Waukon Council holds first meeting of 2011

by Dwight Jones

The Waukon City Council met the evening of Monday, January 3 with a full council in attendance.
Under Departmental Reports, Police Chief Clark Bolman stated that upon his return from vacation he found roughly six “vicious dog” registration applications on his desk, making the total received approximately twelve. Bolman stated that there had also been a couple of phone inquiries from people with questions.
Moving on to regular business, the Council approved and adopted an ordinance vacating a portion of the City’s utility easement in the industrial park as part of the Brodahl Vet Clinic project. Large amounts of rock had been found in the ground that was going to make the original plans difficult so the vacation will allow for the revamped plans to work, mainly involving a change in kennel placement.
As is always the case for the first meeting of the year, a long list of appointments then took place (police chief and officers, city employees, city attorney, etc…).  Regularly held Council meetings will remain the first and third Mondays of each month at 7 p.m.
The issue of snow removal costs for downtown B-1 zoned business was again discussed.  This issue is now a year old but details are still being worked out, mainly how much to charge business owners to haul away the snow that comes from their property. Mayor Loren Beneke stated that he had met with one of the property owners and had received a less than warm welcome to the idea of charging for the service, which had previously been done for years at no cost to the business owner. The council agreed that it waited too long to review the information, stating that the discussions on how much would be charged, who’s snow is who’s, etc… need to happen when the ground is clear and there is time to discuss it with the property owners. With that said, the Council approved tabling the issue (specifically regarding the fees associated with it) and will re-visit the issue in early May for implementation next winter.

The council then approved a partial mortgage release for the sale of a lot in the Industrial Park to Dean and Lynn Sorensen for the proposed Kitchen Krafts expansion.  City Attorney Jim Garrett explained that the project was proceeding and barring any unforeseen issues expected to break grown in early spring.
The Council then had a lengthy discussion with Lyle TeKippe of TeKippe Engineering regarding a proposed lift station replacement near Northgate. TeKippe explained that “realistically, it (the current lift station) is near the end of its life expectancy” and that “maintenance costs will likely only continue to rise."  TeKippe gave different examples of options, and provided a rough cost estimate in the area of $290,000 to remove the current lift station and replace it with a new one. Other issues including what would be needed for further expansion in the area and where the funds would come from to pay for the project were then discussed. The Council then gave approval for TeKippe to begin the design process which would then allow for a more accurate cost estimate and subsequent bids to be attained.
The Council then once again discussed a possible hotel/motel tax for the City of Waukon.  Following the discussion, the council gave Garrett approval to draft the resolution needed to move towards having such a tax implemented.
The Council then approved the city’s renewal of the group health insurance plan with Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield.
In the final item of the night, a property tax exemption application was approved for the Tom Lydon Revocable Trust.