City Council says ‘go’ to outdoor pool
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The Mount Ayr City Council voted 3-2 to move forward with a new outdoor pool at Judge Lewis Park Tuesday evening.
Earlier, the council voted 3-2 to not move forward with the outdoor pool, but a change of personnel on the council have changed that equation.
Chandra Poore was elected to the council August 1, replacing councilperson Jordan Stewart who moved outside the city limits. He had voted against the outdoor pool, but Poore voted for it. Mack Greene and Ken Robinson also voted for the measure with Brad Elliott and Jessica Bishop voting against it.
Greene was the council member who placed the resolution on the agenda for Tuesday.
“We need to move forward,” said Greene. “The financing is pretty much in place. It’s time to do it or not.”
Council member Robertson also wanted to move forward.
“We’ve been working on this for 10 years,” said Robertson.
Voters have approved a $1.5 million bond for construction.
Council member Elliott said he wasn’t against the idea of an outdoor pool and said it was unfortunate the issue has caused some tensions in the council chambers to run high.
He said he would like to see the city working with other entities to get bigger projects done in the community. He is a proponent of the $20 million plus Gold Center Project being worked on by a number of area residents and entities.
“I think the Gold Center still has a lot of questions,” said Greene.
Elliott did say if the city moves forward with the project to make sure the $555,000 in donations and in-kind contributions to the project are real.
“We should get those commitments in writing,” he said.
Other items
During the Public Forum, Merle Walter addressed the council concerning one of his renters at the property owned by Walter.
Walter said the renter was laid up on the hospital, and why he was gone there was a water leak causing a water bill around $2,000. Walter said he is a good renter, but can’t afford such a large bill and probably would have to leave.
Because the item was brought up on the Public Forum, the council couldn’t take official action on the request.
There was discussion about properties at 303 and 307 West Van Buren. The owners of the property want to give them to the city.
City Administrator Brent Wise said there would be costs incurred for the city in tearing down the derelict housing on them at a cost up to $20,000 each.
Wise suggested getting a policy in place with the help of the Southern Iowa Council of Governments on when and how to accept such properties. He was instructed to contact the organization before any action was taken.
The council dealt with a number of employee issues. They received a letter of resignation from Robbie Mason which was accepted with regret.
The council discussed pay scales and when someone qualifies for additional pay or has great qualifications upon hire by the city.
The council approved Wise to hire two new employees at a wage of $15.50 to $18.00 dollars per hour.
The council also set the date for a public hearing for Changing the Zoning Ordinance to clarify what type of siding can be used during the construction of a garage.
Currently, the code says a house can have steel siding but the garage on the same property can not. Wise would like that anomaly corrected.
Wise presented the council the ordinances on garage siding from a number of area communities.
The public hearing is set for October 4.
