Council Meeting Minutes 6-19-17

REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING

June 19, 2017

     The City Council of the city of Fayette, Iowa, met Monday, June 19, 2017 at 7:30pm in the Fayette City Hall pursuant to law and rules of said council, Mayor Wenthe presiding.

     Roll call: Present - Council members Kragnes, Larson, Nefzger, Tucker and Wulfekuhle.

     Moved Tucker, seconded Kragnes, to approve the consent agenda consisting of the regular meeting minutes of 6/5/17, claims list of 6/6/17 – 6/19/17, the May 2017 Treasurer’s/Clerk’s Report & Budget Report, and the renewal of a liquor license for The Pumper. Roll call, all ayes, carried.

     Treasurer's Balance for Fund Accounts as of May 31, 2017: General $297,795.71; Streets $211,224.16; Debt Service $5,166.74; Water Utility $351,312.64; Water T&A $27,780.07; Sewer Utility $307,830.75; Landfill/Recycling $1,893.66; Yard Waste $11,702.71; Bolger Fund $189,643.71; TIF $57,086.98; Local Option Tax $86,517.82; Storm Water $10,863.87; Downtown Project ($29,715.04); Franchise Fees $48,920.48. May Receipts by Fund: General $37,199.79; Streets $11,565.08; Debt Service $634.60; Water Utility $4,654.14; Water T&A $2,496.96; Sewer Utility $5,171.24; LF/Recycling $1,023.13; Yard Waste $196.07; Bolger $2,957; TIF $252.06; Local Option $6,915.67; Storm Water $146; Franchise Fees $3,425.92. Total Receipts $76,637.66. May Disbursements by Fund: General $28,993.44; Streets $14,450.76; Water Utility $11,033.54; Water T&A $507.53; Sewer Utility $8,094.85; Yard Waste $5,478.99. Total Disbursements: $68,559.11. Investments: $1,309,664.03. Bank Balance $2,863,137.26. Balance with Library Funds $2,952,849.14.

     Moved Wulfekuhle, seconded Kragnes, to approve the agenda as presented. All ayes to approve, carried.

     Mayor Wenthe advised the council that Jeff Butikofer resigned from the Library Board due to a conflict of interest regarding a potential candidate for the Library Director position. The City Council needs to consider a replacement. Annette Butikofer was offered and accepted the Library Director position. On June 15th, the Mayor spent the day with Zach Mannheimer meeting with different groups and individuals and touring the town as part of the Creative Placemaking Economic Assessment study. Wenthe would like to encourage all the citizens to shop local and support the businesses that we do have as that is the first step to seeing improvements in the community and with economic development. Fayette has a lot of things that we should be proud of and we should help promote these things.

     Administrator/Clerk McGrane reported to the council that he attended a NEIA League meeting on June 6th, a housing meeting on June 12th, had an annual visit with Black Hills Energy personnel on June 13th and attended the Steering committee meeting on June 15th.

     Police Chief Pisanti informed the council that he attended a training to prevent violence against women last week. The cost was covered by a grant and UIU. The department is wrapping up on the unpaid, over-due tickets project. Out of 61 unpaid tickets, only 19 are left unpaid and letters have been sent out to address the last 19 tickets. The department started a code enforcement or nuisance abatement sweep around town this week. The sweep will address issues such as abandoned vehicles, trash piles and tall grass. They will also inform residents on the importance of displaying their house numbers so they are visible from the road.

     Moved Kragnes, seconded Tucker, to discuss the Fayette Community Library Board minutes from May 10, 2017. Annette Butikofer accepted the Library Director position and will start on approximately August 1st. Linda Adams will retire the end of September. After a brief discussion, the council was wondering if the Library Board had an idea of when they would hire an assistant librarian. Moved Kragnes, seconded Nefzger, to approve. All ayes, carried.

     Moved Kragnes, seconded Larson, to introduce Alex Soderquist, the General Manager at Hawkeye Telephone Company (HTC), to discuss running fiber optic lines through Fayette. HTC runs fiber optic lines all over Fayette County and NE Iowa. It was proposed to them by Community Digital Wireless (CDW) to run fiber optic lines to a cell tower just north of the city of Fayette so CDW can provide fixed, wireless internet service to the city of Fayette residents, hopefully within the next year. Fixed, wireless internet is where an antenna is placed on top of a cell tower and a resident puts an antenna on top of their home or business to receive internet connection. The internet service is reasonably fast and is usually less expensive than other services. HTC currently has fiber optic service at the cell tower just south of Fayette. The current preliminary plan is to run the fiber optic lines from the tower south of Fayette, along Klock Rd/Washington St into town, run a line to UIU so they can take advantage of the service, head west along W 7th St, then north through town, behind the downtown district, over to city hall, police dept, fire dept and ambulance garage, then north to the cell tower. Soderquist is also hoping to include in the plan to run a line to the NFV school and Fayette Community Library. When they build the fiber optic line, they do not have the ability to provide a service line to every business, but they do prepare for future options and investments for other companies that may want to come in and take advantage of the fiber optic line. Since HTC is a small company with a small staff, they are unable to provide fiber optic services to multiple customers throughout NE Iowa, but they like the idea of spearing new interventions into towns where services are not available. Currently there are no plans for offering fiber optic service to residents, however, the cities infrastructure can still take advantage of fiber optic service. HTC is currently working with other providers and companies to try and have them come up to the NE Iowa area to provide the fiber optic service. Soderquist wanted to introduce himself and let the council know they are currently in the middle of preliminary planning to do this type of work. The cities advantage would be to have fiber optic run to places they felt would be useful. HTC just finished getting West Union city hall connected to fiber optic. HTC tries to provide a discounted rate at a fixed cost for cities who use the service. As an example, HTC charges the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office and West Union city hall a fixed rate of $70 per month. HTC typically offers a full 1GB service, that is 1,000MB up and 1,000MB down, unlimited usage, HTC provides support via IT networking capabilities. They are also hoping this would help bring in future business opportunities and are hoping to have the fiber optic line in the ground before the end of October. Their work and construction is done by a local contractor, West Union Trenching. They would trench and lay the fiber optic lines in the cities right-of-way through town. When Soderquist has completed his plan, he will come back with specific details as well as options for the city to take advantage of the service.

     Moved Kragnes, seconded Nefzger, to introduce the third and final reading of Ordinance 493 – Amending the code of ordinances of the city of Fayette, Iowa, by repealing and amending sections 92.02 of water rates and 99.02 of sewer service charges under chapters 92 and 99. The ordinance increases water and sewer rates by 2% on all rate levels to keep up with inflation, continue with improvements, replacing water and sewer lines, and replacing water meters. The minimum sewer charge will increase from $59.09 to $60.28 per quarter. The minimum water charge will increase from $38.01 to $38.77. The rate increase will begin on September 1, 2017, which is billable in December 2017. All the water and sewer rates shall automatically increase 2% per year on June 1 unless changed by resolution of council. Moved Kragnes, seconded Nefzger, to approve the third and final reading of Ordinance 493. On roll call, all ayes, carried.

     Moved Kragnes, seconded Nefzger, to introduce the third and final reading of Ordinance 494 – Amending the code of ordinances of the city of Fayette, Iowa, by repealing and amending section 106.09 of landfill fee under chapter 106. The ordinance increases the landfill fee by $0.25 per quarter. The increase is due to Fayette County increasing the landfill cost by $1.00 per person, per year starting in July 2017. The rate increase will begin on July 1, 2017, which is billable in September 2017. Moved Tucker, seconded Kragnes, to approve the third and final reading of Ordinance 494. On roll call, all ayes, carried.

     Moved Nefzger, seconded Wulfekuhle, to discuss and review Ordinance 484 – Rental Housing Code. After discussion, Kragnes suggested inviting the community and landlords to a special meeting to discuss the new updates to the draft code that City Attorney Pat Dillon suggested. The council agreed to hold a meeting on July 17th at 6:30PM, an hour before the city council meeting.

     There being no further business, moved Nefzger, unanimous, to adjourn at 8:53pm.

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