Council - Regular Meeting

for January 5. Join us in our opening ceremonies. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And join me for a moment of silent prayer.

Amen. Before we um approve the agenda, I just want to extend a welcome to our new two new council members, Mark and Andrew. It's good to have you here and we expect a lot of brain brain smartness and brain activity. Well, yeah, from you and no, we welcome your opinions and we're glad that you're joining us and willing to give up your time to promote the city. And here's you got to move a chair, Olivia. this. So, agenda item number three is just approval of tonight's agenda. I don't think there's any um changes or anything. So, is there a motion for approval?

All those in favor signify by saying I. Okay.

Opposed? Motion carries. Agenda item four is a time that we allow at every um city council meeting um for Orange City residents to come and express their concerns or questions to the city council um on non-aggenda items. Uh we just ask that you ask or state your residence. I'm not sure if anybody's here to do that tonight. Not seeing any, we'll go ahead on to agenda item number five, which which is exhibit one in the packet. And we need to approve the minutes of the December 15, 2025, and the December 30, 2025 um council meeting. Can we do those together, Janet?

Okay. So, if you had a chance to look those over, if you have any questions or if there's a motion to approve. Motion to approve both December 15 and 30. Okay. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Motion carries. Um we have uh some more department reports um this evening and and we're going to start with Kurt Freers and the code enforcement. He has an exhibit too in your packet um that he has submitted. So welcome Kurt.

Yeah. So yeah, you should have received uh two exhibits. Uh the first one I'll talk about is basically the permits for the year um with housing and other permits. Uh this year in housing was a pretty strong year. Single family homes um we had nine um we had seven duplex units. Um and there'll be eight apartments put up and yeah that equals 72 units total. So, our housing was 90 94 units this year uh compared to 25 units um back in 2024. Really? So, obviously the apartments behind Dollar Press is a is a lot of that. So,

but it's good to see um our commercial overall is down. Um

on new structures um there was some additions and renovations along with school renovations to the college. uh Unity had they all did some upgrades to their school. Um so we had 88 total permits which is down over the last couple years it's usually been around 100. Um but the value of all the permits was just over $26 million for for the year. So the fees there um highlighted in red that includes all meter and connection fees with the new permit system we have. It just adds it all together. So instead of breaking it down, it's so it's the permit fees and the meter and connection fees. So um so food trucks, um obviously with our new online permitting, uh we get a lot more of those now. We know where they're at in town and so there's 24 for those.

And are those yearly? Uh some are yearly. Um the yearly ones would be uh the one up here at the park and then the one by dollar. Okay. are the two yearly ones. So, so they can choose if they want they can choose they can choose week daily, weekly, monthly or yearly. So, and then on the rental housing part of it, uh we currently have 522 rental properties within Orange City. Um 485 of those have been inspected and ones that are remaining are newer ones that we haven't done yet or the ones we had some issues with over the years. So, so yeah, you guys any questions on the permitting side?

Just department. What was it? Department wise you said? No, not I don't want I should have asked you this before, but do you know how that compares like to Sue Center or what's available in different towns? Um, that I do not typically I will get that report cuz uh at the he'll send me asking our report and he'll give us their report at the same time, but he hasn't done that. I just wondered how that compared. But yeah, so that number, Kurt, do you know how many of those are like single family homes in town that are rented out? Um I did have that breakdown at one time, right? It's all good. It was in the hundreds of I mean it was in a hundred some of this. Oh, really? Okay.

So, and then a lot of them are duplexes or Yeah. So, obviously with Hillrest, they're they're over 100 themselves. So, so yeah. Yeah, I can get that to you guys if you want to detail less. So, anything else on that side? I think so.

Okay. Then the other exhibit you'd have there would be just an updated on uh city lots. I know we talked about Madison extension, you know, the reason behind that needing it. Um so, in the pro jumping trail edition, basically we have 25 lots available. um seems like a a fair amount, but really it's on it's it's on the basically Juno Avenue east of Hillrest or 14th Street going out to the new elementary is basically the two points that uh Lincoln Avenue is basically full that are I mean they're reserves as you can see we have six reserved and then we have 11 multifamily lots um that sounds like a lot also but that includes the six that we just added on 14th of the smaller lots So that's

what does reserve mean?

Reserved is on the residential is they can reserve them for 3,000 up to two years and then after that they have to choose if they want to build or that we give it we get it back and they get 1,500 of that back. So we retain half of that for holding it for two years. So they just have to start construction within that two years. It doesn't have to be finished. It just has to be started. So, so that's mine. And then I guess uh some of the events this year, bigger ones with the annexation of the Grunhood property on the west end of town. Um working with them on a final plat yet. They're not ready to move forward with P&Z on that. I fixed our opening with a big boost. I mean, for traffic and people and other than that, it's been it's an average year. So, any questions?

Thanks for all you do, Kurt. We appreciate it. Yeah. Yeah.

Police Chief Pab exhibit 3 in our um welcome. Thank you for having me. Um I'll just go over the annual report numbers here. Um as you can see, incidents were down this year, which was good. Um, I really don't consider incidents call for services. Incidents are more heavily involved with our investigative unit such as investigating thefts, burglaries, assaults, and other more serious crimes. So, we we want the that number to be low every year. Um, which is good. This was last year. Um, traffic warnings were down slightly, but still had a lot of um warnings this year. a lot of cars out and about stopping cars, which is good. Citations were up some. Uh, juvenile arrests were about the same and our adult arrests were down. Um, I like to think that's going from 7 to nine officers and and that has a factor with that number because uh I know personally when I go to the grocery store or Casey's or anywhere, it's not too often you don't see a patrol car around. seems like they're really out and about, which I'm hoping that that deterrent is because of that. Okay.

Uh, accidents were down also this year, which is always good. Um, according to the county's agency report, we took about 3,200 calls for service last year. Um, these are only calls that the county dispatches us to. Um, it doesn't count all the walk-ins, phone calls, and other calls dispatched to by our city here. So I I easily feel like, you know, we we take on another 1500 calls a year just what's coming in and phone calls and um what the secretary's dispatches too. So 3200 I I believe there's more to it than that. Um our newest member of our team, Rome, is doing very well. Um Rome is a Belgian lone wall who serves as a dualpurpose K-9. Um he's certified in narcotics detection, criminal apprehension, and tracking. We sent uh Trevor Grease, our officer, to Minneapolis for 12 weeks to train with this dog. And it was a lot of work for him, but uh it went really, really well. And um you know, this training allows officers to handle high-risisk situations more safely. and and we're really happy to have him. Um been been using him a lot on traffic stops

and um he's already detected methamphetamine in a traffic stop that led to arrest. So we're we're using him a lot. So happy to have him and he goes home with Yeah. He's basically lives with Trevor. It's a lot of work. Oh, I bet having that dog. I mean, he's with him 24/7. So, but it's it's really nice to have him around, especially if you ever have something major. It's he's really good backup. Yeah.

So, uh yeah, we spend a lot of time in the schools this year during the day and the afternoons. You know, I advise my officers to walk through the schools, be seen, park your patrol car in front of the schools if you have paperwork. I I that's a big part of me. I I feel that's a big deterrent also and we need to be around in the schools. So, we we have time to do it, so we're going to do it. We have a lot of schools in the district, so we're uh we spend a lot of time in it. Uh today is the first day for Micaia Hera at the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy. Uh 16 weeks long,

but I'm confident she will receive excellent training and we're excited to have her back as a certified officer. So, that's really exciting for us. So, you just got to cover those shifts and Yeah, we've been covering. We have two part-time officers and that's been working really well. So, yeah. Yep. Grateful for our part-time workers also. You guys have any questions? Staff where you need it? Yeah, we'll be uh hiring here down the line, but uh we're just about up to full staff. Good.

Yep. Should bring Rome in sometime to meet us. Yeah. How do they do like with in crowds? Does he Trevor keeps him really close? Yeah. Yeah. Because you know it's not like a lab or a short hair. I know. It has its purpose. Yeah. Yeah, they say they use them as a tool actually, right? So, it's uh we keep them in the back of the car, but he'll let him out and we'll do drills and stuff with them and and he's getting used to us, but I don't know if he's quite used to us just to sit next to him, right? Yeah. So, yeah, element of trust.

Yeah. Yep. And, uh, I think as time goes on, it will get he'll trust us more. So, Well, thanks for all you do. Yeah. Thank you. I noticed the presence more too around town and I'm thankful for that. Yeah. See? Yeah. No, it's good. So, yeah. Thank you. Thanks, Jim. Al, for to give us a report on the electric department.

Welcome, sir. I want to go over some numbers that and some projects that we did this past summer. Um, as far as residential services, we put in four new residential services. Uh, we relocated four health services as well. Um, we're in the process of putting in two multif family housing projects. Uh, one of them would be the RTI building, uh, Bob and Allen's, which will accommodate 12 apartments as well as four to five businesses. Um, the other one would be the R prairie complex would be 72 apartments and then the access building which will accommodate a couple businesses and uh, four apartments there. Hey, Kurt's numbers don't jive together because uh he's doing the whole town where we're only doing our service territory for electric. So, my numbers are going to be a little down from his. So, um we continue updating on street lighting uh around the area. Uh last summer we did uh project along the east side of the golf course. We installed 12 new light poles and lights. Uh it used to be Midam Territory. That used to be their poles. Um we rented the lights from them. Um so now we put them on city power so we don't have to rent them anymore. Um other to the south to the roundabout. We're proposing a budget number to put in light poles to the roundabout as well. So pending budget on that. Um, also this past summer we changed out uh sodium lights for the downtown area to LED as well as uh Martin Drive some of the decorative lighting that we uh waited till the last to do. Um

that'll complete our change out of sodiums to LEDs. So that was a big project and took what three years. So that's

nice to have behind us. So, um, we continue to work on our distribution system. Uh, some of the projects that we did this past summer is, uh, continuing to replace North Peter, uh, north of town. Um, we're kind of planning on future for out that way. So, we're putting some three-phase out that way as well as, excuse me, as well as finishing some of the single phase out, uh, replacing some old cable. So, um, another project that we didn't foresee for this summer, um, kind of threw us for a loop, um, was the Northwestern College football field lighting. Uh, some of the our feeder, one of our feeders runs right through the lighting there and, uh, they wanted it moved, so we had to move a lot of the distribution system there uh, to accommodate their new lights. So it it took a good part of the summer to to do that project. So um we installed a singlephase line through the Northland edition to serve new lots on Frankfurt and 10th Street Culac. Uh we installed new singlephase line for the Yod West development which will serve 14 residential lots. Um we also installed a three-phase line transformer for the Bob and Alen's building. will accommodate 12 apartments, four businesses. So, um, with that unexpected project by the Northwestern College and the ratio, it kind of set us back for our summer projects. We had three projects that we budgeted for last year that we didn't really get to. So, we're going to try to hit those three projects pretty hard this spring. Uh, one would be our Delaware project on our north beater. Um

once we complete that, that will give our north feeder a good feeder to be rely on. So another one would be uh kind of by the swimming pool and our gas border station kind of by Darren's place replacing cable there as well. So we did not get to that but hopefully get it this spring. Um, and then the cable replacement die on Highway 10 from GCC to Huber Softwater. Uh, we got some wire pulled in there, but that's about all we we did and hopefully do some terminating on that wire this winter. So, with uh you're wondering what we do during the winter, we do a lot of inspections. Uh we're required by the Iowa Utility Commission to inspect certain parts of town as well as our 69 line and stuff. Um it's been 8 years since the IU has been to town to in to look over everything. So they came this past May and uh they found a few things, not a lot. um some signage on the substation, some uh rock that need to be added, um some fence repair as well as uh some small signage in the distribution system. So, this was a note from our inspector which he stated that uh our system and uh inspections are in pretty good order. So, it's credit to our blind department with that.

And you know, they always got to find something. What's that? They always have to find something. You always got to leave a pad lock off or something. Yeah. Got to give them something. So, but no, that's a good pretty good testament to it. Yes. Good job. Yeah. Yeah. Kudos to that. So, do they surprise you with that or do they No, they usually it's a yearly thing, but like since I started they haven't done it. Okay. And maybe three years before that. So, they're short-handed as well. Um they just have another guy to come along, this new guy that was there. So, they're trying to catch up, too. Sure.

Yeah. Um, our substations, we continue to maintain our east and west substations. We have three substations, by the way. Um, our east and west, our east and industrial substations are in pretty good shape, so it's good. It's good good to go. Um, we've been working on our west sub. Um, this past fall we replaced uh a T1 LTC and uh relays. It had been giving us some fits for quite a while now, but hopefully we got that under control. Um, also at the West Sub uh where we ordered some switch gear for the inside of the switch gear building. We have that on hand. We're storing it right now. Hopefully this this spring summer we can get it. Um as well as we have a new transformer substation transformer for that uh substation as well. You know what the time out on that is?

Summer or fall probably sometime.

So hopefully we can get that switched over this future too. So uh we continue to work with DGR the engineers about generation as well. So, I think Matt's done a lot of leg work on Matt's um bike went out over here. So, uh locates that's a a big job. Uh the summer of 2024 is when we had the premier project go through. Um, and with that summer we had a lot of locates and that we had 1,259 locates. Now this summer I thought it would be less. It's only a little bit less like less than 100. So they just keep coming in and keeps us hopping. Um, some locates will take us five minutes, some locates take us half a day. So, it's uh just something that needs to be done to keep our system safe, keep our infrastructure safe, and our contractor safe. So,

and your crew does that?

Uh, I mainly do it if I get overwhelmed or overloaded and I have a couple of guys help me out. So, yeah, locating is under locating underground or infrastructure. So, Um, GIS, I talked last time I was here with you guys about hitting that pretty hard. Last this coming summer, past summer, we did not hit it at all. We didn't have time. So, um, I look forward to the budget with Matt today and we've talked about maybe putting a lighter load on the budget, especially with the projects we did not finish. Um hopefully we can hit that GIS mapping this summer and uh try to get a good start on it. So as far as uh employees, we had the Mike Clo retire after 45 plus years. Um a lot of knowledge went out the door. So um it'll be missed. But uh we got Chase Williams hired. Um three years of experience from Alton. Seems like he'll be a good fit for us. So um any questions? That's about all I have.

GIS locating. Will that then help with like locating going forward? Would be easier. It would probably be easier. What we would do is locate the whole town. uh as far as primaries, secondaries, street lighting, um get it all mapped out on the GIS. Um get it to exact spot exactly. It'll whenever we want to look find out what we got in that area, we can pull it up on a tablet or our phones, see exactly what's there, and that will help tremendously. Yeah. Utilitywide, just gas and water.

Gas, water, sewer, gas. Yep. So, we had them survey with our maps before, not not quite exact. And so, this will be more pinpointing it for the future and and verifying what's out there and helping when future employees retire, you know, just pass. You can do a lot with this GIS. You can pull up a a switch or something and you can pull up a a folder or something and say, "This is what was done. This is the date of the wire. This is when it was replaced." You can put a a lot of stuff a lot of information. So, but as well, you know, we tried to change out a bunch of switches, too. We got some live front switches out there, and we call them widow makers.

Oh, dear. And, uh, we were trying to get them changed out to dead front. So, we're budgeting for three dead front switches and so we can just keep changing them out at this point. Anything else? Thank you. I'm sure this is all Greek to you guys. Just want to know what you do in your spare time. Thanks.

Thanks, Al. Thanks a lot. Appreciate all of you guys. Agenda item seven. This is um each year we ask affiliate organizations of the city to present and renew their request for funds. And tonight we're lucky um to have two committees, the two festival steering committee and chamber. And Mike's going to um talk to us on both of them. So, welcome Mike. Thank you, mayor. Glad to be here again. Some handouts for you.

And Jenny is the chair this year of the Tulip Festival, right? So, you'll correct him if he does something wrong.

Um, just a little bit of a recap of the 2025 festival year. Uh, it was a was another good year, good attendance. We'll talk about some of the the numbers from states and zip codes. Uh but I just want to thank um groups like Allen Street Department, the city, different categories that we get assistance from. Uh even the water and sewer guys pitch in. Um I think it's been a last year was our first full year of doing having the fire department do the accessible seating for us and that allowed Jim and his guys to be more present walking around the downtown. Um, used it a number of times. Um, we'll talk about one incident, one incident after we get done here,

but it worked pretty well. Yeah, from our standoint for you, from your standpoint. Yeah. Yeah, it was great. We could, you know, you could call and you could see um Jim to come and they were really close and

right by. So, that was nice to have. Um, so yeah, just thank you for that support and we appreciate them being able to do that. Uh, ArtBurst and Craft Show continue to grow. Um, even with some numbers on Art Burst where some people are retiring, so that's a good thing. The Craft Show, we kind of capped it again this year where we didn't. Uh, we've talked about extending it into another street, but um, probably not right enough numbers yet to where we need to be. But that one um continues to be a good a good those two events good are nice additions for the festival. Uh the road race and tour to tulips also grew this year. The road race um kind of trickled off during COVID times and it's now started to come back and be a little bit more robust. So we're happy about that. Um we continue to offer or encourage partner groups to offer new activities for visitors. um Dutch American Heritage Museum, Dutch Heritage Boosters, Arts Council. I'm going to talk about something about that in a in a little down there. But if there's opportunities for those different groups to do things, library does the bookw walk, uh those sorts of things, we're we're really happy and encouraging those people to do that. Um started to do a bit more of a volunteer database organization, so that uh kind of streamlined a little bit. We did a live stream of the tulip progress in Windmill Park. um again this year with daily updates. Um so that's uh been kind of a nice thing. It's one of the questions we get asked the most. Um had a couple of new food vendors with some new food options that we hadn't had before. So that was nice. We were visited by from 45 different states and 37 327 different zip codes during the festival. So and then that's not including you know international folks which do do arrive. So, uh, we did some revamping and improving to our popular floats this year. There's

a couple of them, some of the, uh, tulips and the grass and the greenery needed to be updated. So, we we did a little bit of that. Uh, the costume committee made a trip to the Netherlands

after the festival. It was a a really a wonderful trip where they could make a lot of connections with people and get some more um relationships for costumes and how they're going to continue to to continue to grow those and come up with new ones. So um we've used it a couple of times for um a new book that we've got, but then also for like at a little an event where they talked about their stuff and it actually is going to um translate into something else here I'll talk about in a little bit. And then we rolled out our new website at the end of 2025. Jenny did a a fantastic job working on that. Uh it really streamlines a bunch of different things, kind of combines things together and gives us some new options to be able to communicate with people and get the information out to them. So, uh looking forward to 2026. It's the 85th annual festival, so we're excited about that. Uh we've got our queen in court already elected and crowned. So, we're we're moving ahead with that part of it. We're partnering with Diamond Vogal Paint uh for a new float that's going to kind of honor their 100th anniversary. So, that'll be a new item. Um and then we continue to work on plans for our float fleet itself. Like, what does that continue to look like? Some of that stuff is old bus chassis and they've been just they're hard to keep running every year. So, we're looking at how do we transition and keep new new rides and stuff like that or new floats continuing to come. So,

uh we can share new new experiences via the website design just with locations of food vendors and then also some of those other events and uh things that happen uh during the festival. It'll be easier for visitors to see. We've got a new tulip planting subcommittee that we'll work with um Noah on on how do we continue to look at where are we planting tulips and how many and how does that al all look especially with the uh the new portion of the park downtown? How can we have viewing for tulips in the most prominent places? So, um, again, we're going to we want to continue to promote the changes that are happening as we kick off the 85th and everybody gets to experience Windmill Park with all those changes this year. I think it'll be a a really nice addition and a great place for people to see things. So, um, again, just continuing to grow the road race and the tour to Tulips, encouraging partner organizations to come up with new ideas of things that we can do. Uh the stip work lunchon will be happening again with the Dutch American Heritage Museum. We're working with OC Arts on a decorated wooden shoe community project that they hope to have uh put together by May. So we'll we'll see where that um plays out. But yeah, just if there's other things that other groups can do or want to do, we're happy to continue to, you know, make those partnerships work. So, um, we've got a volunteer that's going to actually take over the volunteer database and kind of look at all of our volunteers and how do we keep the needs of for volunteering different areas. How do we keep those under one umbrella so that we get the information out both to the public but then also to those people in our committees that need volunteers. Um, we're looking at some new food options again this year. We've got a couple of uh longtime concessionaires that may be stepping aside or taking

maybe taking a reign back a little bit. So, we'll look at those options. Um kind of talked about it before, but there'll be a new cleroc program this year, kind of like the Dutch Dozen. Uh we'll do a we kind of learned that from some of the rain shows we had to do last year, how good those went over. Um, you know, we we filled up every single time we had to do a rain show and it just felt like we got a lot of comments afterwards that being able to see the costumes on stage, hear a little bit more about them um was a good thing. So, we're creating an actual program, which we'll talk more about uh publicly as we get closer to it, but that'll showcase costumes and um go into a little bit more detail for visitors. Even when you're on the street on the parade, it's hard to see,

you know. Yeah, they're going fast. And so that's uh that's we're excited about that. I talked about the Orange City Arts wouldn't shoe decorating thing already. Um and then we'll be offering some festival related merchandise that'll be kind of unique uh this year. Um that'll happen during the festival. So we're excited to talk about that. Um kind of in line with what we talked about earlier with police um barricades. We've talked with Matt. Maybe some of you have seen the video of Saturday afternoon where somebody rode literally right in front of town hall here

during mode show, did a U-turn, and then sped out. Um Luke was manning the uh intersection by Dave Bungar's house and couldn't stop him. So, how what do we what do we do? We've used cement barricades in different places before. We did a little bit of experimenting of that in the festival or with Ragbry last year and I we we think it worked out really well. So, um don't be surprised if you we will work with the different street departments and different organizations and um we had a pretty good plan for how we needed to move those for fire if we needed to during rag bry. So, that worked pretty good. So, in today's day and age, you know, we have to be thinking about that kind of stuff. So that could have been could have been really bad.

So yeah, but we'll work together with city departments and fire and police and to come up with a plan on what's the best Yeah. How do we best accommodate that, I guess, is what we're taking a look at. So yeah, and then again, just thanks to the city crews for all the help they they put on. I asked some about what this might be a strategic planning thing. Um, I'm even thinking like Diamond Vogle building their new float. Are they going to house that? Will they? We've we've got a space for it.

Got a space. Okay. But like in as the years go on and if we want to encourage new floats, does the city do we need to kind of look at expanding our our storage space or our float space or Yeah, float space is always a challenge for us with these floats that we're actually building. they're getting more they're working at well we're kind of taking a look at them and saying what is what makes sense how is there ones that have been really old that really what sentiment of value do they have um can we come up with new ideas and do do things differently uh but you know those guys are building floats in Jamie Valentine's shop so

you know we we talked about the idea of could we rent something or have a space where it's literally just all we do is work on floats and then offer that the Dutch Heritage Boosters or some other organizations in the offseason to be able to do those sorts of things. Uh yeah, there's room out there for some expansion on some of those big sheds. I think it would be might be a good idea for a few of our groups to work together. The Yeah, you know, like the the the sound shed. Yeah.

Right now that's full of Dutch Heritage Booster stuff as well as our stuff in the offseason. We've still got stuff in the old band shell station downtown. Um, some of that's nice to have in close proximity, but the brooms are all there and that kind of stuff, you know, no and those guys use that stuff, too. So, yeah, we may be about that. So, good. That's good. That's what I have for that.

Question's been filed on this. this fiscal year? Not for this fiscal year. We're working on that now. Right now, and what's the 50,000 of other grant income? Um, so when we get like better board stuff or like for instance, Volo is helping us with that float. Sure.

Uh chamber stuff was another busy year in the in the chamber. Again, uh we had 16 new ribbon cutting and business transition events, whether that's new groundbreings at the college or Quickstar or um

the box hole. Some of those take a little bit longer sometimes than um it's kind of up to the business to be able to do that. So, uh there's a number of times that the uh ambassadors were out and about doing those sorts of things. So, um it's nice to see that again. The merchants had a number of successful promotions and events in 2025 again. Uh most recently, some of the things that they did during the Christmas season really went over well. They had good um visitation and and people coming in from different areas all over all the way up from the lakes to Sou Falls to Sous City and those sorts of things on uh on some of those events. So they they continue to investigate ways to do new things and to keep that promotion and events calendars moving and keeping traffic coming to Orange City, not just into the downtown. So, uh did quite a bit of work with retail, industrial and commercial recruitment and support projects. Uh that's always a a busy thing that we do each and every year. Uh farmers market continued to grow. Uh they had 25 different participants this year, not necessarily all every single week. Um but even during the times where we had rain, we were able to go into his leg and um kind of kind of did that as well. So that that works out really nice having it right there on central. And then they did something new which they'll have another one here in January, but in December they had a winter market where they set up. There was 10 12 different people there.

Um and they just set up and opened it up. It was the week after we did the holiday market. So there they as a group want to continue to do those things to kind of offer things year round which is a great way to continue to get um traffic. So, it's a little different demographic of people than would normally maybe come into the downtown. So, um we presented and partnered to the Northwestern College entrepreneur class and helped them evaluate projects. Uh this has been something that we've been working on with the business department for a long time. Uh it's really fun and exciting. We've never actually had somebody that had an idea that came out of it and then went into um actual business ownership, but uh they had one in Marcus. I think she's since closed that down, but you never know what you're going to hear for an idea. So, that's kind of a fun one. Uh, Ragbr 52, we were the starting town. I think everybody knows that. Um, it was a lot of work, uh, but also a lot of fun. So, we were we were glad to be able to do that. And, uh, they're starting to make plans for 2026 already. And uh you know that was another one where again utilities and street and water and you know all those guys coming and helping us with all that stuff it was made it made it go really well and just all the community support. So um continued to have the monthly vibrant meetings with vibrant and move small move small live big program um and that website and all of that data. So that's a that's been a nice um addition. and we've been doing that since uh since co so I can't believe it's been that long already but that's kind of our our marketing tool for uh getting out and trying to recruit new people to move here throughout the year. So uh smoke off event was in its fifth year this year had good attendance and good participation by smokers. We'll continue to look and see how we can continue to grow that. And then the other thing

that's been, you know, it's been about a two-year process, but this retail initiative project, uh, participation has taken up a lot of time, a lot of work, uh, working with that small committee and a group of retailers and just different, uh, community members as well. You've probably heard about that, how we're bringing hopefully bringing something to city council uh, in time for strategic planning on what has kind of transpired for all of this. I think it's I've already seen from the merchant side of it, there's been a lot of good collaboration and good ideas um that are coming forward. So um 2026 objectives continue to support that vision 2035, the big old booklet of stuff. Um mine's getting worn out, but there's a lot of good stuff in there. And I do really think that this retail initiative project uh really could fit in with that really well. And there's uh some good ideas coming out of that. You know, we never really addressed specific retail stuff in that. It was just kind of an over overlapping um thing. So, it I think we could kind of take that and make that part of our project 2035 um initiatives going forward. Uh look to continue to support and grow the vibrant OC program, the Grow OC program, our look local first um initiatives with merchants and just getting community members to think look locally first. Uh we want to continue to foster relationships with again like Arts Council and Dutch Heritage Boosters and the museum and uh library and just get them all involved and keep them going with um being a part of some of the other different stuff that's that we're doing. One of the things that's come out of the retail initiative is that we're creating um kind of a master calendar for a bunch of different things. Uh we're going to talk to the merchants about that next week about how where they can put all their stuff in. But then we'd also have arts council. Everybody can just place all their stuff

and it can be just a one go-to spot for people. So, um, we want to continue to look at the farmers market and what that looks like and the events that they have there. You know, food trucks have been brought up, food has been brought up, just a lot of different things that we can continue to do on Saturday mornings. Um, and then just continue to support other group efforts that will uh benefit our business community. you know, things like Ragbr, when can we continue to get that influx of people um into Orange City for different reasons than they would normally come, whether it's outside of the festival or uh college events or those sorts of things. So, um yeah,

been a busy year.

Yeah, it has very busy and um it's going well. I noticed my my one little one day a week I help Carrie out at her shop on on Main Street close to Darren and and I am truly amazed how many people are walking the streets of Orange City. They really I mean in a good way. I don't mean that bad but there there's looking and I I have groups of ladies come in there and they look around and oh now where should we go? Well then you kind of go get coffee. I I kind of tell them the layout of land, but there's groups of ladies probably close to my age that are retired that look to go to smaller communities and check out what's going on in those little towns. I one does one I think by Ida Grove. There was a bunch of ladies that went there. They set out a weekend to promote and it's they're we're out there. So, it's it's a good thing to continue to promote. I'm excited about that retail being part of the strategic plan.

Yeah. And I think that's one of the things that's going to come out of the retail thing too is, you know, for a lot of years we've talked about how do we create like a map of other places that they can go. Well, as soon as you print that, somebody new comes in or somebody else closes and then you've got so with the changes in digital printing that POM can do for us now. We can print a few off. Yeah. Have it be a tear off map and then that would only enhance the visitor experience for people. So, I think that's one of the things that is probably going to come out of that from the retailer side, too. They're they're talking about a lot of different things. Yeah. And it's good just to be good neighbors and point them to a different store or Yeah. So,

Mike, you got numbers in here for Ragbr just for chamber, but you have do you or RagBry give like an estimate of what the economic impact of of that? Ragbr does. They do it. They've done it over the course of the 50ome years of Rag Brian. I think it's like a seven or eight million dollar um type thing. I haven't heard from

No, just as as a whole for the whole week. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's one of those things that's really hard to quantify because it's even hard to quantify for the festival because one of the things that we like to say even in relation to the festival, but it also applies to Ragbrite is just because somebody came during that event and didn't walk into your store or maybe it was a pain in the butt for you at the store. You can't buy that kind of marketing awareness because you never know when they're going to come back. Um, how many times have all of us heard, "Well, well, I heard I I came here for the festival and now I've retired here because I love it." Um, Darren, I think you heard that from people from California during Ragbrite who thought that we literally just put up all the flowers in the park and hung them from the light stands just because Ragbrite was happening

and we were, no, this this is how we live. So, yeah. So, that kind of stuff can come back and it's hard to put a number on. Mike, just a couple financial questions. The other income 21,000. So that is that says other income. I'm just curious what what the source of that was. Yeah. So that's uh we partner with the festival and the arts council for different expenses out of the office

and then the festival contracts with us, right? Yep. Yep. And I see on the balance sheet there's accounts receivable of 45,000 accounts payable liability of 62. Just curious what those are. So the accounts receivable would be with the way the fiscal year ends the new one starts in October. So some of those are done before the end of the fiscal year. You know what I mean? Yeah. And then and then the liabilities is bonus bucks type stuff and other Okay. Okay. So the accounts receivable is what? Who owes us money then? Just dues. Dues paying unpaid dues. Yes. Everything

because those are done different times throughout the year. Gotcha. We've got to continue to do more. There's there's a lot of good stuff happening with the museum. um with the Heritage boosters, with the arts council, with the library. Um and we just got to continue to try to drive people to I think sometimes we forget that we're only 7,000 people. Mhm.

I mean, there's a lot going on for that. I look at your reports with other organizations and stuff like that. There's a lot of stuff happening. So, yeah, every group is kind of talking about collaboration this time around. So that's good. Yeah. Is it on each group to kind of reach out to the other groups? I mean, are you guys like the museum, the library, do you guys all meet so often or we don't necessarily meet so often, but like all of them have been invited to this retail. So the it's it's kind of a hard description name to say retail because it's not all retail. I mean, there's been

um just random community members that have said, "Hey, I'm interested in helping with something like that." Um, you know, Jenny helps with it, Joel Vorp helps with it, Darren sits on that. Steve's doing a lot of work. Russ Adams is doing a lot of work. And then underneath that is even, you know, just people that volunteer at an organization and then come because they've got ideas and it Yeah. So then the the goal is how we're going to bring it all together. Yeah. Right. Y keep it Yeah. Keep it moving forward. Yeah. So, they came up with like a list of 90 different things that they'd like to do. Well, brainstorm. Yeah.

You know, but I, you know, some of them were like, we'll continue to do the festival. Well, check. Oh, I was worried about that. Yeah. So, we got to just start taking that lowhanging fruit and have it in front of everybody and say, who's going to do this? Because a lot of that, some of that stuff, too, we Jenny and I went through and created a this already exists. this is an infrastructure project that you know streetscaping or an alley an alley doing some work in an alley people said well there's some really cool alleys we should improve them or do something different or bike racks or

well that's a infrastructure thing so but does it add to the ambiance and of everything yeah walkable sidewalks bike paths so I think that's some of it that'll come out of it yeah some other stuff like with King's Day they're trying to say okay what can the Dutch heritage boosters add to for King's Day. How does the museum be involved? How can the library be involved? So, it's more of a a bigger day, a bigger function that catches more people and it's really a community event type thing. Yeah. So, just one example. Yeah. Even with farmers markets, I mean, ISU extension comes down and does thing. Well, they're not, but they do stuff with kids. You want to come down and do that with the kid? Sure. Sure.

Yeah. Good. Great. Thanks. Thank you, Mike. Okay. That every two years after elections and stuff, we have to have uh council appointments and mayor appointments. And that's where we are in the in the agenda. Um now we're uh agenda item number eight is council appointments. And um we first of all have a list. It's exhibit four in your packet on the employee roster of personnel. And I think does that make a motion to approve these people? Is that what we do with that? That you may still be here.

Yeah. So, and that you can look through it lists um everybody that's affiliated with the with the city. So, that's good. Got a good group of people. So, we just need a motion to approve the employee roster of personnel. That's just full-time employees. It is just fire department. Yeah. Yeah. Any questions on that? All those in favor signify by saying I. I

opposed. Motion carries. Um and the other one under that is uh our city attorney which um he has we have kept him busy uh a lot and we appreciate everything he does. It is a council appointment. I've uh I always trust um Brad's input and his leadership in uh any legal legalities that we need. Um I talked with him briefly. Um he is willing to continue to serve and that it's been how many years, Brent? Uh I I started in uh 2012. 2012. Yeah. And I think after Lauren

Yeah. Lauren was here probably 25 30 years and Earl was probably was 25 30 years after that. So I I would guess our firm has represented the city for close to 75 years running. Little has changed in that time. Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure. But your fees haven't changed at all. No, no, they're still the same. I appreciate you though. But I would entertain a motion to um continue Brad as our city attorney. All those in favor signify by saying yes. Yes.

Motion passes. Thank you. We'll keep you well I hope we don't keep you too busy. So agenda item um number nine is some mayor appointments. Um but I have do we do these separately Janet? You don't have to.

You don't have to. Um the list is I've um asked Aaron to serve as mayor prom and um so he will he's graciously accepted to do that and uh Jim Podbomb has um took saved my heart a little bit in accepting being continue to be chief of police. He does an amazing job keeping our community safe and and uh really appreciate his leadership and his department. Just need to meet Rome. I'm a dog person and also fire chief Dan Roger is his second time. Right, Dan? And um uh fire chief and has done a great job and we're glad that he um I would like to continue to bring his name forward to continue in that role. And then also you guys or maybe we should do those three together. Should we do those three together? Um so if if there's no um comments or if just need a motion to approve those three appointments as Mayor Prom, Chief of Police, Jim Pbam, Fire Chief Dan Roger.

All those in favor signify by saying I.

Opposed. Motion carries. Great. And then we have a list here of the city council members and myself and some of the staff um serve in different capacities and different um program representatives. And of course we change have to change that um when we get new council members or or staff changes. And we've reworked that and uh it's been sent out to the council. It's exhibit five in our packet and um I think people have had a chance to look it over. I don't I'm not really going to review it um go over it line by line, but um if it meets the approval of the council, I would entertain a motion for approval.

Make that motion work. All those in favor signify by saying I I motion carries. Great. Thanks. Um, agenda item 10 is setting our council meeting dates and we currently um, presently meet on the first and third Mondays of each month at 4:30 in the afternoon and um, I don't know, Andrew said something about Friday. Friday at 5,

but I he we got to let him be on here a little longer than I think. So, um, hopefully that continues to meet. It's a good time I think usually for the staff and the so um if there's no questions on that I would entertain a motion to continue at 4:30 on the first and third Mondays. Occasionally we have to have a extra one and budget time. Kent always wants us here. So yeah. So is there a motion for that approval? Okay. All those in favor signify by say I.

I opposed. Motion carries. And the other um agenda item 11 is we need action to be taken on the official newspaper which presently is a Sou County Capitol Democrat which usually Sarah Sarah's here but Doug Doug just can't stay away so Doug stays comes and we like we like you here Doug you're a comforting piece. So, um, is there any discussion or is there a motion to approve, uh, Sou County Capital Democrat as our official paper?

Good. All those in favor signify by saying I

oppose. Motion carries. There's a motion, you'll notice, uh, for authorization to issue checks. Currently, it's a city administrator, city clerk, and financial officer to issue checks for the contracted salaries and wages, postage, freight, insurance premiums, utilities, bonds, and interest payments, and contract payments without further action of the council. And then all of the checks are written after um council approval. The summary of warrants that you get at at monthly meeting um is presented for the council to review on a monthly basis is a listing of all the checks including those with previous authorization. Correct. Correct, Kent. So, we just need to um uh authorize those three um staff to be able to write checks.

Support. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I motion carries. Great. Agenda item 13 is exhibit six in your packet. Uh we've talked briefly about this at our last meeting. It's a bench Dutch front proposal proposal RTI and I think Matt, you're going to take that off?

Yeah. Uh appreciate Kurt's work on working through that with RTI and the Dutch front committee. Um it's been one of the council couple meetings now. Um I think additional feedback was sought from the Dutch front committee as far as percentage of what they felt was Dutch. Uh they came back with um with some thoughts on that, you know, after looking at at that and and uh getting feedback from the council and and some of the discussion that was had here as well as working with the developer and the the investment they had there. Um we um uh we were making a recommendation of the $100,000 mark. You know, I think last time uh somewhere in the 80 to $100,000 was discussed around the council table. Um but um just considering the the investment that the group is making of I think 300 plus,000 on that. So um yeah, that's that's kind of where it's at. Certainly open for additional discussion or thoughts on that, but that discussion there.

Yeah, I think a third is about right total committee recommended 25,000. What was the change, I guess?

Yeah. So, they they initially uh at their initial meeting recommended full full payment. Um, and then I think at the the first time it was brought to council, correct me if I'm wrong, Kurt, but they um additional input was sought from the Dutch front committee as far as what they felt was Dutch, not not necessarily funding, but what was uh fit with Dutch design. I think um again, probably getting into some of the weeds as far as some of the design aspects, but I think the stone was probably the biggest aspect um that felt was not that way. So, um yeah, I think there's also some um process um points that were um missed along the way that that there should have been a a pre-authorization as opposed to getting authorization after the fact. So, kind of considering all of that and and as well as the um I think had they been involved the the the Dutch front committee been involved on the front end of it, I think they probably would have gotten some some additional advice on what could have been the better, you know, better adhere to the the thoughts there. So, um kind of taking all that into consideration, that's that's where we landed. So

your meeting with the RTI folks, did that I mean go well and the number that was floating out there?

I think after they put the number to what it actual cost was for the front kind of shocked them of with the extra cost of doing the facades and the peaks and stuff. I think it just came back to them as this is a lot more expensive what than what they thought the reimbursement would be from the city. Um that 100,000 basically is set at the max what the city would give out anyway for the building. Um that's not saying anything for the north side of the building which we could have gave money for. Um you do can the drive-through canopy and really there's not much features there that would coincide with that. Um did do a little research on the 17th and 1800th century architecture of the Dutch. Um, stone was an alternative for uh facades and front entrances. Um, only difference would be it was probably a lighter stone than the darker stone, but stone is actually an item that they used back in 1718. So,

and this area didn't need to have rooms at all for No, it's just a recommendation, right? Um, to do. So, it's amazing how many citizens I've had tell me how nice they think it's with the that it's really going to be a nice addition along that um corridor. I make the motion that we go ahead and move the $2,000 for the month. Second. Any discussion on that? the front committee okay with that recommendation. I don't want to overstep a committee recommendation.

They were I mean after they just after they gave their 25% thought or their portion of it and basically was left at rods and then came back with our recommendation back to council say they have not been notified of it. Um like Matt was saying earlier is initially they approved any all funding you know max funding you know initially and then it was council decision to send it back to to them to see once what they truly thought of what the best features were of it. So then that's where they came back with the 25%.

Yeah. I'm thinking Rod said something. I could be wrong, but that they they were just giving their opinion on what they felt was truly met the Dutch that they they weren't opposed to the council giving them more. But this is ask for their, you know, ask for their Yeah. their opinion on I think it's a good opportunity for us as a city to as we encourage outside development along with our current builders and developers from town you know make sure that we got our processes in place that you know if this was the learning experience next time whether it's in the area that it needs to be Dutch or not we get it out there right away Yep.

Yeah. Like I said, that's usually everyone going know. Mike's good with it too with businesses coming that that the program's there and stuff. And so I want to encourage businesses in the areas where they don't it's not required. Mhm. To still be able to or still do it. Yeah. And like in this instance, yeah, they knew it was there. They knew the funding was there. They just didn't know the correct process until all they were going up and the project got delayed so much that on the back end. So it just kind of was a roller coaster and just kind of everything kept getting pushed. So

any other questions? Good questions. Call for the question. All those in favor signify by saying I opposed. Motion passes. Great. Okay. Where am I going backwards here? That takes us to agenda item 14, which is the access holding urban renewal plan. That is exhibit seven in your packet. And Kent, thank you for coming up. Yep. Thank you, Governor. Yes.

So, this is uh we're starting the process. We did this uh the last meeting for North Wland. Now, this is uh an urban renewal plan that our attorneys in De Moine are helping us uh draft. And that is what is in your packet there from our Cooney. This is in regards to access Holdings, which is a building just north of City Hall here. Um Ryan and I started meeting with them basically almost a year ago in regards to that process. If you recall, um in the spring, they came to you guys here in regards to approving a TIP application and then they were applying for a catalyst grant as well with the state. Right. So that was all done in the spring. We're now developing the urban renewal planiff tax increment financing and this is for monies to uh give to businesses or that we want in Orange City or to to develop in Orange City. So this is just the start of the process. Um we're asking for the resolution to set the date for uh the public hearing to be February 2. Um, in regards to developing the plan, there's a few other meetings that are in between that. So part of it is like when we say consultation meeting that is set for January 12th and that is uh we're going to send out some uh notices to the other government entities Sou County across the street at the courthouse to uh MOC school and to um

college is they don't get that anywhere. Okay. So it's just the two. Okay. Okay. So just those two have an option of coming to object, not object, ask questions about the plan and that's set for January 12th. And then that's the first part that first resolution.

Yes. Okay. Yes. So we're setting a public hearing for the plan as well as the consultation meeting which will be on the 12th. And then the last thing the P&Z I'm not sure. And then the PNZ meeting is also one of the requirements of establishing the urban renewal plan that is scheduled for this week, Wednesday the 7th. And uh so PNZ will be here at 7:00 a.m. and we'll talk about the plan with them as well. It's all it's kind of a boiler plate that we just got to go through the process. uh with P&Z it's just like hey does this meet our land use comp plan in regards to growing for horns and it's when we're since we're doing the plan at this stage in the game obviously it's done and you know so it's just getting it done with the with the attorneys and getting the plan established what it has to do with is in regards to the plan is being done now because of the valuation of January 1 of 26 will be the full value for access holding which their first tiff payment then would be in the fall of 27. So we just got to have this plan in place by the end of 26. So I'm just starting this process now even though it's already built. That's why it's a little bit

permit comes and then but we're doing this after the fact. So

anyway, any other questions that you have otherwise I'm asking I guess for the first part here uh for two resolutions. one to set the meeting. The public hearing for February 2 and the consultation meeting, like I said, is going to be January 12th. And that's the first resolution. Second resolution is the development agreement that Allers and Cooney would like us to, and we already have a signature that Ryan got earlier this spring from Tyler, but it's uh an agreement that we're entering in basically, and that is to give them a 10-year TIFF uh that will start in the fall 27. So that's the development agreement and we just need you to uh approve that as well. So those two resol those two resolutions.

Thank you very much. Yes. And Janet, you have those down. Any question other questions for Kent before he not going too far to make that motion for the resolution and Janet knows it. So and it's a resolution. So with that we have to do a roll call. So, Andrew. Yes. Okay. Um, yep. Got it. Mark. God, I got all these different names and you're all out of order. Brett, did you say yes, Brett? Yes. Olivia. Yes. There. Yes. Okay. And the second one is to fix the date for the public hearing for February 2.

And that two is a resolution. Um, so I'm going to start with Mark. Yes. Yes. I think I have to say. Yes. Yes. Yes. Good. Great job, guys. Great job. Okay, takes us to agenda item 15, a special event permit. Um, you want to talk about that, Matt? I mean, I thought it was kind of exciting to read about it. Yeah, you know, I think Janet's been doing a lot of work on it. I think we have a permit application, Janet. Right. Yeah, it's just for the hospital um for May 21 uh to celebrate their 20 year anniversary in their current facility to use the park downtown and close off a couple streets for So it's after festival is

May 20 is that May Jenny. So the 21st is what day? I think it's a Thursday. Thursday, I think. Okay. Yeah. So, we just need a motion to approve the special event permit. Yeah. Is there a motion to that effect? Support. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Motion carries. Agenda. Item 16, um, natural gas operator qualification plan. Matt.

Yeah. So, um, we have a template plan from the AMU. Uh, this is basically the plan. I welcome to read that. Basically details all the skills and everything that we have. Um and and it it gets reviewed by the Iowa Utility Commission and um they they recommended several changes. So we're uh recommending adopting those changes uh based on based on um keeping up with qualifications and changes in the industry, that sort of thing. So So you just need um a regular motion to approve that. Yep. Exactly. So move support. All those in favor signify by saying

I motion and agenda item 17, Northwest Iowa Safety Group 28E addendum and that is exhibit 8.

Yeah. And I actually included another um red lines on the back page of your packet there. basically um cleans up some um language that those are the changes actually that were made there and um that is recommended by AMU. We actually um this group is um we have an employee of AMU and and we share that employee with um eight other communities and this basically clears up some things about withdrawal. not none of the communities are looking to withdraw from the group, but just kind of align it with some of their other uh groups that AMU has um that are similar to the safety group. So, um recommend that the council make that change as well.

Just need a motion for that. Yes. All those in favor signify by saying I agenda item 18 is we have received the renewal application for the class C retail alcohol license from the foxhole and jam it is everything in order. So we just need a motion to approve that. So move all those in favor signify by saying yes. Yes. What was carries? Yeah. Administrative report. Matt.

Yeah. Just a couple things note. Um at our next council meeting, we'll be going over the uh the general fund budget. We'll be having a regular scheduled meeting and then um after that, we'll be getting into the general fund. Kent will look at the tax um the tax income from the county valuations as well as going over uh things like the police and the um fire department, parks, street department. So, we'll be doing that and we'll be um breaking for supper in there as well. So um regularly scheduled longer meeting um guests are welcome to stay but um don't need to either but we'll we'll be reviewing that budget and then following the following week we'll have a special council meeting to go over the uh the utilities the enterprise fund. So that will be um just the budget meeting itself. No no no uh regular council meeting. So that's really all I had.

Brad, do you have anything? I do not Janet. No Denn Ryan. Kurt. No. Matt. Mark. Mike. Matt. Mark. Mike. Pete. Jim. John. Sorry. Sorry. Mike. You have anything? No. Jim. No.

My brain's fried and it's the beginning of the year. It's not good. Dan. Hey. For you. Okay. Council Andrew. Excited to be here. Mark Brett, what was it? It left your brain, right? Don't have anything. I'm uh excited for a new year and I I think we're going to do some very great and fun things. So, we need a meet a motion to adjourn. Work. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Awesome.