City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

Good evening. It is Monday, August 17th at 7 p.m. This is a regular meeting of the City Council of Waverly, Iowa, and we are called to order. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,

Council, do I have a motion to approve the agenda? Move to approve the agenda as presented. Second. Any discussion? To voice vote, all in favor say aye. Aye. Council, do I have a motion to approve the minutes?

I move to approve the minutes as presented.

Second. Is there any discussion? To voice vote, all in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Passed unanimously. Okay, welcome back to our guest councilperson, Steve Nuss. Thank you for joining us again tonight. I will come back to you at the end of the meeting if you have any comments or questions to go over. This is the date, time, and place for a public hearing for review of the plan's specifications, form of contract, and estimated cost for the 2026 Cemetery Road and parking lot project. The Mayor and the City Council will entertain any comments. After all comments, the hearing will be declared closed and the following action will be considered. Have you received any written or oral comments?

I have not, Your Honor.

Are there any public comments? I see none. The public hearing is now closed. Council, do I have a motion?

I'll move approval of resolution 26-168, a resolution approving the plans, specifications, form of contract, and estimated cost for the 2026 cemetery road and parking lot project. Second. Any discussion?

Roll call vote, please. Wolf? Yes. Rafi? Yes. Myers? Yes. Mackey?

Yes.

Kangas?

Yes.

Harmon? Yes.

Can I have Diana Blake and Elaine Mayne meet me at the podium, please? Tonight we get to recognize these two for their many, many decades of service on the library board. So Elaine, I think 30 years, is that correct? That's right. I really, really appreciate anybody who's willing to step up and serve on any committee, especially for this long. So thank you for your commitment and your dedication and the wonderful things that the library has done. So thank you very, very much. Ms. Blake, we go way back. Way back. I was the best trumpet player she's ever had. Close. No. We don't lie in this room, Ms. Coyne. 42 years, I believe? 42 years. 42 years. So thank you for your dedication. You've had a long, long history of dedicating time to your community, and I appreciate that.

Pretty much it's been a pleasure. Not 42 years of meetings, but serving... such a wonderful institution as the Waverly Public Library. Absolutely. I appreciate everything you've done. Thank you. And congratulations. Okay. She's out the door. If you ever want to go to a meeting, you can come here anytime you want.

Okay, this month we have two proclamations. The first one is Al-Anon Family Group 75th Anniversary. Whereas the city of Waverly strives to maintain the health and well-being of our residents and as such welcomes the opportunity to recognize institutions that pursue the worthwhile endeavor, it is therefore appropriate we acknowledge Al-Anon family groups on the occasion of its 75th anniversary. And whereas the Al-Anon Family Group was founded in 1951 to offer understanding, strength, and hope to families and friends of individuals affected by alcohol use. Al-Anon recognizes alcoholism as a family disease and healing must extend beyond the individual to loved ones who also suffer in silence. And whereas for 75 years, Al-Anon has been a lifeline for those impacted by problem drinking, providing peer-led support, healing tools and a space to recover from the effects of alcoholism, and whereas the Iowa District 4 of Al-Anon serving Waverly has long played a vital role in helping individuals rebuild their emotional well-being, foster resilience, and strengthen family and community ties, and whereas through its commitment to inclusivity, confidentiality, and mutual support, Al-Anon has created a compassionate community where members can grow, heal, and support one another, and Whereas the 75th anniversary of Al-Anon Family Groups offers an opportunity to honor its life-changing impact worldwide, especially in Waverly, and to raise awareness of the resources to those affected by a loved one's alcoholism. Now, therefore, I, Kristen Happel, Mayor and City Council of the City of Waverly, do hereby proclaim Monday, August 31, 2026, in the City of Waverly as Al-Anon Family Groups Day. Throughout the city, and I urge all people of Waverly to support families and friends of loved ones struggling with alcoholism or alcohol use disorder by sharing information about Al-Anon family groups. In witness whereof, I hereunto set my hand and cause the seal of the City of Waverly, Iowa to be affixed the 17th day of August 2026. Council, do I have a motion?

I move to approve the proclamation proclaiming Monday, August 31, 2026 as Al-Anon Family Groups Day in the City of Waverly, Iowa. Second.

Is there any discussion? This is a voice vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? That brings us to our second proclamation of the month. Hunger Action Month Proclamation 2026. Whereas hunger is a vital concern in Northeast Iowa, where 12% of people, including one in every six children, experience food insecurity. And whereas every person deserves access to the food and resources they need to live a full, healthy life. Yet millions of people in the U.S. experience food insecurity, and when people don't have enough to eat, it impacts their health, education, and future opportunities. whereas the City of Waverly is committed to taking steps to combat hunger in every part of our community and to provide additional resources that are needed, and whereas the City of Waverly, Iowa is committed to working with Northeast Iowa Food Bank to educate people about the role and importance of Feeding America Network and how it stands alongside neighbors facing hunger to ensure everyone has access to the food and resources they need to thrive, and Whereas more than 2,300 individuals in Bremer County access food from Northeast Iowa Food Bank annually, and whereas Northeast Iowa Food Bank distributed more than 226,000 meals to more than 33,000 duplicated households in their most recent fiscal year through a network of agency partners, food pantries, meal programs, and other community organizations, and Whereas the month of September has been designated Hunger Action Month to bring communities together to elevate the voices of people who experience food insecurity and inspire everyone to take action in the movement to end hunger. And whereas food banks across the country, including the Northeast Iowa Food Bank, who will host numerous events throughout the month of September to bring awareness and help end hunger in their local community. Now, therefore, I, Kristen Happel, Mayor of the City Council of Waverly, Iowa, do hereby recognize September 2026 as Hunger Action Month in the City of Waverly, Iowa, and I call this observance to the attention of our citizens. Council, do I have a motion?

I move to proclaiming September 2026 as Hunger Action Month in the City of Waverly, Iowa.

Second. Any discussion? This is a voice vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. Pass unanimously. This is the time for public comments on items not on the agenda. Please limit your comments to five minutes unless additional time is granted by the presiding officer. All comments shall be addressed to the council as a whole and not to any individual member. Does anybody rise for public comments? I see no one. Council, do I have a motion to approve the consent calendar?

I'll move approval of the consent calendar as presented. Second. Is there any discussion?

This is a voice vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. Passed unanimously. On to regular business. Resolution 26-165, a resolution awarding the Citywide Asphalt Patching Fall 2026 Project. Council, do I have a motion?

I move to approve resolution 26-165, a resolution awarding the citywide asphalt patching fall 2026 project to Klusener Construction of Farley, Iowa for the bid amount of $20,553.70. Second. Is there any discussion?

So roll call vote, please. Rafi. Yes. Myers. Yes. Mackey. Yes. Kingdiss. Yes. Carmen? Yes. Wolf? Yes.

Resolution 26-166, a resolution approving change order number one, accepting the bituminous seal code program 2026 as complete, approving pay application number one and approving pay application number two as the final payment to the Prairie Road Builders Inc of Hazleton, Iowa. Council, do I have a motion?

Move to approve resolution 26-166, a resolution approving change order number one for a decreased amount of $5,396.60, accepting the bituminous seal coat program 2026 as complete, approving pay application number one in the amount of $128,182.98, and approving pay application number two in the amount of $3,964.62, as the final payment to Prairie Road Builders Incorporated of Hazleton, Iowa. Is there a second?

Second. Is there any discussion? Just wondered why it was decreased. Didn't cost as much.

In the beginning, it's purely a guess on the footage or the quantity that we have. In this case, it was a reduction because they actually use less product. So we actually track the product by tickets and gallons that come off the truck.

Any other discussion?

Roll call vote, please. Myers. Yeah. Mackie? Yes. Kangas? Yes. Harmon? Yes. Wolf? Yes. Rafi?

Yes. Resolution 26-167, a resolution approving an agreement with Helland Engineering and surveying LTD to complete a retracement survey of the alley and a portion of the street within Block 15, original town of Waverly. Do I have a motion?

I move to approve resolution 26, stage 167, a resolution approving an agreement with Helen Engineering and Surveying Limited to complete a retracement survey of the alley and a portion of the street within block 15, original town of Waverly, for the amount of $2,100 plus recording fees.

Second. Any discussion?

So it sounds like this was just sort of discovered by accident almost during an application.

And we have to determine if a retaining wall that was built is actually on our property or not. That's kind of where we're going through this process. We're seeing it more and more. It's in the older section. People start to redo things. And all of a sudden you realize, I don't think that's your property. So this will kind of resolve that issue.

So the fence is new, but the retaining wall was already there. Yeah.

Do you want to explain, Paige?

The existing fence is likely over the property line as well, but they are going to take that out to redo a fence . Okay.

I notice we're just using a different surveying company than typical.

Just trying to stay competitive.

Okay. Thanks.

Any other discussion?

Roll call vote, please. Mackey? Yes. Kangas? Yes. Carmen? Yes. Wolf? Yes. Rafi? Yes. Myers? Yes.

Just came off my straw. I almost choked on it. Did you see that?

I was ready.

I have these little silicone tips on my straw, and I about choked on one, so I'm going to take that off. Okay, third and final reading of ordinance 1181 and ordinance amending sections 105.4.09 and 105.4.10 of chapter 105, traffic of the Waverly Code of Ordinances. Council, do I have a motion?

Move to approve the third and final reading of ordinance 1181 and ordinance amending sections 105.409 and 105.4.10 of chapter 105, Traffic of the Waverly Quote of Ordinances.

Second. Any discussion? Roll call vote, please.

Genghis? Yes. Harmon? Yes. Wolf?

Yes.

Rothie? Yes. Myers? Yes. Mackey? Yes.

Resolution 26-169, a resolution approving the removal of the fire hydrant installation requirement for parcel QQ901, 29th Avenue Southeast. Council, do I have a motion?

I'll move to approve resolution 26-169, a resolution approving the removal of the fire hydrant installation requirement for parcel QQ901, 29th Avenue Southeast. Second. any discussion so i just got some clarification from james about this before the meeting this was something we first saw back in 18 when this subdivision was first proposed and um yeah there's not there's not enough water pressure to support a hydrant and there's water supply right across the

road basically it sounds like right i don't know justin if you'll elaborate a little bit kind of why we're stuck in this central pickle here uh breezy hills subdivision itself had a house was built recently we looked at everything in the agreement it said that it must be served by rural water and also the city had sanitary sewer in there so rural water brought in service for that home and subsequently put in taps for the other lots there This other out lot here was brought up as some interest and we started looking into it and there was a requirement that a hydrant must be brought to this lot. Rural water does not have a hydrant in that area. It would be a substantial investment to get a hydrant from rural water there. And rural water hydrants are not similar to what city hydrants are as far as fire protection. They can haul water off of it but they don't hook a pumper to it or anything like that. Um, city water mains are roughly, I think I put 2,200 feet or something away from there. Um, it would be a dead end system, so it wouldn't be a loop system. Um, not really conducive to firefighting. It would serve water to the one resident at that point and not even the other ones because rural water was in there. So there wasn't a lot of, uh, advantage for us doing that.

So if there's a fire there.

They would be hauling from city mains and I talked to the fire chief as well. And that's what their plan would be. Even if a hider was there from real water, they would plan on hauling water from our city mains. So it does not really change her approach.

Okay. Thanks. We'll call vote please.

Carmen. Yes. Wolf. Yes. Rocky. Yes. Myers. Yeah. Mackie. Yes.

Yes.

Resolution 26-170, a resolution approving contract, bonds, and certificate of insurance for the Waverly Utilities Boat Ramp Project. Council, do I have a motion?

I move to approve Resolution 26-170, a resolution approving contract, bonds, and certificate of insurance from Baker Enterprises, Inc. of Waterloo, Iowa, for the Waverly Utilities Boat Ramp Project, and authorize the mayor to sign the contract.

Second. Any discussion? Roll call vote, please.

Wolfe? Yes. Rodney? Yes. Myers? Yes. Mackey? Yes. Kangas? Yes. Harmon? Yes.

Resolution 26-171, a resolution approving a professional services agreement for design of the Waverly Golf Course clubhouse remodel. Council, do I have a motion?

I move approval of Resolution 26171, a resolution approving a professional services agreement for the Waverly Golf Course Clubhouse remodel with Martin Gardner Architecture, MGA of Marion, Iowa, for design of the Waverly Golf Course Clubhouse remodel for the total amount of $333,000. Do I have a second?

Second. Any discussion?

So I want to clarify quick that it's not just for architecture and that is general contracting, architecture, engineering, plan design. It's, it's everything.

It's all the, everything you're going to need.

It's not just for architecture. So, you know, people look at that and panic. Sometimes that is for everything. They are just the parent of what's going to be below them as well.

So they'll be supervising the contractors. And what's the timeline on this?

Looks like our big tournaments are about done by then.

Right. We'd like to get stuff out, get bids back, and be able to start the end of October, beginning of November at the latest to work through that. And then to be, you know, we realize we probably won't be ready to go at the end of March, beginning of April, but we want to be ready to go by the beginning of May. So we're hoping to be all done by May.

So do we have a plan yet? Like a blueprint?

What type of plan are you asking?

That's what's getting finalized now because they're going to reshape some areas and walls. They're going to move some items. As it sits right now, it just doesn't flow. It never really has. And so I've been working with staff, Garrett, Jordan, myself, the architects, the engineers. What does it look like to get a better system in there? By removing part of the course, the building, we'll go from 11 doors down to, I think, four. which greatly enhance how you get in, how you get out. There's no question about which door you want to use because they're all over the place. And so it's been that kind of movement to figure out what goes where, what can't fit here, have to move this here, how do you still seat 120 golfers. That's been the design the last month is getting that finished out, rough line, all of it so that it's a little more efficient. So it's very close to being finalized so we can get you an actual blueprint of what it will look like. I was surprised by the limitations of what you can and can't do with some of these things because of code. Certain size of things like bathrooms, we didn't know that was that size, it had to be that way and you can only sit certain areas. Should the cooler be bigger? I mean all these things you want to do to get it to a single level, it does change a lot of what happens. And so that's been the unique side of seeing this. They've been very good at work with showing examples, demonstration of what this looks like in this clubhouse and what it could be. So I think we're real happy with where it sits. We just want to be able to give it to you soon to be able to see what that layout's going to be and how it'll work. But it's almost a lot more symmetrical now than it was with the large addition that was there that we're going to eventually remove.

Okay. Any other discussion?

It'll be all ADA compliant, I assume. Absolutely. We'll be down to one level as soon as we take the end of the two-story off, and we'll be right there, everything.

Roll call vote, please. Rocky? Yes. Myers? Yes. Mackey? Yes. Angus? Yes. Arman? Yes. Wolf?

Yes.

Resolution 26-172, a resolution approving two invoices from Martin Gardner Architecture for the Waverly Golf Course Clubhouse. Do I have a motion?

Move approval of resolution 26-172, a resolution approving two invoices from Martin Gardner Architecture for the Waverly Golf Course Clubhouse for the amounts of $22,515.50 and $23,477.56. Second. Any discussion?

And I presume that's coming out of the 333.

That's why it's on after, not on consent like it normally would have been. So we had to wait, and they were kind of pushing, but not until the contract was done.

Right. Any other discussion? Roll call vote, please.

Myers. Excuse me.

Yes. Mackey. Yes. Haynes.

Yes.

Harmon. Yes. Wolf. Yes. Rocky. Yes.

That brings us to mayoral appointments. Council, do I have a motion to approve the mayoral appointment?

Move to approve the following mayoral appointments. Josh Beyer to be appointed to the Leisure Services Commission due to a vacancy for a term ending December 31st, 2026. Second. Any discussion?

Is there a voice for it? All in favor say aye. Aye. Pass unanimously. That brings us to discussion of code enforcement. James.

So, I'll let Paige kind of lead this off. I'm going to start coughing again, so.

Come on up, Paige.

Was it prepared to start with anything? Basically, we've just seen a lot of uptick of different code enforcement violation things throughout the city the last year or two. This year, we've been trying to be proactive with grass. There's been an unseasonably number of the long grass that we have made contact in one form or the other with, signs right away, all of those things that we have tried to be proactive with. Seems to be there's an increased amount of different things like junk in yards, some of the potentially dangerous buildings, things like that. So we brought Maria Brownwell up with Allers and Cooney to kind of have a co-enforcement discussion to see kind of what council wants to see done, where we'd go from here.

Nicely done, I think. Sorry about that.

So Paige, I'm just curious, what's sort of the... How does it usually occur? Does someone call about a neighbor property or they drive by somewhere and they call you or could you just tell us about the process and how your referrals come in and what you do?

Historically we've been mainly complaint driven for all types of violations. Last year we started being more proactive especially with grass and this year we got other bodies helping look at items. So long grass, we really start with a courtesy phone call or letter, email, whatever contact information I have for that property owner to try to get it. Just educate them on what code says. Then we send out a lot of times a non-certified letter just to try to keep the mailing costs down. A certified letter is now like 10 something, I think. If that still doesn't get done, then we reach out through certified mail. That can take a couple of weeks before it comes back as undeliverable. Then we attempt the personal service. So signs and right of ways, grass, we've been trying to be proactive on a lot of those. Some of the junk, easy items that are junk in the yards, then if it's really obvious and we drive by, we're trying to be proactive and reach out to that property owner. Otherwise, they come in through complaints from citizens.

How many citations have we done so far this year?

How many actual citations, or we just make contact?

Contact, complaints, how many are we seeing so far this year?

I mean, we're probably at 200 of just some sort of contact or another.

So complaint-driven is very effective, but maybe not our best way to do it, I think is some of our goal tonight, as Paige had mentioned, as well as... How aggressive do we want to get going forward? Because it's not getting a lot better in some areas. In fact, it's getting a little worse. And we're seeing properties we haven't dealt with in the past. We are now, for whatever reason, whether it's different owners, circumstances that we're not aware of, but we're seeing a lot more need for code enforcement, especially in grass. But even in junk buildings, we're starting to see more of that. Buildings that are starting to lean, they almost look dangerous, broken windows. So how aggressive do we want to get? And that's going to be a manpower question, it's going to be a funding question. And that's kind of what brought us to have this overall discussion of, you know, there's certain things that we talk about that are common. I mean, tall grass is one of the big ones that we see everywhere. What is junk? We had that long discussion with Maria earlier. What is junk, technically? And that's kind of a perspective thing. Everybody's got their own idea of what that is. You know, how often do we go after those? We've done them in the past. We've had some that we had to call in people to remove. significant quantities of items uh multiple times sometimes and so as we start to see it pop up more and more in waverly more than we've had in the past one of the main questions we'll want tonight for you to answer is how aggressive do you want us to get with some of this because it's page and then some other supporting staff but it may take a little bit more effort in our end to figure out how that's going to be accomplished going forward how much of that is

new faces new names are there some that frequent flyers that just seem to keep cropping up or there are repeat offenders i wouldn't say that's the majority though okay is it mainly owned properties by someone living at the home who owns the property rental properties all of the above it's actually a really good mix of rental versus owner occupied

And of course the grass is growing like, you know, so I can totally relate to that. But what do you hear from people when you end up speaking to somebody? What do they have to say?

Rentals actually are easier to get some of those done first because the landlord says the tenant's supposed to be doing it and they're like, we'll make sure it gets done within the weekend kind of thing. Some of the property owners, I don't have time.

Things you can't say in public. Things you can't say in public.

It's my lawn. I can do what I want.

I didn't know if it was people who are elderly who can't do their lawn anymore or who can't afford to fix their garage that's falling over. I just wondered.

I have not heard from that for the grass. I can see that potentially with some of the buildings, but not so much with the grass.

And who's helping you? Look at these properties. Who goes out and checks things besides? Are you out driving around looking?

I do sometimes. I spend a lot of time around.

We have two instructors that do other jobs for the city, but they've been allowed to help point some out. Once it gets to the point of actually sending a certified notice to abate, I kind of want my eyes on those since the next step is for us to abate.

And how nasty are people, and do you take law enforcement with you?

ever right now they just really are dry vice um that i don't have to stop too often um there's one that i sent out a notice to inspect an interior law enforcement will come but they'll have to stay on the outside of the building when i can go inside and what is the grass rule it's the length of grass typically residential any developed property is eight inches or less Your empty subdivisions or empty lots, they can apply for a property maintenance permit, a tier two, what we call it, can be 24 inches or less, just no noxious weeds. And then your waterways can be a little higher than that.

But we've talked earlier, we fight no mow May, just not going to do it June. You know, it just keeps on going and you just have a bit of that and people think that's an excuse to just not mow your yard. There are certain requirements to participate in that, such as wildflowers and things like that. I don't think thistles and other flowers are counted in that, and yet you see it, and it's just, like I said, it's become an excuse to just not take care of Europe. The only time you have to mow it, it's a hay field. It is not a good time. So you're battling all these different things, and community-wide, you want to be fair. You also want to try and treat everybody the same, so you try and get to these things as much as you can. Sometimes you just can't. you know while we have a ton of them from being complaint driven i'm sure we're not getting them all um it depends on how much your neighbor likes you and how many times they want to call in on you and that's you can just expect it after certain rains three days later you're going to get a whole lot of calls coming in well and that's being just cracked or being just complaint driven on some of those sometimes they don't get called in until it's well beyond it should have been

If we know about it with the ones we've been proactive, we've seen it early enough that a quick phone call to them say, Hey, your grass is long. Can you please get it taken care of? That's a lot easier for them to go and get it taken care of within a day or two versus waiting until it's. Well, right.

And you need a bailer. And what are the what's the definition of a dangerous property? There's multiple. That's why Maria is here. It's probably. Yeah.

It depends on what we're looking at. And so it depends on what we're talking about. So the city code has a couple of different avenues for addressing properties. Um, there's the, the building code, which has the dangerous building, uh, provisions in it. But your main tool is your nuisance code. It also has an enumeration of nuisances including that dense growth of vegetation, tall grasses. It refers back to a more specific part of the code that addresses what the height, the maximum height of that grasses can be. But generally speaking, when we're looking at your nuisance code, you have that enumeration, but the term nuisance is whatever is injurious to health, indecent or offensive to the senses, or otherwise an obstacle to the free use of property. So it interferes with someone else's comfortable enjoyment of their property. So that's your classic definition. State code defines it that way. It's been around a long time. And so to some extent, there has to be a measure of guidance from council on policy with respect to what degree of enforcement is appropriate in a given circumstances.

I guess I think that the dangerous building or dangerous, you know, things that present a danger to life and limb would obviously go to the map pretty quickly and consistently.

That makes sense, and we usually say too, especially when it comes to buildings or structures, that it's most beneficial, because city code actually gives two avenues for enforcement. One is administrative, so the grass is one example that's different than what you're talking about, where it's appropriate typically for administrative because There's usually less cost associated with it, and it is a pretty quick fix. So if the city needed to go in and abate itself, it could certainly do so after certain notices, and then it could assess those costs to the property without the need to go to the courthouse. On the other hand, there's those dangerous buildings or garages, and we do always recommend going to the court with that remedy. Simply many different reasons, but one of which there's going to be a Larger cost, as you might imagine, to addressing it. It's more complicated to address. It involves someone's constitutional rights and property rights. So entering into someone's property and trying to abate that as city staff presents a lot of challenges. So we usually will go to the courthouse for that remedy. So it's going to take a little longer, but the courts usually do set a hearing fairly quickly if there's an emergency or if the city has cause to believe that something is going to fall down imminently. There's also emergency abatement procedures. So there's definitely an avenue when there's an emergency. Oftentimes, these structures are around so long and they're deteriorating for so long, you don't really know when an emergency is going to come about. Typically, you've got a deteriorating building and then a weather storm, a weather incident occurs, and now you have your emergency. It's really a function of two things, but you do have a tool in your toolbox for emergencies, but I don't know that that's... What we try to do is get ahead of these structures before they put themselves in a position where an emergency is going to occur. So Paige is doing, her department is doing a nice job just monitoring things and making sure that if things get to that extent and they think they need legal counsel, they should give us a call and we try to address that right away.

You said you're seeing more of that lately, more dangerous buildings, broken windows. Is it vandalism? Is it just neglect of properties?

Probably a combination of things. Partly just overall deterioration over the years that there hasn't been any type of upkeep that's been done.

And some of these are residential, some are commercial, some are, it's just a mixture too. It's not just this part of the city or this part of the city. They kind of pop up all over the place. You just have a few here and there. We just don't want it to become a lot more than a few here and there. I mean, in the past, we've used 657A, which is a common code section to seize a property that is seen as dilapidated or structurally going to cause harm. We did it for the Red Fox. That's the most recent one we all can identify with. That was a good time. But there are cities that use that extensively, and we're just not one of them that does. I don't know that we will get to that point, but that is kind of a final step. tool to say, we are just going to handle this, take it away, demolish it, whatever it may be done, is an extreme one I don't think we want to get to, but that is something else that we have. I think it would be helpful if we walked through just straight process, how do we get to the end result of a lot of the smaller infractions that we see, or for areas that just simply will not correct themselves, what is our path to get that way? I don't know if, Paige, Maria, if either one of you want to walk through that?

I have a memo as well that I can leave with you all that walks through that. I anticipated that you may want to have that background on the process. So I'll distribute this. I don't know if you're visual people and you want to see that as we walk through it, but I can certainly do that if you want to take and pass. I'll keep one.

They also address this when you go to new city council number 20. MLA classes? Yeah, they have a section on it.

Generally speaking, nuisances are going to be initiated pretty commonly across cities, but Waverly does have its own processes as well. It's chosen how to serve notice, for example, and what is going to be enumerated as a nuisance. Those are things that might vary community to community. You'll want to take a look at the code with specific questions. But generally, the process starts with just acknowledging that there's either by complaint or by direct observation that there is potentially a problem and determining, you know, does that problem rise to the level of a nuisance or not? And the next thing that happens is... In Waverly, there's an informal resolution process. So in many communities, there is. So the next thing that might happen, as Paige mentioned, is she might call someone up, let them know there's a problem. Maybe they don't know. Maybe they don't know that it's truly a nuisance and a violation and that it's the situation that it is. So oftentimes, you get compliance that way. But the formal process starts with a written notice to obey. It has to be in writing. It has to be appropriately served on the property owner. occupant or person causing or maintaining the nuisance to the extent the city knows I don't know if Paige has a Habit or a policy in place on in terms of who gets noticed but typically you're going to notify both the landlord and the tenant if you know who that is and just the smoothest path to successful compliance is the goal. But it starts with the written notice. The notice has to be served by certified mail. Now state law allows you to serve that by ordinance. I haven't had many clients take me up on that. kind of wonder if you're not getting someone's attention by phone call, if they're going to pay attention to council minutes in an ordinance is questionable. So I do think that mailed notice is the best call, even though I think city code and state law allow differently.

Yeah. So what do you do if they just don't pick up the letter?

That happens. So in the code's perspective, it's delivered, it's considered served upon mailings. But if the city has knowledge that it hasn't been received, then you're on constructive notice that this person does not have notice yet. So it would be appropriate to take another step. So sometimes, what do you usually do, Paige?

And I think our nuisance might say receipt. of certified mail or personal service. Okay. We require it to be actually received.

So you wait and sometimes you have to sit around and wait longer than what your abatement deadline was like three weeks that the post office had it trying to deliver it.

And then it came back as undeliverable.

So there's a lot you don't have control over on that. We just spoke about one. Typically we say if your code doesn't provide for alternate service, we default to whatever the Iowa Rules of Civil Procedure would say is appropriate service. So either by personal service to the person hand delivered or publication. And again, publication is not direct, but it is a lawful form of notice if you have to go that route just to make sure you're providing enough due process. So the next thing that happens is they have a person to receive that notice. The ball is in their court. They have a deadline. The notice has to give the deadline. And then the person has the opportunity to appeal or to come to counsel if it's an administrative. And I'll get to the other. But generally, we're talking about administrative abatement. And so the person can come and tell counsel why they don't think that this is a nuisance and why they shouldn't be held responsible. They have that right. the City Council will then need to make a decision whether to go forward with the nuisance as a violation or not. If Council goes ahead and upholds the determination of your code enforcement officer, then the City will then usually provide usually in council's order it'll say all right now you've got five more days or two more days you give them another opportunity you let them know you've been heard you've had your due process and now you need to abate the person still has the ability to appeal further to the district court from there so they can still challenge the council's decision council's decision is on hold typically unless we take other measures to um to let the city take action pending the outcome of the case, but typically the city's decision will be on hold until a district court or a magistrate court gets to make a final decision. So that's one route. If the person does not appeal further and the city has to abate because the person does not abate the nuisance, then the question becomes how does one abate this nuisance? If it's junk, that's a little more complicated sometimes than grass. So we have to look at what needs to be done. Usually you'll work with the property owner by letting them know, and I'm sure Paige has a system for this as well that's specific to Waverly, but you usually let them know we're going to be at your home at this time and this is what we're going to do. And cost recovery, that's your last step. How are you going to recover those costs? And cities have an excellent tool. You can send the bill to the property owner and sometimes that gets paid. If it does not, the city may assess the cost to the property. So you can actually, in situations where you have a lot of smaller abatement costs in a given season, you can collect all of those and then go ahead with your levy procedures all at once. So you do have to, the city council has to follow the assessments requirements that you would for any kind of special assessment. It is a tax. And so it's considered with the same priority as a tax. So the good news is the city will be reimbursed through the property tax system, but you also have to very closely follow the requirements by Chapter 384 and Chapter 364. So those are things that you probably have those forms in place and that process in place already, but we can also assist where there's ever any questions on that. So that's your administrative process. So there's a long... winded answer, but that's your administrative process. If it is a situation where the cost or the entry onto property is a little bit more challenging or it's more complicated, the first step, of course, is still you're going to be your notice to abate. You're still going to reach out to the property owner, I think have a conversation with them and see what may be going on, and then the formal written notice to abate will follow. But what comes after that will be a little different if it's, say, a building, a dangerous building or a dangerous garage. The matter, if is not attended to by the property owner in the exact manner the city requires it in its notice, the next step would be to refer the matter to the city attorney's office for filing a citation in court. And then the due process takes over through the courts rather than through the council first. The 657As are a good tool as well, and I do have cities that I work with that either use them very routinely or they use them very purposefully, maybe not as routinely, but in given situations where council has determined this is a situation where taking title to this property is appropriate. That process is reserved for what the state code calls abandoned properties. So not only is it deteriorated, dilapidated, but for six months or more there's a set of factors in state law that are observed on this particular property demonstrating that this property is in fact abandoned to the point where it is causing an ongoing nuisance and public safety and health concern. The city is expending costs and time trying to help the property be in compliance with code. Typically you don't have utilities, particularly water, connected to the property so it is not habitable to some degree. Sometimes you have some crime that follows from having a property sit vacant. unattended to. So it can be an incredibly helpful tool to the whole community when appropriate. You should always have a plan for what the city might want to do with that property once you take title. But it is a court process. The city would file a petition in district court. And there would be numerous notices to all lien holders, tax sales certificate holders, owners, occupants, if there are any. And yes, sometimes an abandoned property can be occupied at times. It's not usually... occupied full-time, it maybe shouldn't be occupied in some situations, particularly if it doesn't have water, for example, or there's vermin or holes in the building and structure, so it's unsafe. But that can be a much more complicated process, but it is a tool in your toolbox if you think that's appropriate at any time.

So you're looking for Feedback from council about the process and whether we approve of the process or how aggressive we want?

It's more to educate you in the process. You know, what it takes to go start to finish. It's not as simple. We send out a sticker on the door and they mow the yard. God, that'd be nice. It doesn't work that way. Sometimes it takes another month to get them to mow. By then, I mean, you're getting lost in there. So it's just not that simple. And a lot of people that call and complain think that, well, you just simply go and tell them to mow it and they mow it. and it doesn't work that way. So a lot of it for us, whoever is watching, is for them to hopefully understand what this does look like, all the way to us taking property, which we've done before because it was not kept up, maintained. There's a few buildings now we've talked about we could do that right now. Should we? I don't know. We'll probably get to that at some point in time. But the key was for you to understand total process, start to finish, what does it look like, all the way to municipal fractions, the last set of tools we have before it goes to court. The other piece we're wanting to discuss in is, you know, based on what you're seeing in your neighborhoods, you know the people that are a little bit of the habitual offenders at kind of your problem houses, whether it's paint, although I don't think paint's one that we can say is a nuisance, although some colors, I don't need to see, I won't say the colors, but purple, I can't help it. I don't need to see a purple house next to me. That's offensive to me, so I don't like the color myself. He went on Panther, and that's terrible, too, I know. But in all seriousness, you know the houses that have struggled. You know your wards. You know who it is. What are we going to do with that? How aggressive do you want us to get? Because, again, we have paid. We can try and make different jobs become a little bit more engaged and get more people out there. We've talked to Justin before about do we have our gentleman that are hauling our refuse start to spot. They'll see every single house in the entire city every single week. They're going to know them themselves. They'll probably rattle them off the top of their head, addresses, problems, issues. Do we start to use that? Do we start to go different routes to get more aggressive in how we're doing this? What are we going to be writing? Are we going to have that issue where people are coming in here more often? Are you yourself going to be challenged a little more because we're getting more aggressive? All those things are things we want to kind of understand and consider before this gets worse. Before you know it, we'll be going into the fall. You'll be having leaves drop and you're going to really start to see some things that you're not seeing now because of the foliage that covers it. And that's also a good time to start getting into this as well and nip it in the spring before it gets green again is another good time. So we're just kind of debating on the timing of some of this. What can we accomplish throughout the summer? I think the grass issue is going to be a large one for us all the way, this El Nino hits all the way into November. But your other issues are still hidden there at times. We want to make sure that we're able to address them when they come up. So it's a very long-winded way to say what do you want to do? How hard do you want us to go after some of this so that we start to nip it before it gets to be a bigger problem? Or do you have a priority that you want us to attack it? Maybe that's a better question.

Well, I think safety, of course, is the top priority with buildings that are, well, of course, abandoned, but are being neglected and structurally are not sound. whether you've got kids roaming the neighborhood who are going to get into a building they shouldn't or a garage. So I think that's my top priority. Although if your lawn becomes a hayfield, that also can be, you know, spread weeds and other issues. I think, you know, I was just gone for a few days and if my neighbors would not have mowed my lawn, I probably would have met your mowing rule, right? And so I think it's important that whenever we get a complaint that do just what you're doing, right, is to try to investigate what are the circumstances. You know, I had an email from a constituent who was upset that their neighbor didn't take their garbage cans in for like two days, and I didn't even know there was a rule about that. But I think, so part of it is helping our neighbors out. If they're out of town, could you haul their garbage cans in, right? If there's an issue, if someone's sick, cannot mow their lawn, etc., helping each other out right but i also think that you know that there was a house still is a house i haven't walked by there lately although i drove by it on the way to the meeting that we had to call junk king on multiple times right so i think they're the people who have something come up who typically tend their property something's come up they cannot do it or it changes hands or something then there are the people who just chronically struggle with it and i think It then becomes a safety issue. It also becomes a neighborhood issue. People were threatening to move out of that neighborhood because of the smell and the garbage piled around, et cetera. So I think it becomes a blight on the neighborhood. I think that it's important to be able to drive through our community and feel like Properties are tended right that people care about this neighborhoods care about it. And so I'm I'm fine with this process I mean, I think there's multiple steps to to talk to the homeowner and you have the gentle approach and then you have the more, wait, we see this a lot. It surprises me people don't know that people are going to avoid this. When we have patients who ghost us for months and I'm trying to figure out if they're coming back, are they terminating care? We send a certified letter, they don't come. They don't pick it up. Then you're just hanging. People try to avoid confrontation. The city doesn't want to be dealing with this if we don't have to, right? But I do think it's important and it goes from just, I think, lowering morale of a neighborhood and causing tension between neighbors to a true safety issue. So I think it's a nice process. I think this is very helpful handout, right? Thank you, to sort of tell us the definitions and our options. But it's concerning that you're getting more calls about unsafe buildings.

And then to go on top of not just unsafe buildings, but stuff stored outside too. That's another kind of common one that we've been seeing. They might be using some of it, but we had talked previously with Maria about we don't have anything against storing stuff outside. Some of these places aren't great. has not become junk versus usable stuff that they are using outside. One person calls it junk and then gets upset if I don't do anything, but then the homeowner's using it. So those kind of, if we have any thoughts on that kind of stuff.

I think there's a reason you see more and more storage units that come up and they're so full and they keep building them and they're full and they keep building them and they're full. People have stuff. And if you don't have a place to put it, if you don't have a garage to put it, if you don't have We see it with single car garages, triple car garages. We see it with basements. We see it with slabs. Some people just have a lot of stuff. And it's out. And for some reason, it can't go in. And I don't know what the situation is, but we see it in new neighborhoods. We see it in older neighborhoods. There is no rhyme or reason. the individual has a lot of stuff. And I don't think it's gonna get any less stuff. And I think that's the hard part is as we accumulate more, it's more and more difficult to see some of these properties just get more and more overloaded with things coming in, pallets of things. And that's the other side that we're seeing is there's just more stuff. You know, I see riding mowers for yards would fit this dais. I mean, maybe a push mower would have been better. I don't know. But you can't fit that in your garage, and so it sits outside, neighbor gets mad, weeds collect around it, which is ironic because it is a mower. But yet you don't use it, and then we start getting calls. Then what are you supposed to do? And it becomes junk, and it becomes... And then we're stuck in the middle of it too just because somebody didn't maybe make the best choice at some point in time or decide they can't. take care of a property anymore, and we're still here trying, but yet it's just not working. As you said earlier, Ann, you're not having people help as much as they might have, or could, or should, or at some point, what do you do? And we don't want to be the bad guy to put people out, but At some point in time, it is not fair to the others around them, so then you have to balance that out too. So that's kind of why we wanted Maria to come here and give her a meeting to be able to really educate you on this, because I think this is going to become more and more of an issue than we've seen in the past. Each year, I think it's going to get worse if we don't start to tackle some of these properties.

So I have a question, and I feel like I should know the answer, but I don't. So some of the newer neighborhoods that have neighborhood covenants, Who is in charge? Does that give neighbors something to stand on or is that something city? Cause it's not necessarily HOA, but the neighborhoods with covenants that say you can't have stuff in your yard or parked in your driveway. Is that something the city enforces? How does that even work? Or is that just a piece of paper that's like, well, we hope you follow this?

That's kind of on the neighborhood as a whole to enforce. We, as a city, we get the covenants when the subdivision's first created. And we'll review them. They go in with all of our items. But over the years, those change, and we don't have to approve changes. We don't get copies of those that are changes. Some of them are only good for 21 years, and then they completely go away. Others are a continual auto-renew, so they go on forever. But no, that kind of more falls on that neighborhood.

It's as strong as the neighborhood wants it to be. A lot of times they're not wanting to take that on themselves, and we don't enjoy it either. You'll just have things that just lax and just kind of go, even if it isn't allowed by the covenants. So it's as strong as that neighborhood wants it to be. They'd rather call and tattle to the city about it. That's what most of our calls are, it's the actual neighbor.

Yeah.

And we've asked, did you talk to your neighbor? No, no, I can't talk to him. Well, you call the police on him, but yet you won't talk to your neighbor? Okay, that's good to know. So, happens a lot, actually.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I could give you an hour talk on hoarding, right? And people stop. It's early still. And it's a really common problem. The first time I ran for city council, I watched the whole town And it was really impressive how much stuff people had. Just stuff that obviously had not been touched in years. And it's a huge, it's a very disruptive mental health problem to families. Just breaks up families, a source of a lot of tension in families. And so you might, everybody who lives in the house with all the stuff might not want all the stuff there. That's the other thing to remember is that it's very complicated. So I give you guys a lot of credit for approaching these households and trying to figure out a solution because it is really complicated and can be a lot of anger can be directed at you guys, I'm sure. And so I feel for you. But I think at some point, and I've certainly had patients. I'm not going to even say where they live because I serve a gigantic geographic territory. But I've had patients that have run into this, especially on rural properties. So at some point, the county, the city, somebody comes in and just clears it because it becomes too dangerous, especially old rusty metal. equipment hiding in the two foot long grass and you can pretty easily, especially in the summer, tell if stuff is being used because it's surrounded, like you said, by really long grass. It has not moved for a while.

Be amazed how many barbecue grills that are still being used in the grass that's three feet tall around them.

But on the other hand, people are very attached to their stuff, and it's their property, and so it's really complicated. So I don't have a great answer. I'm rambling on, but I think this is a nice process, and it gives people the right to appeal. They can come here. They can certainly go to court and make their case. So it feels like it's a very fair, multi-step process. Yeah. And we can certainly give the case individual attention as a council if it warrants that, if people want that.

And so to appeal it, they have to do it within that timeframe too. I think a lot of them just let it go and don't appeal. I don't think we've ever had one that has appealed.

So then it's... Well, if you're having trouble, mowing your yard, right, if you're having difficulty clearing your stuff, you're gonna have trouble meeting a deadline of coming to a council meeting and appealing. It's not like it's a problem in one area of life, typically. But.

Any other thoughts, comments?

How challenging it would be to have more eyes out on things.

I'd want to sit down with staff and see who we could allocate and kind of see what that looks like. I think we can do it. It's just, again, how far do we go? What can we accomplish? And we'd have to probably talk about that a little more. What does it look like? How often? Things like that. Like I said, I'm sure we have staff that are out there enough that they can literally list off the top of their head 15 properties right now. Point to a map. They would just know. And then there's some brand new ones that just come out of nowhere. So it's just kind of a mixture, but you may have a better answer, Paige.

Yeah, and additional eyes will help great with those easy ones, like we said. Your grass. Those are really easy to abate. either ourselves or contracted out to get it done. So additional ice for those, that's not a problem. And more towards those junk or those buildings, then that's gonna increase cost if we have to take that on. So I think that's a big question moving forward with these others is what does the funding look like? Do you only do one potential junkyard or dangerous building a year, so due to the financial aspect of it?

Do you know what that cost offhand, Paige? A few that we've had done with junkings that have come in. I mean, I know it varies by size, but do you have a ballpark?

I want to say one of them with junkings, do you recall from any of it, was it like $1,500 or $1,600? And that was where he was just able to bring a tractor in, load it all up, and they weren't having to sort through anything to determine what's junk and what's not junk. So that was a pretty straightforward come in, get it out.

I think it's also important to look at whether it's the homeowner is living in the property or renting it.

Oh, absolutely.

Because, you know, and I don't know, we talk about this with our social worker a lot at the hospital is who can a tenant go to, right? If they are living in a property that is run down, is not being repaired, then I don't, we never know what to tell them because I don't know that we have a tenant's rights ordinance, do we in Waverly?

We have a rental property. So we have minimum standards that they all have to meet. So yeah, there is concerns with it. They all go in and inspect that property.

Okay, so you would be the go-to person.

Sometimes the tenants are at fear of them being evicted. We don't have the closets.

So I think, I mean, if law enforcement's going all over town, public works, you know, the sanitation guys are all over town. I think if they feel comfortable identifying certain properties to assist Paige, I don't know that they're, obviously the people are going to do the notification work, but they're seeing the whole town and you're, I mean, you can comment on, you probably have your top 10 list, right? Yeah, so.

And they probably see more than what we've got calls from the place. Oh, I'm sure. That might not be as extreme as some others. Yeah.

Okay, any other comments? Questions or anything for Maria or Paige or any staff?

Do you have other comments about how we should approach things?

We're not the only one. That's the only one I want you to know. Every city is fighting this all the time. It's not just us. Okay, that's all we have here.

All right, that brings us to reports from boards and commissions. Council, you've received the reports from boards and commissions. Is there any discussion? Okay, that brings us to staff updates.

One quick one with the seal coat project being finalized tonight. We'll see how the adhesion is with the rock, but we'll be out with the sweepers here either just before the Labor Day weekend or just after. We want to make sure it's stuck down good with the heat and the good warm temperatures.

That's all we have tonight, ma'am.

Okay. City Council comments.

Councilperson Rothy. So you had asked me to comment on how citizens can find out what we're all discussing up here.

I did. So I've been asked a couple different times, people who either watch the meetings or just have questions, how do we know what to talk about and how do we know how to vote? And Anne was just going to go over that a little bit because she's been on council for quite a while.

Yeah. So, and I was telling Kristen, I think every, for people who've watched city council a long time, every mayor does things differently, right? And so some of us ask more questions than others. I tend to ask a lot of questions. But so we, Carla puts out the agenda for the meeting the week before the meeting, typically by Wednesday. give or take, and if people just go to the city website, they will find on there how to contact all of us, they'll find out the agenda, they'll find out videos from previous meetings, and when you go into the agenda section, you can look at the calendar, you can look at all the commission's agendas, you can look at our agenda, and then you'll find something that talks about the agenda packet. And then there's also just the agenda. The packet has all of the background documents that we see before the meeting. Now, occasionally, on rare occasions, we'll have something that pops up in the packet at the meeting or just before the meeting. But most of the documents are there a few days in advance. And so that tells us, usually there's a memo prepared by staff, especially if it's a budgetary item. And there's background maps. There's background survey results. There might be pictures. We love pictures of equipment. And all the background info we need. And so when I read that, oftentimes I have questions. So I'm going to reach out to department heads. If it's something big, I tend to CC James on my email just so he's aware of what I'm snooping around about. Sometimes I'll just text Garrett or whatever. It's a simple question. And so my first go-to is usually a city staff. because they can answer my questions 99% of the time. And so if I have a citizen who has a question for me, I'm often asking them, have you called city staff? Have you asked them? Oftentimes they have not. Maybe they did and they're confused. And so then I will try to loop people into my email to staff. And so I try to get most of my questions answered before the meeting rather than springing them on a staff person. who might not be ready for a certain aspect of the project I have a question about. But all of the info we see is available to the public. We're required to have open meetings. The other thing I think the public should know is that we can't all discuss a topic from the agenda together as a group. That is in violation of the open meetings law. We can send out an informational email to someone. So let's say if it's some recognition for somebody, hey, just information only, we're doing a recognition for Diana Blake at the meeting. But you can't discuss the library's budget, can't discuss a certain resolution on the agenda if you have a certain number of quorum of city council. If I want to talk to people about a certain agenda item, then I have to limit my discussion to only two other council or else it becomes a meeting and people have to be notified of that. And so we don't have a lot of backroom discussions after city council because it's illegal. And so everything that we do deliberate about is public info and is easily accessible. We've also had questions now with, I know I reached out to Garrett a couple weeks ago with Waverly Utilities getting rid of cable. How do people watch now? And Garrett, maybe you could comment on what you told me about YouTube access and, because I have had some questions about that from people. Sure.

Yep, there's a city YouTube channel and so you just go City of Waverly, Iowa on YouTube and it'll pull that up and so you can watch those live or they're archived and you can watch historically whatever you want to watch. Yeah, not much more to it than that. There is a link from the city's website page So if you go to look at the agendas or just to our meetings page, it links right to the YouTube page for you as well. That's good. Yeah, a couple different ways to get there.

Good, thanks. So does that help? Yes, it does.

I think the big question is always like, well, how come you guys don't talk about it? And the main takeaway is that we see this a week in advance and we have a chance to ask questions and do a little digging beforehand. So we're not just popping up here and everybody says yes, because we got whatever, don't care, don't know what's going on. But so we do see this a week in advance, roughly, maybe not quite a week, but, and then we do get to ask questions ahead of time. So we come in prepared. So thank you for covering that. Sure. Councilperson Kangas.

I would add to that that some of the discussion, a lot of the items are budgeted things that have been discussed during budget session beginning of the year and so they've come up three, four, five times by the time we're actually What are we doing that with? We've talked about this is something we want to do. This is what the budget's going to be roughly for. It comes in. We see whether it's coming in over budget, under budget. Those were our questions usually come in. Why are the change orders in the budget? But a lot of those things, it's just simply, okay, this has been budgeted. It came in under budget. Here's the award and the contract. So there's not a lot for us to... in on at that point because we've already kind of gone through that so um thank you my only my my commentary is we are now end of August and teachers and students are getting ready to go back into school so think of this teachers as they're doing workshops this week and be aware of students getting ready to go back to school next week A lot of excitement for kids when they first start going back into schools. They may not always be aware of their surroundings on streets and stuff with that. Pay attention there. Buses, do not pass a stopped bus with their lights on flashing and stop on and out, even if you're going the opposite direction. you may not pass a stop bus. And with that, since I deal with middle schoolers, I just would like to note that this year is the 26-7 school year.

Oh, boy. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Couldn't wait all night without that.

I appreciate that.

Councilperson Harmon.

I'd like to say it's not cool to say 6-7 in middle school anymore. They can't stop at Christmas.

Oh, it's hilarious in high school.

Now teachers do it.

They're like, oh, goodness. I know. We picked up on it. We started rolling. I know.

And now they're like, it's not cool anymore.

So anyway, that's it. Councilperson Myers.

Yes, I just want to acknowledge, as may have been noticed, that my seat on the dais has been empty for the past few meetings because I've been out of town helping a friend who's been very ill. I'm hoping to be back in Waverly very soon, but in the meantime, I'm very grateful that I've been able to take part in all the meetings by phone, and I encourage the public to still reach out to me with any questions or concerns they might have about city issues.

Thank you. Councilperson Mackey.

Yes. In reference to Councilperson Kane's comments last week about nearly hitting the young person on the scooter, wasn't it, or e-bike, a bike like this, my wife and I were riding our bikes this morning, and we both took a right. My wife went first. I was getting ready. And just as I'm starting to lean into a turn, a, shall we say, octogenarian, came screaming by me, passing on your right. So it seems that we have many people to educate, not just our young, and I'm just glad I didn't cream her or anything like that, or she didn't scream at me. And I will be at my Ward 3 brewery this evening after the meeting, should anyone wish to visit.

Thank you. Councilperson Wolfe? I saw that it was Hunger Action Month, and so I called Claire at Community Action to get some local stats to make it real because a lot of times it feels like, Oh, that doesn't happen in my neighborhood. Um, Claire said that pantry has been very busy, um, in July, 185 unduplicated households with 526 individuals. And they distributed over 10,000 or 10,000 pounds of food compared to 2021. So five years ago, they served 232 unduplicated households and 541 individuals for the year. So there's been a significant increase. And then Bart and I volunteered the last summer meals and the beauty of that is I get to unite away and and Community Action get to hear the stories of people struggling, but we also get to see the people coming out and volunteering and working together to really meet the needs. And they served 16,212 meals this year. The largest day they served 192 kids. And last year they served 8,896 meals with the largest day of 122 kids. So there's an increase.

And our guest council person. We had a little bit longer meeting for you tonight. What did you think? Any questions or comments?

No, it was not. It was kind of interesting to see it from a different perspective. Yeah. I thank you all for having me.

For sure. I was kind of going to piggy off the back to school thing, although you said kids are excited to go back to school. I have three high schoolers. Not a single one. I have one graduating early and I will tell this story until the day I die because it is so funny. He's graduating early. Since his third day of kindergarten, I had to drag him into school and he was screaming, you're ruining my life. So he was five years old, three days into kindergarten. And it has been a struggle for 13 years, but we have 90 days of school left. But yes, please pay attention to those kids who are walking, biking, parents driving in carpools and stop buses. Please just pay attention as everyone's getting into a new routine. The food pantry can do a lot with money, a lot more with money than donations. So look at donating money to the food pantry. United Way's little food pantry is always out or always in need of donations. So look at those. And with that, there's a lot of great things going on in our community. And if you cannot find the good things that are going on in our community, find a way to be the good thing that is going on in our community. With that, council, do I have a motion to adjourn?

Move to adjourn.

Second? Second. This is a voice vote. All in favor say aye. Aye.