Waukon City Council hears update on sump pump compliance checks; Third Street NE residents to receive assessment letters

by Dwight Jones

The Waukon City Council met in regular session the evening of Monday, March 5 with the full council in attendance.
Under Departmental Reports, Water and Sewer Superintendent Bob Campbell explained that the home inspections for sump pumps is going well. After visiting just over 300 homes, approximately 20 pumps have been found out of compliance with the City ordinance disallowing pumps to drain into the City’s sanitary sewer system, which then goes through the full treatment process, creating additional costs vs. being routed to the City's storm sewer system.
Though some homeowners have expressed concerns that the City is simply “snooping”, Campbell reminds everyone that the inspections are being done to save every property owner money. However, discussion also included the fact that if someone is visited and found to be out of compliance, and makes changes to correct the problem but later is found to have gone back to an out-of-compliance state, fines are possible for that property owner.
Moving on to the 21-item Regular Business agenda, the Council started by taking care of three quick resolutions - approving the FY 2012-2013 annual city budget, a budget amendment for the FY 2011-2012 and the FY 2012-2013 hospital budget.
Next, Larry Krause, owner of Northview Estates trailer park, was in attendance to make a request for a credit on his water bill. Krause’s most recent bill was $2,000-plus higher than normal due to a leaking water heater. Krause was not disputing the water portion of the bill, but was looking for some relief on the sewer portion of the bill due to the fact that the water did not run through the sewer system. The City has had similar requests in the past and handled this one similarly, allowing for a $1,000 credit on Krause’s bill.
City Attorney Jim Garrett then updated the Council on a proposed wastewater agreement between the City and Aveka, which will be operating its business at the former Foremost Farms building adjacent the fairgrounds. Garrett explained that the agreement is similar to the agreement with WW Homestead Dairy and also needed approval from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR), but needed to first be approved by the Council, which subsequently approved the agreement allowing Mayor Loren Beneke to move forward with getting both agreements approved.
The Council then re-addressed the 2012 Street Improvement Project, which mainly involves Third Street NE. Fifty-one property owners within that area will be receiving letters from the City this week stating what their portion of the assessment will be. An informal informational meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Monday, March 19, prior to the next regularly scheduled council meeting. Action on the project is currently scheduled to be addressed at the April 2 council meeting.
Additional business scheduled at this meeting for that April 2 meeting included a public hearing on the expansion of the TIF district to include the Robey Memorial Library property, a re-zoning of a property (formerly the site of the “Ice House”) owned by the Stilwell Brothers, a re-zoning of the lot across from the Post Office on Main Street owned by Dick Sullivan, and the re-zoning of the property currently owned by the County on which City Hall sits that is in the process of having ownership conveyed to the City.
The Council then finalized the purchase of two used patrol cars from the Kansas State Patrol. Following a discussion regarding delivery/pick-up options, the Council agreed to the purchase and to move forward with finding a local firm that could handle the pick-up and delivery of the vehicles vs. sending City personnel to retrieve them.
In conjunction with the above-listed action on the Stilwell property, the Council agreed to move forward with vacating a plotted alley between Second Avenue SE and Third Avenue SE, a chunk of property that, according to Garrett, “causes title problems for many people on that block.”
In its final action of the night, the Council approved the purchase of a projection screen for use in the council room, approved the Police and Public Works Agreements between the City and those entities, and approved a property tax exemption application for Bodensteiner Body Werks.