City approves Madison Street work
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The Mount Ayr city council approved a change to the Madison Street project, and heard challenges related to residential set back distances at their regular meeting Wednesday, January 15.
Public forum
Ross King was present to discuss property improvements at 406 West Adams Street in Mount Ayr.
King asked the council to consider looking at the residential setback distances in their zoning ordinance, and suggest making changes to accommodate property improvements.
He would like to be able to add a roof over an existing deck and attach it to the house, but currently he is unable to with current setback distances in place.
Presently, a setback distance of 33 feet is in place, and the deck attached to the house he is renovating is 28 feet away, preventing a roof being constructed over the deck and attached to the house.
City Administrator Brent Wise noted that if they want to make changes to the zoning ordinance, it would need to go before the zoning board to get their approval, and then they would need to have three public readings of the ordinance.
Council members agreed to add this to next agenda to discuss it further at their February meeting.
Caliber work on Madison St
Two representatives from Caliber Construction were in attendance to request approval of two pay application requests and answer any questions council had about the work they had completed.
After considerable discussion, council member Mack Greene motioned to approve pay application number one, and the motion was seconded by Mike Wik, and council members unanimously agreed.
Even with the project not being complete council agreed the submission of work they were requesting be paid had been completed and should be paid for.
Council member Matt Henle motioned to go ahead and pay 100% of pay application number two, which was seconded by Chandra Poore. All council members voting in unanimous agreement.
The council then decided to move forward with option two to resolve the present Madison Street project sewer issue with a new survey of elevation completed prior to starting work. It was noted that option one was approved as an alternative.
Law Enforcement Contract
A new 4-year contract with the Ringgold County Sheriff beginning July 1, 2025 and continuing through June 30, 2029 was approved by the council. The contract is a continuation of the current law enforcement agreement, ensuring the City’s compliance with Iowa law, as well as enforcement of county and city ordinances.
The City agrees to pay the County $250,000 in FY26. If the contract is not terminated at the end of the year, the city agreed to an automatic renewal with a 6% increase in the annual rate for the prior year.
Currently, the city is paying $202,476 for law enforcement services in FY25, which is a 4% increase over FY24 as agreed upon in the prior contract.
Other business
In other regular business, the council approved:
- Feldhacker spray injection street repair bid in the amount of $39,000 (200 ton – equivelent of 20 loads at $1,950);
- Mari Hughes Resignation
- Donation of 204 E Madison Street lot;
- Northland Securities Agreement revision;
- Purchase of CLX equipment from Hawkins in the amount of $5,000.50 plus a 30 day supply of products for the water booster station;
- Renewing the current Loch Ayr Lease rate;
- A Property Tax Levy public hearing on March 26 at 6:00 p.m. at City Hall;
- Appointment of council liaisons.
Administrator Update
Administrator Wise reported on the recent DNR inspection of the waste water treatment plant, and a number of items the city needs to address.
Wise reported that they received four applications for the open Utility Clerk position and have conducted one interview with three other interviews scheduled this week.
Wise asked council to look into and think on ways to possibly increase revenue and utilize the airport as currently there have been updates with costly expenditures, but not much revenue coming in.
Wise also updated the council on how he plans to move forward with handling nuisance properties and requested the council’s blessing to continue efforts on addressing issues.
