Thursday, December 31, 2009

News Items - January 4, 2010

1. PURCHASE OFFER: The Indianola Country Club submitted an offer to purchase the former sewer plant land on Country Club Road this week. The highlights follows:

• Price: The purchase price shall be $70,000 with $5,000 payable at closing.
• Term: Not to exceed 10 years
• Interest rate: 0% for years 1-3, 4% for years 4 and 5 with the final four years accruing at 6%. The interest accrues only on the unpaid balance for years 4 through 10.
• Prepayment: The ICC will have the option to prepay at any time during the contract without being assessed a penalty.
• Payments will commence September 15th, 2010 and be remitted annually in even installments until paid in full.
• Closing date: On or before March 15th, 2010.
• Insurance: City to be a named insured on ICC policy with a limit not less than $2,000,000. ICC will provide a hold-harmless clause for all liability arising from ICC's use/occupation of the property.
• ICC will not erect a tall fencing system on the property.
• Lights will not be utilized with the exception of a security light for the ball and pop machine.
• Evergreen type trees will be planted along County Club Road to contain errant shots.
• Both parties will be responsible for their respective portion of the costs associated with the closing of the contract.

The purchase has been discussed by Kevin Halterman (represents ICC) and myself. Given the fact that the old sewer plant foundation is still there and a sewer main runs diagonal across the property, the price is equitable in my opinion. The ICC plans to use it as a driving range (see packet) that would have tee boxes on the northwest corner and greens on the southeast corner. There “may” be concerns as to golf balls hit onto Country Club Road but the proposed layout should limit that.

The offer will be placed on the January 11 committee agenda for discussion.

2. JANUARY COMMITTEE AGENDA: The January 11 agenda “tentatively” includes the following:

• Discuss community LED sign funding options
• Discuss electric franchise fee
• Review Infiltration/Inflow Phase 1, 2 and 3 progress
• Discuss shared sewer service policy
• Discuss sidewalks and waivers
• Discuss Park Dedication Ordinance
• Discuss building options on north side of the square

Quite a long agenda and some items can be delayed until February per elected official preference. Pete will be chair and Richardson vice chair.

3. INDIANOLA SPORTS ASSOCIATION: The Indianola Sports Association operates the adult softball fields/concession stand at Pickard Park. They are planning to install irrigation and concrete around the back of the backstops on all four fields at Pickard for about $150,000 and have negotiated a loan. However, the bank will not loan ISA the money unless the city co-signs. I asked Finance Director Laurie Hebl to review ISA’s financials to ensure the payments can be made.

The item will be brought to council in January or February.

4. CONCRETE PLANT: Chuck Burgin, John Hoyman and I discussed the concrete plant rezoning request with Ivan Webber regarding our Comp Plan Update (shows industrial zoning) that will take place in the next several months. It was Ivan’s recommendation to deny the request until the Update is complete. Chuck Burgin will ask Snyder to review the concrete plant’s zoning and make a recommendation the city can consider as part of a rezoning request later this year.

Chuck and I discussed the concept with Larry Barr and Edina White and they are considering their options.

5. DC TRIP: Myles Kappelman reports Simpson will not attend the February Washington DC trip this year do to staff issues. That will leave the city, IDA and Myles is checking with WCEDC.

Friday, December 18, 2009

News Items - December 21, 2009

1. LEGISLATORS: Staci Appel is available on January 4 and so is Kent Sorensen. The meeting will begin at 6:00 pm.

2. LIBRARY HVAC: Per council consensus on December 14, Joyce Godwin is soliciting engineering proposals for the geo-thermal system. A recommendation will be brought to council in February.

3. DEDUCTIBLE: RoxAnne Hunerdosse reports the deductible for a wrongful act is $10,000 and legal liability for third party claims is $5,000. We both are of the opinion the race car incident will be a wrongful act.

4. CLERKS OFFICE: Hooray! The staff moved back into the Clerks Office on Thursday. What an improvement for them and our customers!!

Also, hats off to Building Inspector Rich Parker who suggested the desk panels be steam clean instead of replacing the material. The suggestion saved about $2,000.

5. SOUTH Y: Garden and Associates reports the preliminary design will be delayed until January.

6. GROCERY BAGS: Do to unfortunate circumstances to purchase re-usable bags, the program will be delayed until April’s Earth Day promotion. The plan is (still) to purchase about 5,000 bags and sell them for a $1. More information will be available after the first of the year.

7. STAFF SURVEY: Urbandale’s staff survey that was reported in the December 14th Des Moines Register was a bit flawed. Indianola shows 6.75 employees in the Clerks Office while Urbandale shows 1. The survey does not indicate that Indianola owns water, sewer and electric utilities while Urbandale has none contracts for them.

It is very difficult to compare cities given their demographics, populations and services provided

8. TAX ABATEMENT: The sunset on tax abatement is January 31, 2013.

9. DC TRIP: Myles Kappelman is working on the annual DC Trip with Simpson in February. Mark Vickroy has expressed interest in attending this year.

Friday, December 11, 2009

News Items - December 14, 2009

1. STORM: The Street, Sewer, Electric, Water Departments worked a total of 232 hours collectively to move snow off our streets. The PD issued 53 tickets and towed 7 vehicles. A job well done by all!

FYI—The wind is the snowplow’s worst enemy. Drifting snow undoes the work in a very short time.

We received several complaints about unplowed alleys. Unfortunately our pickups were not big enough to push the drifted snow, and, our tandems are too large for alleys. We continue to do what we can.

2. W HWY 92: I received a call from Congressman Latham’s aide Doug Bobbit on Wednesday the 9th and he reports the Congressman helped earmark $950,000 toward the W Hwy 92 Improvement Project scheduled for FY 12/13. Thus far Congressman Latham has helped earmark $1.91 Million for this project! Our thanks also go to Senators Grassley and Harkin as well.

3. MAYOR: The new term begins January 2, 2010 at noon and he will be sworn in at the December 21 council meeting.

4. 19TH STREET: John Hoyman is preparing some information on the 19th Street paving issue and will present it in closed session on December 21st.

5. STOP SIGN STUDY: IDOT’s draft study is complete and Chuck Burgin has reviewed and made comments/amendments. It will be sent back to IDOT for further revisions and then presented to council after the first of the year.

The study was authorized by council on September 2, 2008 to review stop signs and school crossings to determine if all are necessary.

6. TAXABLE VALUE: According to the Warren County Auditor, the preliminary taxable value numbers are:


FY 09/10 FY10/11 Difference Current
Tax Rate Difference
Regular $419,994,546 $419,161,871 ($832,675) ($6,744.67)
($1,124.11) $8.10
$1.35 Employee Benefits
Debt Service $442,763,550 $447,975,971 $5,212,421 $9,903.60 $1.90 Debt Service
Ag Land $ 1,258,303 $1,114,986 ($143,317) ($430.49) $3.00 Ag Levy
$1,604.33 Net Difference

You can see there is no taxable value growth and therefore no growth in revenue. This is a serious issue as taxes will either increase or services decrease. Staff will have more budget information in January.

7. REPRESENTATIVES: Kent Sorenson will attend the December 21 council and Staci Appel on January 4.

8. SIDEWALKS: Steve requested that all sidewalk waivers be reviewed and placed on a council study agenda. Due to Steve’s absence, we will place this item on the January 11, 2010 council study agenda.

Friday, December 4, 2009

News Items - December 7, 2009

1. LEGISLATORS: Kent Sorenson called Friday and is unable to attend Monday’s meeting. Diana Bowlin is trying to re-schedule for December 14 or 21.

2. SQUARE: Charles Saul completed his report (packet) regarding the remaining buildings on the square’s north side. After meeting with Chuck Burgin and John Hoyman, a letter (packet) has been sent to Lee Adams and Barb Martsching as co-owners of the common wall (One Stop east wall, Lee Adams west wall). The letter asks that remedy’s to repair the wall be provided in writing by January 8, 2010. The issue may be placed on the January 11th committee meeting depending on the response.

Also, the city received a plan (packet) to renovate the Peoples Company building on the square’s south side. There has been discussion about a city incentive and the program I prefer is from the city of Spencer (see packet for survey results). The item will be placed on the December 14 committee agenda for discussion.

3. UTILITY BILLS: The community received a notice and sample utility bill this week showing how a statement bill will look. Todd Kielkopf and trustees endorsed this concept so more information could be provided to customers.

4. LIBRARY HVAC: Librarian Joyce Godwin reports the board will consider soliciting engineering bids at their December 8 meeting. A proposal was received from Shive Hattery but it appears to be somewhat high since they already performed the system review.

5. PD: 97 applications were received for the two officer positions. Testing/interviews will take place after the first of the year and a recommendation will be brought to council in February or March.

6. W BOSTON SEWER: The three residents served by a private, multiple service in the 400 block of W Boston have signed an agreement (packet) to help pay for a public sanitary main. The project will be on the December 21 agenda for council consideration.

7. MUNICIPAL BUILDING UPDATE: Clerk/Finance Offices are nearing completed and staff should be moving back within a week or two.

8. NORTH Y PAVING UPDATE: The project is complete, street lights are installed and final seeding will be completed this spring. We are checking with Forrest Aldrich, Veenstra and Kimm, on the certificate of completion.




9. RAGBRAI FUNDS: According to Mike Coppess, RAGBRAI has a balance of $9,211.53. Early in the process the committee approved excess funds will be donated to the city to construct an LED community message board adjacent to City Hall, or, to Indianola Park and Rec for improvements to Buxton Park.
They would like to present the check to the Mayor and Council prior to the end of the year.

FYI – I have been a strong supporter of the community LED message board for several years and have asked Finance Director Laurie Hebl to locate grants and possible TIF funds to pay the approximate $25,000 balance. A recommendation will be brought after January 1.
10. I-JOBS: Lt. Governor Judge will be at the National Balloon Museum Monday, December 7th at 9:00 for a publicity event for the I-Jobs grant that the City was awarded. If available, please plan to attend.