June 17, 2019

The Belle Plaine City Council met on June 17, 2019 at 6:00 p.m. in the council chambers with Mayor Dave Fish presiding. Present: Mitch Malcolm, Mary Pech and Judy Schlesselman. Absent: Andy Neuhaus and Mark Tegeler. Also present: City Administrator Jeff Horne and City Clerk Jacki McDermott. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.

Motion by Pech to approve the Consent Agenda, the Council Minutes of June 3, 2019, and bills received, seconded by Malcolm. On roll call vote, all voted Aye, motion carried.

The mayor postponed the animal hearing dealing with a municipal infraction of Chapter 57 of Belle Plaine City Code. The animal owner was present and the mayor asked her to return to the meeting on July 1^st since there was not a sufficient number of council members present to deal with the issue.

The mayor opened the public hearing for delinquent dog/cat licensing. No citizens appeared.

Schlesselman made a motion, seconded by Pech to turn the list over to the Belle Plaine Police Department for processing. On roll call vote, all voted Aye, motion carried.

Morgan Mitchell from Belle Plaine Community Development was not present to give a report, but the mayor reported that activities for July 3^rd and 4^th are ready to go. He reported that next Tuesday, Morgan will do a call out for volunteers to come down for Bio-Cell Night to do one hour of volunteer work to get the bio-cells ready for 4^th of July activities, since the Beals are laid up. In other news, there was music from the downtown sound system for the Farmer’s Market and Morgan continues her work on the Main Street Minute each week.

Police Chief Kris Hudson reported that they have received a $3,000 grant for load bearing vests. He also reported that he attended a hearing at Iowa Law Enforcement Academy for Officer Lani Mumby to request an extension for her start date at the Academy. It was granted and she can begin to attend the Academy on August 26^th. The Department has also been dealing with semi-trailers parking illegally on city streets.

The City Clerk gave the Council the City Treasurer’s Report for April and the April City Budget report.

Motion by Malcolm, seconded by Schlesselman to approve the second reading of Ordinance #87: raising the water rate to $6.58 for the first thousand gallons and $6.58 per additional thousand gallons in town and $8.42 for the first thousand gallons and $8.42 per additional thousand gallons outside the city. (A $.60 per thousand gallon raise in water rates.) On roll call vote, all voted Aye, motion carried. The city administrator noted that in 2014, the water fund was approximately $120,000 in the red due to a winter that had 11 or 12 water main breaks. In the last two years, there were several large main repairs that kept this fund in the red and most recently there was a large main break with street repair in front of city hall and a large water main break on Highway 21 this spring. All of these breaks added to the work on the pump equipment at the wellfields, and the fact the City bought the wellfields, which were previously not owned by the city, has kept the water fund from being able to get into the black. The City noted last year in their discussion of buying the well fields that they were going to have to raise rates to pay for the fields and to cover the rate of inflation.

Motion by Malcolm, seconded by Pech to approve the second reading of Ordinance #99: raising the sewer rate to $10.56 for the first thousand gallons of water used and $10.56 per additional thousand gallons of water used. (A $.30 per thousand gallon raise.) Again the cost of operations at the city sewer plant and the addition of new equipment were cited as the cause. On roll call vote, all voted Aye, motion carried.

Motion by Pech, seconded by Schlesselman, to approve a Belle Plaine Business Incentive Grant to Tylar Gallagher at Total Body Fitness, 1303 2^nd Avenue, Belle Plaine, Iowa. On roll call vote, all voted Aye, motion carried.

The Committee of the Whole discussed a 24 hour a day/seven days a week handicapped parking spot for a renter at the Cornbelt Building at the corner to 12^th Street and 9^th Avenue. Although there are six nearby handicapped spaces, none of them would be available when there is a snow emergency. The council will put the matter on the July 1^st agenda and asked to have the renter present at the meeting.

City Administrator, Jeff Horne, told the Council that he has applied for a Statewide Transportation Improvement Grant (STIP) to replace the school stop light on 7^th Avenue. The new light will be ADA compliant and the pole is sold separately. He has a resolution of support from the School Board.

Mayor Dave Fish has been attending three hour interviews for the position of director of ECICOG, which went really well. There are very qualified candidates. The process was quite time consuming for a major regional director’s position. Belle Plaine Community Development will have volunteers weeding the bio-cells next Tuesday. He also has a plan to work on the tulips at Box Park. The housing meeting went well. Rural Housing 360 from Leon, Iowa specializes in infill housing. He would like to take the council to their facility. They offer modular homes from $140,000 to $225,000.

Resident comments: None.

Correspondence: The mayor shared an update on the Sound Park with the Council and expects to have a ribbon cutting ceremony on July 3^rd. He also received a letter from Mrs. Linda French from the LAAR (Loving Arms Animal Rescue) saying that the LAAR would not be active again until at least December. If anyone wants to start another group, they would need to have a license from the Department of Agriculture to pick up animals, would have to do a Memorandum of Understanding with the City about that what their duties and responsibilities would be, and need to identify a place that will receive stray animals from out of town.

Old Business: none.

Motion by Malcolm to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Schlesselman. On roll call vote, all voted Aye, motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 7:00 p.m.