Minutes November 2, 2015

Regular Council Meeting

November 2, 2015

    

     The City Council of the City of Fayette, Iowa, met in the Fayette City Hall at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, November 2, 2015, Mayor Wenthe presiding.

     Roll call: Present - Council members Boberg, Nefzger, Patrick. Absent: McGrane, Sorensen.

     Prior to this meeting the council held a work session at 6:00 p.m., as posted, to discuss the drainage in the business blocks of Main Street in preparation for a grant application.  Present at this work session was the mayor, the full council except Sorensen, Dan Hingtgen with whks engineering, Casey Mai with UERPC, Public Works Director Hildebrand and City Admin/Clerk Dennis.  The council decided to not use permeable pavers in the downtown project because of the extensive and on-going maintenance required to keep the space between the pavers from plugging up with dirt, sand and vehicle fluids.   The grant application for the Community Facilities CDBG program will be submitted for a second try by UERPC (due January 2016) and use the same wording as last year.  The green street criteria we will use are street trees with grates around them that water can drain into and there may be some vegetative box filters.  It was a consensus that we don’t want large concrete plant boxes on Main Street that people could fall it, vehicle bumpers could hit, or that would take up parking spaces.  The storm sewers will be enlarged to accommodate more water to alleviate the rain water back-up that happens presently during a heavy rain further to the south at several Main Street intersections.  Dennis was asked to put some figures together for financing the projects.  Work on the projects won’t start until 2017.  

     Moved Patrick, seconded Nefzger, to approve the consent agenda consisting of the regular meeting minutes of 10/19/15, Claims List of 10/20/15 – 11/02/15 and renewal of a liquor license for the Downtown Lounge. 

     Under communications from the public, Admin/Clerk Dennis noted that Janice Larson called and said she wanted it brought up to the city council that she didn’t think it was fair that she now has to pay $3.00 per quarter for a storm water fee when storm sewers weren’t installed when the new subdivision was built on the hill across from her house.  Dennis said she explained that this was a new mayor and council, and they started the storm water fee to try to build up some funds to be able to pay for installing storm sewers in the future.

     Moved Patrick, seconded Boberg, to approve the agenda as presented.  Nefzger asked that a closed session on litigation be added under old business and that it be moved to the last matter on the agenda.  Patrick approved the agenda with the amendment, all ayes, carried.

     Mayor Wenthe thanked the members of the Police Chief Search Committee for the good job in finding a new police chief.  The committee members were Karla Gavin, Dave Runyon, Patty Nefzger, Kris McGrane and the mayor.  He said it took quite a lot of time, but he thinks we’ve found a good person for the job.  He added that Richard Pisanti, the new chief, is driving from Florida this week and plans to start work on Monday, Nov. 9th.

     The mayor said we will have a meet & greet for Richard and his wife sometime in the future. 

     Administrator/Clerk Dennis reported that the grant application she submitted to FEMA through the Iowa Homeland Security & Emergency Management Department for two warning sirens was approved.  The total amount of the grant is $44,006. (Federal portion: $29,270/ State: $4,400 and local: $10,336, and the project must be completed in one year. ~ Dennis noted that she posted and published all of the winter notices on Oct. 22nd. ~ Letters (35) were mailed to property owners asking them to repair their water shut-off valves. ~ A letter was mailed to Connie Conner regarding removing her dog at 701 S. Main since there is no one living on the property because the house was removed and about a couple of junk lawn mowers on the property that need to be removed. ~ The Fayette Yard Waste Site will be closed for the winter after Nov. 11th and the last day for leaf pick-up will be Nov. 9th.

     Moved Nefzger, seconded Patrick, to approve the FY 2015 Annual Urban Renewal Report.  Dennis explained that this report is more in-depth TIF information regarding the city’s TIF debt in our Urban Renewal Area that is required by the State Department of Management each year.  All ayes, carried.        

     Moved Nefzger, seconded Boberg, to go into closed session at 7:44 pm, allowed under Iowa Code Chapter 21.5(1)C, for a litigation matter.  All ayes, carried.   

     The council came out of closed session at 8:07 pm

     There being no further business, moved Nefzger, unanimous, to adjourn at 8:07 pm.

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