Waukon City Council meets in special session to discuss flood mitigation

by Bob Beach

Prior to its regular meeting Monday, March 17 the Waukon City Council met in special session with Zoning Administrator Al Lyon and members of the Planning and Zoning Commission to discuss possible changes to City ordinances to mitigate flooding. Lyon said that the Commission had come up with several suggestions, such as adopting changes to City ordinances to allow pervious sidewalks and driveways (the current ordinance requires concrete sidewalks); to prevent roof gutters or sump pumps from discharging directly into the street (with downtown being the exception to that proposed rule); to make changes to the one-paragraph soil erosion ordinance to include more than just new site construction; and to assess the condition and capacity of the City's storm sewers.
Lyon and members of the Planning and Zoning Commission also asked the Council to consider the creation of a storm water utility fee to fund future improvements to the City's storm sewers, suggesting a flat monthly fee of two dollars for residential property owners and four to five dollars for businesses. Lyon said that such a fee scale would generate approximately $40,000 to $50,000 annually. Councilman Trent Mitchell said that he would like to see the storm water utility established, noting that there will have to be some way to pay for future improvements. Councilman Don Steffens agreed that a flat fee scale would be the way to go and Mayor Loren Beneke requested that the Commission continue its work and bring "a place to start from" before the Council.

During its regular meeting, the Council met with Brian Kramer, Vice President of Operations at Innovative Ag Services, who reported that the company has purchased approximately seven acres of land south of its current location with plans to install dry and liquid fertilizer facilities. He pointed out that the new facilities will have no need for sewer services and that a private well will continue to provide adequate water for the new facilities. He asked the Council to consider a voluntary annexation into the City of the additional land and to offer an annexation agreement similar to the current tax abatement agreement for the current facility.
The Council also discussed funding for the proposed construction of a new fire station. Councilman Mitchell reported that the Allamakee-Clayton REC Board has agreed to loan $680,000 at no interest for the project with that amount divided equally between the City and member townships of the Fire Protection District. He said that REC now requires assurances that the City and the townships would obtain the remaining funding necessary to complete the project from other sources. It was the consensus of the Council to borrow the City's half of the remaining necessary funding, $410,000, from local banks. Mitchell said that the townships would need to approach the Allamakee County Board of Supervisors about borrowing the township's portion of the remaining funds.
The Board also met with real estate developer Dick Sullivan, who presented the Council with a draft of a development agreement for the extension of Logan Street. Sullivan said that under the terms of the proposed agreement, the City would install rock to extend the road and curbs and gutters would be installed at his expense at a later date, adding that the property for the street would be deeded to the City. The Council voted to accept the agreement pending review and approval by the City Attorney.
In other business, the Council met with Allamakee County Economic Development Executive Director Laura Olson, who gave a presentation on the new design of the City's web site. Olson said that the new site is designed to be more user friendly, featuring fewer "tabs" to make it easier for visitors to the site to find the information they're looking for. The Council approved of the new site and authorized Olson to launch it at her discretion.
The Council also approved the police training reimbursement contracts - the terms of which were agreed upon at a previous meeting, annual grants to Waukon Economic Development and Allamakee County Economic Development, along with other grant payments and fund transfers.