesn't mean you have it. So stop raping your people.

Does anyone else from the audience wish to speak? In the public comment section, please come forward and state your name and address for the record.

Hi.

Good afternoon, or evening now. My name is Blair Boynton. I live at 6236 Kimball. It's about a mile and a half south of the proposed data center in Orange. My main concerns are that these tech companies are coming to abuse our water, our electrical grids, the mental and physical well-being of the surrounding residents, and we are paying them to do it. There is no water quality monitoring or noise mitigation requirements written into the current agreement. Other Iowa communities like Linn County have passed ordinances requiring water impact studies before data center approval. Waterloo seems to have not done this. I'm very concerned about the noise pollution being so close to the proposed center that will be caused by the data center in my area. I urge the council to dictate strict height setback and noise limits before approving anything else with this data center project. I feel this should have been done before any agreement was made. More scrutiny needs to be applied to the data center development. My other concern is they're written an option for expansion. The company also holds an option to acquire an additional 10 to 12 acres, also for $1, and it could grow into a 12-acre campus with no additional community input required. This isn't about being anti-growth. It's about making sure public land, public water infrastructure, and public tax revenue are being traded for real, lasting community benefit. These challenges highlight the need for sustainable, secure and efficient data center practices right now. The agreement protects the city's financial interest, but says very little about protecting Waterloo residents. I said the council provided detailed cost benefit analysis of the tax revenue versus the cost of city services and infrastructure. They get to purchase the land for a dollar with a 10-year 50% tax rebate through TIF, when meanwhile, we have one of the highest effective property tax rates in Iowa, ranking us as one of the most expensive places to own a home in the state. Why are taxpayers paying for a private business? We don't want and will likely cause damage to the community and the environment. Population growth has been stagnant and for 20 years in Waterloo, any growth in the county has been cedar falls in Hudson who wants to move into an area that has a data center. This is a short sighted decision, which may actually drive people to move out of the area. A lot of politicians and elected officials these days act as if once they're in office, they can just do whatever they want. That's not how representative government is supposed to work. Elected officials should be elected to continually represent the will of their constituents. I urge the council to slow this down and responsibly look at the issue and make decisions with the current and future residents in mind. Really think about the appropriateness of a data center here in Waterloo and how it impacts the community, your community. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Hello, I'm Marlin Fagan. I hope I won't cross borders, but I've been affected. 1146 Ackerman, Waterloo, Iowa.

Thank you, ma'am.

I've been affected. I've been coming to meetings and trying to get on things to learn stuff, and I know we have a new council and everything else. Working with a council member in my area, Mrs. Berry. What I'd like to say, it may border on some things, but I came and talked about our community as growing and keeping up with cold enforcement. And when I'm hearing a lot of this stuff with the database, which I'm saying is crossing, I have the concerns, like I said, with the water, the cleanliness, the streets. So all these things affected that we're bringing in other things and we have not conglomerated on it together and have, like one lady said, town meetings to know some different stuff because we're having all these little small groups. And I heard some other comments about let us be more informed. And just because it's a lot of different things that are coming to us and we need to know, knowledge is power. So it helps us and those ones that have it, maybe it can be effective for everybody to kind of be able to hear and then get back so we can be responsive. We feel that, you feel, maybe some of you, that there's an attack on you. But from what I'm hearing here today is we want to be concerned about a city growing and being effective and that we can live clean, area supportive, water, all these different things, utilities. I heard the young man say about jobs and stuff, the effect on health. There's a lot of things. I came starting with the cleanliness of our city and some of the other things, which I wasn't aware of, but trying to get back. And I'm one of those that's fighting to push getting here and learn more about the city, because I'm just tired of it, and want to see development. And that spreads to having code enforcement, all these different things, US councils looking what to bring in, stop giving away free stuff, And let us be a little bit more selective of what's going to do to protect our city and then build to outward to bring in to growth. That's one of my main concerns. Let us really start seeing the effect that we can do and help us as a community. Cedar Falls, Waterloo, all this separation, it's got to stop. I applaud the young man that came from Cedar Falls because we are connected when it comes down. We are together. We can build and grow better. So that's my concern. So you said don't cross too many borders, but it all affects me with the data center, the water, the utilities. I really started thinking about that. When was the last time there was a study? When I had a study, I was trying to think back on my street and I went out and I talked to the people to ask them where they literally were going down into the sewers, taking out stuff. And I know at one time we had got back, is that in 2008? Any of you remember that? There was a study in all the fungus and the different stuff in the water mains and stuff. So let's look at that. I don't know, like I said, I'm just a regular person, but I've been involved with trying to keep up with it.

Thank you. Thank you, ma'am.

Renee Carson, 1108 Vine Street. I just want to keep coming up and saying it until we get it. We're one city. Even though we're broken up into wars, it's still one city. What affects your ward affects everybody else's war. So I want y'all to just keep striving to make this city better. Keep pushing forward to make this city great the way it can be. And y'all Do not silence your people from coming before you to speak to you. Because all this newfangled internet mess, everybody ain't into that. Because I'm lucky I can work my phone half the time. I have to have them grandkids help me. I just learned how to get my messages off my phone. So please don't silence us. Let us speak to you. We don't want to be going through. No, what is this? All this um internet a. I messed up. We'd rather see you and speak directly to you so you know who's speaking to you and we support you. But you guys, let's push this city for we won city And we have to act like we one city instead of splitting us all up. Ain't no other ward no better than no other ward around here. We are one city. Let's make a go of it.

Thank you, ma'am. And I look forward to your comments every week. I say I look forward to your comments each week. I didn't hear you. I say I look forward to your comments each week. Thank you for coming. If no one else wants to speak, we'll go to council comments. Just prior to that, I want to apologize to the crowd for the temperature in this room. It's not like this normally, and I will find out what happened first thing tomorrow morning, why we didn't have air conditioning here tonight. I apologize on behalf of the city of Waterloo for you having to endure this meeting in this heat. Council comments. Mr. Simon.

Did you want me to close public hearing? Oh, go ahead, please.

I'd like to make a motion to close public comments and receive and file the comments and apply them to the public record. Second.

Motion and a second all in favor aye opposed same sign motion carried council comments.

Anyone Mr tomorrow Mr. mayor, I'd like to read something here has to do with city hall and some things that we've done. So, last Thursday, I met with a group to review all possible options available utilized for city hall and the police department to move into. We looked at options that kept both in one facility and options that would occupy separate facilities. Focus of this group was to identify the solution that was the best use of taxpayer money, maintained the most efficient use of space, allowing each department to properly function. We looked at seven facilities currently owned by the city and six facilities not owned by the city, but that could be purchased. Of the facilities currently owned by the city, the lowest cost option to house both city and police, other than the courier building, was in the $30 million range. She looked at separate separating the police in the city into different buildings that cost was in the twenty five million dollar range. After sitting down with this group and reviewing these thirteen, excuse me these thirteen facilities under the same criteria. It was clear to me that continuing with the courier building for both city hall and police at a cost in the sixteen million dollar range. not including the $6.2 million that was given when the current city hall was transferred, ranges the most logical, cost-effective, and efficient path. Mr. Mayor.

Do you have a question? I'm fine. Are you done? Yes. Mr. Schmidt.

Mr. Mayor, so earlier today, and I just want to follow up with this, thank all the folks that came tonight to speak. Earlier today, I know I and I think probably all the council members have been inundated with emails and texts and phone calls about the data center. And I know I, and I think every council member up here, was really completely caught off guard and unaware. I hadn't heard about this up until very recently. As everybody knows, it was passed last December. None of us up here were on the council. Well, one of us were up on the council last December. I never heard about it, and it's not been a topic since then up until recently. So the only point I want to make, I sent several emails to people today saying that I was going to present a motion tonight after talking to Planning and Zoning Director Anderson about having a public work session to talk specifically about the data center and inviting Mid-America Energy, Waterloo Waterworks, obviously Walhawk Data, to come and have that. I do think, I was unaware of what the Mayor talked about as far as planning and zoning, and this thing is a what I'd like to say is a slow-moving train, and so I don't know that we necessarily need to schedule that work session right now while all these other conversations are gonna be going on, But I'm sure the mayor would guarantee you that there's going to be a very public conversation about this that you'll all be made aware of and you'll all be encouraged to attend and all of us get enlightened because I probably know less than anybody else in this room because this is out of my wheelhouse. So I did want to make, I'm sorry, I can't call on you. It's not my job. But I just want to make people aware of that because I did say we were going to get that schedule tonight, and I'm not going to ask for that right now until we go further along. And then one other thing I would like to bring up is just, again, going back to my previous getting on council 18 years ago, code enforcement and these dilapidated houses were a problem then, and they had been a problem for years in 2008, and they've not gotten any better. And I know our code enforcement group is working hard. I know our city attorney's working hard to get this done. It is beyond their ability. So we've got to make a decision to spend some more money and get this thing moving at a more rapid pace. I have heard from so many different people that when they come to Waterloo, their first impression is not good. because we have dilapidated houses now all over this city. I just was made aware of one beautiful brick home over on Kimball right near St. Edwards that's sitting there empty, and it's got a tag on it, and it's an out-of-state owner because Waterloo's become a haven for people that They cannot believe the property they can buy here for the dollar amount, but they have no intentions of ever coming here and using it. They just think they're going to be able to turn a profit in the meantime. These properties just continue to deteriorate. So I believe we've got to do something. We've got to become more bold in our action. And I'm going to be making an effort in that regard. So I just want to share that.

Thank you, sir. Any other from the council? Ms. Berry, please.

I just want to say that I, too, appreciate all the comments that we heard tonight. And when I decided to run for this position, as Ms. Carson, you always say, how do we want to make our city better? I really believe every one of us want the same thing. I know it's going to be difficult to, I mean, as you can see tonight, we don't vote the same. We vote no, we vote yes. We are pretty independent thinkers. But I want you all to know, regarding the data center with me, I don't know much about it as we've all, as it's been said. So I just ask that you show us grace here. We're all learning too. People think that when you run for office, you know it all, but we don't. And we also have feelings too, okay? But I believe every one of us up here want to do what we can to move our city forward Okay, I believe that from my heart. So I just ask that you guys Keep coming We don't mind you getting in our faces. We don't mind that. It's just that when we become disrespectful to each other, that's not godly. I'm a Christian, so I just have to say that. But we just want to have your input. We need your input on things, okay? You know how to reach all of us. I'm ward three. You're ward five, Mr. Aurora. Councilman... what are you at large thank you steve at large we have our mayor we have our clerk we have one uh councilman steve smith we have even councilman morrow too okay But it doesn't mean that you can't talk to me, even though you belong to these other ones, if you do, okay? So I just want you to know our door is open, but we really need y'all to show us some understanding. We're not here to try to take away, hurt, harm, any of that. We all live in this city, and I love this city too, okay? So I just wanted to say that. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you all.

Anyone else have anything to say? Mr. Mayor? Mr. Simon.

Just real quick, it's been a long meeting, and I appreciate everybody that showed up tonight. I wanted to just first off thank everybody that's taken the time to reach out to me. I've heard a lot of different things from a lot of different people and I continually tell them that I appreciate all the information that I can get because I want to try to make informed decisions and I want to hear from everybody. And so I just want to thank the people that have given me the opportunity to absorb what they're saying so I can make informed decisions. As far as touching on the transparency thing, I think we're in a good spot now where i was on the council last last year a lot of things would get brought to the council on friday afternoon at four o'clock and we would have the weekend if we were lucky to vote on that the following monday under this mayor thankfully the public gets to see anything that's going to be on this agenda at least a week in advance And hopefully more than that. So I encourage everybody in the audience and everybody in the city to continue to look at what's on the agenda every week. Because everything that's on an agenda affects all of you. Like Ms. Berry said, we're all up here trying to do what we think was best. And we're human. We do make mistakes. But we do have the right intentions. And that's why we sit up here. So I wanted to thank everybody. And like I said, we've got a lot of things getting thrown at us. And I appreciate everybody that's given me the opportunity to hear their responses. So thank you.

Thank you. And that being said, I want to thank everyone for coming tonight and for all of their comments. I hope you come with the same passion to the planning and zoning meeting. Yes. And voice your opinions for or against the data center. And if by chance it makes it through planning and zoning, come back when it comes before the city council with that same passion. I entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved.

Second.

Moved and second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Same sign. Motion. We are adjourned.