Council considers attorney, Internet contracts
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The Mount Ayr city council covered a light agenda during its regular meeting Monday, December 6.
• The council discussed the potential hiring of Erin Hardisty as city attorney.
Hardisty had sent a contract for council review and approval, but no decision was made at Monday’s meeting.
The question arose concerning the exclusivity of the contract or whether the city was free to seek outside counsel in special ocasions.
Hardisty, a native of Union County, is affiliated with the law firm of Skogerson McGinn of Van Meter. She currently provides attorney services for the cities of Afton, Corning, and Red Oak.
• The council discussed the proposal to allow Lockridge to install Internet antenna on city water towers.
At their previous meeting the council had verbally agreed to allow the installation, but a formal contract has yet to be provided.
In exchange for allowing installation of their equipment on the water towers, Lockridge has verbally offered to provide city buildings with Internet service at no cost.
Discussion centered on what locations might be useful to receive the Internet hookups.
Other business
In other business the council:
• accepted the annual financial report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2021.
• discussed setting community and economic development priorities. These priorities could include addressing nuisance properties as well as downtown revitalization efforts.
• discussed the purchase of a new garbage truck. Discussion centered on whether to trade in the current truck, try to sell it outright, or to keep it as a back-up unit.
City administrator Brent Wise presented four loan quotes from local banks for funding the entire purchase of approximately $180,000 as well as lesser amounts should the council decide to dispose of the current truck. No action was taken at Monday’s meeting.
• agreed to install a new sewer pit at 1301 S. Cleveland Street. The cost of a new pump and associated electrical work was estimated at nearly $10,000.
Wise also briefly discussed the need to replace a pump at the “Pasture” lift station.
• heard a presentation from gWorks detailing a new cloud-based management system. The system would allow city patrons to pay bills, review accounts, and make requests to the city. The system also includes a web builder feature to facilitate the creation of a city website.
The cloud-based system would be an upgrade to the gWorks software currently used by the city. gWorks has plans to phase out the current system.
