MINUTES OF THE ROLAND
CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR SESSION
APRIL 14, 2008
Note: The following minutes were approved by the
Roland, Iowa, City Council at its April 28, 2008, meeting.
The Roland City Council met in regular session on Monday,
April 14, 2008, at 7:00 p.m., at the
It was moved by Ford, seconded by Varley to approve the
consent agenda which contained the following items: April 14, 2008 agenda, minutes from the March
24, 2008 meeting as written, clerk/treasurer reports, claims as submitted and
Liquor License and Sunday Sales for the American Legion Post #307. All were in favor.
There was no public input at this time.
Department Head Reports were as follows:
Street
Department - Street Superintendent Harold Hovick
reported the Contractors are here fixing the pool. They have toren out the center of the manhole
and repaired the pipe. They started putting
water in the pool but once it gets to about two feet high water started running
out of the drain line. They are
vacuuming out the rock, but the vac truck keeps breaking so it’s taken longer
than expected. Harold also reported that
he has not done anything with the playground equipment at the park near the
pool. The Council members would like to
have both the Park Board and the Pool Board present at the next meeting to
discuss the equipment. Harold also said
that he is still waiting to hear back from the Contractor regarding the letter
the Attorney sent regarding
Water/Wastewater
Department – Water/Wastewater Superintendent Dean
Uitermark reported that he is waiting to hear back from the City Engineer on
the generator.
City
Clerk - City Clerk Deneen Frost reported that Web Designer Jerry
Dickinson inquired about the second meeting in May. He is completing the May calendar and wanted
to know what date to put for the council meeting. Consensus of the council was to move the
meeting to Tuesday, since Monday is Memorial Day. City Clerk Frost will place the item on the
next agenda for official approval.
Jack
Frandsen was present to ask the City if there were some more incentives that
the City could provide to entice people to building in Roland. He told the Council that when he did his
first subdivision in 1992 of 14 lots, the City was very helpful and they were a
very positive group to work with. The
City ran the water lines to the lots, the storm sewer, seal coated the streets
and provided the new home owners with a 3 year 100% tax abatement. All the lots were sold within in 2
years. When he did his second subdivision
in 2004 of 19 lots, the City provided no help at all. Because of this, he had
to price his lots higher and that makes selling them harder. In 2002, the City changed the tax abatement
to 100% on the first $75,000 of value for 5 years. He’d like to have the Council look into
providing a more up to date abatement system.
He told the Council that Zearing has a 3 year 100% abatement,
Kristi
Anderson, Library Board President, was present to ask that all documents of
general interest be available at the Library for review. The Library is open later in the evening for
those that are unable to come to City Hall during normal working hours. And there are some residents who are
uncomfortable coming into City Hall to look at the documents. Kristi was asked if she had a list of
documents they wanted available at the Library.
She said that it would be an ongoing changing list. At this time they’d like to have copies of
the Comprehensive Plan that
At
this time Leanne Harter from Story County Planning and Zoning was not present
yet. Consensus of the Council members
was to continue until she arrived.
There
was a short discussion on the bids presented by Street Superintendent Hovick
for the purchase of a new pickup truck for the Street Department. The 1999 S-10 will then be used by the Park
Department and the 1991 Ford currently used by the Park Department will go to
the DOT auction. It was moved by Neely, seconded by Johnson to purchase the
2008 Ford F-250 4 x 4 from Gookin Ford in
There
was a short discussion on the Pit Bull ordinance. City Clerk Frost reported that the City
Attorney reviewed the ordinance and said that there has been no Supreme Court
rulings on Pit Bulls and that he doesn’t feel that Roland’s Pit Bull ordinance
is unconstitutional. Consensus of the
Council was to leave the Pit Bull ordinance as is.
There
was discussion on the updated Employee Policy Handbook. CM Varley had some questions about the
paragraph that allowed sick leave, vacation and holidays to be counted as hours
worked when calculating comp time and the amount of sick leave allotted per
month. Administrative Committee members
Mayor Juhl and CM Ford explained the reasoning behind the increased sick leave,
but the way comp time was calculated was not discussed at their meeting on
March 18th . After discussion
it was moved by Canny, seconded by Neely to delete the paragraph that
calculates comp time using sick leave, vacation and holidays as hours worked
and to approve Resolution No. 08-09 entitled, A RESOLUTION TO ADOPT THE AMENDED
EMPLOYEE POLICY HANDBOOK. The roll was
called for and is as follows: AYE: Canny, Ford, Johnson, Neely, Varley; NAY: none.
Whereupon Mayor Juhl declared the resolution duly adopted and the same
placed on file.
City
Clerk Frost reported that the Jr. Legion Auxiliary members will be hosting the
District meeting and have asked if the City has anything they would like to put
in the welcome packet. Frost asked if
the Council had any ideas as the City currently doesn’t have anything to
provide. Frost will make a list of a
couple items to be presented at the next council. Items discussed were pens, pencils, magnets,
wallet sized address & phone books, and koozies.
There
was a short discussion on the annual 2% water rate increase. Consensus of the Council was to proceed with
the increase due to the upcoming improvements that will need to be made at the
wastewater plant. City Clerk Frost will
draw up the ordinance for the next meeting.
At
this time Leanne Harter still was not present.
City Clerk Frost explained that this is to update the adopted 2000
Mitigation Plan already approved by the City.
Frost and CM Canny explained that the committee met on March 19th
with Leanne to review the hazards and the effect the hazards could have on
Roland. The committee consisted of CM
Canny, Fire Chief Tom Larson, RRT Director Jeff Larson and City Clerk
Frost. CM Varley noticed that they
listed the City as having a Comprehensive Plan.
City Clerk Frost will contact Leanne and have her change that. It was moved by Varley, seconded by Canny to
approve Resolution No. 08-10 entitled, ADOPTING THE DRAFT PLAN OF THE STORY
COUNTY MULTI-JURISDICTIONAL MULTI-HAZARD PLAN with the changes listed above. The roll was called for and is as
follows: AYE: Canny, Ford, Johnson, Neely and Varley;
NAY: none. Whereupon Mayor Juhl declared the resolution
duly adopted and the same placed on file.
Council/Mayor comments consisted of the following: CM Johnson asked about the P & Z
changes. City Clerk Frost said she was
working on them and hoped to have them out by Wednesday. CM Canny asked that the Pool Board be kept up
to date on the pool repairs. CM Varley
updated the Council on the MLA he and CM Ford attended on Saturday. One of the sessions was on long and short
term goals and strategic planning.
They’d like to see the Council come up with some goals. CM Johnson also said that he has been
approached by citizens wanting to know why the NLJC minutes haven’t been
updated. City Clerk Frost stated that
she hasn’t seen any since she quit taking the minutes for the committee. Catherine Steward stated that the ones from
March were never approved and there was no meeting in November and the ones for
February haven’t been approved yet, but she’d get the ones for January to
Deneen to get to Jerry.
There was public input at this time from Kristi
Anderson. She’d like to see the Council
put something in the Pit Bull ordinance that states that the Homeowners need to
keep the fences maintained because the dogs will tear them up.
With no further business at this time, Canny moved
adjournment of the meeting at8:28 p.m., seconded by Johnson. All were in favor. The next regular council meeting will be Monday,
April 28, 2008, at 7:00 p.m. at City Hall.