Regular Council Meeting
May 4, 2015
The City Council of the City of Fayette, Iowa, met in the Fayette City Hall at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, May 4, 2015, Mayor Andrew Wenthe presiding.
Roll call: Present - Council members Boberg, McGrane, Nefzger, Patrick, Sorensen.
Moved Boberg, seconded McGrane, to approve the consent agenda consisting of the regular meeting minutes of 04/20/15, the Claims List of 04/21/15 – 05/04/15 and the renewal of Aramark’s liquor license at UIU. On roll call, all voted aye, carried.
Moved Patrick, seconded Sorensen, to approve the agenda as presented. All ayes, carried.
Mayor Wenthe said the university is planning “Explore Fayette Day 2015” on August 22nd, starting at 3:15 p.m., as a way to acclimate new students to the businesses and services in Fayette and for Fayette to promote their businesses to incoming students. Christie sent a message to the businesses in Fayette to see how many wanted to participate. More information to follow.
Admin/Clerk Dennis reported that Public Works Director, Jerry Hildebrand, has started marking the water shut-off valves and valves to the city mains with flags for GIS mapping. Midwest Geographical Services was in town Friday, May 1st, and started the mapping. ~ Cardinal Park is being quite a bit this spring by several different groups, so Dennis said she made up a schedule for use of the ball fields.
Moved McGrane, seconded Patrick, to introduce the first reading of Ordinance 484: Housing Code. All ayes to discuss. McGrane said he would like to see this ordinance go out to the landlords in town to get their input at a meeting or via e-mail. Lori Brockway, UERPC, said that they wouldn’t be inspecting to meet the National Electric Code, just the Housing Quality Standards. After a lengthy discussion about costs, re-inspection, and various items, moved Sorensen, seconded Nefzger to table. All ayes to table. A council work session was scheduled for May 18th, at 6:00 p.m., before the council meeting and Dennis was asked to send the details to the Fayette landlords so they could attend the meeting.
Moved McGrane, seconded Sorensen, to introduce for consideration to sell the city lot at 215 S. Main Street. Patrick said he asked for this to be put on the agenda so we don’t forget about the vacant lots the city owns. Admin/Clerk Dennis said in the past we’ve used the vacant lots on Main Street as incentives for new construction, which is where the new funeral home is located and ISU Extension is located. Dennis was asked to post the two properties on the city web site as incentives for new business development.
Moved Patrick, seconded McGrane, to introduce for consideration to proceed or not with the Downtown Project design since the city wasn’t awarded grants from the CDBG program applications that were submitted for water/sewer and storm sewer. All ayes to discuss. Dennis explained the e-mail from Dan Hingtgen, WHKS engineer, that the cost would be an additional $10,000 from what we have in it to date. Hingtgen said it would give us better lengths and better numbers for the grant applications when we try a second time. Dennis said a Conceptual Design for the streetscape downtown would be $6,700, but that wouldn’t affect the grant applications. Moved Patrick, seconded Boberg, to tell WHKS to proceed with the project design at the approximate cost of $10,000, but to wait on the Conceptual Design for downtown. All ayes, carried.
Moved Sorensen, secondedPatrick, to introduce for discussion the first reading of Ordinance 485: Storm Water Drainage System Utility. All ayes to discuss. Note: A Storm Water Utility was proposed and approved with the FY 2016 Budget, where it was decided to charge $3.00 per month on everyone’s city utility bills to generate $14,000 annually. These funds would help pay for maintenance and construction of storm sewers in town. Dennis said she got a draft ordinance from the City of Bancroft, who is starting this new utility also. McGrane noted a couple of editing changes that Dennis will make before the second reading. Moved Patrick, seconded Boberg, to approve the first reading of Ordinance 485, on roll call, all ayes, carried.
Moved McGrane, seconded Nefzger, to approve the Recreation Board meeting minutes of April 20, 2015. All ayes, carried.
Moved Patrick, seconded Boberg, to discuss no parking on the east side of Mechanic Street across from the condo’s and no parking on one side of the street on adjacent blocks to the north, south, east and west of the block. All ayes to discuss. After some discussion, moved McGrane, seconded Boberg, to approve that “No parking” signs be installed on both sides of Mechanic Street (Jay to Madison). Four ayes, Patrick nay, motion carried. Dennis said an ordinance amendment would have to be approved by three readings before the signs can be installed. She will have the ordinance amendment on the next agenda.
There being no further business, moved Nefzger, unanimous, to adjourn at 8:42 p.m.
