By Dave Fish, Belle Plaine Mayor

CONGRATULATIONS BELLE PLAINE CLASS OF 2019!

Sirens, burning and brush

We will start testing the emergency sirens on the first Friday of every month. We will warn everyone thru Nixle until we get familiar with it. Also, we have not decided the time yet, it may be 1:00 pm. If it is a bad weather day we will not be sounding an emergency siren

Let’s make sure we understand the burning hours and days. Now that we are in June, the burning hours are three days per week (Wednesday-Saturday-Sunday) from 4 to 9 p.m. The rest of the year it has been seven days per week for the same hours. This is for vegetation only, leaves, grass, branches, etc. IT IS NOT LEGAL TO BURN TRASH & THAT INCLUDES PAPER AND CARD- BOARD. If you call the police, they will investigate. We also advise, please be aware of how windy it is and how dry it is before you decide to burn. It also wouldn’t hurt to see if your neighbor has wash on the line or a party in their yard. Good neighbors would not burn in those situations. Also, just a reminder that we have a mulch pile that is open seven days per week for vegetation items only.

Please remove all plastic & paper sacks that you bring to the mulch pile. We do not really want to deal with those foreign items.

Animal licenses

We will be holding a public hearing concerning delinquent animal licenses (June 17, 2019 @ 6:00 pm), so please contact the clerks concerning why you have not renewed your license. Once the public hearing is held, the council will then hand this off to the police department for them to contact the delinquent owners. It will save all of us the time and effort if you take care of this now. If for some reason you no longer have the pet, please let the clerks know so we can get their name removed from our records. I also saw something on Facebook the other day that said our policy if we pick up an animal is to take them to the vet clinic and if no one claims them, we euthanize them. Not exactly true. If they are registered with their tag on, we take them to the owner. Several times doing this and you will probably be given a ticket for an at large animal. If Loving Arms Animal Rescue is up & running after seven days they pick up the animal & take it to a shelter. Nobody in this city gov’t wants to put down animals, but some owners make it a tough job for our city officials. If someone wants to restart the rescue group, I’m sure the council can work with you. If someone wants to start & run an animal shelter

I’m sure the council will work with you. But to simply say our policy is to euthanize animals is wrong.

Speaking of registration everyone has done an excellent job registering golf carts and UTV’s. Many thanks and if you have not done it yet please get your vehicle registered.

Garbage

We have been with Republic Services as our garbage carriers for almost a year. Yes, sometimes they do a great job, and sometimes they do not. I do not intend to get into their company problems, but in my last conversation with management, they assured me that they have several new drivers in training who should be taking up the Belle Plaine route and our problems should be totally solved by fall. The one thing I do know is we do not have recycling problems that many of the other towns in Benton County are experiencing. That is on the positive side. In addition, you have a larger garbage bin than we use to have and you get one large item free per month. These are all positive items that you currently have with Republic.

If they miss your garbage or recycling, please contact city hall and the clerks will arrange for a pick up. Republic does not leave town until they stop at city hall so it should be easy to make the corrections. Remember the city clerk did not mess up so please remember to be polite. If you want to get upset with someone either get Republic’s phone number from the clerk’s office or come in and talk to the city administration such as the Mayor or city administrator. No system is perfect but hopefully ours will get better by the end of summer.

Yards

I know we remind people to please keep up with their yard work and I know it is difficult when we have plenty of rain with good growing weather so thank you for your efforts. I also remind you that it is illegal to blow your clippings into the street. The reason behind the ordinance as explained to me is that grass blown into the road will eventually find its way into blocking our storm water system. I realize this is different depending on the type of street that you live on, but the code is in effect for all of us. It also makes are streets more dangerous to drive on for motorcycles & bikes.

Here is the major part of the new city code passed late last summer:

SECTION 3-28-13 LITTERING STREETS AND SIDEWALKS. It shall be unlawful for any person within the corporate limits of this City to throw, deposit, or cause to be thrown or deposited, and without promptly removing the same, any leaves and grass or weed clippings, paper, cards, trash or rubbish, advertisements or the like into any street, alley, sidewalk, or other public place within the City.

IT IS THEREFORE ORDAINED that Section 28-14 of the Belle Plaine Municipal Code is hereby added as follows:

SECTION 3-28-14 PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS OF 3-28-13. Violation of 3-28-13 shall be deemed to be a municipal infraction and subject to penalties as prescribed by Chapter 364.22, 2017 Code of Iowa, with the following schedule of penalties:

A. First Offense – Written Warning

B. Second Offense – $75.00 minimum fine

C. Third Offense – $100.00 minimum fine

D. Fourth and Subsequent Offenses – $500.00 minimum fine

Etc.

We will be spraying for mosquitos starting after June 1st. Sign-up sheets are available in city hall for advanced warning & property avoidance. Please contact the clerks.

The city has free trees to give out. Please contact Lance in the Park & Recreation Department!

The street sweeper will be out and running as soon as the significant parts get in from the factory. Our street sweeper is getting old, so when it does break down it takes time to get it fixed because parts are not readily available. I would love to replace it, but we do not have money to do that right now. My administration tells me $250,000 for a new one, and I know used ones run from $60,000 & up. In times where the state government looks for ways to cut city funding, turning around to find the money for new equipment is not easy. We will be addressing this issue in the future. One thing to remember it is a sweeper, not a street vacuum, so it does not get everything on the first pass.

School notes

Congratulations to all of the girls and boys tracksters who qualified for the state meet & enjoyed three days of interesting weather on the Blue Oval. Special Congratulations to the girl’s team who were also crowned SICL Champs this year.

Good Luck to both the boy’s baseball team and the girls’ softball team as they start their summer seasons. Make sure you get out to see them play.

As always, “Go Plainsmen.” Remember it is up to all of us to make Belle Plaine the best hometown in Iowa!