The Belle Plaine City Council met on May 6, 2019, at 6:00 p.m. in the council chambers with Mayor Dave Fish presiding. Present: Mary Pech, Judy Schlesselman, Mitch Malcolm, and Andy Neuhaus.  Absent:  Mark Tegeler.  Also present:  Assistant City Attorney Gage Kensler, City Administrator Jeff Horne, and City Clerk Jacki McDermott.  The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.

Motion by Schlesselman, seconded by Malcolm to approve the Consent Agenda, the Council Minutes of April 15, 2019, receiving and filing of the minutes from the April 23, 2019 meeting of the Belle Plaine Community Library Board of Trustees and bills received.  On roll call vote, all voted Aye, motion carried.

Resident Comments: Kurt Mann of 1405 5^th Avenue spoke in regard to solar panels going into the overflow parking at the Community Center.  He did not see anything about it in prior minutes as to them being placed in the parking lot.  Also questioned why the Fire Department did not get any solar panels and whether there would be a chain-link fence placed around them.  City apologized for not telling him it would happen near his property.  Kurt apologized for Facebook comments.  The bills at the Fire Department were not large enough to warrant installation of solar panels.  The City will look into a privacy fence and will keep in touch with Mr. Mann.

Robert Brown of 205 11^th Street spoke on a nuisance abatement received again. This involved a Lincoln with expired tags (the original personalized plates are still on the car but they are outdated), he says that it is licensed but the plate is on the inside in the back.  Also the tractor has no engine and he considers it ornamental (similar to tractors Ed Janss has).  He feels he is being harassed by having his 14^th Amendment rights violated.  He has retooled his business and is downsizing.  He uses his garage for this.  Mayor suggested we wait and see how the courts rule on current case with him.  Mayor would like to see current license for Lincoln placed in front window of vehicle (versus back) for easier viewing.  Brown agreed.

Ryan Roof from Faller, Kincheloe, & Co. PLC was present to report on the last city audit.  Ryan commented there was a clean opinion on the city which excludes the component units such as the fire association and library foundation.

At 6:40 pm the mayor opened the public hearing to amend the budget dealing with increased revenues from loans for sewer plant project, wellfield land purchase, increased grants, and increase assessments.  Also increased expenditures to budget for new police car, increased road repairs and snow removal costs, purchase wellfield property, water leaks and the airport runway project.  There were no comments.  Public hearing was closed at 6:45pm.

Motion by Pech, seconded by Malcolm to approve resolution #19-5-1; a resolution amending the current budget.  On roll call vote, all voted Aye, motion carried.

Motion by Malcolm, seconded by Schlesselman to approve resolution 19-5-2; a resolution certifying properties to the Benton County Treasurer pursuant to Benton County Ordinance 68 & 69 pursuant to Iowa Code 446.19A  On roll call vote, all vote Aye, motion carried.

Motion by Schlesselman, seconded by Pech to approve the first reading of Ordinance changes to Chapter 24 Library Board of Trustees (corrections to the new Code Book).  Corrections included changing the maximum number of nonresident members from one to three and removing the City Treasurer as the Board Treasurer. On roll call vote, all voted Aye, motion carried.

Motion by Pech, seconded by Neuhaus to waive the second reading of the Ordinance changes to Chapter 24 Library Board of Trustees.  On roll call vote, all voted Aye, motion carried.

Motion by Schlesselman, seconded by Malcolm to waive the third reading of the Ordinance changes to Chapter 24 Library Board of Trustees.  On roll call vote, all voted Aye, motion carried. The Ordinance will become law upon publication.

Motion by Pech, seconded by Schlesselman to approve the contract with Eagle Point Solar.  Neuhaus commented that the contract should have been signed before work started.  Even though in principle the project had been approved, the contract had not.  On roll call vote, all voted Aye, motion carried.

Jeff Horne, City Administrator, reported that we had a DNR inspection last week.  We have work being completed on Well 5 this week.  The Iowa Geological Survey had data on all wells in the area.  Well 6 is being exercised.  A sample will be compared to the 1988 sample and we will work with the engineer (Veenstra and Kimm) to find out what level of treatment would be needed to use this well regularly.  Schlesselman inquired as to how soon this would happen.  Jeff indicated maybe within the next 2 months.

Mayor Dave Fish gave an update on the sirens.  The sirens all work and the Fire Chief has agreed to have them tested the 1^st Friday of each month. The clerks, the Mayor, or the Police Department will be responsible for setting off the test.    Nelson Electric will check the systems yearly and will also talk about an encoder and the costs.  Mayor Fish attended the Board of Supervisors meeting.  Two of the 3 members are against commercial development on Highway 30.  There are commercial projects on Highway 30 now that have all been individually voted on by the supervisors.  At the BDG meeting they discussed getting help to write an amendment to present to the Supervisors regarding commercial development on Highway 30.  At the ECICOG meeting dealt with normal business with some discussion concerning the hiring of a new director.   Mayor Fish is on the selection committee. After the meeting the Mayor talked with one of the Benton Supervisors about commercial development on Highway 30 & with the housing department of ECICOG on a project they are doing for Belle Plaine.

Mitch Malcolm went to the landfill meeting.  Some towns are concerned about the recycling problems.  There is still an effort to try to keep recycling items out of the landfills.

Jeff Horne and Dave Fish are going to a meeting about road financing being held by the League of Cities at a workshop in Grinnell.

Resident Comments:  none

Correspondence:  none 

Old Business:  None.

Motion by Malcolm, seconded by Neuhaus to enter into closed session at 7:24 p.m. per Iowa Code 21.5 (1) (j) to discuss the purchase of particular real estate only where premature disclosure could be reasonably expected to increase the price the governmental body would have to pay for that property.  On roll call, Judy Schlesselman voted Aye, Mitch Malcolm voted Aye, Mary Pech voted Aye, and Andy Neuhaus voted Aye.  Tegeler was absent. Motion carried.  The minutes and the tape recording of the closed session will be available for public examination when the transaction discussed is completed.

Motion by Neuhaus, seconded by Malcolm to come out of closed session at 7:41 p.m.  On roll call vote, all voted aye.  Motion carried.

Motion by Pech, seconded by Malcolm to direct the City Administrator to continue on current path with land acquisition.  On roll call vote, all voted aye.  Motion carried.

Motion by Schlesselman to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Malcolm.  On roll call vote, all voted aye. Meeting adjourned at 7:43 p.m.