MINUTES
OF THE ROLAND CITY COUNCIL
WORK
SESSION
MONDAY,
FEBRUARY 2, 2009
Note: The following minutes were approved by the Roland,
Iowa, City Council at the council’s February 9, 2009, meeting.
The Roland
City Council met in work session on Monday, February 2, 2009 at 5:30 pm, at the
Library Annex, located at
It was moved
by Varley, seconded by Neely to approve the agenda. All were in favor.
The purpose of
the work session is to have the Boards reports on what their current and long
range projects are for their groups.
The Council
started the discussion by providing one copy of the City’s Action Plan to each
Board. Mayor Juhl went over the plan
explaining the City’s continuing priorities and their short and long term goals
for the City. Continuing priorities
consisted of: traffic calming and the
purchase of a second driver feed back sign; continuing with the Housing
Rehabilitation Grant; manhole rehabilitations; water main replacement; street
repair; keeping an eye on the swimming pool for excessive leakage; codification
and the annual clean up day. Their short
and long term goals consisted of: Sidewalk improvements; hiring a City Manager;
Main Street Revitalization; clarifying their position regarding the new library
– which has already been completed; soccer/sports complex and adopting a
Comprehensive Plan.
Tammy Shadlow,
representing the Roland Youth Sports, gave a brief overview of the soccer and
softball programs that the group provides.
Their goal for this year is to enhance the safety equipment for both
programs. They charge a registration fee
to offset the program expenses. They are
in need of a bigger area for the soccer fields.
The softball diamonds are also used by the High School Softball teams
which makes it a little tight when trying to schedule games and practices for
the Roland Youth Sports Softball teams.
They would like to add a second batting cage and a practice space later
down the road. Tammy would also like to
thank the Friends N Service for opening the concession stand for both the
soccer and the softball games. It has
been wonderful. The group has also been
throwing around the idea of starting a Football program with pads for the 2nd
grade and up. There was discussion on
what size would be needed for the soccer fields, softball practice field and
parking.
Lynn Schulte,
representing the RADC, reported that the RADC has implemented a matching grant
program for local businesses to help encourage them to spruce up the fronts of
their buildings on
The second
major undertaking the group is currently working on is converting the old
grocery store into a Community Center/Café.
The RADC took over the loan from Steenhagen’s in July. After many phone calls contacting people in
the grocery business it was determined that may no longer be a
possibility. Then in August they applied
for a grant through the Story County Community Foundation. In September, they were awarded a grant in
the amount of $19,500 to convert the building into a Community Center. During this time, Craig Anderson stated that
he might have a buyer for the equipment.
The Stratford Development Corp was looking for store equipment for the
new grocery store they were opening. The
Stratford Development group came down and looked at the equipment and purchased
most of it. They have contacted the
Design Class at
Britany
Danielson, representing the Library Foundation, reported that Denny Bauman and
Jim Penney have been working on the acquisition of part of the Coop
property. The Coop Board approved the
donation of 20,000 sq ft of the property, but when it was actually measured it
was 24,000. The current footage of
24,000 has been resubmitted to the Coop Board for approval. Once they approve the footage they are good
to start with Phase I of the Environmental Study on the property. Phase I of the study mainly pertains to going
through records and visiting with members of the community. The Coop is unaware of any environmental
issues on the property. They are looking
at a 90 day turnover for the property transactions.
Kristi
Anderson, representing the Library Board, reported that they are very excited
with the Coop donation of the property.
They will be using the current building for the program space. The bathrooms will need to be brought up to
There was
discussion on the status of building at
Brandon
Hansen, representing the Park Board, reported that their first priorities
consist of: upkeep at Erickson and
Rob Coghlan,
representing the Pool Board, reported that for projects they are looking at
adding a shade structure in the area that was enlarged last year. Several requests for this have been made by
mothers with infants. They’d like to
purchase a dvd player and projector and have movie nights at the pool. There are still some regulations and
licensing issues that need to be looked into.
They also thought this might be something that both the Library Board
and the Pool Board could do together.
With
Regarding the
play equipment at the Pool area, the equipment is bad. The Council needs to determine who is
responsible for that area. Until then,
he doesn’t feel the situation will be corrected. He stated that when he first moved to town
and the equipment was is good shape it was always busy.
There was also
discussion on resurfacing the parking lot after all the construction last
year. It was suggested that part of the
cost be paid for out of the Pool Budget and part out of the Sewer Budget.
CM Ford
switched hats to represent Roland Days.
This year it will be held the 4th of July weekend with
fireworks on the 4th. The
Grand Marshall will be Gary Thompson.
Mr. Thompson will hold a book signing event after the parade. This is also the 100th anniversary
of
Council/Mayor
comments consisted of the following:
Mayor Juhl and the Council members thanked everyone from coming and
sharing their projects and ideas.
Communication with the other Boards and Committees is also one of the
goals the Council is working towards. CM
Ford also made mention of a couple of grants that might help with some of the
projects.
With no
further business at this time, Neely moved adjournment of the meeting at 6:50 pm,
seconded by Johnson. All were in
favor. The next regular council meeting
will be Monday, February 9, 2009, at 6:00 p.m. at City Hall.
_____________________________________ __________________________________________
Samuel Juhl,
Mayor