SAC CITY, IOWA – MAY 9, 2011
The Sac City Council was called to order by Sac City Mayor Barb Powell. Roll call revealed that Gary Hansen, Bill Brenny, Jim Frederick, and Nick Frohardt were present. Jim Johnston was absent due to a medical issue.
The council amended the agenda to exclude the item entitled “Consideration of going into closed session to discuss city administrator’s performance.” This was done at the request of Jim Johnston who wished to be present for this discussion.
The council did not approve the Minutes of the April 25, 2011 meeting, nor did they approve the claims for the month of May, 2011.
The sixteenth draw down of Community Development Block Grant funds in the amount of $11,493.00 and the fifteenth drawdown of State Revolving Funds in the amount of $120,613.28 were approved without discussion by the Sac City Council for payment of a Snyder & Associates bill in the amount of $13,574.35 and payment of a bill from Eriksen Construction in the amount of $118,531.93, also with no discussion.
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Upon inquiry by Mayor Powell, City Administrator Adam Ledford revealed that the waste water treatment plant is not only running on schedule, but that the dry spring may allow the construction to conclude a month early in October, 2011 instead of November 2011. No date was given for the next scheduled update on this item.
No citizens wished to address the council on items not on the agenda.
According to Adam Ledford, he received the last of the analysis for engineering services on May 9, 2011. Ledford, Bob Scheffler, Sandy Tellinghuisen, all five council members, and the Mayor took part in scoring the engineering firms that submitted proposals. The three top scoring firms of the sixteen who were sent requests for proposals were JEO out of Carroll, Iowa, Kuehl and Payer of Atlantic, Iowa, and Snyder and Associates of Ankeny, Iowa. Though the scores of these three engineering forms was known, the city administrator did not choose to share this information with the public.
Items that were considered when scoring these firms were:
Their ability to do special assessments.
Timeline for other projects that they had going.
How they feel about the importance of public involvement.
Ability to implement innovative techniques for dealing with water runoff.
Gary Crawford representing Sunquist Engineering of Denison, Iowa appeared before the council to ask of their firm would be receiving a summary of the council’s evaluations so that they could find out in what areas they were deficient. Crawford indicated that he and his firm were anxious to work for the city and passed out business cards.
The council directed Ledford to set up interviews with those three engineering firms.
Without discussion, the council approved Mike and Pam Rix’s application for a noise pollution permit. Mike and Pam will be hosting a wedding in their house and there are plans for music in the back yard. Following is a copy of their application:
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Without discussion the council approved the Veteran’s Affairs request to close State Street on Memorial day, May 30, 2011.
Without discussion, the council approved resolution 2011-05 amending the fee schedule of Sac City’s zoning ordinance to include Flagpoles and ground based satellite dishes on the list of items that require a building permit. These permits are required, but free.
Following is a copy of the resolution:
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Without discussion the council approved the additional hires to the Sac Aquatic Center. The additional hires are denoted with asterisks.
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The council approved the following 28E agreement with the Department of Transportation for maintenance of Highway 20 which indicates which entities are responsible for which areas.
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This is the same agreement that was signed in the past and only the dates were changed.
Ledford indicated that the state is responsible for taking care of all four lanes, but that the city is responsible for the parking spaces.
Without discussion, Nathan Neville was appointed to Sac City, Iowa’s volunteer fire department. According to Ledford, Neville has passed the preliminary physical requirements.
The City of Sac City will be purchasing a new garbage truck from Elliott Equipment. At the April 25, 2011 city council meeting, the council was led to believe that they would be purchasing a garbage truck at a price of $120,581.00 but this price did not include the equipment that would allow them to dump commercial dumpsters. This piece of equipment adds about $5,000.00 to the purchase amount.
At the April 25, 2011 meeting, Councilor Frohardt asked the city maintenance department head Bob Scheffler if the price they were voting on included all of the equipment that they would need. Scheffler indicated that it did.
At the May 9, 2011 city council meeting, Frohardt wondered aloud why there was an administration fee attached to this purchase.
Frederick pointed out that the city was in the wrong to take receipt of that truck at a higher price without consulting with the council, and Frohardt agreed. The Mayor, Councilor Bill Brenny, and Ledford all characterized the exclusion of the full price as a mistake.
The additional expense was approved, grudgingly by Frederick, and will be taken from the Gas fund.
It should be noted that during the meeting, it was revealed that due to a happy coincidence, the vender was able to provide a garbage truck that actually had more options included such as a color back-up camera with audio, instead of a mere silent black and white, because another customer had backed out after the truck was already assembled. The vendor included the extra options that were not ordered by the City of Sac City at no additional expense and was able to deliver the truck within weeks instead of months.
Due to the fact that Sac City, Iowa’s volunteer fire department is shrinking in size, the Sac City Council allowed a change in the bylaws that will allow them to take volunteers not from within two miles, as is currently indicated, but from the entire service area.
There was no discussion on this item.
During the item entitled “Public input on solid waste matters” the council was informed that the Sac County Landfill will proceed with building of a new cell, and that there is no new activity regarding the status of the recycling.
COUNIL FORUM:
1. The Mayor publically thanked the school groups who helped with the flower beds in city park, painting in three parks, and working on the beautification project on north 5th street.
2. The budget amendment public hearing will be held at the May 23, 2011 Sac City Council meeting. being amended is a combined total of over a half million dollars in new revenue from the Federal Aviation Administration for spending at the airport and from HUD for the housing project.
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One hundred sixty eight thousand dollars in new expenditures will be considered for the replacement of a door at the fire hall, replacements of pagers and other radio devices for the fire department to comply with the new narrow band rules, the new police truck, and engineering fees for the new street project.
There was $24,000 from IJOBS which has to be spent in the street department, $10,000 of which shows as new expenditures for the pothole work recently performed by the city.
Trees forever received a private donation and twice as much money from MidAmerican as was anticipated, so that will show as additional spending.
Twenty thousand dollars in spending under culture and recreation was for the playground equipment that wasn’t installed until October of last year.
Additional spending in general government included spending for FEMA project.
3. There will be mandatory disaster training in Sac City at the Sac County Comm. Center. No date or time was given.
4. The city office will be working on a file management update this summer to maximize storage options. This was not discussed at the meeting, but rather behind the scenes.
5. There was close to $6,000 profit from the Simon Estes concert which will be used for similar programs to benefit school students.
Bill Brenny gave kudos to the fine Sac City Fine Arts Committee and volunteers that helped pull this off and top the Sac Sun who did a good job of reporting on it and gave the committee a lot of complimentary advertising.
Nick Frohardt complimented the show itself, saying he was glad he attended.
The youth choir from the Simon Estes high school in South Africa will be performing an encore in a couple of weeks in Jefferson, Iowa.
5. Following is a letter from the M&M Divide RC&D outlining their intentions for moving forward
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6. The school board has approved an updated 1 year amendment to the Sac Community Center 28E agreement. The council will be given a copy of this agreement to approve at the May 23, 2011 Sac City Council Meeting. This item was not discussed in public, but behind the scenes.
7. The council adjourned.
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