City Council votes to put first quarter's Hotel-Motel Tax receipts of $2,575 toward park improvements

by Dwight Jones

The Waukon City Council met in regular session the evening of Monday, June 18. Councilman John Ellingson was out of town and absent from the meeting.
The first item on the 19-item Regular Business agenda involved a request by the Waukon Chamber of Commerce to hold an outdoor music event, including local favorites the El Caminos, the first weekend of August. A similar event was held last year. The request, which was approved, will allow for the event, allow for beer and wine cooler sales, and will temporarily close a portion of West Street.
A representative of Paddy McQ’s was in attendance to ask for approval of an outside beer garden for an event the business is holding July 14. The Council approved the request.
The Council then approved a services agreement between the City of Waukon and Allamakee County Economic Development (ACED), similar to others from previous years. The ACED office provides support for marketing, website updates, etc. under the terms of the agreement.
A company representative with ACE Telephone spoke next regarding the proposed lease agreement between his company and the City of Waukon to allow four antennas and two small dishes to be placed within town on city property to allow for Internet service in and around a six-mile radius of town.
Discussions had been ongoing involving the monthly charge. ACE had proposed $180 per month, but Councilman Joe Cunningham expressed that he felt that such a “service” should be worth twice that. The representative said he was not authorized to approve that amount and would take the request back to management for further discussion.
The remaining 13 agenda items involved resolution approvals or similar “housekeeping” items. These included: further approval and finalizing of details for the recent changes regarding commercial water meters, approval of changes regarding the removal of late fees for utility payments made when “due date” falls on a weekend or holiday, approval of renewal of the agreement with T&W Grinding for work at the City’s yard waste disposal site, and approval of salaries and benefits per the new union agreement.
The only issue that required a more thorough discussion involved the use of funds from the recently implemented Hotel/Motel Tax within the City of Waukon. City Clerk Diane Sweeney announced that the City had received its funds from the first quarter of 2012 totaling $2,575.24. Per a resolution adopted by the Council last year, a minimum of 75% of the funds generated would be used for “park improvements”, with the understanding that could include other economic development expenses. The additional amount is scheduled to go into the City’s General Fund.
Cunningham expressed that, in an effort to show the community some immediate “bang for its buck”, he was suggesting that 100% of the amount received go into the Park Improvement Fund. Councilman Dave Sanderson disagreed, stating that he wanted to see a portion of the funds be used for marketing assistance for Bed and Breakfasts within the community. The rest of the Council seemed satisfied that future dollars could be earmarked for such marketing purposes and a motion was made and passed to allot the full amount generated from Quarter One to the Park Improvement Fund, with Sanderson casting the only vote against the suggestion.
Continuing on that topic, the Council determined that creating a line item for the funds that are generated into the General Fund so they could be better tracked would be beneficial. Action on that will come at an upcoming council meeting.