City Council - Regular Meeting

and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right. Thank you. Welcome everybody. Want to make one uh one adjustment to our agenda real quick. Um Mr. Uh Carl is going to he's got to get to Cedar Rapids ahead of the rain. So we're going to move resolution 202605 up in between the two uh public hearing lines tonight so we can get his public mir hearing and then do his resolution and then he can run on down the road and we'll finish up. So, so with that I would enter entertain a motion to approve the agenda as posted and sent to the news media 24 hours and prior to the meeting.

So moved. Second. Motion by Mr. Limo. Second by Mr. Holmstrom. All in favor? I

opposed. Motion carries. And I want should uh [clears throat] mention as well Miss Roodie is not with us tonight. she's absent and not feeling well. So, next we have the uh leadership statement. Um the city of Hampton endeavors at all times to promote and model the principles of professionalism, trust trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and cit citizenship. In conducting this meetings evenings evening's meeting, we expect that all participants will act in a respectful manner consistent with these principles. Thank you. Next is the uh council work workshop report we had uh Monday on the 20th. Uh I won't read that to you although it is really short. It was seven minutes in length. So um but [snorts] it is available online if anybody wants to uh review that. Next item up, we have public comment. So, if there's anybody that has a public comment for this evening, [clears throat] I unfortunately after all of this, I have to depart after my public comment to take [clears throat] my son to baseball practice. Anyway, good evening. Here we are at the finish line and I sadly can't say that I am excited to be here with the exception that this is over. Back in September, over seven months ago, I was asked by my neighbor to come and support them when one day after several years of having chickens at their property, they were cited and given the opportunity to ask

this council for permission to keep their flocks. I want that reiterated. It was my neighbors. I was and have never been cited, spoken to, or warned about the chickens we had. I came here on my own valition, and little did we any of us know that we were marching ourselves in front of a firing squad. While we have been living relatively peacefully on our acreages on the south side of town, removed from the normal hustle, bustle, and drama of Hampton city life, unbeknownst to any of us, there was a chicken crisis amongst the close city neighborhoods. How were any of us to know that we were already behind the eight-ball fighting an uphill battle with a group of people who set up on a dis and had a bone to pick with chickens in town. talk about unknowingly poking a s sore spot with our city council with the letter of the law to support our request and with the assumption that common sense would prevail. Who would have thought that this was a hill our city council was prepared to die on? But it turns out they were willing to fight for that hill. And when this council began to lose ground on their position and where unnecessary comments about residents made, additional requirements be asked of us to keep our chickens like registering our broods with the USDA. But we said fine just to appease a small group of people. Nowhere else is that requirement asked of hobby farmers with chickens. And sadly for some, those requirements pushed too far and have now killed their joy of owning chickens. So far, is everyone feeling pretty good about themselves? Good.

Yeah.

But oh no, that wasn't enough. To add final insult to injury, the city council is directly and solely responsible for the distress and the unhappiness that they have wrought upon several residents of Hampton, many of whom had no dog in this chicken fight by repealing the very ordinance that we legally used to ask for the special permission to keep this livestock. Why? Because if this residents of Hampton remember like I remember members of the council believed it was a waste of time to hear these requests reducing us residents as these characters. We were accused of contributing to the blight problem, the smell problem, a host of other weak sauce accusations that clearly were not and have never been a case since we were able to have these birds for years without anybody being impacted in the way we have been accused. You are the direct cause of distress to Jim who has been running sheep out of his property for over a decade who is going to sell his property to his son and who would have used this livestock ordinance to continue to run sheep out there. You have taken You have directly taken that opportunity away from them. [clears throat] From me, who was misled when I bought my home back in 2020 that I could get horses, but had found a small glimmer of hope that I could seek special permission for a horse or two, of which I had sought guidance from Barryon, and who had given me his support in using that ordinance to ask for horses long before this issue of chickens ever arose. from a host of other neighbors who have approached me, but I will not name since they have not come forward publicly, denouncing our city manager's nonchalant comment last time about how we are expected to manage our acres of land now that it was clarified that we can't even grow hay on our property since, you know, grass can't be taller than 6 in. What does

this city council honestly expect us to do with our acres? just to keep it as grass, leave it open for easy ground to be taken by imminent domain when the time arises. I wonder what motives the council could possibly have against us using our land in a productive manner. There has been talks of the county land of county land being snapped up to be reviewed to be reszoned for data centers. So, it's not hard for me and others to assume what alternative motives our city leaders may have for us in this city. us asking for chickens affected no one but the original three of us who had come forward before the council for the um special permission that properties met specific requirements to keep said livestock and instead of leaving it like that and allowing us to keep our chickens put a kibos on the chickens within deep city limits and call it a win-win for all you have now burned down the house trying to kill a spider they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions and Boy, howdy, what a road you all paved. I have people who I don't even know, people who live in surrounding communities approaching me to talk about how ridiculous this whole thing has been from the start and to show support for not just chicken owners, but all of those affected by the change to the ordinance. I have people driving by my house like creeps to see where I live in order that for us to have chickens. This oral ordeal has brought an unnecessary amount of attention to me, my family, my property, my neighbors, and those of all who fall within the similar circumstances. Attention I never sought after or wanted. And now, because of all of this, I'm actually consider running for one of y'all's spots the next time elections roll around. because of how this whole thing has handled and how a lot of issues in this town have been handled. Not a single one of our current city

leaders accur accurately represents me, my family, or my living arrangements. It was clear from the beginning that none of our current city leaders have demonstrated any knowledge of living on an acreage, the amount of work it takes to manage a property of size, and clearly know nothing of livestock, husbandry, and health. And that's fine, but it isn't an excuse to be ignorant that special circumstances should be made when reasonable. That isn't to say that there are those there are or were members that didn't see reason in our request despite not having a full grasp of what us property owners deal with or know the finer workings of livestock, health, and happiness. But people have noticed more and more residents of Hampton and our neighboring communities are losing or have lost faith in our city's leadership. I have lost faith. If anyone was to ask me if Hampton was worth moving to, our city's government would be on the con side of my list. Pass this ordinance or don't. Either way, you have done something that does not improve Hampton, does not reflect well on Hampton, or the council has sowed division between neighbors, cause strife to residents, and I am beside myself to have been part of it when I was never called into question in the first place. I have been doing what you all should been doing from the beginning, apologizing to my fellow Hampton residents like Jim and others for the grief this has inadvertently caused him and others like him. I could have easily hidden away, stayed silent with my chickens on my own slice of paradise. But I didn't. I spoke up. I defended. I supported my neighbors. And now everyone is being punished. City residents, take note. Just because you may never have cause to seek a special permission to have livestock does not mean you should have the choice taken away from you. And it may not be the livestock ordinance, but some other little ordinance hidden away deep in our

city's bylaws that city leaders who would otherwise have no clue about, but will do away with it if the occasion were to arise and they choose to disagree with it. You deserve to have that opportunity. Mark my words, this sets a dangerous precedent moving forward. This could have been a wonderful moment for both sides to create something groundbreaking for our community and perhaps give residents of Hampton something to be proud of in our city leaders. And instead, we look like a bunch of fools who run around like chickens with their heads cut off because it takes nearly a year to make a simple decision. No matter how this vote goes, someone is going to lose. And this council has done everything in its power to ensure it is not them taking the hit. You let us, the residents, take the hit. I am disappointed in you. I am disappointed in the city of Hampton. I am disappointed in the few residents who had no skin in this game yet still had the nerve to whisper in the ears of our city council members about how they felt about chickens when it had nothing to do with them and never would. On the flip side, I am while I and vast many others are disappointed in our city leaders, probably more people than you all realize, I do want to give a special thank you to those few on the city council, both current and former, who saw this for what it was, saw the common sense in our request, and didn't make a mountain out of a molehill. You supported us from the beginning, and I sincerely thank you. You were the only reason I was able to sleep at night when things looked stacked against us. And I thank the far larger res the far larger number of residents both local and from surrounding communities even as far as De Moine for all your support, well-wishes, shared complaints and solidarity in our fights against this injustice because that's what removing the special permission provision is is unjust. The decisions of the for the

community should be made with the community in mind, not based on the personal beliefs or personal opinion that only affect you and your immediate neighborhood. Your predecessors clearly foresaw special exceptions within city limits and made provisions to accommodate those of us who were the special exception. And it is reasonable to believe that future city leaders will not feel the same as this current governing body. I for one will continue to fight for the rights of property owners who are the special exceptions, the minority who live on the fringe of society. I will continue to fight for our right to speak before the council to make requests before this governing body. I will continue to fight and any injustice that is put upon us and I will continue to fight for those who do not feel properly represented by our current city leaders. I leave with my parting thoughts that I wish none of this had happened. I wish I never had to do any of this. I am sorry to all the residents of Hampton for the tremendous amount of precious time that this has taken away from much bigger issues that deserve the same level of scrutiny, time, and attention. And to our future leaders of the city council, take note of this moment and please do better for all of us.

Thank you for shing sharing your opinion with us. Does anybody else have any uh public comment this evening?

Well, that's pretty tough to follow. Um, I have still have an issue with the idea that, you know, I do have the five acres and we all know what's about the sheep. Well, I never knew a sheep and a chicken were related. So, I guess that's something I didn't learn on the farm. And uh that idea of now I got to mow that or my son and I just don't think you know like she made a very good thing you know uh you don't realize what it is to sit there and live on an acreage and you got to take care of the grass you got to take care of this you got to take care of that. Well down where I'm at now wow five minutes and you mowed your lawn. put five hours out there to try to mow the lawn every 10 days or whatever it takes to keep it so tall. I just think that's it's not what I was expecting. And everybody said when I came in there was no problem when I uh brought the sheep when I bought the acreage and it was all city council was in favor of it um just because of chickens. Now we can't do it. And I brought up about, you know, bailing it because at least it's going to save me the time of having to go out there and mow that all the time because uh I just don't think it's right. All right. Thank you. Anybody else have any public comment this evening? Hearing

none, we will move on. Next, we have uh public hearings. Uh we have the plants, plans, specs, and for form of contract and estimated cost for the Hampton Municipal Airport fuel farm project. So at this being this being the time and the place for the public hearing I in regards to the plans, the specs, the form of contract and and estimated costs for the Hampton Municipal Air Airport fuel farm project. I'm Mayor Bertell. We'll open this public hearing at 6:17 and we will turn it over to Mr. Buyers, I believe, is going to give us some details on the project. [snorts]

Thank you. And thank you for being willing to amend the agenda. Um, we have been planning for years and I've I know I've been here and addressed the uh council previously, but on replacing some of the fuel down the road and then last summer we had some um some leaks indicated with some ground well uh moni monitors and uh they fell below any uh requirements. uh we reported to the DNR they felt follow any requirements that to do anything because it was very minuscule but that said it was a wakeup call that we can't keep pushing it down the road to replace the fueling there were two underground tanks um the airport sells very little jet fuel but they do sell aviation gas have gas and so um we had had federal funds uh that are a 95% grant 5% local match and so we um uh uh went into design and designed a uh small uh a aviation fuel uh system with a new above ground tank also with new cabinet and pump uh and upgrading everything to meet current requirements because it's in near the same location as the existing underground [clears throat] aviation fuel tank. That one will be removed. The jet fuel tank uh will not be replaced, but uh we will have we will abandon that in place because it was right up against the hanger. to remove that would have potentially undermined the stability of the hanger. So, that one will be abandoned in place meeting all DNR requirements. Um, and do we want to do I you want me to to close the public hearing before I report the bid that we had? That's the project.

Go through the public hearing and then we'll do the then we'll do the resolution for the bid. Yeah. And so, we we actually bid that recently and I'm I'm ready to when you're ready to report the outcome. Okay. Take any public comment. Any comments? Yeah, I got a question. Yes. We just made a large fuel purchase.

So, when the project's complete, we'll just pump that into the new tanks. Well, the if it's AVG gas, so it's going to be in the same we won't be able to keep we'll have to either either sell it to or find a place to temporarily store it until we can get the new one in place because we have to remove the old one and fill the hole in because that just off to the side of that is where the new one's going. Okay. Oh, and is that is there a plan for that? Um I didn't I mean the plan typically is to run it down as low as you can. I didn't know you'd recently made a large J just ordered some but um I don't know exactly when you anticipate starting.

Yeah, this is going to be by the time we get the federal grant and then by the time I mean it may not even it's likely with the lead time on tanks and equipment everything it won't even be this year. It could easily be next spring. Okay.

So, uh but I would recommend as we're getting as we know when it's going to be not making any large purchases, keep it as low as we can. Uh and also one other thing is I know that previously because of the concerns that we had had with uh some hydrocarbons showing up in some tests. Um there was a question of putting a wall around this and I can discuss that later but it was designed with a a um containment area. Even though the tank is a doublewalled tank, it still has a containment area around it. Now it won't contain the full tank because in we had to build we don't have a it's very flat out there. So we had to build it up. If you wanted to contain the whole tank, it would be easy to put a uh a containment type of ballard right across the front. The other three sides are high enough, but a small spills it will contain um so that we wouldn't have any um and that was I know a request that we build that into the design. So,

thank you. All right. Any other input for the public hearing? Yes, I would mayor. I would just note that there's been no written objections and uh no oral objections um voiced.

All right. Well, with that, we will close this public hearing at 6:21 [cough] and we'll move on and move to the resolution 20265 that we moved up for Mr. Mr. buyers. This is the resolution accepting bid and authorizing the board of contra contract int contingent upon the receipt and exe execution of grant agreement with a FAA and approving an application for a FAA funding assistance assistance from the construction of the fuel farm. I'll make a motion to approve 20 second.

Do you want me to go ahead and go through what happened? You can go ahead and do the the bids about the bids. The bids now. So,

we we had when we bid it last week, we did have three biders. And our estimate had been 547,000 for the base bid. Uh two of the biders were in the 423 433. So, $100,000 under our estimate, which we were very, very pleased with. The other was right very very close to our estimate. Uh, of the three biders, the two that were low, one of them when we were uh, looking at the bids to do the bid tabulation later had neglected to fill in unit prices on his bid, which according to code we could not ac accept that. He at the with the base bid, he was not low anyway. So, uh, the recommendation would be to award uh, and then the with the low one is Boulder Contracting out of Grundy Center. They were low on the base bid. Now they made what they told said was an error on instead of subtracting to build the wall or to take the wall out, they added to take the wall off. So technically it would cost us extra to take the wall off. Um but so our recommendation is to just go ahead and accept the base bid from for them. Uh that way we'll have a wall around three sides and you know down the road if you ever wanted to add a fourth. I mean, we didn't do that so there's access into the tank area,

but it would be easy it much easier to contain any spills by leaving it on there. Um, so our recommendation was to award to Boulder Contracting uh the base bid for $423,363.75. Um, now there is that's would be 95% funded by the FAA 5% local match. There are two items near the bottom of the bid tabulation that have to do with abandoning the jet fuel tank in place. Those the FAA won't pay for, but the DNR has a program up to $15,000 to to take care of that and abandon it in place according to all their regulations. And luckily, their bid for those items that weren't FA eligible was by far the lowest for that item, which worked out very well. It falls below that DNR program amount. We have not yet talked to the DNR about getting that money, but that's the the plan. Uh is that's there's $7,100 that we would try to get from the DNR to abandon that jet fuel tank in place, but the rest of it would be 95% funded by the the federal government, 5% local match. Um and then our our other recommendation was assuming it's that you vote to award to uh Boulder Contracting uh then would be to we have already prepared a grant to submit so authorized signing that and getting that sent into the FA for the actual formal grant for funding.

All right. I'll make a motion to approve 20 26-5. I'll second. Okay. Yes. Motion by Mr. Lamos. Second by Mr. Davies. Any further discussion with this? [snorts] If not, this would be a roll call vote. Um, Mr. Holmstrom, I. Mr. Lamos, hi. Miss Fay, I Mr. Davies, hi. Miss Griefy, I

Okay. And Mr. Roie is absent. So with the vote of 5 to two uh resolution 2026.05 is approved. Right. Are there any questions before for me before I go? Okay. I appreciate Thank you very much for doing this and I hope I hope the weather does does die down before it gets here. But thank you Carl. Thank you very much. Drive safe. [snorts]

All right. Right, we'll move on to our next public hearing. This is the for this fiscal year 20 20 fiscal year 25 27 budget hearing. Uh this being the time and place for the public public hearing in regard to fiscal year 27 budget. I'm Edwards will open the hearing at next 626. All [snorts] right, Mr. Dant.

Thank you, Mayor. I would just note that there were no written objections and [snorts] uh so the what you have in your packet on the purple page is the notice of public hearing um that was published. And then I'm just going to review just uh again um the levy certification page. Um the tax levy is projected with this budget is projected to be 14 $14.85 per thousand which is uh over a dollar let's see a$16 less than the current fiscal year. Um I would just open it up mayor to any public comment. Any public comment on the fiscal year 27 budget?

What was our total amount for the whole budget? Uh 8,247,000 is the Well, we've got uh revenues is 9.4 million, expenditures 10.7 million. Thank you.

Mhm. Any other input on the uh hearing? If not, I will notice note that we have we don't have any ro oral objections and we can close this public hearing at 6:28. All right, moving on. New business tonight. Uh, we've got the consider awarding the inventor pride for April 2026 to Kimberly Vargas for the property located at 714 First Street Northeast. Miss Griefy.

Yay. We get to do something fun. [laughter] Um, yeah, use 714 First Street Northeast. You can see the before and after pictures. I was driving down the road one day and I saw that house and I thought, "My god, HGTV was here. I didn't even know about it. Looks fantastic." Um, Kimberly is the owner of the property and Patricio, okay, I said that. Okay. Is the guy that did all the work on it. That's so impressive. I'm just I'm thrilled with it and thank you so much. It makes that neighborhood look fantastic. Yes, it's beautiful. So, I would take that as your uh motion. That's my motion

to [laughter] to uh award um Miss Miss Gar Vargas to the with the image of Pride for April 2026. Do we have a second? I'll second. Second, Miss Fay, any other comments and discussion you'd like to make? It's beautiful. It looks great. Really beautiful. All right. With that, we put that to a vote. All in favor? I and opposed. All right. With that, we uh award the image of image pride for April 2026 for Miss Vargas. Congratulations. [applause]

Now, you got to come up here. All right. Now, we got to do photo ops.

[snorts]

Thank you so much. Thank you. I appreciate it. All right.

Thank you so much. Fix it. Thank you so much. Just some chamber bucks to spend at my shop. [laughter] Any chamber member in town, you can spend at the grocery store, whatever. All right. Congratulations. Congratulations. [applause]

Thanks for coming. Yeah. Thank you. All right, moving on. That was that was a breath of fresh air. [snorts] Uh, approve the grant contract for the Iowa Econ economic development authority for 2026 community t catalyst building and remediation grant. Mr. Dunn,

thank you, mayor. Uh this is related to four uh first street northwest uh the old pharmacy project. Uh this is a community catalyst building remediation grant and this is the grant agreement between the Iowa Economic Development Authority and the city of Hampton. Um this project this grant calls for a completion date of July 7th, 2028. Um and this is just a standard contract. Um, I would just answer any questions if I can. Once the council approves this, we will get get it to the state and uh

continue moving forward. It's a $100,000 grant. A question I have is this is technically only could be used on four or could be used on four and six. Uh, four. The award is for four. Okay. Yeah. Can we get one for six? Uh, possibly. That's why we have kept everything separate up up until now. Yes. Right. Any other discussion, concerns?

All right. Well, with that, I would enter entertain a motion to approve grant concrete contract with Iowa economic development authority for 2026 community catalyst and wed building remediation grant. I move we approve. Second. Motion by Mr. Davies, second by Mr. Holmstroms. All in favor? I I opposed. Motion carries. Thank you.

Next item. We got to set Thursday, May 26th, 8th, May 28th, 2026 at 6 p.m. as the 8 date and time of public hearing on fiscal year 26 budget amendment and authorized staff to public not publish notice. Mr. Dun.

Thank you, Mayor. So, this uh fiscal year 26 budget amendment as we we looked over at the workshop uh if you recall I handed out the spreadsheet of the expenditures and revenues. One thing since that workshop that we uh thought of that we didn't include and we I'm recommending that we include it is um $30,000 for the Iowa Rural Housing Assessment Grant U program that we participated in. We still have some funds left to um utilize uh and it's a reimbursement. So, we need to expend funds which um at this point in time we have to have those expended by the end of June. And so, up until now, we were been working with Mary at the uh FCDA um on potential things to put this towards. It's it at we have after paying $5,000 to the Iowa State University group that did the study. Uh now we're down to collecting maybe 16,000 and some change uh that we have left to collect. So, um, in in looking through options with Mary and then we also talked with, uh, with North Iowa Corridor on what any suggestions that they may have, um, we've come to the conclusion that I want to recommend that we use the remaining funds to improve some of the infill lots that we have that we're going to put on the market. We're working on putting them back on the market. Uh, a couple of them that that I have in mind, uh, is the lot south of the car wash that we just demolished a house. Um, uh, proposing to put new sidewalks on two sides and then with ADA ramps, two ADA ramps as well for mobility for disability or disabled people. also on the Wel property on Third Avenue Northeast where there's still the

structure that we're proposing to get that in the hands of the private sector for someone to fix up, rehabilitate that, doing some sidewalk uh work there. Um there also might be a stump there that needs to come out uh that we could utilize as well. Also, um, as community cleanup was identified in the plan as, uh, a good way to reduce blight, we may, if there's some funds left over, we may pay for some of the expenses related to the cleanup, um, that we're h seeing right now. So, um, I want to be able to use use the remaining grant funds and then in order to do so, we need to include that into the budget as an expenditure. I did not include the the reimbursement revenue because I don't anticipate getting that in this fiscal year. That'll probably come after July 1. So, um that basically that increases that net change. It was 193,502. Now it's 223,502. So, if the council's okay with that change, then we will move forward. And and that's the the new notice that would be published.

I'm assuming those expenses are all approved to be used by the grant. I'm assuming that you would have checked that or they have a list of acceptable. They don't really have a list. Um, but I sent them an email to say, "Hey, this is what we're thinking." And they said, "Yeah, those appear to be eligible expenses." Yeah. Thanks. Yeah. All right. [clears throat] Any other comments, discussion on that? I think when we get them sidewalks fixed, it might be we might be able to sell the property each year. It's going to look better. It's going to help and it'll Yeah, it'll visually and for development, it'll be more attractive to a potential developer.

Y agreed. Right. Anybody else? If not, I would entertain a motion to set Thursday May 28th, 2026 at 6:00 p.m. as the date and time for the public hearing on fiscal year 26 budget amendment and authorized staff to public no publish. So move Miss Fay, second by Miss Greedy. All in favor? I I opposed. [clears throat] Motion carries. Thank you.

Next, uh I'd entertain a motion to approve the claims as submitted by staff in the amount of $453,945 98 97. And just making a note that the claims are t higher this than normal this year because of the payment of the liability insurance this month. So I'll make a motion to approve the claims. Second motion by Mr. Limo, second by Miss Grey. All in favor? I I

opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. Next we have ordinances and uh resolutions. Uh first one is ordinance 410. This is the ordinance amending chapter 55 the Hampton City Cove for the purpose of adding regulations regarding the keeping of chickens within the city of limits. Mr. Dunt.

Uh yeah just a basic summary. the ordinance amending chapter 55 for the purpose of adding regulations regarding the keeping of chickens within the city limits. Um basically the council wishes to permit the keeping of chickens uh with some guidelines. Also section uh 2 amends 55.05 with the f and replaces with the following language. Livestock with the exception of chickens. It's unlawful for a person to keep livestock within the city except in compliance with the city's zoning regulations. And section 3 uh 55.17 is a section that would basically outline a number of regulations regarding permits requirements for the keeping of chickens and coups and runs and things like that. So, thank you.

All right. Any further discussion on this ordinance?

I think a 100 years ago someone said the wheels of government move slow and uh that's true with anything we we do up here. My uh my feelings on that ordinance I have been up and down. Right now, I don't think we're being fair to Jim because Dutch Richmer had sheep there 20 years. Jim's had him 10 and then we're going to kick him in the teeth. How's that being fair? That's all I got to say. Mr. Davies,

I would uh like to again just state as I did at the meeting where we voted on it at the second reading is that I disagree with section two. I think that should be taken out. I agree with Barry. I just don't think it's fair that we um take away the opportunity for Jim to have the sheep. That's all I'd like to say. Anything else, Mr. Grief?

I'd like to say I I don't believe we are taking away that opportunity. There is a resolution to that. Jim can keep his name on the land with his son and therefore then as long as his name is on that, that covers it. He can keep his sheep there. I guess I would like to rephrase. I just don't think it's fair to eliminate that from the future of the property regardless of who the owner is.

And I'd like to say back to that back when our previous council members their their foresight was they wanted to see the city be able to grow that way. And they had that pegged for growth, not not to to punish anyone. And how do you know that? Were you on council then? We talked about it at our last meeting. Oh, well, regardless, we're here and now and I think it's wrong. What? Okay. Well, that's the information we received at our last meeting. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome.

Okay. And if give me just a minute if you would I'll lose that. Um, one thing I would add say to that is that we are talking about Hampton as a whole. We're not looking at just we're not just picking on Jim's property at all. I mean, this is something that we put together and and we voted on twice and um that is going to help us down the road to manage by ordinance and not by exception in our communities. So, you know, I mean, I don't I don't think that we're picking on Jim. It's just an un unfortunate circumstances that he's selling his to his son. And uh you know, just think about that when we vote tonight. Mr. Holmes.

Well, this um this just like Barry, I've been up and down the board on this chicken ordinance. And when [snorts] it first came to us before I walked into this meeting, that very first meeting, my answer was going to be no. My mind was made up. I said no. When I walked out of my house, I told my wife the answer is going to be no. No chickens in Hampton. And after listening to the group and reading their proposals and realizing where they lived in this community and that there was an exception in there, I thought at the time two of them satisfied my curiosity as far as the placement of the chickens and how many and how they were going to take care of them and things. And I voted yes. And To be honest with you, I was so mad at myself when that word came out because I had said my decision was no. And here I spoke yes. In fact, I took it out on Jim and I stated some things that Jim I shouldn't have. But and that's that's where it came out. But the problem is with these exceptions is we shouldn't have them at all at at our level because our speaker tonight and Jim are absolutely correct. I have absolutely no idea what it's like to live on an acreage. I don't. And that's why decisions like that should not be coming to the city council. We have a zoning board. We have a board of adjustment who have made these stipulations and they flatly said no chickens in residential area. So I think the chicken people the people that would like to have the chicken or would like to make the exception they should have went that direction first and then the zoning board could have came to us and said I

recommend an exception in whatever case. Um that didn't happen. There's so many things that didn't happen. In fact, it wouldn't have come up to us if we weren't made aware of the fact because of a citation that there was chickens running around at these houses for quite a long time without any approval from anybody, but they were violating our ordinance because our ordinance said no chicken. Um, and [snorts] the trouble is I thought this, you know, I thought we could still get away with it. I'll say approve to the two that said they were only going to have six or seven chickens and how they were going to take care of them. But you know that's not going to work because you have to have an ordinance because you have to have the same thing for every property owner that comes up to us after time after that and says I want to have chickens. Well that's okay. Here's the ordinance. We didn't have an ordinance allowing chicken because there was no chickens allowed in Hampton at the residential area. So, we had to develop that ordinance. And quite frankly, I don't want us to be the exception. If we're going to be the exception every time somebody comes in, why do we have a a zoning board? And why do we have a board of adjustments? Otherwise, because otherwise it's meaningless for them. They'll make it they'll make a regulation and somebody will come here and we'll change it. That's not the way that the city council should work. I I feel terrible. If I knew this, honestly, if I knew this thing was coming up with Jim on that day, I would have said flat no and to heck with the chickens. I, you know, I walked past Jim's property for 20ome years and there's been um sheep out there. I enjoyed it. It was It's a peaceful walk. I walk my dog to the highway. I turn around and walk back and we stop there and we talk, if you can believe it, I stand there and talk to the sheep trying to get the dog interested, you know. I enjoy it. And I'm sure the little kids do that that like that park, you know. So, I feel terrible. And not only that, Jim's my neighbor. So, I I feel doubly terrible. Not only a neighbor, I always thought Jim was a friend. And I hope after this

we're still friends. Be I can't allow an exception. Personally, I don't think it's fair to the zoning board, to the board adjustments, or the citizens of Hampton to have an exception in there that we can overrule every board that we have. And I mean, I honestly I'm new on the I'm new on the on the council and I read all of the ordinances and then I look at ordinances from other cities and what I see is the exact same verbiage on this and I'm thinking, what is this? The councils can't think enough for themselves to create their own ordinances. And so every ordinance says we're going to have an exception. Well, they they just they just kick the can down the road. They they didn't take action. And I think we need to take action. We need to say no exceptions. Now, I know Doug has talked to Jim and I I don't want to speak out of term. I don't know what their decisions were and I'm not going to speak onto that. In fact, I was in favor personally if um we haven't had that third reading yet. The ordinance isn't in place at this minute. My thought was if Jim came up or Jim's son or whoever brought the property came up and said, "I'd like to continue what my dad did." I probably would say yes. Quite frankly, I don't I don't know, Ron. And you can tell me because I honestly don't know when the permission was originally granted for that property. Do we have it written down somewhere where it says that it's only for the property and not the person? I know the lawyer said this, but did the lawyer did do we have something in writing that says it was for the property and not the person? I would like to know that

from it was a email from the lawyer from city attorney. But but somewhere in our but from the history of when he did I don't know. I go ahead.

Yeah. I I just don't know. I'm not I'm not accusing. I don't know. I just want to shed some light on this. So when Jim [clears throat] I was here been here forever since Jim come that last time part of this was there's a slippery slope called a grandfather right you can grandfather some things if it it now where grandfather stops is when the use of the property or whatever it is. So it went from the people before Jim had sheep, right? Uh Rich Myers, Jim came in and Jim, there was that clause in the ordinance that said uh you can come with special permission. However, if you read the zoning ordinance for R1, whether you guys pass this or not,

I guess what you could decide whether or not, and we'll have to get an attorney's opinion, maybe if you want to think about it, but the use isn't really changing. Can it grandfather into that next person? I don't know the answer to that. But what I can tell you is the R1 zoning district says prohibited. So whether this passes tonight or not in the R1 zoning district like for the lady that was here earlier that kind of scolded everybody, but honestly she shouldn't have been able to even come here for that special exception because she's in the R1 zoning district, right? Yeah, I agree. So So

but Jim is unique because the use with those sheep never has changed. Rich Meers had them, Jim's had them, but Jim came and got special permission, sorted it out, right? So, we've kind of figured between what that was in the code and grandfather, sure, great. But, see, grandfathering stops, like I said, when the use stops. So, I don't know if you want to think of it that way for Jim, for the next, for the son, and he wants to keep them. It's continued, right, for all these years. there hasn't been a stoppage of having the sheep there for any length of time. Right.

So, in my opinion, I guess my recommendation would be is grandfather Jim's son potentially if the city attorney would agree to that. And then, but these other things, if you're in the R1 zoning district, it's already prohibited. You can't even ask. It's prohibited. Prohibited is a strong term, right? No, you can amend that ordinance. You can amend the zoning ordinance and say, "Well, R1, we're going to start making a special exception." And then things get sticky. When we start making special exceptions, things get sticky. So, what you do is in lie thereof, you make those type things a conditional use permit. Make those people come and get a conditional use permit. That goes to the board of adjustment. And what they say is final. Has nothing to do with you guys. What they actually supersede you. they are, you know, their powers are final unless of course someone sues us and we go to court. Um, but that's how that process works. Whether this lives or dies, it's prohibited in the R1. But like I said, we could talk to the city attorney, see if she'd be good with grandfathering that to Jim's son because the use has not stopped. If that makes sense. Something to think about. So, if we pass this and Jim's on the deed with his son, so next week, what if Jim passes away? How do you handle that?

He's still on the deed, isn't he? Well, he's going to have to be transferred to his son sooner or later. All of it? I mean, he's going to get taken off. I don't know how that works. That's a legal question we'd have to ask. What about if you have egg land? How much egg land do we have in the city limits? Uh, way up in the north. way up in the northeast kind of out by where Brian Hansen lives maybe 100 acres. So, can you have chickens on that egg land in the city limits

with with permission from the city council? He could because he already came and got special permission from the city council because he was in the egg land to have the boine and have the fancy cows he had out there once upon a time. But he also owned land that extended across the city limits into the county. So he had a lot of acres there, right? So he was given that permission. Brian Hansen was and it was a long time ago, but I mean I do recall it. Uh egg zone board of an adjustment can allow under conditional use for horse and cow only. No poultry, fowl or swine. And then the rest of the zones conditional use is not even possible for any of it. And residential is prohibited for poultry and livestock. So a a be horse and cows only. [snorts] And with these words prohibited from both Doug and and Ron, that's why I want that exception out. That exception clause should never be there for the city council to make these decisions. Those decisions were taken out of our hands. We we spent seven months trying to figure out how to build a chicken coupe, you know, and that's that's what that for six properties in the in the community. And the only reason I even said yes was because it said exception on there. If that word wasn't in there, I would have said no from day one. We got to get rid of the exceptions and I think we need to deal with Jim. He got caught in the crossfire, but we also need to deal with this getting rid of this exception. So we otherwise we're going to get in

the same situation at another another time, you know, and if like the previous speaker said, if we're all new councilman, somebody else is going to get it. But we're just kick if we leave that exception in there, we're kicking the can down the road again.

Yeah. If we and in in response to that, I mean, it's if we make an exception for for Mr. Meyer, um, now we're back to doing exceptions again. And I'm not I'm not vote for [snorts] exceptions. I'm for ordinances, resol, you know, stuff that governs our community. And that's what I think we need to get to. You know, it's it's unfortunate. um the everything that I've heard on the grandfathering of the sheep which isn't even and like I'm I'm with Jim. I didn't know ch chicken and chief sheep sheep were related but apparently they are. So, I mean, we got to we got we we get we got to get to where we can govern this accordingly without doing exceptions every time for some because then we got to keep track of it. Just like just like this one. How long has this been? You know, Rich Meyers had it. You guys got it. You know, how far how far does that go back? And if we do this now, how soon how long is your son going to be there? And How down how far down the road are we going to have to figure somebody's gonna have to figure this out again because I probably won't be here.

Well, I think I think right now, mayor, I mean, as far as as the zoning administrator, just a recommendation [clears throat] would be I think our previous ordinance worked fine. The only place that there was a special exception is for egg. That's the only thing that's the only place that talks about a special exception is if you live within the zoning of agriculture, right? everybody else is out

um as with that, right? So, I mean, if that's your thoughts and your feelings, we can have our original stuff and keep going that way where the only special exception is like Brian Hansen's deal up there. Like I said, Jim's was kind of a gray area, but it was a grandfather thing. Like I said, we can always talk to the city attorney and see what her thoughts are on that going. I mean, it's just one more generation of the use has not stopped is why I think it she might be willing to approve of that, but I don't know without talking to her. Yeah. And then that's that's where do we want to go with that. I mean because if it if it stopped with when you stopped using it the land for that

right for that exception or change of ownership which it is which we you know I thought we'd come to some somewhere in the middle of the road where where if Jim stayed on the on the deed we got no problem we can keep and that's and that's a win for Jim you know

to do that but like Barry said if something happens to him I don't know what happens to that then Barry I don't know I don't have the answer So, let me ask this question, and I'm just I'm throwing this out there. So, what would happen if we postpone this reading until [snorts] our next official meeting to give time to speak to the lawyer to see if they can work this out and then make our decision at that point? Is that possible? Is that possible? Legally, I'd have to defer to Mr. got. But to me, we've got it on we've got it on our agenda and this is the the final vote right here tonight because I mean we've waited seven months on this two two more weeks.

It'll be it'll be it'll be a year pretty soon and then we won't have to worry about it. We'll just say no to chicken, [laughter] you know. I mean, as far as I'm in my opinion is it's on the agenda for the final reading. We either p approve pass it or approve or no don't pass it. [snorts] Yes. My thought process is Jim's name is on the deed now. He can still keep his sheep. We can still pass our ordinance. We can still do our homework in grandfathering clauses.

And we can always we can always revisit re v revisit this. I mean if we want to keep our con our exceptions going that's up to you guys. So I just we have done a ton of work [snorts] on this to let it fail and start from scratch again I think is a tragedy. And I know when Sarah Miss Cobb was talking about you know the people are talking about don't we have better things to do? Don't we have better things? Yeah we do. We really do. Let us move on.

We got a lot of things to do. But you know what? This comes up and we have to take care of that, too. And get other stuff done. So, you know, it's not like we're ne neglecting anything. We're just trying to take care of everything, any exceptions. [snorts] So, all I got to say about it. Anybody else? If not, I would entertain a motion and a second to approve the firm third and final reading of or ordinance 410. This will be a role. Oh, I'm sorry. Give me the motion first if we got them. [snorts]

I'd like to make a motion to for the third reading. Okay. Got a motion by Miss Griefy. Second.

I'll second it. A second by Mr. Holmstrom. This will be a roll roll call vote. Uh, Miss Fay I. Mr. Lamos. Nay. Mr. Davies. Nay. Mr. Holmstrom. I Miss Griefy I

and Miss Roie is absent does require four eyes to pass. So the lower the third reading of the chicken ordinance ordinance 10 410 has failed. Thank you. Uh the next item, the next resolution 20264 we don't need to do because this just failed. So we don't need to set the uh fees for keeping of chickens at this point. So we will move on to resolution 202646. This is a resolution adopting the annual budget for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2027. Mr. Dun. Thank you, Mayor. This is a resolution adopting the annual budget for fiscal year ending June 30th, 2027. The city of Hampton has prepared a budget detailing expected revenues and expenditures for fiscal year 2027. A notice of public hearing was advertised on April 9th, 2026, and a public hearing has been held concerning the proposed budget on this 23rd day of April, 2026. The proposed fiscal year 2027 budget has been reviewed by the city council. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the city of Hampton, Iowa. The proposed budget for fiscal year ending June 30, 2027 is hereby approved and adopted. and the city manager is authorized and directed to file the adopted budget with the print county auditor and the Iowa Department of Management. Thank you.

Any questions on the on the budget? I know we've talked about that at length and uh if we're not hearing anything, I would entertain a motion to approve resolution 2026-06. This is a motion. I'll make a motion to approve 2026. I'll second it. Motion by Mr. Lamos, second by Mr. Holmstrom. This is a roll call vote as well. Mr. Holmstrom, I Miss Griefy. I Miss Fay, I Mr. Davies, hi.

Mr. Lamos, hi. Right. And Mr. for Miss Rooding's absence. So, resolution 2026 has been passed. Thank you. [snorts] Brings us to our consent agenda. And the consent agenda uh includes the uh previous meeting minutes as drafted for 30 Thursday twil 9th 2026 regular session and section and schedule the new the sec next regular session for Thursday May 14th 2026 at 6 p.m. in the council chambers I'd entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda.

So move motion by Mr. Lamos. I'll second. Second by Miss Frey. All in favor? I I opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. Brings us down to our staff report. What do you got? [clears throat] Don't we need to vote on the airport project? We did. We did 20 2605. We did that after the right after the public hearing. right after his public hearing so he can get going. Confused because we move stuff around. That's right. We just moved it in right this evening because of the weather weather situation. Chief Morrison.

Yeah. The only thing I have for you tonight is we continue to work through the hiring process. Um we did have one candidate make it through all the testing and so I'm hoping to have somebody uh for you before the next meeting. So yeah, that'll be good. Yes. Any questions?

Any questions for Chief Morrison? Hearing none. Thank you, sir. Mr. Tar, thank you, mayor. Uh, council, as what was alluded to earlier, the citywide cleanup is winding down. Uh, tomorrow, staff will be doing another round of the collections throughout the community. Uh we have quite the stockpile of uh appliances and scrap iron and uh all kinds of stuff. I think the Goodwill truck. Uh from my understanding, it was pretty full when it left, so that's good. Um so just a lot of positives with that. Um it's gone well for the most part. We still have a few residents here there that don't want to abide by the rules, but I think that happens every year. Um, so, uh, West Park Ball Diamonds, if you had an opportunity to drive out there, the fencing's done. Um, the old fence has been removed. I think the only thing that we have left is to put the, uh, topper back on that outfield fence. Uh, keep the kiddos a little bit safer. Um, the diamond was shrunk a little bit, but, uh, it's still a standard distance. Um, and it looks great. So, if you get a chance to go out there and take a look, I think, uh, we'll be pleased. And I think it looks good. Anyway, uh the Duropatchers in house. It's in the barn. Um guys are trying to get some maintenance done on it here and we're hoping to have materials first part of next week to get those potholes filled that we've been dreading here for the last few weeks. Um once we got sweeping kind of wrapped up a little bit, um you can really see those potholes. So anyway, so we're going to try to get out and get those fixed. But those are the highlights. There's been a lot more going on besides that, but I'll just entertain questions.

Mr. Lamos, earlier [snorts] this year, we voted on some no parking ordinances. Can when when are you going to put the signs up? Yeah, I was just thinking about that the other day. I saw that on my list. We're just We'll get to it as soon as we can. Any idea [clears throat] what uh the field tile is for up by Casey's? Are they going to repair some tile up in there? I don't know. Um I don't know what it's for. No one's kind of approached me, but uh I'm it may very well. I believe they're going to put an asphalt parking lot in at the new church. So maybe they're going to be doing some drainage or something with that. That'd be my guess, but uh I can look into it and get back to you. Just curious.

Yep. How about any progress [clears throat] on brothers? Uh yes. Uh issued them a municipal infraction. um had communication with them. A contractor's all notified me. Contractor's been hired. Um but they're just doing it at their own pace for whatever reason. But uh it'll be going to court here, I think May 7th, maybe somewhere around then. Thank you. All right, Miss Fay. Um any update on our uh friend's um artwork on his garage? That was a municipal infraction. Um, I can't recall, but there's court date coming up on that. Okay. Yep.

Anybody else? Not here. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Dun. Um, as you can tell by the agenda, it's been busy. Um, I would just entertain any questions if anybody has any questions. Any questions for Mr. Dant? We will move to Thank you, sir. We'll move to our council reports. Miss Roie is absent, so we'll start with Mr. Lamos. No comment today. Thank you, Mr. Davies.

Well, on Friday, it's Blaine day in Hampton. Blaine, the UPS driver, is retiring. I [snorts] think Friday's his last day, so make sure you tell him hi. and congratulations and uh have a good retirement. And I attended a Friends of the Cemetery meeting this past week. We discussed the upcoming cemetery walk. We also discussed a a suggested location for a possible future columbarium in the cemetery and we'll be getting that that group will be getting that information to the council through uh Doug and Ron. And also um they'll there'll be tree planting by in the cemetery at 8:00 on Saturday morning starting and and that'll include I think the 250th tree that the tree board has planted.

Wow. That's all I have. All right. Thank you, Mr. Holmstrom. No report tonight.

All right. Thank you, Miss Griefy. Um, well, I I would just like to make a few comments. Um, on Sarah's public comment, um, when we first hammered out this chicken ordinance, she was 100% in agreement with us. And, um, I don't know what made her turn on her heels and decide that we were all against her. We have worked really hard on this chicken ordinance because we wanted her to be able to have her chickens. We really worked hard on it. We really did a lot of homework on it and and we have not put a kibash on it. We actually this ordinance gives her permission to keep her chickens. Um I'm sorry she's mad that she got incorrect information from her real estate agent, but that has nothing to do with us. we didn't feed that real estate agent any um false information. Um and again, I I'm really disappointed. We can't get past this. We've worked so hard on this. People have complained we wasted a lot of time on this. And it really wasn't wasted time because when you're going to allow something like this, we do have to have rules and regulations that people have to follow. to keep blight at a minimum. Um, so I'm sorry we put all this work into it and now we've made no progress. Um, we're right back where we started. Um, I just have some things to report from the chamber, the uh, chamber office. Our lease is up for center one. the lease is up in June and they are they do have a committee established to find new headquarters and they've got a lead on I think a really good potential and I'm excited about

that. We are going to have the fair booth again during fair time this year. We're going to add a 50/50 raffle to make it even more exciting and more interesting. Um cleanup day I I think is going really well. the chamber and um First Bank Hampton teamed up and cleaned up Banshell Park and also worked on Peace Plaza. I was thrilled with that. Our um promotion committee, we have our 2026 clings for all our paid chamber chamber members. So, if we have any paid chamber member members that haven't picked up your cling yet to put on your door, you can get that at center one. Uh we do want to start using Peace Plaza more. um promoting more things going on in there, increasing the maintenance and utilization of that park. I think we came up with a solution for the pigeons. So hopefully that will work. And again, we're working on the flower baskets. They're just about ready. Kyle at FFA says they're really looking good and we still need people to help water. And we would love to sell some sponsorships to the baskets. They're $55 a basket. And I guess that's all I have. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Miss B. Um, first I want to um acknowledge our administrative professionals day and thank Becky and Kelsey for all the hard work that they do

for our city and for city hall and for all of our residents. um they keep us in line. They um help us with questions and getting us answers and putting up with a lot of stuff. So um I really appreciate you guys and thank you for all you do. Um yesterday I had the opportunity to attend at the library the um lessons of the Holocaust presentation by Brad Wilining and it was excellent. Um I wish he had had the full two hours that his program actually is to be able to present. Um he went over a little bit but was trying to cut it down and so we didn't get the full program. We're hoping to get him back again sometime, but um I'd say the biggest takeaway for me was that um it's up to each one of us to um work on ourselves first and then extend grace and compassion to everyone around us from our family to our closest friends to our co-workers to people we barely know and so on and so forth until um things turn around and we don't go through this again because we have gone through it again

as he pointed out in his presentation it has happened more than once the Holocaust with World War II was not the only one that's happened and if we don't want it to happen again, it starts with us.

All right. Thank you. Very nice. [snorts] Uh only thing I have to mayor's report um was I'm getting a lot of positive comment from this tree board um from the the grant that they received and we're buying trees and and people are saying all I got to do is water it. Well, I can handle that. So people are people are embracing that. Apparently, it sounds to me like they've reached out to the property owners as we uh recommended and I think it's going really well and people are going to get trees. They're going to be short, but someday they'll be big again. So, that's where the all these came from. So, and that's all I had. And with that, I would entertain a motion to adjourn this regular session of the Hampton City Council.

So moved. Motion by Miss Fay. Second by Mr. Holmstrom. All in favor? I I opposed. Thank you. [snorts]