Waukon City Council addresses wide variety of issues at regular session; Spring clean-up scheduled for May 5

by Dwight Jones

Councilman Steve Wiedner was absent from the table as the Waukon City Council met in regular session the evening of Monday, April 16. The meeting began with Jim Bieber of Bieber Insurance presenting the annual insurance renewal for the Council’s review.
Next, Rick Meyer, Director of Robey Memorial Library in Waukon, was in attendance requesting that the City “sponsor” a grant the library had applied for through the Allamakee County Community Foundation. It appears that the grant has already been approved and this was a simple formality that had been previously overlooked. The Council approved the request.
The Council then had a lengthy conversation regarding the recent request by Luana Savings Bank for assistance in remedying a sewer problem at a property it owns in northeast Waukon. Dave Schultz with the bank had been at previous meetings asking for assistance. At the last council meeting, Schultz explained that he would work on getting the easement required to move things forward, but a major part of the “fix” would involve the City taking over the sewer line that Schultz is wanting to hook to which is currently owned by a private party.
The discussion then turned to options the City had in taking over the line. It had previously given a proposal to the owners of the line (the Bresnahan family), but there had been little response. The Council agreed that there are a number of property owners in the area that could benefit from the line changing from private to public, and the Council instructed City Attorney Jim Garrett to reach out once again to the Bresnahans to see what can be done to get the line transferred to the City once and for all.
Garrett then gave the Council an update on the former C-Mart property in southwest Waukon. The property had been determined to have soil contamination from the fuel tanks that previously were held there and, according to Garrett, the most recent tests showed that no real progress is taking place towards allowing it to be deemed “clean”.
However, Garrett explained that the City of Marquette had a similar situation at the site that now holds the town's Post Office. He stated that a “clean” reading is only required if a well is going to be dug, which currently would not even be allowed due to city code. The Council agreed that this was a good suggestion to move towards the site being useable and encouraged Garrett to move forward with that “plan”.
The Council then approved the ordinance that will change billing for commercial water meters (covering all meters larger than one inch) from quarterly to monthly. Some changes will not be completed until July 1.
Mayor Loren Beneke then declared April 28 as Arbor Day in Waukon, and the Council also approved the proposed plan by the Waukon Trees Forever group for its annual spring tree planting that is scheduled for that same date.
Councilman Joe Cunningham then gave an update on some flood mitigation projects that came from a meeting between City officials and John Peterman with TeKippe Engineering. Rachelle Howe with Upper Explorerland Regional Planning was also in attendance and explained how the proposed projects could be assisted by FEMA and CDBG grants. The Council then approved hiring Upper Explorerland to move forward with the required grant applications, the first of which are due in June.
The Council then approved the date of Saturday, May 5 for spring clean-up. Rules and regulations will be the same as in past years (no appliances, etc.).  An ad will be run between now and then in the printed version of this newspaper with more details.
The Council then approved a resolution allowing the use of Local Option Tax funds for attorney fees associated with the Third Street NE Street Improvement Project.