Waukon City Council holds first meeting of 2014

by Bob Beach

The Waukon City Council's first meeting of the new year was organizational for the most part, as the Mayor and Council made appointments of City employees and Council members were assigned to standing committees.
Mayor Loren Beneke appointed Trent Mitchell to serve as Mayor Pro-Tem and the Council approved the Mayor's suggested appointments of Council members to standing committees as follows: Street and Fairgrounds, Darrold Brink and Dave Sanderson; Water and Sewer, Sanderson and Brink; Health and Fire, Steve Wiedner and Don Steffens; Finance and Budget, Trent Mitchell and Wiedner; and Ordinances Steffens and Mitchell. Mayor Beneke and Councilmen Mitchell and Steffens will also serve on the Fire Board. Councilman Brink and Mayor Beneke will also serve on the WEDC Board.
The Council appointed Phil Young as the City's Police Chief, but no Assistant Chief has yet been named. The Council also approved the appointment of six police officers, which includes newly hires officer David Fritz, plus five reserve officers, which Young said brings the department back to a full roster of officers.
The Council also appointed City employees for various departments, including the City Clerk and staff, Water and Sewer Superintendent and staff, Street Superintendent and staff, Zoning Administrator, City Attorney and Assistant and City Health Officer.
The Council agreed to continue to hold its regular meetings on the first and third Mondays of every month (excluding holidays, in which case the meetings will be held on the following day) at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall. The Council also named The Standard as the City's official newspaper and approved a resolution naming Waukon State Bank and Farmers and Merchants Savings Bank as the City's official depositories with a maximum balance of $8 million in each bank.
With the organizational business taken care of, Councilman Mitchell updated the Council on the Fire Protection District's need for a new fire station and a new fire truck. He explained that the fire department has "outgrown" the current fire station as it is not large enough to accommodate the newer equipment and it had been determined that an expansion of the current building is not feasible. He went on to explain that several funding options have been presented, two of which would involve a ballot initiative to approve a tax levy, and a third option using TIF funding, which would not require a ballot initiative. Mitchell said that a new fire truck has been ordered and will be delivered in April; the City's portion of that cost will be approximately $185,000. He said that the City's share of the cost of the new fire station has been estimated at about a half million dollars.
Councilman Steffens said he thinks there would be some opposition to funding the new fire without a ballot initiative, as the public perception is that the City has a lot of large projects underway. He said that people are "strapped for cash and its only going to get worse."
The Council then considered a contract proposal from Visu-Sewer Inc. for cleaning of the City's sanitary sewers. Water and Sewer Superintendent Bob Campbell said that 90 percent of the cost (around $77,000) would be paid by the state and federal governments if the project is approved by FEMA. He said that if the project is funded it would be well worth it, and if it is not funded, Visu-Sewer would not hold the City to the contract. The Council approved the contract as presented.
City Attorney Jim Garrett presented the Council with a resolution to authorize the use of "competitive quotation" procedures and to delegate authority to receive proposals for City projects. Garrett explained that the state has approved the competitive quotation procedure for projects costing up to $130,000, which eliminates some red tape and eliminates the need to publish requests for bids. The Council approved the resolution for use on future projects on a case-by-case basis.