City Council - Regular Meeting

and gentlemen, thank you for being here. Thank you for those who are tuning in at home. This is the city of Waverly, Iowa study session meeting. It is February 23rd, 2026, and we are called to order. Please join me for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance 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.

Do I have a motion to approve the agenda? I'll move the agenda as presented. Second. Any discussion? This is a voice vote. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Okay. And uh welcome back Teresa for your final meeting. We missed you last time you couldn't be here, but hope you've enjoyed the first time you were here and I'll talk to you um come back to you at the end of the meeting and ask about any comments. But thanks for being here.

Thank you. Okay. This is the time and place for public comments. Please limit your comments to 5 minutes unless additional time is granted by the presiding officer. All remarks shall be addressed to the council as a whole and not to any individual member. Are there any public comments? Please come to the podium and state your name. My name is Brandy Clark.

Hi Louisa. Hi. Um and I know I'm not trying to ruffle feathers and really I am not. Um I'm I want to address the golf course. I know it it is a hot topic issue. Um I feel that the golf course if it's not making a revenue right now, we need to do something else with it. And if there are green fees that you have to pay, there are other fees that you have to pay. That should be sustaining the golf course and the golf clubhouse. That should not be taxpayer dollar. We have an issue right now with rougher chemicals in our water. I don't think that putting taxpayer money into a building when we're having a problem with water, which is essential for life. That's I think the city would like to be well more well known for having good drinking water instead of okay, yeah, we're just going to throw taxpayer money into a building when there's other issues that are more important. Now, here's the thing. If the once this is once you know if this passes great my life is going to move on. I'm going to move on. This you know there's I respect everybody up here and I just it's just I've also talked to other people not in this community but from other communities that have municipal golf courses too. They say that their communities, they are not only are their golf courses sustaining, they are thriving and there they have multiple uh fundraisers, they have multiple events to help get them what they need. They and they do not rely on taxpayer money. That's thank you for your time. Thank you. Have a great night. Any other comments?

Okay, moving on. So on the study session, we are have a discussion about ebikes. Um, so I kind of brought this back up with some questions and with some thoughts. Um, I have talked to some schools about what their thoughts are, but do you want to talk? Would you like to talk about what you found, Rich, or do you want me to talk about it? No, it's your agenda. I will let you lead it.

Oh, great. Okay. So, I talked to the middle school uh principal and an elementary school principal about what they are doing with ebikes. I think we've all heard a lot of the concerns about really not wanting kids to get run over, really not wanting kids to run over people and what we can do about that. Our hands are a little tied. Not a whole lot has come down at the state level as far as direction. Um I know the middle school has sent out multiple communications with parents and students on what expectations are. Um, I talk to the middle school principal and if we come up with something, she's willing to help communicate whatever that is. They have these health session, breakout session things coming up in March or April and she's willing to dedicate one of those sessions to bike and ebike safety if we choose. I talked to elementary principles and they are hoping their lunch with the law will say something about it. They have I don't think they've talked to any of your officers yet, but they're hoping um their officers for lunch with the law will address bike and ebike safety. So, that's kind of where the schools are. As far as the state, you've all gotten that study session report, I believe. So, I probably don't have to go through all that. Um yeah, and then tonight we're also provided with the electric bikes, some of the other ordinances that some Iowa cities follow. So my question is, do we want to do anything? Do we want to wait and see what the state says? Do we want to set certain boundaries in the town that we request eBike stay off? What are the council's thoughts? We acknowledge that it is something that is hard for the city to enforce. It is hard for the police department to enforce. Um, but what do we do about the kids zipping through Casey's who I almost smoked with my Suburban the other day. And I'm a cautious driver. I've never even had a ticket, I don't think. Um, my concern is those ebikes are on

the high school. You have teenage drivers and kids on ebikes. We've had comments about them zooming through Pullman Park. Um, does the council have any thoughts, ideas? Is there something going on in the state legislature like requiring a course or something to get license for it or you know like so this

the state says that the motors cannot have a maximum output greater of 750 watts. So if it's under the 750 watts then there aren't really any regulations around that. If it has more than that it has to have a speedometer. It has to have a label a fixed to it and then it gets into where are those bikes allowed. Those are considered electric vehicles at the time. if they go over that and the motor doesn't disengage when the rider stops pedaling. So, but that's another thing when you're looking at the ebikes. Can you tell that just from looking at them? Um, thoughts, input.

All right. So, I guess we can start with if there is any questions with the definitions of what an electric bike is. Um if we are all comfortable with what that is. Um what mayor was talking about is the three different classifications that an ebike can get broken down into. To be a classified as an ebike, it has to have a motor no greater than 750 watts. And then class one and two max speed is 20. The class 3 is the 28 mph. um if it does not have pedals or it has a motor greater than that then it is not an electric bicycle and is not allowed to operate on our sidewalks or the road. So um that was one of the questions is you know we I know Walmart sells them that are 1500 watts. So, if you have purchased one of these, unfortunately, you should have maybe done a little research, but they would not currently be allowed. So, we're only talking about electric bicycles that meet the definition of what the state code says an electric bike is.

So, I have a sort of dumb question. So, are there I've seen people speeding through like Coleman on a what looks like an ebike that has pedals, but they are not pedaling and they're going faster than they would be if they were coasting. So, that would be a class two that has a throttle. Okay. Yeah. So, yes, that would be but they So, even with the throttle, they still have to have a functioning pedals even though you don't have to use them

for it to be an electric bike. And unfortunately, if we want to talk about speeds, the um the class 3 has to have a speedometer, but the other ones don't. So, if you put a a speed restriction in some areas, unless you require them to add a piece of equipment, the class one and twos don't have a speedometer. They're not required to. And uh the age restriction for the class 3 is 16 years of age. which I I know the mayor put in there also about the electric personnel assisted moilityability devices. So instead of repeating that over and over again, I'll just let's just use segue is an easy way to um shorten that down. And state law says you have to be 16 for a segue as well.

So 1500 watt ones aren't even allowed on the roads. They're not considered like mopeds. No. Well, so they would be, you're right, um, they would be allowed, but they have to be licensed like a moped or they're considered a a motor vehicle. Okay. Yes. And is that disclosed when they purchase them? Do you know?

I don't believe that there's regulations that are given to them. No. And then here's the other thing. So the question is, can we tell from a distance? So the class three classes the manufacturer or um the person distributing has to have by law what class it is. That's one, two, or three. To be honest with you, I don't know how our guys would determine what that is other than seeing the label a fixed to it and we'd have to be next to it. The unfortunate thing too with technology, um there are some that will get sold at 750 watts, but you can download an app and you can remove the class 2 restriction and you can output 1500 watt and it's the same thing. And then you're required to take the sticker off um

because it's no longer no longer class. It's no longer ebike. modified hot rods. Um, what chief, what's your recommendation? Because it's your department that has to enforce it.

I I think the minimum is that we would include the definition within our bicycle ordinance. Our bicycle ordinance already says that you have to follow the rules of the road. Um, I think that would be at least a good start. Um, and after that it gets difficult. I I have, you know, the the list of cities that have the ordinances where I would say the vast majority of the ones I found have just done that included the definition. Um there are a few other ones that put more restrictions on whether it be a helmet for class three or for all of them. They've bicycle safety flag, age restrictions. Unfortunate thing about some of the age restrictions is that at 14 you can have a moped. So I don't know why you would restrict like Waterlue has it at 15 but they could have a moped a year earlier. So that age doesn't make a lot of sense. But and those that I think some highlighted I highlighted a couple things from our bicycle ordinance as it pertains to thinking about our concerns with what ebikes are doing. Um the bicycle operators have the same rights and duties as they operators of vehicles. So I mean that's we want to make sure they're stopping at stop signs. We want to make sure that they're yielding um when they need to um that they have to observe all traffic rules and regulations. Also, in our bicycle ordinance, it states that pedestrians upon sidewalks shall have the right of way at all times over persons using or operating a bicycle. So, that would include an ebike if we added that definition as well, that pedestrians still have the rightway on their

sidewalk. And then the improper operating. Um, our bicycle ordinance currently says it is unlawful for any person operating a bicycle within the city limits to operate in an irregular or reckless manner such as zigzagging, stunting, speeding, or otherwise riding with disregard for others um operating. So again, if we added the ebikes, I know that was some of the concern about people the irreg irregular, you know, zigging and zagging through pedestrians. I guess at least do that. I would say

that would be my I mean, I think we have a hard enough time with bicycles. I've mentioned it before. I see bikes blowing through stop signs in town all the time. and to try to be more strict on the ebikes when we can't necessarily even tell what class they are right up front and I think adding them to the bicycle ordinance and and having some kind of bicycle class through the schools that would reinforce some of that is certainly at the middle school age is is one where they might have a little more start to take understand there's a responsibility to that But I think it's hard to regulate beyond that.

Would any of these things that any of the special restrictions that you put on the G, would any of those make your life easier or make it safer in your opinion?

What are your thoughts?

I'm reading through them again. Uh, age restrictions I think are just tough. Um, I do know that there was a um the chiefs in the metro de mo metro area tried to come up with a model policy that they've tabled at this point down there. Obviously, they want to they wanted to get together because you don't want to drive in one city and the next city have different rules. So, they were going to try to come up with a model policy. And one of the things they did there is I believe they separated the class three out and they required helmets for class three. But again, you know, unless you're going to do that internally as as a household, it'd be tough for us to to see that.

Um, you know, and may possibly I can see some concerns in the business district. Does our bike policy allow bikes to ride on the sidewalks in parks like at the Ball Diamonds and at Coleman? Yes, it does. Yeah.

And that's what the state law says too. Um is that they're currently by state law they're they're allowed to operate anywhere a bicycle is allowed to operate by state code. So I don't know that we could even restrict them off of the roads if we didn't want them on the roads. That's what I was looking at. Sergeant Bluff says not on public roads. I'm like I thought bicycles were allowed on public roads. So that seems hard to How do you define business district? Business district. We used to have it downtown basically this east side of the river was not allowed and we did could do away with that.

But then the disadvantage that then you put them in the road. Yeah. I would I would like to see just uh that we follow the state definitions and just allow more wheel allow bikes for I think it' be simpler for your department and um it kids can be reckless with a bike just as they can bike. I think it's a great idea to do something with the principal and the middle schoolers and when they're doing their safety talks. Yeah. Doing more education and maybe a reminder in the parks that pedestrians do have the right away. Um just as

a reminder. Yeah. Well, how about education with the parents? The children are not buying these bikes. Yeah. Um and so, you know, you can talk at an assembly at school all you want, but unless you're reaching the parents, I don't see how it's going to make a difference. But Teresa, did you have a comment?

Yeah. So, I work um in the insurance industry and I know that this is an evolving evolving and everchanging um situation as ebikes have evolved. Um I know that currently in the state of Iowa, they do not people don't have to have liability coverage on ebikes, but as they continue to grow and get more powerful. Um we get on the daily we get questions, how do we, you know, do we want to put this on our policy? We encourage them to put the ebike on their policy. So, I think that that these are only going to get bigger and better. And I think if you have education out there, I for people that don't understand it, I think that would be very proactive. Um, and again, we see in the industry that it's going to be something that, you know, it's an investment. They want to cover their investment with an insurance coverage. So, I think the more education we can provide for people, I think the better.

Yeah. It's interesting. You know, this is popping up now in the medical journals. the in California the the main group trying to ban ebikes as trauma surgeons because of all the the wrecks they're seeing and pedestrians killed and bicycles. I think a lot of it is coming from, you know, in the insurance side is that we're getting these claims and how is that categored in, you know, what how is that? Is it a motor vehicle? No. Is it a bike? Well, no. Yes, but no. Um, so it's very cloudy and I know that there's going to be more and more information coming out as far as coverages for those particular ser those particular coverages.

Yeah. I mean, we talked at the meeting about should we try to restrict where they are, you know, cuz I think the the people who had contacted us initially were mainly, you know, speaking about nearly getting run over in a park mainly not, you know, but again, I think it's very difficult to enforce. You can't really do age. Who can tell how old anybody is? You can't tell what class of bike it is. You can't catch them for speeding if they don't have a speedometer, you know. Um, and and they're they're modifying bikes. Um, and we have no way to to regulate that, right?

And so, yeah, I agree. I think you start by making it clear in the ordinance that you're going to be treated just like bicyclists and then I think I don't know. I don't know if citizens should start calling it in um to the police or alerting the police. I don't know how else to get it to people's attention. And then is there a fine if you're riding a bicycle recklessly? What's the fine? It's a simple misdemeanor, so up to $200. Yeah. And then we, you know, then we can enforce that on a 12-year-old, right? That's the fun part. Um, so I was hoping, I know James might laugh at this. I was hoping the state might help us out, but uh, uh, cuz there was proposed legislation, but that didn't make the first funnel.

And so, and was that from 2021, that house file? No, there was one for 26. Okay. Yeah, they were going to make a new code section. I think 235 is the is the ebike and bikes. They were going to do 234. They were going to make it. They were going to even the micro mobility which is your scooters and your like razors and hoverboards. They were going to make one code and it didn't make it. Yeah. I guess nothing's truly dead until but it didn't make the phone.

Yeah. I mean, you don't want to restrict people using them because, you know, like we heard from someone who came to the original meeting, it it's helped a lot of people who have limited mobility or or otherwise would not be able to get out and ride a bike. But, um, you know, the recklessness, I mean, people, you mentioned bicyclists going through stop signs. Well, cars are going through stop signs all the time. And so, people are just sort of reckless. Yeah. In general. Um but yeah, I guess we start with education and somehow figure out how to educate the parents and you know the insurance industry might be a good way to do that somehow, right? Because if if there is a claim,

we have several underwriters that will come in on site or provide white paper, white sheet facts so we can, you know, paraphrase, copy, share it with our, you know, our our schools and um let them know that there is a liability issue to it for the parent. I mean, and we want to make sure that that, you know, they don't have a financial obligation in regards to some a crash, you know, either a medical claim or a comp claim or Mhm.

Yeah, I think that would be a good asset if we can hit it from parents and kids at the same time. Um, maybe we can even talk to the library with their summer programming if they do some stuff, elementary school, middle school, lunch with the law. If we can kind of come up with if we're going to add this to the definition of our city ordinance, that'd be great. that gives us a little bit more to stand on. Um, and then we just really hit that education because again, you can tell your kid to wear a helmet. They're ditching it as soon as they're out of your eyesight because they look like a dork and they don't want to look like a dork, you know? Um, it does come down to parenting. It does come down to kids, but kids are going to be kids. So, what do we do? We just keep educating and hoping it sinks in. I kind of think at this point there's not a whole lot more we can do without state backing. Can we engage Nes the business downtown that sells ebikes and see what you know what their take is or what how they would educate?

He came here. He came to the meeting. Yeah. He was at the meeting when we discussed it. So it don't if Walmart's selling them now too. I mean it's not like we just have one source. Yeah. Right. Information again once they're sold what people do with them because modify them. I'm at the middle school every day and I see the kids leaving and they always have a helmet on and they're actually like the big round face, you know, with like a motorcycle helmet. So, I haven't seen any kids without a helmet at least at the school, but I haven't seen the high school. So, I don't know. Like to hear that. Yeah. ice cream.

I'd be I'd be interested to see what cost would be maybe for signs for like cool for self just to have some slow down signs or or pedestrians. Pedestrians have rightway. I mean, yeah, we have right away. Though unfortunately, some people when they think they're on a bike, they think they're a pedestrian because they don't they consider a vehicle a car or a truck. They don't consider a bicycle a vehicle even though it's me mechanized. Maybe Garrett, you could bring some costs, signed costs, how many signs you'd want and what the cost would be.

Would the uh main focus from you guys probably be South Riverside, Coleman Park, uh the rail trail, maybe Cedar River Park. any Yeah, I think the big the big walking parks and I don't know about Nestle Bridge. Okay. But I think one thing in our favor this summer is that now the bridge is open because they were zipping past four Queens, you know, because they didn't have to stop. They didn't have to stop at that intersection.

Um so at least they'll have to make a turn now, which will slow them down a little bit. But um I would say mainly the park areas and the big, you know, pedestrian are he is something near the pool. Yeah, just see what they run under. Okay. So, we'll look into some signage. We'll look at including the definition in our ordinance and we will talk to the schools and libraries some more about education. Sound like a good plan for now. Can we get further direction from the state? Your honor, could I make a comment, please? This is Julie. Sure.

Um I I I find myself really struggling with feeling like this is such a moving target because things have changed so fast as you guys have already commented and and we don't know for sure what's going to come down out of the state in the future which I guess it would be really nice if we knew what the state's intentions are as well in terms of state code but I agree with what's been said today about um I think it's great to be working with the schools and you maybe the library, focusing on public education, all of those things that we had talked about and hopefully targeting some of the areas that seem to have been problematic in the past like Coleman Park and so on. But I also think it's important for us to um kind of maintain a 20,000 foot view here and see this as an ongoing issue that's going to continue to evolve. And I hope that we don't just kind of put a band-aid on our local ordinances and then think that we've taken care of it. I think it's something that we need to monitor as the industry changes and as our recreational patterns in town change. And I would hope that we could um as a community also be looking as a long-term goal at just being more pedestrian friendly in in many different ways in our community and that this piece would just be one piece of that puzzle.

I think this will be on the radar and just kind of ever changing as we get more direction. Um I think there's room for improvement with communication on where pedestrians should walk and run and bikers needing to follow signage. So there's um a lot out there, but as far as ebikes go, I think this is nothing that will ever be set in stone and will just be changing as we are given direction, but I think this is a good starting place at least for I think just adding it to the bicycle ordinance for now, kind of classification, give it a new one. Yeah. Okay. Any other thoughts on ebikes? Okay. Item two, discussion of fees for block parties and special events.

I kind of initiated that or you want to Carlo.

Yeah, go ahead with the block parties first. That is just fine. um the Human Equity and Diversity Commission had created this great um pamphlet on having block parties and I just didn't want that to I and I've heard from a lot of people that they really enjoyed having those block parties. Um and I've also heard folks asking about what the city is doing to promote the 250th celebration of the United States. And so I thought it might be uh something that we could do as a a city either to have a chosen weekend or weekends or get rid of the fee for the the block parties and just something that um we could discuss and um

talking about getting rid of the fees for the 250th celebration or just I is that what you I that was my initial thought. I don't know. I know I talked to the chamber and they have people working on it. I don't know what that means or what stage they're in of planning. I don't have any clue what the plan is, but um that's what I hear. I don't know what that looks like. I don't know if you've had those conversations. You mean for the 250th? Yes, for the 250th. I have no idea what that looks like, but

How many block parties were there last year? I would say a handful. I mean, five or six each, didn't you? Wasn't one for each ward? Um, I think that was the year before. Yeah, I I think we had five or six last year. Okay. How about special events? same number or I think there's more special events anymore. People are filling that out as a necessity or just an easier way to accomplish them. So, I think we're seeing more special events.

Um because special events, you typically don't block a street. Yeah. Right. Um and uh with the block parties, that's basically what is Yeah. I mean, it's the it's happening on the street that's blocked and so it's like for a block long, right? And then the neighbors get together and

we're providing barricades, picking up barricades. I mean, it is actually blocking off a stream. That's part of why the fee was established was to help offset some of that cost. We don't have an exact cost on it, but just something to help with that because it is, you know, weekends, drop them off, pick them up, set them up sometimes, tear them down. So that's why it was there.

I I do like the idea of of trying to encourage something with that this summer for the 250th if we were to pick a couple weekends. And I would be in favor of waving the block party fee for that if they if there was an actual organization, have them still do the the form, but then uh wave the fee. wave wave the fee for that on if we s pick two weekends or something like that and say you want to have a block party in this time frame. And that kind of was my initial thought too is the weekend before Fourth of July and then the weekend the 4th of July.

Well, and I think you know we have heritage days which is what a couple weeks after a couple weekends after that. So that's another good time for people to do events. City staff is busy that week helping. So that might put, you know, a bit of a burden on staff to do it simultaneously. But yeah, what kind of impact would that be if they would have multiple block parties all on the same day? Because that's important to hear from leisure services and who would do the setup, too. And it' be mostly the barricades.

Yeah, I mean it's it's pretty minimal and it's couple barricades on each end. We depends on the organizer. A lot of times they're dropped off ahead of time and they place them and they remove them. Um that's the good ones. Those are ones we like. Usually that's what we we've required. If we Yeah. If we were to advertise it far enough in advance to make sure that it is organized that there is a driving force for each individual one that has kind of central responsibility which the application has has some of that too. So yeah,

but certainly I think from a city standpoint to encourage I mean in addition to heritage days we don't we don't step on the fourth celebration out in Shell Rock typically so have our own here but I don't think this would be stepping on that at all. This would be our own way of encouraging within the community. Would that be for like an all weekend thing or certain hours during each day or you know where I'm kind of going with that? If we want to do it on just like a Saturday from 4:00 to 7:00 or

you know that kind of thing. Um just throwing that thought out there. Well, it looks like the application says it can go from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., right? But for the whole weekend, or are we just going to have them pick a day of that weekend? If we pick a couple weekends that we say these are the designated celebration weekends, I think the application says it can only be one day. Yeah, it says the same day. Yeah, Saturday you choose.

Yeah. Okay. discuss this result, this proposal. So, no more than one city block may be closed per event and no more than two events per day. Is that citywide? That's how I read it. So, might we'd have to change that? That's at the bottom of the application. I think is if you want to change the application as a whole or you just want to do it for that time period just for this year that would just be something we would add in as a

subset for just that time period. Exactly. I would no need to change. What's that? We could pass a resolution that for that time period. This is what Yeah, you could do that. We can bring that back. So we can bring that back to council to discuss and pass for them kind of outline some of the things you've talked about trying to get that assembled and then you can craft it and at least we have an official resolution on record. Yeah. To show what will happen time frame think about those time frames you're wanting to have that occur and we can get that back to you. It is on a Saturday. It would be helpful to know if the chamber's got something. Well, I would think you have to have, you know,

James or mayor talk with the chamber to see if they've got any specific plans in place that we can touch base with her and see um what's in the works. Any other discussion on block parties? Well, not to bring up a sore subject, but if we did that in June, would we wave like a firework ordinance portion of that? Don't even go there. No, just no. Cuz we don't want people I don't want people shooting them off in the street. Okay. I just Somebody may want more than they already do.

Somebody may want with the celebration if they were doing a celebration. Yeah. Well, you remember the first year? Yeah. If we do if we do it later in July, we're past the state time frame for it. So, no, they have a block party, they can apply for a special event permit and go ahead and get their pyro technic people with their licenses and do it that way, which is also done in the 4th of July. And our fireworks permit doesn't cost anything, right? You just have to have the right insurance and just make sure everybody's in place so fingers come off. You know what you're going to do, things like that. So, yep. All boils down to insurance. Tonight's meeting all boils down to liability. Okay, family.

That takes us to the special events discussion.

Just a little background on that. So, um, you learn a little bit as you go. And last year we learned that the special event permits don't really include those um groups of people that say want to have yoga in the park every week or maybe like the farmers market. And we found ourselves struggling on how do you charge somebody who wants to have a repetitive event for a season? And we didn't really feel like it was fair to charge them the full special event permit for every single time, but we're trying to be fair and trying to set a fee that would be also paying for using private or public property because these groups that we experienced last year anyway were making a profit from using public property. Therefore, we felt like it was just to look into this a little more. So, we'd be real curious to what your thoughts and comments were on that

cuz right now, say the farmers market, do they have to do a permit for every week that they come? There's a different permit. We have not made them do that. Oh, they haven't had to do that. Okay. But we don't think it's fair to have one permit for 16 weeks in a row, right? I don't think that's fair either. So, we're trying to establish a weekly or monthly permit. If it's 4 days a week or 5 weeks in a row, what does that look like? And that's kind of the gist of what we're wanting to see from you

fair amounts, things like that. If it's all volunteer, that's one thing, but when you're charging memberships to go do these things, then it becomes an issue. And I think we need to adjust this and draft out a different resolution. And I would even go to as far as to say um if you have certain nonprofit groups, maybe we should look at that as well. Um political campaigns or um uh Bible studies, uh other types of groups that Well, we have a municipal band every week, right? And I don't know if they pay or how that works. That would be a Garrett question. Yeah. So,

and that's that's a tradition that's that's a year throughout the summer. Yes. Using public I mean they don't charge it's it's free and we currently have concerts in Coleman as well and they do fill out a special event permit for that 8week period. But as you said that's not a profitm does it? I think that's the differentiation we were trying to get to is if you're charging and making money off public property that's not really allowed. But if you're doing a charitable concert, that's a whole different animal than I think we can tolerate that. But the other is not really fair to other people wanting that space if you're especially charging and making money. So we need to find some kind of a monthly amount, weekly amount if it's multiple days a week.

It's not something we wanted to complicate, but we also have people complaining about it. So I do think it has to be addressed at some point. So how is it handled at other levels of parks? So, like for instance, you go to a national park and there's private entities who charge people to take them on a tour or put them on a boat through the park or something. And so, they must be taking out a permit to to operate in that park. But, do they have to do it every day? Contracts every week. I have no idea. They have a contract or something. I think there's contracts on those. You'd have to insurance. You'd have to have all kinds of things to allow that to happen. I don't know what that would look like.

So, How does the farmers market work now? Do they do a permit for each Saturday morning? We just do one permit for the season right now. Again, we don't think that's necessarily fair, but yet I don't want to charge them every single week a cuz they have to reimburse it back through the vendors. But So, we're trying to be fair to those that fill it out for one weekend a year, too. I mean, like the art in the park, do they have to fill out a special events? That's a whole special event permit. Different. Yeah, that is uh we do the art walk. That is a whole different special event permit fee and that's it because it's only happened once.

But it's private vendors making money in a public space just like farmers market. But I mean and it's just like uh heritage days and everywhere else where you have food vendors that are there making money. So it's as similar again is it's where the uh permit comes into effect. Really seems to be a summer thing. Yeah. Right. yoga in the park or whatever. It's national night out. It's a one time thing. It's free to the public. So, so we've had people complaining. Yes. That people are doing yoga at the south end of charging for it. Correct. Okay.

I could name them. That's probably not a good, you know, which is a spot of the park that you never see used for anything else. Correct. honestly. And so someone else thought they might want to do it. They found out they're charging and therefore here we are. So it's just the way it works. We know how other municipalities do this. I think you do not clearly, you know, places that have events often. I mean other we can look into that. I I did call Cedar Falls in Charles City and Charles City actually um their chamber handles all of it

and so it's kind of through their chamber but their chamber is part of the city and so they just have like a they they do their fees differently. It's like um seems like I remember that they have like a $50 fee for like a season per vendor. Um Cedar Falls, no charge at all for any of it. So it it's going to range no matter where you you know depending on who you ask and when.

I think it'd be interesting to see what other like with the ebike to see what other cities are doing, you know, especially for these summer seasonal events. Do they do they make them take out a permit once a month? Do they make them take out more than one permit depending on how many weeks it meets? Sure. Um is there anybody events that are held more than once a week? I know like the farmers market is once a week. Um is yoga is it once a week, twice a week? No, there's too many that are multiple times a week. I think farmers market's twice a week. Is it Thursday, Saturday? I don't think they do. They used to do Tuesdays and they used to be but I think it's just Saturday.

So I don't know of any multiple week unless again maybe I don't know if yoga is once a week or is that twice or just once a week right now. I don't know if Jade plans on changing it for this season. You could come up with a sliding scale based on the weeks. Sure. You know and the more weeks you use the less you pay. I think we can do that. I think we need to do it make it so it's encouraging events. Yeah, absolutely. Because that's what makes it fun to live in Waverly is having events and things and if we don't want events then we can price ourselves right out. But yeah, we don't want you don't want to discourage creative small business owners either, right? I mean, you know,

and we do already have one uh special event scheduled for this summer already and I have another email this morning from other people. So, this is very timely and we probably need to I I'll get to work on this as soon as possible. So, we'll check with other communities for pricing and then depending on what we find there, we'll bring back something to have you actually vote on based on some kind of a sliding scale or some way to promote that. So, nope, that'll work. Okay. Any other thoughts on that?

Update on the new aquatic center, please. Look at that. All right. So, I don't have a whole lot to update you on tonight, but uh we will take a quick look at these pictures that I shot today. Um, a lot of what's been going on the last few weeks is getting the plumbing in for the uh locker rooms, the uh chemical storage room, the restrooms, and uh the filter uh I'm sorry, the pump area, pump room. So, that's what you're looking at all through here is uh those things I just mentioned. And you can kind of see kind of probably see it better in this one. This is all the plumbing stuff coming through there. I wasn't going to stand around and count how many uh pipes that were around there, but their next step here is you see these blocks laying out. They're going to put these blocks on top of the foundation footings here that they have. Then they will fill this whole area back in. All of this will be filled in and then they will pour uh the floor to the building. So that they're hopeful will be done uh towards the end of this week. So we'll just see how the weather does and if they're able to get to it. Uh hopefully there's uh no snow on Wednesday night. But uh we'll see. But yeah, those are the next things coming. So hope they'll have a little better update next time. So, Garrett, is this just to the west of the building that's up, the concessions building?

Uh, yes. It's directly to the west. Here's the here's the concession building in the background there. And so, yep, this is just to the west. Um, so once that uh the floor gets in, it'll take about a a week to cure and then they'll get the rest of the walls built up. So, in a couple of weeks, we should see uh the walls of that building Any other questions? All right. Thanks, guys. Thanks, G. Okay, council, you've received the report from the airport commission. Is there any discussion?

Nope. That brings us to staff updates. Just a quick snow update from the last snow that we ended up getting way more than they predicted. Um it was a d it was a tough uh plowing for us. Uh we had a lot of equipment breakdowns. Um if you hear some complaints uh people concerns, we were a little later than normal. We pride ourselves on trying to get done before noon. Uh the last truck got to the shop at 400 p.m. and they started at 2:00 a.m. Wow. So it was a really long day and I hope people appreciate, you know, we we tried our best. we had problems and it was a really tough snow to pull off. So, um if you get anything, just pass it on to me and I can address those concerns.

Along with that uh snow, in case anyone's wondering, the sledding hill is open, so we'll see. Hopefully, it won't be open uh too much longer to get rid of the snow. That's all I got for you tonight. That's all we have tonight. Thank you. That brings us to city council comments. Council person Rothy. Um, yeah, I appreciate the public works crews and the first responders and everybody who had to be out in it, but it I figured something was up because yeah, streets are usually done, but I I headed into the hospital before 8 and the snow routes were done. Just a reminder to people, you got to move your cars. Yeah,

you know, that was a big problem on some of those streets. Um, but yeah, the guys had a tough tough uh night, but I appreciate their hard work. Council person Kangas. Yeah, I echo that. um the work that they got done and had to go through. I I ended up having school on Friday. We had a late start, but we still had school cuz Mason did not have as much snow as we had down here. Uh but slogging up getting up up past Charles City was was a bit of a slo even on 218 which is usually pretty well cleared and the DOT was clearly having issues getting it all cleared out. Oh,

Council Person Herman, nothing tonight. Council Person Jones,

uh, snow related. Uh, kudos to the Waverly, uh, police force chief. I went by, uh, there's a elderly couple that live on Highway 3 in town. And clearly the state plow had pushed a lot of snow in their driveway. And um the senior citizen lady was in her car. I don't know if she had called in to your department or what, but I went by and one of your officers was out there with a hand shovel and shoveling her out of her driveway uh so she could get on to Highway 3. I thought, "Yeah, that makes me proud to be uh the citizen of Wigley." Good job to your force. So, thank you,

Councy. Um, echoing the snow removal. It was fantastic. I got a kick out of driving near Warberg. It reminded me of my college days at you and I at Cedar Falls trying to trying to snake through the cars that had not bothered to get moved in time for someone to get around. It's quite humorous. I'll be at the brewery tonight. For those of you listening or watching, I would love to hear uh public's views on ebikes and all that sort of thing. Where are you all at? and on events. Let us know what you think because we want to represent what you want as well. Absolutely. Council person Meyer, do you have anything to say?

I do. Thank you. Um, just wanted to refer anyone who hasn't already seen it to the mayor's video that she posted on her Facebook page today. Um, for those that don't know, it's the pa the page Christian for Waverly. and the mayor did a video explaining the issue of the golf course clubhouse and why a renovation is needed and I thought that she did a really great job providing good um objective information about that. So for anyone who hasn't seen that yet I would um recommend going to Facebook and taking a look at that. It's very informative.

Thank you Council Person Wolf. Thanks for the snow removal and also thanks to the neighbors who come through for their neighbors who are having difficulty getting out and doing their uh there's been a lot of neighborly things going on because of the really heavy snow and that's really wonderful to see too.

Guest council person um I'm going to piggyback off of your comment. Um I really shout out to the citizens of Waverly um on the Waverly Town Hall Facebook page. people were asking for assistance for shuttling and um people jumped in immediately. Hey, where do you live? Give me your address. We'll come over. Um and it was just really it was comforting to see that we came together in the community and just helped each other out. So, and shout out to the city for scooping me out of my driveway as I got well the street as I got stuck. So, uh they were very kind and they showed up with shovels. So, I appreciate them as well. Wonderful. Have you enjoyed your time as guest counsel for? I have. Thank you so much for this opportunity. It's been very It's been very fun. It's good.

Okay. Well, City Waverly, thank you for spending some time with us tonight. Um, Julie kind of said what I was going to say, so thank you for that support, Julie. We I have put a video out there explaining the golf course clubhouse renovation project that we are proposing. So, please um check that out if you have questions. I covered I had to redo it four times because I just got very, very lengthy. So, I tried to chop it down to about 10 minutes. But if there's other questions out there, please point people in the direction of the correct information so we are getting the facts out there instead of just the opinions that are out there. And it sounds like we have a lot of good going on in our community right now. Neighbors helping neighbors. But I encourage you if you cannot find the good in your community, find a way to be the good in your community. And with that, do I have a motion to adjurnn?

Move to adjurnn. Second. All in favor? I I opposed. We are adjourned.