Waukon City Council discusses snow, insurance

by Dwight Jones
 
The Waukon City Council met in regular session the evening of Monday, January 18 with the full Council in attendance.
The Regular Business portion of the meeting started by once again discussing snow removal by local businesses. At a previous meeting, the Council had decided to start enforcing the ordinance requiring all businesses to remove the snow from their properties. For as long as anyone can remember, the City has hauled snow piles from certain business locations, mainly due to safety and to keep traffic flowing through downtown. Other business owners had questioned that practice, stating that if the City is going to pay to haul away their snow, they should be doing so for all.
Councilman Joe Cunningham explained that, following the suggestion from the Council, he had contacted the downtown businesses that he felt would be most affected by the February 1 ordinance enforcement. He stated that they had questions that he could not answer. Some of those business managers and/or owners were in attendance, including Mike and Sue McMillan of McMillan Muffler, Shirley Stortz of Kwik Star and Pat Otting of Culligan Water.  The discussion was lengthy, with a recurring theme that everybody was in agreement that something needed to be done, but questioning what is fair.  The discussions then turned to “our snow vs. your snow”.  Otting explained that in reality he has a very small lot, but he gains a lot of “city” snow from the boulevard and intersection at his property, and didn’t feel he should pay to have that snow removed, but questioned how to separate it.
The Council agreed to have a work session in February to discuss the matter further, until which time the businesses were asked to do their best to push snow into two piles, one that they deem “their” snow, of which they will be responsible to remove, and another of the snow that came from the public street or boulevard, and the City will remove it.
Moving on, the Council addressed a letter that had been received from Jim Bieber of Bieber Insurance requesting that the City move into a three-year rotation with its property and casualty insurance coverage. The City has been with Leschensky Insurance for years, and Bieber, who was in attendance, was proposing that the City give his office a chance to service the policy on a rotating schedule. There was mixed support from the Council.
Councilman Steve Wiedner stated a number of times that “What is fair is fair”, but Cunningham questioned that, and reminded the Council that the City has a lot of contracts, policies and agreements, none of which are on a rotating schedule. “When I was in businesses, I believed that if someone did a good job, that I wouldn’t make a change just for the sake of change. I’m not saying that the Biebers wouldn’t do a good job as well, but I can’t see taking the business from Leschensky just in the name of change”, Cunningham explained. Jane Regan of Leschensky Insurance was also in attendance, and suggested putting the business out to bid, explaining that there were possibly other insurance companies in town that would also want to bid the businesses.
Following additional discussion, Councilman John Ellingson made the motion to move to the three-year insurance rotation, but only between Bieber and Leschensky, with Bieber taking over the policies at the renewal date of April 1, 2010. The motion was passed on a 3-2 vote, with Cunningham and Councilman Trent Mitchell voting against the change.
Regan then continued, reviewing the options that the City has to allow the fuel tanks at the City Airport to once again be used. Frank Byrnes with the Allamakee Flying Club was in attendance, and explained that he had made some phone calls regarding insurance that his group would need, but had no firm numbers. Regan explained that the coverage requirements varied greatly based on if the group used the fuel on their planes only or also sold to the public. Historically, only 20% of the fuel pumped had been to someone outside of the Flying Club. Two motions were then made and passed, one addressing insurance coverage the Flying Club would need to resume the fueling of their own airplanes only, and the other to address coverage the Council was going to require anyone that rents a hanger to have, all in the name of protecting the City against liability exposure.
The Council then briefly addressed the possibilities of implementing a vicious dog policy, with questions on whether it could be breed specific. Ellingson stated some concerns he had involving pit bulls being kept in upstairs downtown apartments. City Attorney Jim Garrett gave Ellingson some direction on where he could look to find examples of what other cities had done to address the problem and the issue will likely be addressed at a future meeting.
The Council then approved the adoption of a long-term housing plan, with much more work coming on this issue down the road as well.
Garrett then updated the Council on progress that had been made between the City and property owner Mark Lomen for the possible purchase of land near Waukon High School and the Waukon Wellness Center to be used for sports fields. One step in doing so was to have Lomen agree to and sign an application for voluntary annexation, which he had done. Additional work is needed, with more discussions, public hearings, etc. forthcoming.
The Council then acted on a number of resolutions involving fund transfers, followed by an agreement to pay Skyline Construction $81,081.58 toward the utility infrastructure work that has been done along Second Street SW.
The Council then appointed Mitchell to serve alongside Mayor Loren Beneke and Cunningham on the Waukon Area Fire Protection District board.  In addition, Chris Kovorik was appointed to the Planning and Zoning Board.
Discussions regarding the hiring of a City Development/Zoning officer then resumed.  Garrett explained that the ad would be in this week’s newspaper and was looking for some direction on how the Council wanted to move forward.  Garrett agreed to yield questions as needed and sit in on interviews once they began.
In the final item on the agenda, the Council accepted the retirement resignation of police officer Ken Lough with an effective date of April 17, 2010, and gave Chief of Police Clark Bollman the approval to being the hiring process to replace him.