Council - Regular Meeting

United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all join me for a moment of silent prayer amen agenda item three is approval of the agenda we have one addition It would be probably 10B. We've had a special events permit request for the smoke-off from the chamber. So if we could put that at 10B for the council's approval. Did we approve that?

Didn't we do that a year in advance for Mike last time? Oh, boy.

I don't know. I got the paperwork again. Okay.

I just thought maybe it was something different. I thought it was something that we did.

I think we did for Farmers Market.

That's what we did.

Okay. Perfect. Okay. So with that addition, is there a motion to approve the agenda? Yes. So moved. Support. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Agenda item number four is a time that we've provided each council meeting for citizen comments. I think we have one guest here that would like to address the city council. It's Wyman Hageman. Just come on up to the podium, Wyman, and just state your name and that you're a resident here in North City.

Wyman Hageman. I'm at 405 Iowa Southwest in beautiful Orange City. I find it very troubling that I've been dealing with this issue for over a year with a school bus, and that shouldn't last that long. I've got a little summary that I wrote down that I'd like to make you aware of what happened. The bus that went nowhere. Last early August 2025, a commercial bright yellow 46-passenger school bus appeared flush against our property line with its contents gutted and dispersed seats laying outside the bus. Orange City Code 165.253-B makes reference to school buses on residential properties. I notified the Orange City zoning officer. He indicated the non-functional disabled bus needs to be registered and needs current plates. So the bus was registered and current plates were attached. No further enforcement until next year, this year, July 2026, when I again approached the new zoning officer who showed interest. And I'm glad he did. At the same time, I contacted the city council members and administrator to make aware of this issue. After a short time, on the 5th of August, I received the tax zoning and I quote, I made contact with the property manager and that the bus needs to be made operable in the next two weeks or be moved. In the meantime, the council members started to return my call, and I stated to them that a positive text was received, and I'm seeing a solution to the issue. However, the removal did not happen. It wasn't until the 21st of August that a certified letter was issued with a removal date of the 8th of September today. And as of today, Quarter after four this afternoon, the bus is still stationary on the property and where it was parked over a year ago. Today, I'm asking the zoning officer to follow through and implement your course of action as stated in the certified letter. Hopefully, that other citizens having this type of zoning issue will have it resolved sooner than 365 days. Thank you.

Thank you, Wyman. Okay, is there, was there, I don't think there's anybody else here to address the council, so we'll move ahead to agenda item number five, which is exhibit one in your packet, and it's approval of the minutes from the August 17, 2026 council meeting. If you had a chance to review those, I entertain a motion for approval.

So moved.

All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Good, thank you. Agenda item six, it's actually time for the public hearing to consider disposal of the city owned property that I think we've discussed before. It's in the disposal of lots in the industry centrum second edition. So we'll go ahead and open the public hearing on that. Anything you need to address, Matt?

Yeah, we really considered the covenants and lot pricing last time, and that was approved. This is basically disposable, authorizing disposal of all those lots as they come available for sale. So it's kind of a step along the process.

Questions from anybody? And then you haven't had any other contacts from? No. Okay. So if there's none, then I'll go ahead and close the public hearing, and then we need a resolution to authorize that disposal. Any questions? Since it's a resolution, we'll do a roll call, and I'll start with you.

Andrew? Yes. Mark? Yes. Brent? Yes. Olivia? Yes. Yes. Excellent.

All right. That takes us to agenda item number seven, which would be the second reading of ordinance number 872 regarding golf carts. I don't know if you, have you had very many, much contact on that?

We received one written comment about concern about that and really against the author letting golf carts be on city streets. Safety reasons, or did they?

They said risk and feels like it will directly or indirectly affect our auto insurance rates.

So very little comments on the lower auto rates in all the surrounding towns that allow them. I guess that would be a question for an insurance person.

I had a couple questions from people about scooters and e-bikes. Do we have any current ordinance on those?

Yeah, we've been chatting about that. We've seen an increase in that traffic as well. Jim, I don't know if you have anything to add. We do not allow them in the downtown area, the scooters. That's something we need to take a look at, and I think a lot of communities are struggling with how to handle that. licensing um age things like that so not an easy answer on that particularly but we're um yeah let's just start on this anyway but um it's not a concern that's isolated to corn city but yeah

But again, I just think safety, you know, for who's ever on the e-bike or who's ever driving, it is, you know, sure don't want a tragic incident, that's for sure. So any other questions or comments on the golf carts?

Jim, do you have any concern over Tool Festival with the golf carts?

clause in the ordinance that allows them right now to drive to a festival. And throughout that timing, I can't say that we had a lot of incidents regarding that during that time. There's a lot more of them than there ever is in the city.

And with the special event permit to a festival, would they be able to limit who can drive a golf cart? where you know like i'm just thinking like you don't want people trying to drive their personal golf carts through the parade route after the parade but you wouldn't want to limit it for the steering committee to be able to use their golf carts in their necessary manner is that something that falls under the special event permit you know that's not addressed in that um

I feel like it's written that many people are the ones who can use the golf carts, right? Correct. That's how it's written now during that time.

I've seen a couple throughout the years, you know, people that aren't on the, or not the, maybe a different color golf cart. Right. I think people think, oh, and I get it, but it's not the way it's intended to be. But that's a good question.

You know, further into that, there's a way.

I think it would be hard to police it. I know. That's the problem.

You already have to do it to a festival. Right.

You know, kind of following the ropes. It ropes people. It didn't look like the rec department going through picking up trash. I mean, you know, certain ones in or certain ones out. There's a lot of them. Yeah.

We have the skaters and the golf carts and everything else are to a festival. do it under the special permit count ticket list?

I kind of see, like, the fire department having a purpose, you know, during the tour festival, kind of keeping an eye on things. I mean, so if we'd have to include that, but it's just your regular citizens that are bebopping around that. Okay. Good questions. So what we're looking for is a second reading approval of 872, if the council so wishes. Any other further questions or comments? All those in favor, signify by saying yes. Yes. Opposed? Then it's up to you guys if you want to waive the third reading.

Maybe a little more time, just in case people have questions or concerns.

Yeah, I think this will be OK. OK, we'll wait till the next. We'll do the third reading at the September Council. Good idea. OK, great. Then agenda number eight is ordinance number 873, an ordinance amending sewer special surcharges. And Jason's going to address that. This will be like the first reading, too. Even though we're amending it, we need to do three readings. Thank you, Jason.

So this is to establish some pricing increases and also adding prices to a couple more parameters along with implementing some testing or anything that if the industrial user misses a test, they're not compliant with their permit, there's this opportunity to at least I guess I don't know if there's any questions around the ordinance itself.

Are those pretty normal as far as the fees go? I mean, other cities are chartering something similar to that? Yeah.

So for the BOD, today we're at 23 cents. We've been there since GSS, we're at six cents, and we've been there about the same amount of time, and then we don't have a rate established for TKN or Fog right now. We did a lot of comparing to other communities with EGR to come up with these, right in the middle of surrounding communities. Every community does it a little bit different, how they charge, but I'd say we're right in line with everybody else's. definitely lower than some, but probably higher than a couple.

Am I correct, Jason, that we allow surcharges come into effect when the strength is more than residential wastewater? Correct. So we allow residential strength all day long. Yep. But it's when the strength gets higher than that.

And, yeah, we took that right out of a standard document that DGR provides. So the 300 milligrams for the BOD and TSS, that's actually, we're a little forgiving there. I think the standard's about 250 minimal, but we're just, 300's kind of in that middle range, so we felt comfortable with that. And then the oils and greases and the TKN, the range, the mid-range of what's allowed.

And you've been in contact with the effective party, correct? Yes. They're aware.

They're aware of these changes. They've been aware for, I would say, at least a month now. And then we're also working through data right now.

This will either deter them from releasing the excess waste or at least it will... I guess the extra charges would help.

It's really paying their fair share for what it costs us to treat it. We prefer that it differs them from setting it our way as much as possible. Do you test for this daily? Right now their permit is twice a week. They do two times a week, and we also test ours a couple times a week.

Any questions or comments, guys?

Oh, sorry. Jason at the wastewater crew has done a great job working through this. Not an easy matter.

Sewer never is. We appreciate that, though. It's always a process you have to kind of go through to make changes like that. So what we're looking for is approval of the first reading of ordinance number 873. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. And then the other thing is totally up to the council if you want to waive the second and third reading. I don't know if it will make it.

I thought we were going to wait.

We're going to wait. Oh, yeah. Recommend at least one wait. Okay. So we're going to bring this one up at the next meeting too, okay? Good. Great. Thank you, Jason. All right, that takes us to agenda item number nine, police station update.

Yeah, Jim, we're going to come up here and just kind of give a little introduction. Part of our strategic planning process, it will be, yes, yeah. We, one of the initiatives, and we can add a little bit of work in progress at the time that strategic planning happened, but one was to explore options for the police department to meet current and future needs and As you know, we've got the same police space for a number of years. Jim knows the details more than I do, and we've got nine officers now. We had considered different thoughts and things, and a particular piece of property came up for sale probably a while ago, and we've been talking about it now since early summer, and that is the Vanderpaul excavating location on I-10. And we've been working through that with Vanderpaul, you know, if that building, what that... what the buildings look like, if that could serve our needs. One of the arrangements, which we'll get into a little later, is a trade slash purchase of that property, so trading for some land next to their new facility and the old airport property. So we employed Beck Engineering to their architectural branch to look at this property. to look at whether it's feasible, what kind of renovations would need to happen to that, if it would fit our needs, that sort of thing. So they prepared some very broad layouts and plans for that, which Jim will pull this up here, and then Jim can kind of walk through that a little bit. But we want to make sure that it fit our needs, first of all, and then also what that could look like. We're at a spot, you know, with the initial floor plan that looks pretty good and ready for the next steps of further plans and specifications for bid on this project. So pulled up on the screen here and been several meetings now with Jim and his guys.

Yeah. Just a little history on the police department. You know, when I started in 1998, we had five officers. And then we took over Alton as a contract town, and we added another officer. And as of today, we have nine full-time officers on our department. So we've, like Matt said, we've really outgrown our space over here. There'd just be so many benefits to this facility. I look at response times. I look at... The location, I mean, we can just get out and go there on Highway 10. We're not stuck downtown. Just even last week, we had three incidents where we had to leave here, and we had a really hard time getting out of town and getting the calls all over Orange City, whether it's just six blocks away or all the way to Hall. There's a lot of traffic downtown. And it seems like this is just a congested area right here. There's just a lot of people, a lot of vehicles, a lot of pedestrians. One big thing that we're responsible for is maintaining the integrity of evidence for investigations and court proceedings. And this would just be an awesome facility. We can pull right in the search bay. We can go straight to the interview room. We have a holding room if there's more than one person, which a lot of times there is. And all the evidence can be secured on the same side of the building without even leaving that area. And in today's world that evidence is a big deal and we really don't have that now. We got cars that we could drive into the garages when it's raining out, snowing out. More space for our officers. It's just a lot more professional building. And it would just be great to provide the workplace environment. I mean, you talk about recruiting and morale. I think the whole thing would be great for us. So I don't know if you want to walk through what we thought there, but we met three times and got a place for the dog. And our department's A lot of our guys are really up to date on working out. We have a facility for that. And I really like to lay out myself.

I think there's plenty of space to expand into if needed. Several offices already. The squad room. would provide a space for each individual in an individual space for each officer that way as well, which right now I think, uh, you share, yeah, we have three workstations between the nine of us right now.

So, um, and then like the storage room there, you know, we have tons of files here. We got some upstairs, we got someone here. I mean, we're, we're just running out of space and we've gotten more cars over the years. most of the time they sit outside, so it would just take care of a lot of issues that we're having right now.

So how would that work, Jim? I'm just, as I said, like you would walk in. Is that going to be manned by somebody? No.

So what a lot of facilities do even today is if they walk in that room, they pick up the phone and it automatically goes to the Sioux County Communications, and then they dispatch us on our radios whether we're in the office or in the cars, and then we would go to the PD and take care of their needs. It sounds old school, but it really works.

Yeah.

that vestibule would be locked yep so yeah to the rest of them yeah yeah so it'd be secured for the officers yeah yeah it had like modern access control it would have cameras you know and we'd have restricted areas we it would you know limit us from the public like unlike here you know and it's just something that most people have in their facilities, our size.

I think it looks really impressive and really very much needed, in my opinion.

That's what I was going to say. From the time that I got on, it's always been talked about, and building comes available, right, and you kind of ask some questions. Would that work? Wouldn't it work? Location, you know? So I think the fact that You know, we have something that could work for us, and Jimmy and your group are excited about, I think.

It's a great idea. Yeah, these buildings don't come around very often, and new is expensive. So I just think I love the location. I really do.

Talking about beautifying that corridor. Yeah. It would be nice.

Yeah. Yeah. A couple different renderings together for the front of the building that way. So a little more of a police color theme there and then natural red brick. So yeah, those are just some initial thoughts that they put together there.

I appreciate that you brought in recruiting, too, because as time goes on and you need... Yeah, it's nice.

They see your facility and they think that you take pride in it and it would be a nice place to work, and that means a lot today.

I agree that downtown is just getting busier, which we like and we want, but it's probably not a very ideal location for you guys.

It really isn't.

When you're trying to get to a place, I've seen them pull out before, and it's a struggle because you know your adrenaline's pumping or whatever, and there's people.

I just think the privacy and safety aspect of it, too. You know what I mean? I talked to Rec Director Noah one time, and he said, yeah, he's not trying to eavesdrop, you know, but it's like you're interviewing somebody a thin wall away that, you know, he's like, I don't know if I'm being hear what they say to you know we had somebody that was I think it was on a night of a council meeting and there was someone I was coming in here you know what's having an issue you know and she was hanging out you know it's like this is just not a secure facility to have

Well, that's really very impressive.

Over the course of working with Beck, we've been pretty conscious of the cost and remodel and everything. I think the estimate's right at $600,000 now, and they feel pretty good about that with some bids that they've gotten for other projects that they've administered. be the remodel that was had been higher than that but uh took out some shower rooms and things like that that may or may not have been required but um so that that's where that cost of the project would be so we took out like the locker room i can't think of many times

We've got stuff in the street department building. We've got stuff upstairs. We've got stuff in the PD. We've got stuff scattered all over. So it would be nice just to have everything in one facility.

Do you need sleep spaces at all?

No. Nope. When you were having those conversations with Beck, did they ever say, for a facility this size, if we were to go build it new, I mean, did they give you a Roth ballpark or whatever?

I thought it was over $2 million, wasn't it?

2.1 or something remember that number so what are you looking from the council at this point so basically we're looking for authorization to move forward with uh with getting plans ready for bid we would come with the with a bid um results the future meeting i think they've talked about two to three months probably for that and then um We also look to move forward with the land transaction, which this is the thoughts that we had on that. This is the Industry Centrum West, second addition, which we just approved at the disposal. So the area outlined here, Brian's been working with the Vanderpoel family to exchange the value of the current facility at $450,000, and then these lots, lots 10, 11, and 12, are priced at $3 a square foot, and lot 28 is priced at $39,000, $40,000 an acre. So all in all, that would be ballpark in the $485,000 range, so Vanderpoel's would pay us a small difference there for that. So we have an exchange agreement prepared. These lots are not platted yet, so we can't actually sell them to Vanderpoel at this point, but anticipation would be that once they are, that we would do the swap at that point plus some cash. So, looking for approval to move forward with plan specifications and to authorize the execution of the property agreement. So, one motion or two.

Can that be one or two? One. Any other questions or comments? Thanks for your work and research.

Yeah. building, as proposed, have anything missing that you would like to see, or is it pretty well?

No, not really. I mean, you know, they talked about a power washer in there in the cars, but the city's got two really nice ones, so that would be, we can use theirs, you know, but I can't think of anything that's really missing. Obviously, there's probably going to be a little bit more expense if you figure So there's going to be some cameras and maybe some computer costs. Like I said, right now we share, you know, three workstations with nine people, and we have three computers, not counting mine. But that will be a little more expense. And then we talked about going along the east side, going to the back to the south side is putting some rock there for our cars to get back there so we don't have to take gravel road all the time. You know, it won't have to be concrete. Just to keep from dragging all the gravel road and stuff in if we come off that gravel road. Those were some of the different expenses that I thought of.

I think the amount of square footage the building has has really lent itself to satisfying a lot of things. The bathrooms are the more expensive space. Everything else is fairly

say as they work through some of those things you know if it could be concrete or blacktop to get you around back there that'd be easier I mean it's gonna be way less maintenance than scraping that rock out of there when it snows and you know if we're gonna do it I guess I'd just soon see it be done tonight but I think there is some blacktop just east of that

Other questions or comments? So then I'll call for the vote.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye. Opposed? Wonderful. Thanks, Jim. OK, agenda item 10 is received a renewal application for Class C retail alcohol license from Quick Star and for a Class C from Downtown Grill. Everything's in order. And that can be one motion, Janet? Is there a motion to approve those? So moved. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? And then the 10B, the addition was the special event permit for the smoke-off through the chamber.

Yeah, which is the map. Yeah, there's a map here with their... For Saturday, yeah.

Yeah. And what was that one to the north there? What is that for again? Touch a truck. Is that a touch a truck?

Yeah. That's usually happened on Wednesday nights. That's from the Parks Council Moms group, but that got postponed. Okay. So you can find out, but...

Looks good, yeah. And that's this weekend, correct?

Yes. And I'll have the review present again. I think everything else is the same as the past.

Okay. So we just need a regular motion to approve that permit. All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye. Motion carries.

Okay, that takes us to administrative reports. Matt, anything?

Just a couple brief things. A couple meetings ago we talked about touring some of our facilities, just looking at the schedule on Monday afternoons. We have a couple employees that volunteer their time or participate as football coaches, so probably wait until October for that. So I didn't want to drop that, but we'll be waiting for that. Also, Seth DeYoung started today in our parks department, so excited. And, yeah, getting going there with Noah and Carter. And then another strategic priority that we had put into place was evaluating our pool. And we've gotten a couple proposals from firms that would do that assessment. I guess I would ask for... basically an agreement that we would move forward up to, or have authorization up to $25,000 for that. We've got a couple different proposals we're looking at, different scopes of work that we'd be evaluating, but we'd like to move forward with that. So the council's okay to do that and come back with a report on the current facility and potential, you know, Yeah, you know, they look at what recommended maintenance procedures the next couple of years, you know, what is not worth replacing, what we can get more years out of, what are dire needs, that sort of thing.

So is one of them the one that helped us with the pump project? Like between your – are they the same people that evaluate?

Yeah, so that's more of a – That company suggested an engineering firm, and so that's, they have a partnership there, so I'm not quite sure if we're going to overlap.

You with that? That's all I had. Ryan, do you have anything? Dan, do you have anything?

We're going to have a coffee, a community coffee on the 19th. We're going to take the tower out and set it up of people from 10 to 1 on the 19th, as it is in April. And then we used the tower the other night and the Sioux Center to help out with the elevator over there until 3 hours in the morning. It performed very well and a nice asset to have.

Jim, anything else? Jason?

Yeah, I got a couple things we've been working on. First one is a control of stormwater drainage. So this will be some work that will be moving forward with probably next meeting. That one is specifically around into a five-year storm. Once you get above 30,000, you actually have to have a certified engineer design any detain age or retain age or anything like that. So we'll have that first reading of that ordinance next. And then the one that goes with that is a stormwater drainage utility. We currently do not have one in place, so we're looking at doing a residential stormwater utility of $2 for residential and commercial. It'll be three different sizes, small, medium, and large. That's that zero to 10, 10 to 30, and then 30 and above. And those are, I believe they're at $10, $20, and $30 a month charge. that's really to support any upgrades to our stormwater systems projects typically today we're about 25,000 a year we take out of the general fund

Good. Thanks, Jason. Brian? Good. Good. Council. Andrew, do you have anything? No.

Dutch front committee met probably a couple weeks ago. We've tasked Brian with doing a lot of Dutch-themed architecture research. I look forward to his 15-page report with all sorts of new pictures and all that stuff. So yeah, just trying to get maybe some more guidance and a little bit more of a clear interpretation of kind of what we're going for there. So yeah, anyway, more to come on that, but we're making some moves there.

Just thanks to Noah and all the guys. The pool season was great. The lighting looked good inside the shelter house this year, so thank you. Last year it was needing a little help, but it looks great.

Doggy swim going on right now. Doggy swim tonight.

I don't either, so is there a motion to adjourn?

So we'll do support.